[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlOdRTB4njY[/youtube]
I know a lot of you, like me were struggling to find a good balance and feel for your force feedback settings in Project CARS. So I scoured the net and got some tips sent directly to me by a viewer of the show, Robert Waddell and put together this video titled Project CARS Force Feedback Tips and Settings. These will work for the PC, PS4 and XBox One.
This isn’t the definitive video on how to do it, I just give you some basic tips based on the information that was sent to me and that I found by looking around the net. During the video, I bounce around a bit to show you how I was using trial and error to get some good settings. They worked for me and a bunch of others and I hope they do for you as well !
Here’s the info I got from Robert as well:
PROJECT CARS
In Game (Global) Wheel Settings for TX Italia with Ferrari GTE Wheel Add-On
Tire Force – the percentage of tire-related forces used to influence FFB calculations.
Wheel Position Smoothing – the rate of change of an object and the axis about which the object is rotating.
Linkage Scale – simulates that the wheel is driven by a non-rigid linkage, namely the driver’s arms, as well as play in mass in the linkage itself. Stiffness and damping of that linkage can be controlled here.
Relative Adjust – represents torque to the wheel based on the change in torque over time rather than being absolute torque.
Relative Adjust Bleed – a time value for bleeding absolute torque back in whereas Relative Adjust Clamp is the value around which this effect operates. 1.0 is a good starting point.
Scoops – decreases low forces more and high forces less, thereby increasing the slope of force where some devices reduce the slope of force.
Scoop Knee – the force level where the force changes from shallow to steep.
Scoop Reduction – refers to the input reduction below the knee. Above the knee the force slope is increased such that, at 1.0 input force, the output force is 1.0.
Soft Clipping – compresses all force within range of the wheel, although the stronger the force, the more it is squeezed into the higher force range. The Half Input setting is the signal that will become 0.5 as an output signal with 0.0 turning it off.
Full Output – setting that determines the expected maximum force that will hit the soft clipper, and rescales such that that force outputs at 1.0. This means force above this setting will again clip.
Per Car (in the garage for each car) Wheel Settings for TX Italia with Ferrari GTE Wheel Add-On
General FFB strength
Output strength of the FFB to the wheel after it has been calculated by the FFB engine. This is basically the final ‘volume’ adjustment of the FFB. This means that if the FFB is clipping, turning the FFB strength down won’t help anymore.
Tyre Force
This is the strength of the tyre contribution to the FFB, which is also the main contributor to the FFB. If the FFB is too high or too low for all cars, you can adjust this value to get it equally stronger/weaker for all cars.
The car-specific settings
These you want to adjust when the FFB of one car is good while for the next car it’s too weak or strong (or has a wrong subjective balance of the individual force contributors).
Spindle Master Scale: this scales the forces below it equally up and down, i.e. it’s the FFB ‘volume knob’ specifically for that car. Turn it down if the FFB is clipping, and up if it’s too weak.
Fx: this is the FFB component representing the longitudinal force on the tyre contact patch. This should determine FFB when accelerating or braking, but I haven’t really experimented with this one yet.
Fy: this is the FFB component representing the lateral force on the tyre contact patch. Very important for feeling mass transfer/inertia of the car when cornering.
Fz: this is the FFB component representing the vertical force on the tyre contact patch. This plays an important part in the ‘road feel’ of the FFB, i.e. when going over bumps in the road.
Mz: this is the FFB component representing the twisting force of the wheels, i.e. rotation along the vertical axis of the wheel. It is the self-aligning force of the wheels into the driving direction and is most important for getting the ‘classic’ feel of the FFB getting lighter when the front tyres lose grip.
So when you want a particular force to stand out in the FFB, raise its relative contribution to the total FFB, and after that adjust the Spindle Master Scale value if necessary to get the FFB stay within the full range (i.e. not clipping or getting too weak).
___________________________
Notes:
4/16/15
The most important parameter to check that it’s set to 100 is the Force Feedback Strength parameter in the main controller menu. It defaults for many wheels at 75 and some wheels at 50 which is completely wrong. Then make sure FFB damping saturation (the next parameter under FFB strength) is set to zero.
Or: UPDATE
actually I just reversed the games ffb and the TM profiler,. so 100 in TM and 70 in game.. and theres no difference. feels as good as above.
After this I suggest using Real Gain parameter (first value to 0.98, second to 0.1 and last value again t 0.98) unless you have a direct drive wheel (2000$+ wheel).. or even the Fanatec CSW v2.
Then finally remove all smoothing in the car setup FFB menu. All cars default to 0.1 Fx Smoothing which is stupid.
Then I suggest setting the values for most cars like this (note that his is very subjective though. You need to adapt the FFB to your own type of driving):
Fx = 48
Fy = 44
Fz = 54
Mz = 100
Then the top parameter (master scale) to your preferred setting. I usually have it at around 34 to 40, depending on how heavy FFB I want.
Finally one of the most important and one of the most difficult to understand and tweak parameters is called Spindle Arm Angle (or just spindle arm). You can ONLY find it in each car’s setup screen when you are NOT in the actual practice/qualifying/race session. So from the main menu go into car setup editing and you will find it as the last value. Many cars have this setting quite nicely set but some cars have it completely wrong. This setting is key to getting a proper feel of the forces through the whole range of slip angles. If you set the value too low you’ll have a very tightly centered wheel with little FFB once you cross over optimum slip angle. If you set the value too high the opposite happens.. the wheel is very light and “slow” in the middle and gets progressively stronger the more you turn the wheel. Set it just right and your wheel will be giving you amazing detail.
EDIT: One last note: My way of tweaking FFB is purely based on laptimes. I tweak until I get the ultimate consistent laptimes. I don’t care at all about trying to get a wheel to feel “realistic” (which would be completely dead in a normal car) nor do I try to get it “heavy and bumpy”. I just tweak it for ultimate important physics information fidelity. I want to know exactly when I’m not at optimum grip levels. This is the only fairly OBJECTIVE way of tweaking FFB because I can directly measure it. I drive 5 laps around Silverstone with default FFB. Check my laptimes. I then tweak the FFB and drive 5 more laps then compare the laptimes. Did I do better? Did I do worse? It’s like tweaking a car setup.
FFB can have a HUGE impact on your laptimes, especially if it is “wrongly set”. It can truly work against you and make the car feel very odd if it’s badly setup. But get it just right and you can vastly improve the laptimes and as an added bonus you wont be spinning and crashing as often either.
5/6/15
1) I recommend setting the ingame FFB strength setting to 100 (very very important!). Then instead set the FFB strength in the Thrustmaster CONTROL PANEL between 60 – 75, depending on how much of a workout you want.
2) Also make sure to experiment with the car setup FFB settings that you find in the garage/edit screen of each car. The most important setting there is called Spindle Arm Angle and can ONLY be found when you are not on the track/in the actual gameplay part but rather in the main menu (I have no idea why they didn’t include it in the in-game garage/setup screen). The spindle arm angle is set a bit weird on many cars. For instance the Ginetta G40 has it default to 15 I think but it works much better when set to 21.
I also usually tweak the Fx, Fy, Fz and Mz settings to something like this:
Fx = 80
Fy = 50 to 70 range
Fz = 60 to 70 range
Mz = 100 to 110 range
Then also set the Spindle arm multiplier (first setting on this screen) to something higher than the default 26. I usually end up at around 32 to 40, depending on how much down force the car produces (more down force = stronger FFB)
5/7/15
By the way, which car are you driving? I keep mentioning this but I’ll say it again: one of the most important FFB settings is Spindle Arm Angle and it can be found in the car setup screen (but NOT from the on-track car setup screen!!). It’s set separately for each and every car.
Example: Ginetta G40 feels extremely stiff and hard centered on my TX 458 with it’s default settings. So I made these changes (note, these are from memory! I have yet to drive the release version of Project CARS.. stuck with too much work still 
):
Spindle Master Scale = 36
Fx = 100
Fy = 60
Fz = 60
Mz = 110
Spindle Arm Angle (the last parameter in the FFB tab in the car setup) = 21 (instead of the default 15).
Please experiment with the spindle arm angle as it has such a dramatic impact on absolutely everything. Many cars I feel do not have it set optimally yet.
- bmanic @ www.racedepartment.com
5/7/15
guys its easy….
I have a t300 GTE.
Ive set FFB in Thrustmaster panel to 100 (as I do all my sims)
I also set in Wheel Pcars menu
FFB 100
Dampening 15
Tyre Force 100
Then in each car specific FFB I set the master lower. For instance the Formula a car (f1) has the most grip so it produces the most FFB, ive lowered that Master gain to 10, and it feel lovely.
Yeah, I have a lot of time into tuning the wheel after I figured out graphics for trips and pc. I do have to use the individual car’s settings for feedback on some, but it is good for most once you set it up. It is important that you follow the onscreen prompts for setting the wheel’s turning range and if on pc they match the global. You are definitely going more in depth than I am. I will be referring back to this. I did not know what “scooping” was all about. Thanks for the help.
Good job Darin. Hopefully that will help a lot of folks out there struggling to find an acceptable “feel”.
Thanks Darin….but the baring of my T300RS melted and jumped around in my wheelhouse/unit. So i need to send my wheel bacl again to Thrustmaster. But i will use you settings when i got my wheel back.
If you need help with your controller or Logitech wheel, this is a good video. Guy has been a tester for them and has tons of experience and videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PQdCNBlS4
See if you can get in touch with Andrew Weber from Project CARS (maybe an interview). He is the Physics Developer (force feedback specialist) and should be working on a FFB guide for Project CARS.
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/the-project-cars-ffb-guide-thread.105466/
I have to try these out. I was able to get to get some nice feeling around center with loading also feeling pretty nice. One thing that isn’t really coming through are the kerbs.
Hi does anyone know good FFB settings for the T500RS on the PS4 i can’t get it to feel good its dead in the center a when i turn the wheel its very spingy.
Try this, it was made by Jack Spade:
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0Bw5ulCOYvLckYUlFOURuX2RRU1U&export=download
Explanation of the two panes:
1. Classic – classic parameters Fx,Mz,Fy,Fz – but additional SopDiff. bumps/kerbs/road feel from the rear tires, solves phase issues.
2. Fy+SopLateral Mix – side load mix (front/rear) 2/3 + 1/3 by forces not by numbers. FFB feels slightly different but gives more feel what the
rear of the car is doing, all other parameters as Standard.
Nice, I will try some of this out, especially the smoothing and damping saturation. I will say though that using the CSR Elite on the PS4, the default settings actually feel really good. Have ffb set to 70 on wheel and 100 in game, didn’t touch anything else and was doing some lapping in the FA at Silverstone, felt really good overall. Comparing to the Marussia in rF2, it’s much more similar than I was expecting. The overall strength and feeback is pretty similar, though not quite as detailed obviously, you don’t feel some of the bumps as much, but still quite good. The level of customization possible is amazing as well.
Yeah – Buy a game and spend X amount of hours before it even feels any thing like remotely good !
I did buy a copy for PS4 and the ffb is much stronger than in the pc version. My T500 feels really decent both strength wise and I am getting feedback off the rumbles, my only problem is I am getting a shake intermittently.
This is for both PC and PS4 and probably xboxone, I went into my garage and picking the “random” livery, I adjusted my steering gear box to 10.5:1 and most of the steering problems went away. I save it for ALL tracks. Not the ffb I want yet, but the car goes where I point it. Some cars and tracks still need adjusting. Just a starting point.
The RANDOM livery adjust all the cars, if you do it by livery only that livery gets set.
First of all thanks a lot Darin Gangi, i’am french and if it’s more difficult for me to understand , your are alway clear, comprehensive and very usefull.
So :
i spend a lot of time on feedback set up in PCars, it’s one big job, but i got good result and i suppose also not definitive and better later with hours played.
it’s clear that the Calibrate parameters are for the controler hardware and not for get the player’s sensation hope ( we have to take for that the components as part of car setup )
i drive on xBoxOne with a Trustmaster TX+T3PAPro+28GT and i give here my calibration parameters for THIS HARDWARE ( no matter for pedals of course ) , perhaps, i hope, that it’s could help someone, but it’s not the absolute true and also not definitive.
based with 85 on the general forcefeedback setting, no dead zone, the manual calibration has been made according to the SMS process, my TX not tweaked with the buttons ( so 900 degree, normal sensitivity ), with the last firmware :
1)
– tire force : 180
2) ( this group is turn off for me , try it if you want but at the end of your test )
per Wheel mouvement : 0
per Wheel mouvement square : 0
Wheel position smoothing : 0
3)
dead zone removal : 0.25 ( it’s not at center only, but also the “noforce anywhere on turning )
dead zone removal fall off : 0.02
4)
linkage scale : 0 ( this group is turn off for me , try it if you want at the end of your test )
linkage stiffness : 1
linkage damping : 1
5) ( change a lot of things, its control the wave output visible in telemetry )
relative adjust gain : 0.80
relative adjust bleed : 0.80 ( shut down the secondary effect of indesire “zigzag” )
relative adjust clamp : 1.00
6) ( change a lot of things , its control the wave output visible in the telemetry )
scoop knee : 0.30
scoop reduction : 0.50
7) ( change ( change a lot of things , its control the wave output visible in the telemetry )
soft clipping half input : 1.00
soft clipping full input : 2.00
note : 5),6) and 7) work as a sound enginer’s audio plugin compressor effect on a audio wave, but here on the signal output to the controler, its complex and very sensitive !. We have here to get the good wave data-signal for our controler in this case the TX. Use the telemetry wave to control the shape, the wave must be large, abrupt slope, with a lot of strange shapes , a lot variety but NEVER CUT on the upper level ( saturation ) . If it’s flat as Sahara’s desert it’s not good :-))
as you get a really good wave on output according to your hardware, your seting by cars will be easy done, effective, and strong.
i don’t give my part of car setup because its depend of
– what its your hope in feeling
– the car
– the car setup done.
so you can after having set the calibration part, add or reduce, the tires x,y,z forces, the seat pant, the G forces on the pilot, as you want for each cars !
thanks for your reading, sorry if my english has some mistakes
Hi guys,
do you have an idea how to prevent the car moving on the tuning screen? Is this a bug or what? Also the car is moving by itself on the start line. Thanks
So I ended up going with his settings in the beginning, when I got to fz scales; I used fx:110.21, fy:110.21 and fz:116.00. I left Mz at default (100.01). This felt good on the Lancer. I’m playing on PC and my “overall strength of all forces” in the tx wheel control panel (in windows) is set to 93%. Everything else at 100%, auto center is “by the game”. I did calibrate wheel rotation in game, but set to one flash on the wheel (preference) and pedals in calibration seemed to respond after 5 deadzone, but still left at 0 in settings.. seems good on this car at least.
Can any1 help!!!?? Ive got a thrustmaster t500 and a ps4,but it feels like driving a boat in project cars,when turning i feel all bumbs n curbs but in a straight line it shakes voilently,any help welcome
who remembers when car games let you tune the suspension with car terms not geometric equations…