SIM if you want the cars to respond in more “real time” and faster to your inputs if that makes sense.
NORMAL if you simply want the game to play easily and not put in too much effort when countersteering. For a fact, with SIM on, I can feel weight transfer better. Just my two.
On a controller here with no assists, 0/100 deads.
I just did a back to back normal vs simulation comparison as well.
My findings are pretty much in line with yours. Simulation is great until you have to try to correct oversteer. Then it just becomes impossible to relate to or comprehend what is happening. This was my original issue with simulation while using a wheel but I had to confirm after being able to drive almost perfectly on normal.
Normal for me is faster as I can always exploit understeer/oversteer transitions to correct a line. The key is that I need to be able to counter the oversteer if I over step the mark and that is just not happening for me with simulation.
I’m getting much faster times now than I used to with a controller, but more importantly for me, I’m having a heap more fun now and I’m content just driving around enjoying the cars.
Honestly, I didn’t have a problem controlling the oversteer in simulation, as long as it was not a massive slide. Since it feels more ‘snappy’, it requires more gentle inputs, also when countersteering. Just takes a little bit of getting used to.
It is definitely easier to lose the car completely in simulation, though.
This is for Wheel users (I have the Fanatec CSW V2)
So I’ve been messing with these 2 settings since Forza 6 released. The same problem occurs here as it did in Forza 4.
Normal Steering - Best for driving with a wheel (Fanatec also recommends this mode) Gives you the actual DoR. If you have it set to 900 you will get 1-1 ratio. The immediate oversteer issues especially with lift off throttle are minimized. There is also a larger Deadzone which I seem to be able to correct with increasing FFB on my wheel.
Simulation Steering - Best for Drift mode (this is really what this mode should be called) Seems to be a 270 DoR no matter what you sent your wheel at. Turn in and Lift off throttle are very exaggerated. The only way I managed to control this to an extent is increasing rear differential to around 80%. After reading the differential explanations it almost seems reversed to what it actually does. You will have better FFB at the center of the wheel but the trade off is Oversteer issues as mentioned.
Hopefully a future update will gives us better FFB all around.
Yeah I think that’s a good analysis of what happens. In Sim, steering does feel more detailed closer to center and I had best results on 270 DOR. Increasing DOR didn’t seem to do much for the steering sensitivity, only meant the soft lockouts extended outwards. I still had to steer as though I had 270 DOR.
In other words, with Sim on and a DOR higher than 270, it felt like I was at full lock anyway if I went over plus or minus 135 degrees, so it felt pointless to use more than 270 DOR.
Once you’re sliding and countersteering, you can’t feel what is going on with Sim on as the FFB is just not feeling right. It’s not really impossible to catch a slide, but there is much more guessing, anticipation and it can only be done with small slides requiring slight inputs to correct.
Switch to normal and I can feel it alright again. My corrections are a lot closer to what I would need to do IRL too.
Sim or normal, we should get these two settings by now, it’s high-time:
Agreed, that would help fine tune it.
I found that normal steering is better with controller not sure about wheel, sim steering can be unpredictable at times and when you try to correct a slide its unrealistc
I’ve previously played all past Forza games since Forza 4, where the option of normal or simulation steering was introduced, with Simulation steering using a controller mostly. I also used simulation steering with Forza 4 on the Microsoft Racing Wheel but I believe it only had 360 degrees of rotation. I played Forza 5 with a TX and simulation steering as well but ultimately gave up as it was too frustrating spinning out and went back to the controller. I’ve now spent the first month playing Forza 6 with a controller and have only tried using Simulation steering. I always found the responsiveness of normal steering to be too slow with a controller.
So last night I went into rivals on Laguna Seca and drove with my Logitech G920 at 900 degrees in both simulation and normal steering (with no assists). There wasn’t much difference overall, but normal steering was easier to correct oversteer where as simulation when I overstepped it was often unrecoverable. I compared using the same cars with both settings and in the 2014 Camaro Z/28 I was faster with simulation. I was driving with manual and clutch and shifter so it’s maybe just a coincidence that I got a better lap on simulation steering. In the 2009 Ferrari 458 (a very challenging car with stock tune) I was faster with the normal steering setting using no assists again but paddle shifting in manual mode with no clutch. The 458 was much easier to control in normal steering with the stock tune.
I have to agree with others that personally I find Normal steering better for wheels and simulation better for the controller. I think simulation steering is very unrealistic on the wheel as cars tended to oversteer too much and it seems like it is nearly impossible to put the right amount of counter steer in to correct an over steering car. Normal steering makes cars feel much more neutral which is what I would expect from a stock car that typically under steers at the limit (yes there are many exceptions). I think I will be racing on normal from now on as I personally think it is more realistic when racing with a wheel at 900 degrees (I use 540 for race cars and 360 for open wheel cars).
I haven’t tried it but I suspect that simulation steering would only be good with a wheel if you are running in between 270-360 DOR. I honestly think that Simulation steering is intended for the game pad as it just doesn’t seem to translate well to a FFB wheel. I’d be interested to hear what Christian says about this on the wheel FFB thread if he ever returns.
Bottom line: if you want to feel Forza physics in all their glory, use SIM.
It will take patience and practice (lots of it driving different cars and tuning set ups) but you’ll get there. Just don’t expect overnight results as SIM introduces a lot more depth into the steering modeling and weight transfer/suspension physics.
The only reason sim steering feels so horible on a wheel (900 degrees) is because of the FFB, as soon as you start pushing the slip angle of the rear tyres or get a bit of oversteer the wheel can become very disconnected with what the car is doing. Before anyone jumps the gun here, I’m not saying it’s impossible, it’s not but it’s made a lot more difficult because of it ( and particularly unpleasant/unsatisfying).
Even though I don’t play with a wheel I’ve heard other chime in about this particular annoyance, due to which the wheel can throw you off around turns and especially countersteering. One such member is Ialyrn I believe who also happens to have extensive experience with wheels and drifting.
I’m a die-hard realist so I’ve always used simulation steering. I still find it very frustrating to use with a wheel at 900 degrees in Forza. After going back and trying normal steering I think that is maybe more realistic with normal steering (or at least less frustrating). The cars can still oversteer and spin out in normal mode, so I don’t say how you can say it is so much less accurate.
I could be wrong, but I actually think “simulation steering” was intended for gamepad users primarily. If I recall correctly when they introduced it in Forza 4 they said the controller had built in assists to make driving easier. Using simulation steering removed these controller assists. When you plug in a wheel these assists are automatically disabled. That’s what I remember but I could be mistaken.
Anyhow, normal steering has made this game fun again for me with a wheel. The FFB works better and I can tell what the car is doing and can correct oversteer without crashing at the slightest hint of the car getting loose. I’ve tried Simulation steering for a while now and no amount of play seems to improve my ability to handle the car. They still spin out of control at random anytime you try counter steer with even the smallest amount of oversteer. That’s not realistic either. Most road cars are very stable and will under steer long before they oversteer. If Turn 10 ever does a patch on the wheel I may go back and try Simulation Steering again. Go try drive the 2009 Ferrari 458 with the stock tune. It’s completely undriveable with simulation steering. How could the car be so bad in real life? Put it on normal steering and the car is still challenging, but responds to inputs from the wheel properly.
Just because it says “simulation” doesn’t mean it is actually more realistic.
i am on a wheel and find that sim steering is better for counter steering and usable at its best with rivals.
online multiplayer requires normal steering though. not as skittish.
Well I’m still not sure what is best. Try driving the 2009 Ferrari 458 Italia with a wheel at 900 degrees. It’s barely driveable on normal steering and still over steers quite a bit. When you switch to simulation steering it becomes impossible to go around a corner. So then I drove the 2005 Ford GT and it was perfectly fine on simulation steering with no assists.
I wish Turn 10 would say what these settings are intended for. Correcting counter steer on simulation steering with a wheel at 900 degrees is very frustrating.
Hmm that’s weird I drive all assists of except sim steering and the 458 at 900 degrees feels incredible to me… Must be my driving style, though I can’t drive any car with sim steering on. It’s just too twitch and darty for me.
I can’t drive sim steering. Tried my best to get used to it on a wheel. I ended up being bale to catch most drifts. But those few that catch you out online are just one too man y.
I suspect a non FFB wheel with sim steering works as well as sim steering with a controller.
The big issue many, including myself report is that attempts to counter steer with a FFB wheel are difficult due to the FFB being unrelateable. On normal, the FFB makes sense and you can counter steer through slides in a much more intuitive way.
It’s not impossible to catch a slide with sim steering, I’ve done it many times, but you cannot rely on the FFB to guide you, but then that’s the point of a FFB wheel.
I don’t use assists myself and have run sim steering since FM4 on controller. This sim steering FFB issue with Forza dates back to FM4 with Fanatec themselves recommending normal steering for use with their wheels.
100% couldn’t have agreed with you more
Guys, does FM6 also have that bug where you have 540 or 900 degs of range enabled on a wheel, and it resets to something like 360 or 270 degs when countersteering? This bug was in FM4, but they corrected it with an update.
I’ve also noticed how it takes longer to steer normally on a controller, but when countersteering, you need to cut down your range/input, if that makes sense.