So I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Thrustmaster Spider after waiting and waiting for a return of stock for the TX’s over here without any joy. A delivery delay at my shop of online choice was the final straw as they have no idea when the TX’s will now get to them and with everywhere else having the same issues I couldn’t wait any longer, I just felt I was missing out way to much so went for the non FFB Spider. It arrived yesterday lunchtime (ordered the previous afternoon (great service from Shopto.net as always) so once I was home and had dinner I set it all up and went grabbed some track time at Oulton Park for my first real run out in the game.. total bliss
I put my best lap up on Twitch and sent it to YouTube (via my Twitch phone app) as well so it was nice to see that working seamlessly too. I am off the pace of course but the wheel saw me crush my pad times and was fairly quickly down to a 1:35.285 after about 25-30 laps which I am happy enough with for now as several guys in the league race on Saturday were in the 35's in qualifying and I think that time would have been enough for me to place 4th in that session so I don't think that’s too bad progress after my first real session in the game and at that track. I am sure there is more to come off that but it felt comfortable and I was able to be in and around that time over a succession of laps at the end of the session.
The wheel itself is very, very impressive. Solidly built, very striking to look at and the bungee cord resistance is excellent. The paddles are extremely nice and give a very nice positive click when changing gears, I am sure the missus is going to get annoyed at that while watching the TV while I am playing at the other end of the room lol. The pedals have really surprised me as I thought they would be a bit of a weak link but once I got them out of the box I was really taken aback by their size but more importantly the amount of resistance there was in them. I expected quite a sloppy feel tbh but they are really nice and stiff which is exactly what I like to have. If this is representative of the quality of their budget offering then I can’t wait to get my hands on the TX
As for the driving experience with it.. well it is immeasurably better than the pad (for me anyway, I know plenty love using the pad but it's just not for me.. too old and set in my ways lol). It does take some getting used to the lack of any feedback from the wheel at all, no indications of loss of grip, shift of weight or locking up, rumble strips, etc. and initially I was constantly out braking myself and running off at corners, missing apexes, etc. but gradually going back to the old ways of using the visual and audio clues only I was able to settle and by the time I had got a dozen laps under my belt I was feeling much more comfortable and started putting in more and more competitive times.
No question that I am missing out on some of the immersion factor with no FFB and the lack of feel perhaps is going to prove a little bit of a disadvantage with regard to consistency but I am more than happy at this point and the Spider is going to serve me very well over the coming months while I wait for the TX to come back into stock and the prices to return to a more reasonable level. That may take a while yet though as with F1 around the corner there is likely to be an even bigger demand come this time next month so it may not be until well after the Summer before things stabilize on that front :/ But I am nicely set anyway so I can bide my time now.
It was a doddle to set up with no FFB to worry about and the default settings are already very good but I am sure I will tweak them a bit over the coming days. All I have to do now is get a button configuration that suits me but it's already pretty good so I don't think I will have to mess with it too much. There seems to be ample buttons so I don’t think I’ll have any trouble assigning everything that I need to. I initially thought the ‘Start Engine’ button as the d-pad was going to be a bit fiddly but it’s very nice actually and not a problem at all. There is a little toggle switch as well which is nice but I am not sure what it can be configured to if anything at all.. all it seems to do as default is to pause my session so I’ll have to mess around with that some more. I see that the TX has the same buttons so has anyone re-assigned this to anything?
So all in all one very happy bunny here as I can finally start to enjoy the game over a month after picking it and the console up. A big thankyou to
@Robert Waddell for the option to loan your spare TX but as you know I was concerned about the power supply issue and this will be more than adequate for the time being.