PC1 Fanatec CSW v2 FFB Settings

[Blkout]

OK, I'm just going to come out and say I like the game but the FFB still needs work in my opinion. Its not up the standard we've been given in AC, R3E, GSCE, iRacing. That being said, I believe after a LOT of tweaking and going through all of the suggestions I've been reading here and other forums, I've come to some settings that I can live with and surprisingly, doesn't really require much adjustment from the default settings and yes, I've tried all of the other settings already posted, bmanic's settings come closest to what I prefer to feel but these settings won't require as much tweaking.

Fanatec Tuning Menu:

SENS: 540 (make sure to run the wheel calibration in game)
FF: 100
SHO: 100
ABS: 100
LIN: OFF
DEA: OFF
DRI: 1, 2, 3 (your preference)
FOR: 100
SPR: 0
DPR: 100


PCARS Configuration Menu:

Steering Deadzone: 0

Steering Sensitivity: 50 (this actually has quite an impact on FFB around center, however some cars like the Lotus 49 and Formula B will have wheel oscillation on the starting grid above 50-60)

Force Feedback: 70

FFB Calibration Menu:

Tire Force: 100


That's all! I'm not saying these are the best settings and you may even tweak something else to your liking, but I've found these settings to be pretty good for most cars and tracks without any other tweaking.

Worth mentioning, all road cars tend to feel a bit soft and floaty compared to the race cars. I believe this is due to the physics engine and downforce as well as softer suspension compared to race cars. That being said, if you feel like the road cars don't have enough FFB for you, you can always increase them individually per car in the car tuning menu by raising the spindle arm value from 26 to 30-36.

Also worth mentioning, I don't think PCARS provides as much road feel as most of us are accustomed to feeling from AC, R3E, GSCE, iRacing and quite honestly, I don't think any setting in the game is going to change that unless SMS decides to add more road data to the game so we're all probably chasing a unicorn in the FFB settings.

 

[vee10]

Also worth mentioning, I don't think PCARS provides as much road feel as most of us are accustomed to feeling from AC, R3E, GSCE, iRacing and quite honestly, I don't think any setting in the game is going to change that unless SMS decides to add more road data to the game so we're all probably chasing a unicorn in the FFB settings.

That is the conclusion I have come to as well Blkout with regard to road feel. I have given up trying to catch that unicorn and am just concentrating on getting the best steering, tyre feel possible for each car.

 

[Blkout]

The Lotus 49 FFB is totally broken, there are a few cars that are really bad but this one takes the cake I think.

 

[William Wester]

The Lotus 49 FFB is totally broken, there are a few cars that are really bad but this one takes the cake I think.

Sorry to hear that, the Lotus 49 is a blast/handful! @Blkout, I thought you were using a TX wheel?

 

[bmanic]

This "doesn't provide road feel" is just so bizarre. I have a feeling it's the same here as everywhere else.. people just don't understand that FFB settings are found in two different places:

1) The main wheel preferences. FFB settings here are "global" and are there to help you overcome shortcomings of the wheel. Basically to help squeeze in the huge dynamic range of the FFB into the tiny dynamic range of a crappy consumer FFB wheel (people with direct drive wheels are the only ones that can run properly linear settings).

2) The car setup garage has a FFB tab and this is where you actually make the FFB behave the way you want it to behave!. For instance.. want road "feel" (such a silly term if you are talking about kerbs and pot holes and other things that are completely irrelevant when it comes to racing) you make sure Fx is set to a huge number.. dial down Fy and Fz and keep Mz at 100. There's your "feel". Oh.. and make sure you drive on one of the LASER SCANNED tracks.. then you get all em micro bumps as in iRacing and AC (Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Chadwell Park etc)..

The point is, you can completely exaggerate "road feel" to a ridiculous extent if you want to.. but from a racing/laptime perspective it makes no sense. Drive your everyday car over some potholes.. let go of the wheel and look at it. Does it shake and rattle to pieces? Yeah..

 

[vee10]

The point is, you can completely exaggerate "road feel" to a ridiculous extent if you want to.. but from a racing/laptime perspective it makes no sense. Drive your everyday car over some potholes.. let go of the wheel and look at it. Does it shake and rattle to pieces? Yeah..

You are completely right in what you say, I was driving my Megane yesterday really concentrating on what the what information was coming through the wheel and you are right in that it does not rattle it self to pieces or vibrate, but there is information about the road surface there. The problem is though as sim racers we have no other means of getting information other than our sim wheels (unless you have buttkicker or something). In a real car there are many more pieces of information being fed to you from the chassis, suspension through the seat and g forces. I think that is why some of us are looking for more to compensate for the other real life information that is lacking. I think RF2 has this nailed in this respect.

 

[Zboubi]

thanks but 85 ffb is really strong, i can't play like this.

 

[Blkout]

Sorry to hear that, the Lotus 49 is a blast/handful! @Blkout, I thought you were using a TX wheel?

It feels glorious in other sims, just not Project CARS. I got rid of the TX a few months ago when Fanatec announced an Xbox One wheel. I've been using a Fanatec CSW v2 since December.

thanks but 85 ffb is really strong, i can't play like this.

Most people recommend 100. 85 is pretty conservative. If its too strong for you turn it down.

 

[Blkout]

This "doesn't provide road feel" is just so bizarre. I have a feeling it's the same here as everywhere else.. people just don't understand that FFB settings are found in two different places:

1) The main wheel preferences. FFB settings here are "global" and are there to help you overcome shortcomings of the wheel. Basically to help squeeze in the huge dynamic range of the FFB into the tiny dynamic range of a crappy consumer FFB wheel (people with direct drive wheels are the only ones that can run properly linear settings).

2) The car setup garage has a FFB tab and this is where you actually make the FFB behave the way you want it to behave!. For instance.. want road "feel" (such a silly term if you are talking about kerbs and pot holes and other things that are completely irrelevant when it comes to racing) you make sure Fx is set to a huge number.. dial down Fy and Fz and keep Mz at 100. There's your "feel". Oh.. and make sure you drive on one of the LASER SCANNED tracks.. then you get all em micro bumps as in iRacing and AC (Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Chadwell Park etc)..

The point is, you can completely exaggerate "road feel" to a ridiculous extent if you want to.. but from a racing/laptime perspective it makes no sense. Drive your everyday car over some potholes.. let go of the wheel and look at it. Does it shake and rattle to pieces? Yeah..

I fully understand where to adjust all of the FFB sliders and I've spent the last few days playing with all of them. You can exaggerate FFB feel per car in the car tuning menu but it doesn't feel remotely realistic. I'm not sure if you've played any of the other modern sims such as AC, R3E, GSCE, iRacing but all of these provide a better FFB experience. There's a reason people are very unhappy with the FFB in Project CARS and its not because of having more adjustments, its because the FFB still doesn't feel right even after adjusting 20+ sliders.

 

[Zboubi]

i use 60 ffb in game

 

[Raikku]

Haven't drive pc-version for a while(I got it of course, cause I'm backer), I have concentrated more to ps4-version. So if someone would have decent CSW v2-settings for PS4 too would preciate that. To this day I have drove with pad and adjusted its drivebility.

 

[Blkout]

Updated 5/12/15

 

[Blkout]

Anyone with a CSW v2 tried these since I updated them?

 

[Sele1981]

Not sure why 540 degree? Turn it off is the best option (for me) because as I know the game sets the correct value for each car.

Sho 100 - ABS 100 - they don´t work both together. You have to turn off one of them.

Dam 100 - I prefer to drive without any dampening, so I turn it off in the driver, on the wheel and put drift mode to 3, that turns all dampenings off.

FFB ingame 70 - you lose a lot of forces and effects there. This option must be set to 100. Better play with the tire force setting.

But if you use the Jack Spade Tweaker files, you set FFB and Tire Force to 100 and you are on the edge to clipping with each car. The Jack Spade Files give me the best FFB experience with my V2.

 

[Blkout]

Not sure why 540 degree? Turn it off is the best option (for me) because as I know the game sets the correct value for each car.

Sho 100 - ABS 100 - they don´t work both together. You have to turn off one of them.

Dam 100 - I prefer to drive without any dampening, so I turn it off in the driver, on the wheel and put drift mode to 3, that turns all dampenings off.

FFB ingame 70 - you lose a lot of forces and effects there. This option must be set to 100. Better play with the tire force setting.

But if you use the Jack Spade Tweaker files, you set FFB and Tire Force to 100 and you are on the edge to clipping with each car. The Jack Spade Files give me the best FFB experience with my V2.

540 degree because at 900 there's not much FFB around center unless you crank up the steering sensitivity to 70-75 at which point, the Lotus 49 and Formula B cars will get heavy oscillation in the staging lanes. Setting the DOR to 540 in the Fanatec tuning menu and then calibrating the wheel in game allows you to use a default steering sensitivity of 50 which feels almost identical to the 900 DOR at 75 sensitivity and doesn't cause the same wheel oscillation.

SHO and ABS at 100 don't work at all on a universal hub, doesn't matter if they're on or off. They only work with the older BMW wheel or the newer Porsche 918 wheel since they have motors in the wheel rim.

FFB at 70 works fine, sounds like you didn't even try the settings at all, you're just speaking from generalities. You're really not the type of person that should be trying these settings since you can't look past the default settings in game.

The Jack Spade files feel awful with the CSW v2 in my opinion, but if you like that heavy centering spring feel and curbs that will rattle your teeth unrealistically, then those are the files for you.

 

[Sele1981]

lol ok you know everything...

 

[Blkout]

lol ok you know everything...

Same could be said of you I suppose...

 

[Sele1981]

540 degree because at 900 there's not much FFB around center unless you crank up the steering sensitivity to 70-75 at which point, the Lotus 49 and Formula B cars will get heavy oscillation in the staging lanes. Setting the DOR to 540 in the Fanatec tuning menu and then calibrating the wheel in game allows you to use a default steering sensitivity of 50 which feels almost identical to the 900 DOR at 75 sensitivity and doesn't cause the same wheel oscillation.

SHO and ABS at 100 don't work at all on a universal hub, doesn't matter if they're on or off. They only work with the older BMW wheel or the newer Porsche 918 wheel since they have motors in the wheel rim.

FFB at 70 works fine, sounds like you didn't even try the settings at all, you're just speaking from generalities. You're really not the type of person that should be trying these settings since you can't look past the default settings in game.

The Jack Spade files feel awful with the CSW v2 in my opinion, but if you like that heavy centering spring feel and curbs that will rattle your teeth unrealistically, then those are the files for you.

Until there everything was fine, but then you started to get personal and judged me because of one single post.

 

[Blkout]

Until there everything was fine, but then you started to get personal and judged me because of one single post.

I didn't judge anything. You stated some of your own opinions as facts which they aren't and I replied accordingly. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

Not sure why 540 degree? Turn it off is the best option (for me) because as I know the game sets the correct value for each car.
Sho 100 - ABS 100 - they don´t work both together. You have to turn off one of them.
Dam 100 - I prefer to drive without any dampening, so I turn it off in the driver, on the wheel and put drift mode to 3, that turns all dampenings off.
FFB ingame 70 - you lose a lot of forces and effects there. This option must be set to 100. Better play with the tire force setting.
But if you use the Jack Spade Tweaker files, you set FFB and Tire Force to 100 and you are on the edge to clipping with each car. The Jack Spade Files give me the best FFB experience with my V2.

 

[bmanic]

I fully understand where to adjust all of the FFB sliders and I've spent the last few days playing with all of them. You can exaggerate FFB feel per car in the car tuning menu but it doesn't feel remotely realistic. I'm not sure if you've played any of the other modern sims such as AC, R3E, GSCE, iRacing but all of these provide a better FFB experience. There's a reason people are very unhappy with the FFB in Project CARS and its not because of having more adjustments, its because the FFB still doesn't feel right even after adjusting 20+ sliders.

First of all. I have ALL THE OTHER simulators, except rF 2. I own almost every single sim racing game ever released, since Papyrus Indy 500 (1989 I believe!) except rF2, RRE and live for speed (which I've played the demo to death on but never purchased any of the releases).. so yeah, we have that sorted now.

Second, I've spent more than 100 hours on learning the FFB system of Project CARS.. if you seriously think you have completely understood the system then I congratulate you. I have a few questions:

1) Can you explain the non-linear function of Soft Clip (half input) and how it relates to the non-linear function Soft Clip (full output)? What happens when I set Soft Clip (half input) to 0.4 and Soft Clip (full output) to 3.0? Is it low force biased or high force biased?

2) What is the meaning of the Relative Gain Clamp function? What about the Bleed function?

3) How does Scoop work.. and how wide is the knee? Is it a soft knee or a hard knee function?

4) Why is it important that we can squeeze a high dynamic range into a low dynamic range? How is this relevant to consumer wheels of today?


.. yeah, I know, I'm being an ass. But seriously, please do not underestimate the FFB capabilities of Project CARS. People have absolutely a right to be upset about the default FFB and all the confusing options.. but try to understand that this myriad of options ultimately means complete freedom to tweak the FFB so that it is fully backwards compatible and can provide awesome FFB to even the oldest wheel on the planet! Heck even the age old microsoft sidewinder wheel is supported and can be made awesome with a little tweaking.

SMS screwed up. There's no denying that. The UI is horrid and confusing. The default FFB was put in place very quickly (they copied my settings but only half the settings!) and no real effort was put on truly trying to nail the FFB down to a good default. They just simply ran out of time. It was a very stressful time for them as so many things, much more crucial things, were yet to be completed.

Anyhow, the FFB system requires complete understanding and as far as I'm concerned there are maybe 10 people from the 80 000 who signed up for the WMD platform who understand the FFB system and can properly tweak and experiment with it and not just randomly typing in numbers and hoping for the best.

I wish I had more wheels than the Thrustmaster TX and DFGT so that I could help all you guys out but I don't. Patience is required. I'm sure we'll get there eventually. In case you dislike the FFB then please consider the fact that there are other people like me, who have played ALL THE OTHER simulators, and stand hard and fast that pCars is at the moment one of the best in this area. It may seem crazy to you and it's understandable but this is my honest opinion (and I absolutely adore the modified Reel Feel plugin for GSCE).

Have some patience and perhaps try my settings. There's nothing to lose even if they are meant for Thrustmaster wheels. You can try them and then describe what's wrong with them and I'll try to adapt from the description.

Cheers!
bManic