Noob wheel user struggling a little!

[Spyder-Si]

Hi guys, I'm newly registered here but have been avidly following the news and forum sections for gtplanet for a good while now.

I purchased my first wheel yesterday, a DFGT and whilst I'm really enjoying it I am struggling to get close to my best DS3 times so far! I'm around 1-1.5 seconds a lap slower than my best times around Fuji and high speed ring. Is this to be expected?! How long did it take others to get used to their wheels?

I think I'm struggling most with correcting oversteer which is weird because I've owned rear wheel drive road cars for the past 10 years and never struggled with the concept of opposite lock. I used to love driving the tuned S1 Elise around Eiger but I'm finding it hard to even get around the track without spinning out let alone posting a competitive lap time! I think part of it is feeling like I might break the wheel being too hard on it although it seems fairly robust for an entry level wheel.

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Beliall]

Dont try and pick up where you left off with a pad. Start learning driving games again, drive slow cars, gradually move up. Maybe restart prologue and progress through it, you'll pick it up.

 

[daan]

Welcome to

I've been using a wheel in the GT series since part way through GT3. I found doing the license tests was the best way to pick it up and I was beating my previous best time trial times not long afterwards. Obviously, Prologue doesn't have licenses, but perhaps you should do some laps in slower cars until you get more comfortable.

 

[tezster]

Took me about ~8-10 hours getting used to my DFGT coming from a DS3 controller. Specifically, from utter crap not even being able to keep the car on the road, to finally clearing S-10.

My GT-racing skill is such that if I can do it, then anyone can do it.

 

[Spyder-Si]

Thanks guys, encouraging to know it's just gonna take some time. Sounds like I got it at the right time if driving slower cars is the best way to learn as I guess all of us will be stuck in the hot hatches in GT5 for a while!

Another question is how much quieter is a fanatec gt3 wheel than the DFGT? I was a little shocked by the amount of noise it makes, my fiancee thought I'd got my electric drill out when she got home yesterday! I didn't want to spend that kind of money until I was sure I wheel was the right way to go but I can see a pre-order for their January stock being placed shortly now!

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

The Fanatec is very quiet. Compared to the DFGT it is alomst totally silent while driving. It does have 2 cooling fans in it that come on after a while but normally these are quiet as well. In my case the smaller fan was noisy when I go the wheel but Fanatec send me a replacement fan and I can barely tell when it is running now.

 

[bedoig]

Edit: for the record, all my experiences described below are playing GT5.

I was recently in the same boat after purchasing a GT3 RS V2 (with clubsport pedals). The force feedback felt really unnatural and my lap times suffered compared to the pad. For reference, I own an S2000 and have no trouble holding a nice little 1st or 2nd gear powerslide. I don’t have any track experience, but I’d say I have a pretty good grasp on what a car feels like as the suspension and steering loads up and the feeling of reaching (and exceeding) available grip.

My first few hours with the wheel were a big disappointment. It just felt nothing like a real car to me. After a little more research I found some wheel settings that improved the experience a lot. As a side note, the wide range of adjustable settings on the Fanatecs can be a bit challenging at first, but once you get your bearings the tweakability is truly awesome. I played for a few more days with the settings I had found online, and things were definitely better, but something still felt a bit off. I think it mainly boiled down to the speed at which the wheel would ‘center’ itself. I say ‘center’ because I’m not necessarily referring to the wheels being perfectly straight, but more to the natural tendency in a real car for the wheel to find its own balance point during a nice smooth slide. You don’t force the wheel to the proper angle – that’s just where the wheel wants to be. The driver then just needs to make small gas and steering adjustments. With the settings that I was using it felt like I was having to manually turn the wheel and find the balance point through visual cues alone. The weight / feedback just didn’t feel natural.

Eventually I tried cranking the feedback to 100% in both the game and wheel settings and this made a huge difference for me on the Fanatec. The wheel ‘centered’ and balanced itself much more naturally and the feedback just felt better all around. I can now say that I feel pretty comfortable with the realism of the wheel experience (although I’m still hoping for some refinement in the full GT5 release). The hardest part now is trying to replace the butt-o-meter with purely visual and auditory cues from the game. You don’t realize how much information is communicated through g-forces and various shocks and bumps coming through your backside until you’re playing a realistic driving game/sim where things look correct visually but all that extra info is stripped away.

I’ve still only logged maybe 10 hours on the wheel (been busy lately), but at this point I’d never go back to the pad. I should also note that I’m on the out-of-the-box firmware. I understand the newest firmware (681 I believe) offers a few more tuning options.

Sorry about the long, rambling post. Your experience just seemed to resonate with my own and I figured I’d share my experiences. In response to your question about wheel noise, the GT3 RS V2 is practically silent unless you’re really sawing on it back and forth, at which point you’ll notice some motor/belt whine. Nothing major though. Sorry I can’t directly compare it to any other wheel as the Fanatec is my first. I’ve watched a couple Youtube videos demonstrating the DFGT though, and it does seem significantly louder than my wheel.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

Yes the new firmware has the deadzone adjustment for the steering which can be use to remove the jerkiness on the straights. After a couple of minor tweaks I can now release the wheel on a straight and the car stays straight where before the wheel would start it rapidly go right to left until the car went off track or into a wall. Much better now on both GT5P and GT4.

 

[Spyder-Si]

Thanks Bedoig, you've described exactly what i've experienced so far! I only have the ff set at 5/10 at the moment so will hop back on in a bit and try it cranked all the way up.

I'm enjoying Prologue more than I ever did when I first got it which has resulted in me placing an order for the GT3 and club sports this evening with a Rennsport to mount it to, shame it won't arrive until January but it gives me plenty of time to get used to using a wheel and acquire a huge garage of cars to try out when it does turn up.

 

[tezster]

Thanks Bedoig, you've described exactly what i've experienced so far! I only have the ff set at 5/10 at the moment so will hop back on in a bit and try it cranked all the way up.

I'm enjoying Prologue more than I ever did when I first got it which has resulted in me placing an order for the GT3 and club sports this evening with a Rennsport to mount it to, shame it won't arrive until January but it gives me plenty of time to get used to using a wheel and acquire a huge garage of cars to try out when it does turn up.

Just an FYI, Bedoig was referring to tweaking his Fanatec wheel, while you're using a DFGT. There should be minimal configuration needed since DFGT was designed to work with GT in mind. I found the default FF setting ok - not overpowering, but strong enough to give me a good feel of tire grip. To each his own, of course. If you find the FF to weak for your taste, you can definitely crank it up.

 

[bedoig]

Yes the new firmware has the deadzone adjustment for the steering which can be use to remove the jerkiness on the straights. After a couple of minor tweaks I can now release the wheel on a straight and the car stays straight where before the wheel would start it rapidly go right to left until the car went off track or into a wall. Much better now on both GT5P and GT4.

I'll have to connect the wheel to my computer and check what firmware I'm actually on. I do currently have deadzone adjustment, but I don't have an option for damper control. I think I remember reading about one other setting that I don't have as well (spring maybe?). Been doing a lot of reading though and I can't recall what it was off the top of my head.

I have seen a few mentions of newer firmware for the CSPs as well, but can't find anywhere where I would be able to download that. Do you know where I could find some info on upgrading the CSP firmware?

Thanks Bedoig, you've described exactly what i've experienced so far! I only have the ff set at 5/10 at the moment so will hop back on in a bit and try it cranked all the way up.

I'd be interested in your results after adjusting the FF level. Made a big difference for me.

I've been reading a lot on 911wheel.de (Thomas' blog, also where new firmware is released) and on fanatecwheel.com (a fan site with a decent amount of settings and general info) [edit - I've also been doing a ton of reading on GTP of course ]. I'm sure after some time and after getting my firmware up to the latest release I'll be able to dial the wheel in even further.

I'm really loving the adjustability of the Fanatec. One great example of where this comes in handy is driving the F2007. I could tell something was wrong in my first few seconds behind the wheel. Then it hit me - duh - the wheel is set up for 900 degrees of steering (I think I actually had it set somewhere in the 800's, as that gave me the best feel and control). All I had to do was hit pause, switch to my next preset on the wheel, and drop the degrees of rotation down to an appropriate level for an F1 car. 15 seconds later I'm playing the game again. My understanding is that users of other wheels (G25/27, for example) are stuck using the full 900 degrees, which is really a nightmare in a racecar.

I'm enjoying Prologue more than I ever did when I first got it which has resulted in me placing an order for the GT3 and club sports this evening with a Rennsport to mount it to, shame it won't arrive until January but it gives me plenty of time to get used to using a wheel and acquire a huge garage of cars to try out when it does turn up.

Congrats on the purchase. That's the whole setup I just received and I'm really loving the quality. It was a pretty nice chunk of change, but well worth it in my opinion. I'm glad I also picked up the pedal stopper, as the pedals will slide and tilt back a bit without something there to stop them. That said, you could easily find another solution to keep the pedals from moving on the stand.

Now I find myself wanting to build a full cockpit and invert the pedals. I don't have space in my current house, but I'm still dreaming about the possibilities. Haha. Can't wait for GT5.

 

[bedoig]

Just an FYI, Bedoig was referring to tweaking his Fanatec wheel, while you're using a DFGT. There should be minimal configuration needed since DFGT was designed to work with GT in mind. I found the default FF setting ok - not overpowering, but strong enough to give me a good feel of tire grip. To each his own, of course. If you find the FF to weak for your taste, you can definitely crank it up.

That's true. I really have no idea what a DFGT feels like, or what effect the change of settings would have. All my experiences apply strictly to the Fanatec GT3 RS V2.

 

[Spyder-Si]

That's true. I really have no idea what a DFGT feels like, or what effect the change of settings would have. All my experiences apply strictly to the Fanatec GT3 RS V2.

I've put it on 10 and I seem to be driving a lot better, caught a couple of tail happy moments under braking already.

I actually ordered the rennsport with a stopper last night because I'd already ripped apart my games room shifting the tv onto my computer desk and realised a wheel stand was going to be essential. Ordered the gear sticks with my wheel but will probably stick to paddles mainly. The pedals on my DFGT are pretty flimsy with little resistance, how do club sports compare to real pedals? Do you have to exert a decent amount of pressure on them?

 

[bedoig]

The CS pedals are fantastic, particularly the brake pedal. Resistance is good across the board, but again the brake is the real standout thanks to the load cell. In my opinion it is a very good recreation of a real brake pedal, and I actually do find the ABS motor to help a bit with gauging when your nearing maximum braking force. It would be really awesome on a PC game that incorporates actual ABS feedback, but even as just a percentage of max brake force it is somewhat helpful and is definitely appreciated. The great thing is that everything is adjustable as well. I felt the gas could be a little firmer than it came out of the box and I was able to easily tighten the spring to a level I liked better. Plus you can pick up the tuning kit for the ultimate in adjustability if you feel the need.

I haven't really used the clutch yet as I'm still waiting on my shifter set to ship (seems to currently be out of stock in the US). In general I would say it feels pretty good, but I can't make a final judgement until I am able to use it slamming through the gears in an actual racing scenario.

Sorry about any typos...I'm typing from my phone at the moment.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

You do not need to connect the wheel to your computer to check the firmware version. Just set the wheel into PC mode and press the 4 buttons on the bottom of the cross bar. You should get a readout on the LED. 681 is the newest.