After owning the old CSR many moons ago with endless hours tweaking on 360 I haven’t played much FM7 vs Horizon on the couch with a controller(also had a couple kids in the interim). After it became official the 'bone capable peripherals would be compatible on the next gen, I broke down and bought a CSW 2.5 setup, with CSL LC pedal set. Over the holidays I have probably 15 hours lapping the same car around the same track trying to get the settings ‘right’, let alone the same hours by pulling random cars on random tracks and just about giving up. I still think the CSR with FM4 was better FFB when tweaked right. I have taken all kinds of big swings with every setting and it all definitely comes down to the mechanical/pneumatic trail settings, and even they are far too car-specific.
It is impossible to get it right. Also, I spent most of my time running IMSA turbo cars, which have razor steering and high downforce similar to modern GT2/3 cars, and loads of turbo lag with huge power peaks. It gives you a true test of grip feeling and transitions from stuck like glue to oversteering madness under full boost. Very dynamic cars. They are actually quite well modeled in FM7. I will hotlap with all assists off but will race them with TC on, it’s just too much to monitor with other cars to battle. I also spent most of my time in cars with no upgrades or tuning.
I can get most race cars to feel properly weighted with enough nuance loss of tire grip to be able to be ‘one’ with the car and feel in command of every wiggle and let it slide predictably at the edge. It requires fairly high levels of both mech/pneumatic trail. You have this TINY window of where the tire modeling is perceptible for loss of grip while driving under grip feels weighted and sticky, with progressive smooth response that gives you confidence to give it wheel on a sharp turn. As soon as the tire grip setting becomes too high, you get that endless feeling of understeer that starts to kick in way too early. When the tire modeling is to prominent, it just never feels like you can ‘throw’ the car into a turn in any realistic way. I can get hot laps up with finesse, but all that goes out the window when banging doors with opponents. Higher mechanical modeling gives you a proper wheel, but JUST when you get enough of it to feel like an actual car with actual rubber tires attached to it, there is no transition-the tires just snap over/under steer with about 2 degrees of rotation available for the loss of grip to be detected.
So I have these settings that are quite satisfying with any of the true race cars, especially imsa and GT racers. Of course, any road car with any tire other then race rubber has major issues with these settings, especially any modern powerful GT road car, like of the AMG/Jag/Ferrari GT’s/Bentley, etc. I just don’t think there is remotely any setting that works as a baseline for the entire suite of vehicles. Ironically, what gives a dynamic range for a race car, that after a few laps when you finally become ‘one’ with the car-you get the confidence to steer past 90 degrees, and take a chance on the curbs for a pass, etc, like-an actual race car. Suddenly you get into an AMG coupe, and even with full rotational range, you cant get past 11-1 without spinning out, where it should be the other way around.
It is WAY too frustrating getting this right. Hopefully they go with a model featuring tire deformation and grip as the primary driving force, and a more dynamic suspension model with proper modeling of body roll and weight transfer on the next FM model. This really should be a simple process. If it were modeled correctly one setting for FFB level, one for steering ratio, and a few settings for ‘road noise’ preferences should be all there is to setting FFB-Then it would be more about the CAR and not the endless wheel settings. Not to mention how much ‘damping’ settings can wreck havoc with all the other settings. Whatever I had back in FM4 worked for every car, only having to change the rotational ratio and ffb level after two test laps and it was GTG from there. I had no issues running a focus in C class with FWD and jumping into a Ford GT in GT3 racing and make a custom 40 lap race at Laguna Seca with a couple clicks of settings, and the only ting I worried about was sector times.
Assetto Corsa has this model of tires plus a car that actually has dynamic suspension and body roll modeled much better(and far simpler to set up), just watch the models ‘work’ in replays. What it lacks sensation of SPEED, making it difficult in it’s own way. But bringing that car modeling into FM’s world of graphics presentation would be the truly ‘great’ driving game. Plus being able to model tuning setups for each car on each track is genius. In FM, it’s easier just to own 5 versions of a car…
You can try these with a ‘Silhouette’ or IMSA racer on Mugello, one of the better test tracks for just about every turning scenario, flirting with curbs, etc.
**The FIRST thing anyone should do when setting FFB for a wheel is turn the TIRE VOLUME down to about 20% in the audio menu, this is WAY too distracting and has no dynamic aspect, it’s just noise all the time, and will mess with your perception of ‘grip’ leaving that squealing mess too prominent in your sensory range.
CSW 2.5/CSL Loadcell pedals. Wheel settings are a lot of personal preference.
I have all main wheel settings to AUTO except braking range(50), abs(99) for MY particular pedals, with drift to -3(seems more natural/less intrusive then ‘off’ or -5). I’ve played around with SHOck settings from 50-100 to OFF without much change. This setting can really beat you up if you use a lot of road feel amplifier or spring settings in game.
In game all ranges default/0-100 except brake takeup(again all personal preference each pedal and foot is different). For a race car, I have the individual cars’ steering reduced to around 560-630ish degrees of rotation. Master setting is 900 as for any road car(so far)
Vibration Scale: 22 (I find a little helps, especially with the buttkicker…)
FFB Scale: 108
Aligning Torque 99
Mechanical Trail 108
Pneumatic Trail 122
Road Feel 30
Load Sensitivity 64
Wheel Damper 15(outright evil setting to mess with)
Center Spring 0
Dynamic Damper Behavior 30 (another voodoo setting)
Wheel Rotation Angle 900 (set in individual car menu to about 65-70% for a full-body race car).
Steering linearity 50 (shouldn’t even be a setting).
In a fast road car, these settings seem to suck… Not sure yet what can form a ‘bridge’ between street/race cars where it’s just one slider to adjust. For me, with the race cars I can detect tire wear and have enough confidence to 4 wheel slide on certain exits to float into a passing position, lap after lap. However, I can’t get around the track ONCE clean with an AMG GT coupe.
I find the biggest problem with FM is that the cars really do not have any actual suspension dynamic at all, they are just trying to work with some tire/grip modeling and a relatively crude suspension model that takes all the suspension and weight settings and simply plays them against the tire model. This game is all about trying to get 700+ cars in it, and it shows when you watch (beautiful) replays and the tires just bang up and down a little bit in a dark grey empty block behind the tires. Kinda like when a D class MG gets glowing brakes like an X class FXX does…
The problem is wheels are becoming so much more sophisticated that adding 20+ FFB settings to make your wheel ‘work’ with the brick going around the track is making it that much more confusing. With the earlier wheels and the 360’s limitations, this could be tricked into a ‘happy place’ much more easily. It all ends up being much more ‘math’ to overcome then say AC’s model of having a functioning virtual automobile first and foremost just works better. Although it’s hard to drive when you can’t really tell where you are at what speed in relation to the track and the turn’s apex and how fast you are going. FM I know my marks and how much grip I ‘should’ have going for them but then it’s a whole lot of ‘what the hell just happened?!’
