I have been reading about steering ratios the past few days, something that seems to be discussed quite a bit in other sims, but rarely addressed in RBR. Sure there are discussions about what people set their steering rotations (wheel setting) and max steering lock (car setting) settings to, but these numbers seem to be all over the map, and no explanation to how these numbers were generated.
First, here what started me thinking about this topic:
(tl;dr version: The author thinks sim racers can "cheat" by using overly sensitive steering ratios. Not only do these quick steering ratios turn a sim into an arcade racer by being completely unrealistic, but can cause stability issues at high speeds. We should be using the correct amount of wheel rotation and correct steering ratios for the cars we are driving.)
After reading this, I got to thinking about how this applies to the cars in RBR, and it is really bugging me.
In RBR there is a setting of "Max Steering Lock" and it is measured in degrees, and by default is a large value (504°). This leads me to believe that it is the car's steering wheel rotation value. However, from other discussions I have read, a low setting of this value means you will struggle to make hairpins, and a high value means if the wheel is turned too much you can easily cause understeer. If this is true, this means the steering ratio of the car is fixed and the true steering lock (deflection of the actual wheels and tires) is completely dependent on the amount of the car's wheel rotation (aka: max steering lock). I believe this steering ratio is hardcoded in the physics files of the cars.
Now we cannot change the steering ratio of the car itself, but since we can change the steering lock (wheel/tire deflection) indirectly via the max steering lock value. Since we can change the amount of wheel rotation in the settings of our racing wheels, we now have a way to change the effective steering ratio. For example, if you set the steering wheel rotation to the default value of the car setup, your effective steering ratio matches the steering ratio of the car.
Now here is what bugs me, this does not seem to be what the developers intended at all, most likely because of the racing wheels of the time not able to go all the way to 540°, the wheel rotation of a real WRC car. From what I can tell, the developers intended the racing wheel rotation and the car's wheel rotation to be separated by a factor of around 1.4.
The first thing that tipped me off to this was a post here: http://ascar.motorsportforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=726861
Not one to take random internet posts for their word, I dug a little deeper and found this post by none other than Mr. Horsepower, the main physics guy for RSRBR: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...orsports.com+rbr+g25&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
To my surprise, he recommends a max steering lock of 792°, the max value! This would mean if you ran your wheel rotation at 540°, the ratio would be 1.467 which matches with the ratio in the first post. If you wanted a quicker effective steering ratio, you would put your wheel rotation to 360°, giving you a ratio of 2.2.
So what does all this mean? It means the steering model in RBR has nothing to do with realism and is entirely designed for steering feel when using old racing wheels. The effective steering ratio must be setup via a confusing system of the ratio between your wheels rotation and the car's rotation.
Am I way off base on this? Just trying to make sense of it all, because it is really bugging me!
First, here what started me thinking about this topic:
(tl;dr version: The author thinks sim racers can "cheat" by using overly sensitive steering ratios. Not only do these quick steering ratios turn a sim into an arcade racer by being completely unrealistic, but can cause stability issues at high speeds. We should be using the correct amount of wheel rotation and correct steering ratios for the cars we are driving.)
After reading this, I got to thinking about how this applies to the cars in RBR, and it is really bugging me.
In RBR there is a setting of "Max Steering Lock" and it is measured in degrees, and by default is a large value (504°). This leads me to believe that it is the car's steering wheel rotation value. However, from other discussions I have read, a low setting of this value means you will struggle to make hairpins, and a high value means if the wheel is turned too much you can easily cause understeer. If this is true, this means the steering ratio of the car is fixed and the true steering lock (deflection of the actual wheels and tires) is completely dependent on the amount of the car's wheel rotation (aka: max steering lock). I believe this steering ratio is hardcoded in the physics files of the cars.
Now we cannot change the steering ratio of the car itself, but since we can change the steering lock (wheel/tire deflection) indirectly via the max steering lock value. Since we can change the amount of wheel rotation in the settings of our racing wheels, we now have a way to change the effective steering ratio. For example, if you set the steering wheel rotation to the default value of the car setup, your effective steering ratio matches the steering ratio of the car.
Now here is what bugs me, this does not seem to be what the developers intended at all, most likely because of the racing wheels of the time not able to go all the way to 540°, the wheel rotation of a real WRC car. From what I can tell, the developers intended the racing wheel rotation and the car's wheel rotation to be separated by a factor of around 1.4.
The first thing that tipped me off to this was a post here: http://ascar.motorsportforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=726861
Not one to take random internet posts for their word, I dug a little deeper and found this post by none other than Mr. Horsepower, the main physics guy for RSRBR: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...orsports.com+rbr+g25&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Follow this instructions to have an high efficiency with your G25 !
But remember to have a backup of each deleted or modified tricks,
Setup logitech profiler:
- Degrees of rotation 360° to 540°
- Overall effects strength 100 % to 150%
- Spring effect 0%
- Damper effect 0%
- Centering spring strength to Disable but at 100 %
Setup RBR
in the game directory\SCi Games\Richard Burns Rally)
- Delete PC_InputFilter.ini
- In RichardBurnsRally.ini, Delete the first line : "ConstantForceMultiplier = 60".
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVHiblA
In game options :
Go to force feedback options :
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pqj8Bxr
Go to Options/controls/filter/steering/axe/
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVHdIur
Put 792° for the steering ration in the car setup
And for a clutch optimisation :
Download Dxtweak2.exe
http://www.wingmanteam.com/latest_software/gadgets.htm#DX Tweak 2
And do the same:
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq1utVX9
To my surprise, he recommends a max steering lock of 792°, the max value! This would mean if you ran your wheel rotation at 540°, the ratio would be 1.467 which matches with the ratio in the first post. If you wanted a quicker effective steering ratio, you would put your wheel rotation to 360°, giving you a ratio of 2.2.
So what does all this mean? It means the steering model in RBR has nothing to do with realism and is entirely designed for steering feel when using old racing wheels. The effective steering ratio must be setup via a confusing system of the ratio between your wheels rotation and the car's rotation.
Am I way off base on this? Just trying to make sense of it all, because it is really bugging me!
