Fanatec CSL rotation issue

[matthugie]

Hello,

I searched rather extensively but haven't been able to find anything that addresses an issue I have with my Fanatec CSL in GTS. I've had this wheel for a couple of years and the settings I've been using are perfect for PC2, AC, and iRacing, but I CANNOT get the steering rotation/input correct in GTS. Unless I manually set the rotation on the wheel to 900*+ it will not give more rotation than 180* lock to lock in any vehicle, and even that will only get to me to maybe 270*. Now, that amount of rotation I can live with, but when done that way the steering input is completely non-linear. It basically creates a huge dead zone from center which requires 45* of input to navigate the gentlest of bends, makes turn-in god awful, and fine steering adjustments impossible.

At this point I've spent hours both searching and trying everything I could think of: checking firmware (all up to date), recalibrating the wheel, and almost every conceivable combination of settings (both on the wheel and in the PC menu) to no avail. Is there something I'm missing or do I just have to resign myself to only having that much rotation?

TIA

 

[JayRS200]

Strange. Usually it's the opposite with GTS making the rotation quite high as standard.

If you like the rotation high anyway you should just try not setting anything on your wheel and play GTS as is. It does have a high rotation but apparently it's slightly different for each car.

I don't know anything about the Fanatec CSL but it could need a firmware update or calibrated. Or it could be yet another bug in GTS.



Or maybe there's only 5 preset options in GTS like what the Thrustmaster T150 provides...



And when you are going lower than 900 as you can see the next lowest is 540 which is quite a big difference as it's in the middle of 360 and 900 which are closer to F1 games and GTS settings respectively. So maybe you just need to get used to 540. I know when I tried 540 it felt quite strange, like I almost expected 360 because that's what my muscle memory was telling me from years of F1 games but I had to constantly try and remember it's not an F1 so did need that extra to turn. So I don't think it will be a complete deadzone you are feeling.

To put it simply, you're not going to get the turn in with say a GT3 car that you would with an F1 car just because you set the rotation lower.

 

[DoctorNuu]

To ask the obvious: You have the CSL Elite with PS4 compatibility? You have the latest firmware?
For me it has always been working fine with Sens=Aut (automatic lock setting) but also manual lock settings.
Note that the (in cockpit) graphics is always locked to +-180

 

[matthugie]

Thanks for the responses. Jay, my issue is that I can't get enough rotation in when allowing GTS to do its thing, or if I override what GTS wants to do the steering is awful. Also, as you mention GTS has different steering ratios for different cars, but that isn't the experience I'm having. With the sensitivity set to AUT (game's native rotation) every car has exactly 180* lock to lock with no variation.

It also isn't a jump in rotation angles like the Thrustmaster, Fanatec allows you to dial in your rotation in 10* increments and I'm not sure off hand how low it goes but it's at least from 360*-1080*. This can be done on the wheel itself, and there is also a wheel rotation setting in the PC menu.

You are correct that when the rotation is manually set it isn't a complete dead zone that I'm feeling (though I did try to simplify it to that), it's that the input is non-linear. It takes huge inputs from center to get any actual wheel into the car, but gets more sensitive the closer you get to lock. For instance, the short run at the start/finish for the Nurburgring requires more than 45* of steering input to navigate the slight curve to set up for T1. In your head you're probably saying "that's practically a straight", and that is my point.

Doc, yes, it's the PS4 compatible one and the firmware (both wheel and base) is up to date. I tried first on AUT, then specific rotation angles, then back to AUT and at anything below 600* it's 180* lock to lock. I'm not basing this on the cockpit view but rather the steering angle indicator in GTS, which mirrors the feel of what is happening rather exactly.

 

[Groundfish]

I’d post this q on the Fanatec site.
Something’s wonky. You running blue? That’s what it should be.
Maybe you messed up fw...At any rate contact Fanatec on their site, they have great support.
Aut is what you want on GTS, that’s all I can say.
Maybe you loaded a beta fw not for ps4 or something weird.
Fanatec will get you sorted.

 

[breeminator]

I agree with Groundfish, there's something not working correctly in your setup, no idea what. With Fanatec you should be able to set the degrees of rotation on the wheel itself, and that's what you should then get in game for lock to lock rotation. There shouldn't be any strange non-linearity like you describe. All this just worked correctly for me out of the box, except that I did update everything to the latest firmware before using it, which I think the instructions tell you to do.

 

[super_gt]

@matthugie please make a detailed video of the problem.

 

[breeminator]

at anything below 600* it's 180* lock to lock. I'm not basing this on the cockpit view but rather the steering angle indicator in GTS, which mirrors the feel of what is happening rather exactly.

Hold on, this isn't right. The way to know what lock to lock you have is to turn it from lock to lock. Don't look at the screen at all, just turn it all the way in one direction, then all the way in the other direction. How many degrees of rotation does it take. The steering angle indicator doesn't show the full range.

 

[Groundfish]

With sen on aut a gt3 corvette doesn’t steer like a kart, which is as it should be.
If you take a gt car like that one and use less than default degrees of rotation you won’t have the fine steering control needed, you’ll overload the fronts and understeer like mad, maybe you already know this but anyways...
The power fr gt cars have the default rotation the way they do for a reason.
Most mr gt cars like mcclaren have a quicker ratio under default.
Imo it’s best to use default. Sen AUT. The game defaults to the proper ration for each car, no need to mess with it.
Jmo
I’ve never

 

[matthugie]

OK, per request I have made a video detailing the issue. I didn't include it in the audio (just forgot) but the initial rotation shown is basically the same for any car. Not exactly the same, something like an N200 car will have more rotation, but it's like 95* compared to 90* and still not right. I have also tried different sensitivity settings in the PC menu for the wheel, uninstalled and reinstalled GTS, and reached out to Fanatec support, though since it's a game specific issue they can't help.

To answer the potential question of why I don't just run a higher manual rotation setting, the inputs are hot garbage on the higher settings. They are heavily diluted to the point where it takes almost 90* of input to navigate between T2 and T3 at Laguna Seca or set up for T1 at Nurburgring full. It basically creates a steering dead zone of 60* from center in either direction and is functionally undrivable,

For those saying that the game reads inputs past where the steering angle indicator reads, that is not my experience. The most obvious indication is that when the car is understeering grip doesn't come back until the wheel is unwound to the point where it's back in the range that is displayed. Given that I run out of lock so fast I have a great deal of experience inducing understeer in basically everything I drive in GTS.

Any advice to help me get the steering inputs to be at all correct would be greatly apprecaited.

 

[FPV MIC]

OK, per request I have made a video detailing the issue. I didn't include it in the audio (just forgot) but the initial rotation shown is basically the same for any car. Not exactly the same, something like an N200 car will have more rotation, but it's like 95* compared to 90* and still not right. I have also tried different sensitivity settings in the PC menu for the wheel, uninstalled and reinstalled GTS, and reached out to Fanatec support, though since it's a game specific issue they can't help.

To answer the potential question of why I don't just run a higher manual rotation setting, the inputs are hot garbage on the higher settings. They are heavily diluted to the point where it takes almost 90* of input to navigate between T2 and T3 at Laguna Seca or set up for T1 at Nurburgring full. It basically creates a steering dead zone of 60* from center in either direction and is functionally undrivable,

For those saying that the game reads inputs past where the steering angle indicator reads, that is not my experience. The most obvious indication is that when the car is understeering grip doesn't come back until the wheel is unwound to the point where it's back in the range that is displayed. Given that I run out of lock so fast I have a great deal of experience inducing understeer in basically everything I drive in GTS.

Any advice to help me get the steering inputs to be at all correct would be greatly apprecaited.

That's exactly how it looks on my T-GT as well, but as @breeminator mentioned in post #8 the steering angle indicator doesn't show the full range. Try doing the same with the KTM Xbow in chase cam so you can see the front wheels. You should be able to see the wheels still turning after it hits the end of the range of the display when you keep turning your wheel past 90 degrees. This should let you know if you have an issue or not.

 

[Groundfish]

I’m pretty sure the above info is correct the indicator dot doesn’t show full range as mentioned above.
I’ll check my wheel and report back. You could also stop and check the cars turning radius at very slow roll, maybe try driving walking speed and do u turns. If what you’re saying is happening the u turn will be a big arc, also I would think hairpins wouldn’t work well.

Edit the dot shows zero to 90 on my gr3 vette.
Wheel 90 is dot all the way but sen on aut is like 270 ish to lock. I think maybe you are overthinking the dot. It doesn’t go full at 270 it goes all the way at the csl turned 90.
So wheel 90 equals dot all the way, but wheel lock is past 180 maybe another 90 if that makes sense. Dot only shows zero to 90. It’s not correlating to full lock as you are assuming, apparently. On that car it IS very rare you turn the physical wheel much past 90 on most tracks. 180 is like a crazy tight slow turn, even then you are prolly scrubbing too much... Good luck!

 

[matthugie]

Ok, so this has finally been sorted out, it was due to a bad combination of steering/force feedback settings in GTS itself. I played with those quite a bit but apparently I'm an idiot and got them woefully wrong. Regardless, cars now actually rotate, don't hit terminal understeer at 90* of steering input, and understeer can be corrected. I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[DoctorNuu]

I can somewhat relate to the confusion.
I rarely use the setting, as the default 'AUt' is pretty good in almost any car.

Today, however, I did Gr4 with only FF cars allowed.
For the Peugeot RCZ (default 900) I needed some more turning, so I set to 820. Worked great.
Then, changing to the Audi TT, something was strange. Only after I while I noticed that it was still on 820.
The default for the TT is 540, which I didn't know
I tried going to 'AUt', but that didn't work. You have to restart the quali/race for that to kick in.

Conclusions:
1. Always re-choose car after putting it on "AUt"
2. Best use cockpit view to check what's really going on.
3. Don't rely on the red dot, as it's clipped at 90deg.
4. REMEMBER that you made a manual setting