So, after playing sims and simcade racers since the original FMS. I finally went all in w/ Fanatec CSL 8NM DD / Clubsport wheel / CSL Elite pedals / NLR cockpit. The last time I used a wheel was with Daytona USA in the arcade. Holy crap, this rig is awesome! I’ve had it for about two weeks now and simply cannot go back to gamepad.
It took about a week to get the FFB settings dialed in but this version of FMS handles AMAZING now! It is so close to real life it’s uncanny. I’m not quite as fast as I was on gamepad yet but pretty close. I also got rid of the braking line now since I can actually modulate the brakes properly since they have a load cell. that’s all, happy racing everyone
I have a similar setup to yours (CSL DD 8Nm, McLaren GT3 v2 wheel and a set of the OG Fanatec Clubsport v1 pedals).
I bought my first wheel (Fanatec 911 GT2) back in 2010, mainly to play with F1 2010 since I felt like i just couldn’t control the car how i wanted with a gamepad. After a little while, it was like night and day difference in terms of not only the control but the immersion.
Things felt great back then, and i absolutely love my current setup now. With practice, I became just as quick on the wheel as i was on controller, often even more so. It’s to the point where unless I’m just messing around testing something, i don’t really even want to play if I’m not going to use my wheel.
The one caveat i will say though…i love my Fanatec gear when it works, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Given the laundry list of issues the company has had recently, I’m just hoping i don’t ever need to contact them for customer service. I think all things considered, once either this gear starts to have issues or i just decide i want to upgrade, I’m going to be looking at other brands (Moza, Simagic, etc). A lot of legitimately good products have come to the market and the competition is just too good to keep blindly riding the Fanatec train.
My setup is very similar to yours. I have a CSL DD 8Nm, CSL Elite V1 pedals with loadcell, a McLaren GT3 wheel (it’s QR2 is on the way), a WRC wheel (with the QR2 Lite), a Thrustmaster TH8A shifter and, it’s all mounted to a GT Omega Apex. I got my wheel stand well before GT Omega started offering the chair link, so I use a ratchetting cargo strap to keep my gaming chair in place.
I am sure FM23 surprised the heck out of you, when it came to how different it feels with a wheel. Be careful, the Nordschleife, Spa and Mugello are practically sirens. They’ll draw you in and hypnotize you with the FFB and fidelity. Before you know it, the hour is a couple numbers higher than the last time you looked.
Not sure if you’re on console or PC, but if on PC, you can use Fanalab to save your wheel settings. Then you’re not limited to the 5 setup slots and can save as many as you like. You can have it auto-load the correct settings when you launch a particular game, and with certain games, it’ll even auto-detect which car you’re driving and will load your customized setup per car if you have one saved.
I’m using all fairly budget (entry level) Logitech g920 / shifter etc… and unfortunately, about a week after I dialled in my FFB - it all got reset in an update so I learned the hard way.
Huh? You can literally feel when the sidewall of your tire when it grazes a curb. On the ring hit a curb and it will rip the wheel out of your hands, in that scenario best solution is to let go if you value your thumbs and wrists lol
As much as I enjoy the driving in this game, and think that it’s the best in the series to date, the FFB when it comes to curbing is very inconsistent.
Big sausage curbs, sure, your wheel will take a knock as expected. Rumble strips however, are hit or miss. Certain ones I’ll run over and feel the expected vibrations in the wheel, but other ones provide absolutely no tactile feedback at all. There’s audio feedback…i can hear the “brrrrttttt” through my speakers, but nothing through my steering wheel - it feels exactly the same as any other part of the track.
Some ppl can’t stand for others to be happy, it would seem. Congrats on your new rig, homie! I want a sim rig so bad, I can’t stand it. Maybe next year when financial aid hits. I probably play like 40 hours a week of various racing titles, and my arms and hands are taking a beating.
I’m going to see if medical insurance will pay for it to relieve my pain. lol
If I had a buttkicker, I’d want all those light buzzes to go through it and not my steering wheel. Save the wheel’s reactions for when something transmits counter forces through the steering rack.
Sure, i mean a lot of FFB and what feels “good” comes down to user preference. I don’t have any kind of haptic transducers like a buttkicker, but even if i did, i think I’d still want to feel a little bit of curb vibration through the wheel.
But if the game doesn’t replicate any feedback like that at all when going over certain curbs, then the whole thing is a bit of a moot point.
I can recover from oversteers and spins so much better with a controller, I stopped using my wheel. Also 90% of the fun for me is the H-pattern shifter with clutch and that’s ruined in this game, only viable transmission is racing.
If you use a controller definitely get analog stick extenders and use right stick gas/brake.
make sure you drive clean and fast! 