I jumped on to the steering wheel bandwagon this week after being pretty successful in game with a controller.
So…now I’m back in noobsville. I’ve started to tweak the settings so I’m no longer snaking my way along the road, but are there any particularly forgiving cars in game that are good for practice with a steering wheel? I’ve been playing around with the low-mid range power cars like the Manx, Land Rover Defender, 2008 Impreza and Audi saloons (which feel pretty solid).
Cheers
(I may also turn down the difficulty for a while…coming last each time gets a little wearing… >.> )
I think you kind of answered youre own question. The best cars to learn with are the ones you like. Ive always felt that lowered powered cars are best to work on your steering while faster cars are better for learning throttle control. You will have to learn both.
Horizon is an arcade game so you have to take that into account when using a wheel. Certain things that work in this game may not really be too realistic, but eventually the key to success with a wheel is being smooth. As you continue to use it you will get better, but dont expect to be faster with a wheel than you were with a controller.
My advice is to pick whatever car you want, pick a track with laps not the goliath track because thats not going to help, and start lapping. If you want to find a good ffb and dor setting this is the best way to learn. Shut off vibration and test each slider individually to see what they each do. Once you find the individual settings you like put them together and see how it feels. Just a suggestion but dont use too high a strength, certain feedback will be drowned out by stronger effects.
Once you know what ffb settings you like you can start working on consistency. I know this may seem excessive and tedious but it will payoff in the long run. Being fast with a wheel is certainly harder and usually more frustrating but im the end it is a more immersive and rewarding experience.
Simply put, you WILL be slower with a wheel at first. Just like it took time to get comfortable with a controller, it takes time to get used to a wheel. Don’t do races, just pick a car you like and drive. Drive until your arms get sore. Then drive some more. Gradually picking up the pace, turning off any assists you might be using (do NOT use steering assist, ever). Start getting the car out of shape on purpose and try to get it back. Go around a roundabout getting faster and faster to see what it feels like when the car is at the limit or goes over and starts to understeer or oversteer, and figure out what you need to do to correct it. Try drifting. Fail miserably. But keep trying. You’ll figure it out eventually.
I have bought g920 bundle for xmas thinking it will be better for fh3 rather than a controller, oh boy I was wrong, played it couple times with it, its so frustrating. So then I bought Elite controller, no coming back from it. I feel like that the wheel for racing games is no no, you are at the huge dissadvantage between turning left and right rather than with a controller, for proper simulation driving, wheel is great, or I think.
What is the manufacturer of your wheel? I have a Fanatec and can give you a set up you may like and if it is from another brand perhaps someone else can give you some good settings for that wheel. I finally found a setting that I really like. I think it is yhe best setting I have ever had with a wheel and I have had wheels for early 10 years! It helped a ton that Playground games added several more wheel adjustment sliders in the game! Best settings options we have ever had in any Firza related game…ever!
A good way to practice I found is to get an old car like a datsun 510 and just add a bit of power (200-300kw). It will teach yourself good throttle control and because the old tyres have alot more sidewall flex the car will tend to walk a bit sideways through corners which will help you learn some steering finesse. you can also go to a old heavy car like an old muscle car and learn how to handle the weight of the car, how to manage weight transitions and keep the car under control with your steering and just learn how your steering inputs affect the cars balance.
A good rule of thumb is you can only give the car 100% so if your braking at 100% you will need to ease of the brake to apply steering, keeping the ballance if that makes sense
Good wheel setup is important too like others have stated.
With a bit of practice it can actually become therapeutic o_O. I know what you mean, though - I’d love to jump back into the Lambos and rally monsters I’d been using with a controller, but it does give me a chance to play around with the lesser used cars (current toy: Audi S1). Going from Driving God to an entire blooper reel in one fell swoop is very disconcerting…but since I’ve paid this much money I’m going to make it work!
Thrustmaster.
I’ll have to give some of the older cars a go :), the steering wheel certainly makes me appreciate the range of cars the game has to offer . Easing off is definitely something I need to get the hang of - when I first starting dabbling with racing games many years ago, I was using a keyboard…so I do tend to have a very “all or nothing” approach to controlling in a racing game…despite the fact I can actually drive a car facepalm.
(It was the game “Blur” that finally made me jump to a controller. I had to get a lap time of 3:12…which was beyond my capabilities with a keyboard!)
I started out on keyboard to, first racing game I ever bought was NFS Hot Pursuit 2. I know what you mean about the all or nothing approach. A few years later I bought my first counsel and learn to use a pad. Then one the guys I worked with gave me his old Logitech momo wheel for PC, I replayed NFS HP2 and it transformed the game. Shortly after that I bought my first wheel for my 360 and have been sold on them ever since. I want to go back to PC thou, but not the keyboard.
I hope you are enjoying your wheel LordRork, I do t think my wheel settings will help you then but hopefully someone e with a Thrustmaster wheel can help with the in game settings for you. I would give you mine but the wheel I have has 7 additional settings that will also change the in game settings. As an example my wheel also adjusts the FFB so my in game FFB settings will feel different on my wheel than on yours. I had a Thrustmaster wheel before my Fanatec but sold it to a fellow Forza racer and I have only used my Fanatec wheel on Horizon 3. I hope you find a really good setting and have as much fun as I do with the game.
I´ll chime in: also thought a wheel would enhance my driving. Well, it doesn´t. Not for FH3 anyway. It still is tremendous fun using one but racing is done with the controller. Getting out of a spin or even slow drift with the wheel hasn´t worked once yet for me. Luckily I also have Motorsport 6, I´ll use the wheel for that game.
Check out that link above. A lot of good info in there. I haven’t played forza in a long time and got a TX wheel around Christmas time and decided to pick up FH 3 to try it out. I’ve been hooked, whole new meaning to driving games. Glad to hear you guys are having issues though, because I did too (and still do LOL). Try some of the wheel settings in that thread and you’ll find one that feels good.
I can’t drift with the wheel at all, it’s tough… I’m REALLY close to getting some 3 star drift segments but I need more practice. You will certainly learn to have smoother transitions both for steering and for brake and throttle transitions. Occasionally I’ll have some really good runs and the feeling is very rewarding.
If you want a way more challenging game (and more realistic feel) then try Dirt Rally. It’s tough, and addicting. haha
Like the Rug Doctor said,practice,practice and more practice,when I first bought a wheel,i ended up throwing it in the closet,i dug it back out later and kept at it,now I am much better with the wheel than the controller,i would never go back to a controller now,Some games are much better with a wheel also,Assetto Corsa and Dirt Rally really shine with the wheel.Hang in there,you will get it!!
Tell you what, the wheel is amazing for high speed runs on the expressway to gain skill points. You just stay on the dashed center line and you get a TON of skill chains from near passes, threading the needle and daredevil. It’s easy to stay on the line at 200mph+ (ultimate speed bonus) since you can steer so accurately. I’d never be able to do it with a controller. haha As long as no one makes a turn in front of you it’s not that hard to snag 300k (3 skill points) in one expressway pass using a HE skill car without any other perks.
Ok so I turned off the force feedback on my G920. I found it was much easier with the force feedback off. then find a slow car and drive it around. its all about getting used to how sensitive the wheel is and getting comfortable with that.
I’m on a g920 , and I’m honestly loving it . Bit by bit getting closer to my old times and also better on a couple. As soon as I got it I hated the game but that was with the minimum sliders before the update. Since the update I was having a ball just cruising around getting a feel for it . Now it’s simply awesome. Actually better than f6 with the new ffb settings . I’m running mine on 270 DOR and am fine tuning the sliders as much as I can . I’m finding I like a heavy wheel more so as I guess it’s closer to the feeling I get from other games that are more sims than forza. Also loving retuning every single car I have and love as the settings I was loving with my elite are way over done for the responsiveness of the wheel.
It was hard at first but I think I am learning it the right way, even though it goes against what pretty much everybody else said here.
I only did Goliath runs with S1, RWD cars. Simulation settings, etc. The only assist I left is ABS since every car has it and I do not understand why games would disable it. It was hard at first but I learned throttle control way easier than in normal races.
And I should say that Steering wheel+shifter will give you faster times than using a joystick. After a week I started to get closer to my record times and I barely played. Downshifting is a godsend.
Still playing with the FFB and controller settings… I cannot drift a RWD car if my life would depend on it. I have no idea how to control it haha.
