rec.autos.simulators

 I find the FF settings weak and unresponsive, with a lot of
"spiking". In F1 2002 and GTR there seems to be a "glitch", the wheel
apparantly "doubts" sometimes as to what to do (and this causes spins
and crashes). Shifting with the paddles seems hesitant and not quite
"direct"

I do believe that there is nothing wrong with the wheel. Probably it
is me that has gotten all too accustomed to playing the MSFF wheel for
years. Probably it's just a matter of breaking in the wheel and
finding the right setting. Can anybody help me with some tweaks,
altered plr-files, core.ini's etc...

Thanks

There is no "spiking" with this wheel so far.. I can go to the calibration
page and move the wheel and pedals around and they do exactly what I do.
They don't jitter around or anything. Maybe you have a bad pot? maaaan..

The hesitant shifting doesn't make much sense AT ALL to me. a button is a
button, and I can't see any lag happening compared to the MSFF. Maybe it is
because the paddles have such a long movement to them, that you have to
sqeeze more instead of just pushing a little button.. I don't know..

mike
http://mikebeauchamp.com

Make sure you use the latest driver & software from TM's website. It cured
alot of FF problems for me. The pedals were heavy (a good thing imo) and had
long travel, but the base under the throttle pedal broke after 3 weeks. I
swapped it for a Momo Force, which is cheaper, smaller, quieter and has
better FF.

Malc.

I have been considering the TM F1 wheel or the Logitech Momo but am in
no rush.

     - F50 GT

Then I spent the day racing the same tracks in different games and
mods. This is what I found :
the steering wheel behaves worst in F1 2002, but not in all the mods.
It is bad in the original 2002, the patched "2003" and the GTR mods.
You could live with it in the various sportscars and lemans mods. What
do I mean by "bad"?

Well, there is certainly a lag. Take Silverstone. If I go into the
maggots-Becketts combination I turn left right left. The first left
right is OK but at the second left the wheel hesitates and steers me
right of the track, only to "remember" what I asked some time later
and thus catching the car as it goes onto the grass. Braking before
Chapel I noticed very clearly that the throttle kept on even though I
was long since on the brakes!!
Sometimes, when launching the game (into the pits) the controls do not
get recognised. I have to leave the track, get into the "controller"
button and immediately launch the game agian and then it gets
recognised...

Now, what is really weird is that this does not happen in GPL. By
screwing around with the damper and torque setting in GPL's core.ini,
I managed to get the controls half decent. Still I am now running 1'35
and 1'36 laps where my personal best was 1'31 and my consistent laps
were 1'34 (race trim). I often spin in heavy braking zones (maybe this
is because the pedals are indeed very firm - something that is perhaps
a good thing..) I fiddled around with the settings in my F1 2002
player PLR file (damper, latency, torque figures..) but nothing that I
changed seemed to do anything about the situation that I described
above.

I don't understand this becaus the wheel looks the works. It is
sturdy, well built with the metal paddles and the metal pedals. The
steering wheel is made out of good hard plastic, all buttons well
within reach, the pedals are firm with good grip... So is this a
driver problem then?? Am I overlooking something or am I the victim
of something else (the only person in Europe that bought a brand new
defective wheel?). I am contemplating to remove the wheel this evening
and brush up and fix the old MSFF. Needless to say I am very
disappointed as this is the second time  I buy Thrustmaster (the first
was a nonFF Ferrari Modena 360, the pedals broke within a week...),
and the second time that I feel cheated upon!!

If anyone can make me change my mind, now would be a good time,
otherwise Thrustmaster is going on my blacklist as I just threw a
perfectly good 199 euros out of the window..

I am still going to post this in the  racesimcentral forum and keep on
the lookout for a possible solution...

Cheers-

The latest files are:

Unified_FFB_All_10.0.exe and Thrustmapper_4.02.exe

If these are the ones on your CD then all's fine & dandy, but they improved
the FF a good deal on the one I had.

If you can't find them on the TM website, mail me (watch out for the 'typo')
and I'll send you them.

Malc.

The problem in F1 2002 persisted. There is a definite "lag" when I
turn left-right, the controller often does not get recognised when
starting the game. there is a lag in throttle - brake also.

I played with a non FF Madcatz, fine little cheapo wheel, gave it away
to a friend. Replaced it by a non FF Saitek R220 that had a "glitch"
that never cured ( I am using that as a spare wheel), bought a non FF
Thrustmaster Ferrari Modena 360 (the pedals broke after 1 week!)
eventually tuned to the Microsoft sidewinder FF. The best of the lot.
Pity it is gameport and thus not recognised in XP or WIN2000. The
*** coating came off this summer. Tapered it up but when playing it
became a sticky mess. decided to replace it by the quality looking
Thrustmaster F1 Force Feedback. Not thus.
I am cleaning up the old gameport MS FF. When that is in a decent
state again the new Thrustmaster goes...
They are now on my blacklist and if thrustmaster was the last
controller on earth, I'd rather stop playing than buying that junk
again.

A disappointed man

    The Thrustmaster you know is a poor poor shadow of the real company
that existed a decade ago.  The top notch flight sim equipment and near
personal customer service was the measure which all other hardware
companies fell below.   Hard times forced the sale to Gullemot which itself
has now gone under I hear.  TM ceased to exist in all but name only several
years ago....

   Still my wife did always get a chuckle when she saw the name on the box.

dave henrie

Elrikk

dave henrie

:o)

Elrikk