Flexibel FFB settings: Blessing or a Curse?

First of all i would like to thank Sector3 for the last update. The new FFB is great and really a big and evolutionary step forward.:thumbsup: I'm really impressed.

But even with this more physics-based and direct FFB, i see lot of people having still problems to get their FFB settings feel right.
So i was thinking about these new "Steering force settings" like Understeer, Vertical Load or Lateral Force. Do we really need all these parameters? Every adjustment can drastically change the feeling. And if someone makes a statement, that the physics feel wrong, the reason for this could simply lie in a misaligned controlset.
The more individual settings you have, the more ways to make the FFB feel wrong.

As an example ..... why we have a setting to adjust the feeling for "Understeer" respectively how light the steering gets on traction loss of the front tyres? If a real car understeers, there is a specific and authentic feeling in the steering wheel. It's just based on real world physics. You can't drive into the pits and talk to your engineer, that you would like to have the steering wheel more heavy on understeering. You can only adjust the car setup for less understeer but not the feeling itself. Same for "Vertical Load" and "Lateral Force" which should just simply base on how a real car feels.

So why we could adjust these settings in R3E? I came to the conclusion, it would be better to have the FFB settings reduced to a minimum. Just the FFB strength (and perhaps some FFB effects for more or less immersion) should be enough. Sometimes less is more. ;)
 
"Do we really need all these parameters? "
Shortly, yes, I need this parameters.
But why? It's like manual override parameters, which should simply defined by real world physics.

Yes, it's not fair to compare, but rF2 or AC work quite well without these special settings. Or do you miss it there? IMHO FFB strength, smoothing, dampening is almost all you need.
 
IMHO FFB strength, smoothing, dampening is almost all you need.
In some cases , yes, enough, but for now I think the paraneter smoothing is not workin at all in RaceRoom.
 
I think we need as many parameters/variables exposed as possible but some out-of-the-box presets would be good to shield the complexity for those not interested in fine-tuning, those more easily pleased.
In addition to the differences between the gear being used, each car brings a different feel that may or may not replicate what the racers "thinks" or "would like" the feel to be. I spent a hour or so tweaking the Corvette Z06R on Lausitz to fit my preference, but then when I switched to a Radical it didn't feel as good as I "thought" it should - never driven one so how would I know what it should feel like in comparison to the Corvette.
The problem is many are quick to judge a racing sim; they may fail at understanding or using the parameters to help achieve their expectations but without the fine adjustments they don't have an option to tailor to their liking.
 
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The thing is FFB is a very personal thing, unlike what happens in a real race car where reality dictates what you feel for 98% of the part, in gaming it really comes down to personal preferences, and maybe to a larger extend personal perception.

We try to deliver a solid experience out of the box, and the options are there for the ones that need it to change it to their preferences.
 
I would almost say I agree with the OP but I don't necessarily think having the options are a bad thing. Options should be there but I have to admit iRacing's ffb is very informative and they don't have the kind of in-game settings R3E does right now. They just have things like force strength, dampening, and min force. That's it. And it's amazing what kind of feeling you can get out of a wheel like a G27.

I do agree that cars have specific/authentic feel to things like understeer, 'road feel' (vertical load), and corner feel (lateral forces). That's an argument in favour of getting the physics right in the car and then simplifying the in-game options.

All that said it is nice to have options at least in config files.
 

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