#1) Get the latest driver/firmware from ThrustMaster - As of this writing, the newest driver (2014_TTRS_2) and firmware (v47) were made available 7/23/2014. Follow the instructions on their site to get your wheel on the right firmware.
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http://ts.thrustmaster.com/eng/index.php?pg=files_faq
#2) Follow Steps 1-5 in oDs45’s post → This will calibrate your wheel the most consistently and accurately (in my experience).
#3) Set the preferred wheel settings
- Either in the game (Profile → Controller → Advanced Settings (X)) or using the Mode button + Left D-pad combo on the wheel, set your preferred Angle of Rotation.
: Unlike the user above, I prefer 360 degrees for class A - D cars, and 480-540 for the higher classes. For doing Auto-Cross, I also prefer ~540 degrees so that my wheel inputs don’t have as much effect.
- Using the Mode button + Up/Down paddle shifters combo on the wheel, set your preferred “Sensitivity”. → I haven’t really played with the “sensitivity” since I like the default (Normal)
- Set FFB to about 50-75%.
- Set Rumble to ~50% (I don’t like a lot, but you may wish for more).
#4) Set the steering to Normal - In the Assists area, make sure steering is set to Normal, and not Sim.
If you are still having issues with the wheel jerking in your hands (is that the case?), you may have either an issue with traction control (turn on TCS) or a problem with the tune. Normally, non-pre-tuned cars don’t drive that great out-of-the-box, so don’t expect a grippy car when you just buy-n-drive it. Try using one of the tunes available if you have no desire to tune it yourself.
Lastly, I’ve noticed that when I hand over the wheel to my wife or daughters, they are constantly jerking the wheel side-to-side and spinning their wheels (with RWD cars), which in turn produces some bothersome FFB to correct their exaggerated motions. This is really surprising to me because I have difficulty re-creating the same effect, but I’ve been using a wheel since FM3, so maybe I’m too trained? I think that this may be a mental “problem” where they can’t make the connection between their steering input and the reaction of the car in the game. I’ve tried setting them at 900 degrees to get them to stop the wheel thrashing, but they still seem to have a problem determining how much input is needed to get the desired turn at any speed. Again, it actually makes me LOL to see them jerking the wheel all over the place, no matter how much I tell them, “Small inputs … gentle turns … nooo, just move the wheel a little bit! Don’t look at the road right in front of you, watch out about 100 yards or more … What the hell, you don’t jerk the wheel all over the place when you drive on the road do you!?!”
Start with a D class car, and drive it around (slowly, if need be) your favorite track and get a feel for the wheel + pedals. Like with real driving, you can’t just smash down the accelerator and slap the wheel around and think that it will behave.
a. Turn on the brake indicator/line so you can learn when you will need to start braking.
- Brake gently, don’t just mash the brake down, even with ABS this isn’t a good solution for carrying through a corner nicely.
- Listen to your tires! You want to be just slow enough around corners so that your tires don’t make any chatter (screeching).
- Learn the proper line for all of the corners.
b. Learn how to apply the gas (accelerate). There are any number of cars with enough torque to make driving difficult if you just floor the gas pedal. You need to ease into it, listen to your tires and use the FFB to determine if you’re losing the rear end.
- Listen to your engine, you want to up/down shift at the proper times. I rarely take the tach beyond redline, so if you see your tach jumping all over the place, you probably aren’t in control of the throttle. Pretend you’re driving a real car and apply the ‘right amount’, don’t just floor it.
c. Steering is a progressive and gentle action. Unlike with the controller, you can’t just sling it from lock to lock without regard. The absolutely best thing about the wheel is that you have precision control and won’t (shouldn’t) be making jerky movements on the track any more.
- As with real life, when going around a corner at speed, your brain should be able to gauge how much steering wheel turn results in the car turning. When I taught my oldest daughter to drive (real car), one of the things I noticed is that gauging how much to turn the wheel for a corner + speed was the hardest thing for her to learn. This is something I take for granted and do automatically when driving in real life, but her lack of experience made it noticeable that she didn’t know how to ease around a corner and then release the wheel to, prior to the completion of the turn, to exit a corner smoothly. I think that it is probably also true for people that move from a controller to the racing wheel. They are used to just releasing the stick on the controller, but with the wheel, they need to imitate real life and turn into a corner and then turn out of the corner too.
Honestly, I had to think about this for awhile because driving with a steering wheel just seems so much easier and more natural than a controller. When I first got the Xbox One + Forza 5, my wheel & stand hadn’t arrived yet and I was forced to “drive” with the controller, it was the worst 2 weeks of video gaming experience I can remember. As soon as I got the ThrustMaster TX, I immediately started dropping double-digit seconds (10-20 seconds) on every circuit, could drive clean laps at will, and finally began to enjoy the game. I really can’t understand how users without a wheel can enjoy this game (let alone deal with hand cramps), I know I can’t.