rec.autos.simulators

Can anyone help me. I have a logitech MOMO Force wheel and am having a
problem with GPL.
I am happy with the force feedback when going round corners, but going down
the straights it is very hard to keep the car in a straight line. It tends
to veave from side to side and I am struggling to counteract it. I have
tried setting a dead zone for the steering which has not made that much
difference (I have tried setting the dead zone up to 8%).

Does anyone have any ideas how to correct this.

Many thanks

Russell

No wonder you're weaving on the straights. Try 0% instead. Make sure you
have the latest drivers from Logitech Wingmanteam.

Bye,
Leo

I started out with the dead zone at 0% and the weaving was terrible. It was
then that I tried increasing it.

Thanks for the reply though

Russell

Malc.

Marc

I have already done that, but I will drop it to zero and start again. I
don't think a appreciated the relationship between the latency setting and
weaving on the straights. I followed the advice of setting the latency by
driving over a curb and getting the suspension movement to coincide with the
"thump" from the wheel.

Many Many thanks for you're help (and patience)

Russell

The reason why you're weaving down the straight is that gpl is predicting
the force to apply to your wheel, but it's out of synch with your reactions.
You see the car go to the left & steer to the right slightly. gpl reacts
slowly (high latency) and sends the controller a 'car going left' force
while you turn right, and this forces the wheel even further to the right.
You correct & the same thing happens in reverse, getting worse & worse until
you either back off the throttle or keep the wheel straight. It sounds like
you've gone too far with the latency, you probably just need to lower it a
little.

If you can't get it to stop doing it (I couldn't in NR2002) you can increase
the damping and force levels in the core.ini and decrease the overall force
in your controller applet. The feeling will still be there, but it will be
heavily damped, so it never gets the chance to get worse.

Does it do the same thing with the latency at zero?

Malc.

SLG

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 00:13:10 +0000 (UTC), "Russell Spearing"

I have gone through the process again but this time gradually increased the
latence value in smaller steps (0.0025). Last time I was going in increments
of 0.01 and I think the best value fell between two settings and so I never
found the sweet spot. I have now found that 0.0225 is about the best
setting. Going either side of this value and the weaving starts getting
worse again. With the latency set at 0.0225 the weaving is much much better
and the car is now more controllable. I shall now just play with the
damping, force level and controller applet to see if it can be improved any
more.

Hopefully I can go back to online racing on WinVroc. Its one thing weaving
down the straights and taking out a few AI cars but I don't think I would
have been very popular doing the same thing online.

Really appreciate your help

Russell

Glad you managed to make some progress. It took me about a week (2 years
ago) to get mine really sorted, and I haven't had to change it since.

As you've found, the latency is very much down you your personal combination
of controller and PC/OS, but the other two settings (and your controller's
own settings) are much more subjective.

The two main paths people seem to follow are very light forces & low
damping, or very high force strength with heavy damping.

Partly because my controller gets the occasional spike, I prefer to have
very light forces & damping (otherwise the spikes would throw me off the
track).
My damping is set to 10.0 in the core.ini, and steering torque is 500,
although anything over about 300 is probably enough for light effects with a
wheel. If you tend to hold the wheel lightly & let it guide you through the
corners, try this approach.

For a stiffer feel to your wheel, you could set the damping to around 60-65,
with steering torque at around 100-150. If you tend to get white knuckles &
lean your whole body into corners, this might work better for you so you've
got something to fight with. Read the readme11.txt in your gpl folder for
more info.

Personally I leave my wingman settings at 100% but that's because I don't
really use ff in anything but gpl.
If you race another sim or game that doesn't have built in ff adjustment (eg
Viper Racing), set up your controller software to work with that, then
adjust your gpl settings afterwards to compensate.
Don't forget to make sure you have disabled the centering spring, and use
split-axis pedals if you have the option.

Malc.