PC1 There is a way to set your FFB in PCars so all of the cars work fine and with similar feel to the other good sims. Here's how

[alekabul]

I know there are packs of predefined settings that may work with some wheels and some of the cars but the custom files in the "Documents" folder need extended care to edit and waste of time for reloading. So it is better to use the in-game options. First of all the wheel settings that will translate 1:1 the FFB coming from the cars. No post-processing. Just match your sliders with mine.

Then load a "Free practice" with the car and a good track. "Nordscleife" is my preferred proving ground - it has big variety of road camber and curbs. And not the least - exiting the pits is the most expedite.

Now that you are set for 1:1 FFB on the wheel settings all you have to do is adjust each of the cars to your liking. I'm not gonna pretend to know what you like, I'm just gonna point the way to edit the sliders.

Before you get worried about clipping of the signal that distorts the feedback I recommend you deal with the mix of the forces in the FFB. To start with, "Fy Scale" is the part of the FFB mix that at defaults always overpowers and masks the feel for the weight transfer so in all my cars I set it to the minimum. That frees up room for the "Mz Scale" which you will find handy if you like strong hints of the car's body movements in the FFB. The idea for doing this came from the FFB settings of BeamNG where the recommended is to have the centering "spring" force as low as you can handle in low grip conditions.
It's your choice whether to use same "Mz" for all cars or to set it differently according to the expected polar inertia of each car.

Then while you are on this page move the selection all the way down to find the "Arm Angle".

It is responsible for weakening the FFB in the middle and a feel for play in the steering which is normal for retro cars and not at all natural for modern racing cars. To tighten the FFB in the middle and have that "meaty" FFB feel set "Arm Angle" to "0" when appropriate.

Then it is on to the feel of the road bumps.

The more you set the "SoP Scale" - the more you feel the bumps through the steering wheel.

That is all done in the "Pit Box" and you are ready to test the changes. To avoid clipping you can set the "Master Scale" to a value below "20" and go for some wild driving with the telemetry on screen.

Watch for the tire temperatures and if the signal-graph in the top left becomes flat while you do some maximum "G" cornering with good tires and dry road - return to the pits and change the "Master Scale" only. That way when you dial-in the right number for the particular car you will notice how similar to the other good sims PCars can be.

Then it's the small matter of saving the same car's setup for all tracks so you don't have to repeat the FFB sliders over and over again for the other locations. For that immediately after you are done setting the FFB and the car use "My Garage" > "Edit Current Setup" > "Save" > "All Locations" and confirm.

That's all folks!

 

[alekabul]

In addition I must point out that "Master Scale" needs re-adjusting when you change "Caster" in the car's options. Like in the real steering rack - self-centering forces from the front wheels get stronger with the increase of caster angle. And you would want to get from "5" to "9" to get that sweet dynamic negative camber, wouldn't you Another option in "Alignment" that has large impact on the FFB is "Toe" on the front wheels. Especially high downforce cars lighten up the FFB when you are setting some negative toe to help them with the turn-in.

Also in the car's options there's "Steering Ratio" which affects the torque of your steering wheel. The smaller the ratio - the bigger the torque for the same amount of steering input. That is connected to the steering wheel setting for "Steering Sensitivity". If you insist on driving with extremely small "Steering Ratio" you may consider relaxing the "Steering Sensitivity" below "50". For the default ratios I find "35" to be a lot more usable.

Too many people say "I don't feel road bumps as I should" and don't notice that they drive with too low tire pressures. Each physical tire is also a system of spring and damper and having that spring too soft will absorb the small road bumps. So always check your pressures.

 

[alekabul]

Speaking about getting the most out of the PCars here's the "ReShadePreset.ini" for good correction of the graphics with ReShade

Techniques=BilateralCS@BilateralCS.fx,ContrastStretch@ContrastStretch.fx,Deband@Deband.fx
TechniqueSorting=BilateralCS@BilateralCS.fx,ContrastStretch@ContrastStretch.fx,Deband@Deband.fx

[BilateralCS.fx]
Sharpen=1
Strength=1.572000
WeightExponent=18.789000

[ContrastStretch.fx]
DarkMax=0.450000
DarkPeak=0.500000
DarkThreshold=0.333000
Debug=0
LightMax=0.300000
LightPeak=0.450000
LightThreshold=0.667000
Maximum=1.000000
MaxVariance=1.000000
MidMax=0.450000
MidPeak=0.550000
Minimum=0.000000

[Deband.fx]
banding_depth=0.000000
debug_output=0
enable_depthbuffer=0
enable_sdeviation=1
enable_weber=1
iterations=1
range=32.000000
t1=0.026000
t2=0.030000

 

[alekabul]

the feel of the road bumps

Before you consider tightening the center with some kind of "deadzone" compensation I recommend loading a good car on "Hockenheim Classic". On my Fanatec GT3RS there's no need for any deadzone setting to feel exactly the whole signal.

 

[alekabul]

In PCars1 there's a fun quirk with the FFB. Kind of like an Easter egg

The white graph shows the effect of riding on the side wall of a tire. And the physics of the whole car is affected a lot both for oversteer and understeer. The transition happens more quickly and the grip "snaps". At reasonable slip angles the behavior is very realistic (and I know it first hand). With extreme slip angles the tire bounces and usually that ends in a crash (which I am fortuned to have only in the game). The cam which is used also has an effect - the "helmet" cam causes additional slow "leaning" of the Y-force.
So far I haven't seen a solution how to enable the effect when I want. It comes on randomly like 1 out of ~50 times I exit the pits. Write a reply if you know the magic spell, please.