rec.autos.simulators

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael

Plus if you look around the site, you can find lots of online player's
cup/cts paintjobs (so that you can see non generic cars if they are in your
race)

http://www.flm-networks.com
find the "forums" link, near top of left column,  when you get to forums you
can see setups thread.

Mark

I do have another question about force feedback. Does anyone have
preferences between using FF or non FF wheels? When I started sim
racing years ago I started with the Thrustmaster and eventually bought
a Thomas Super Wheel (best money I spent for sim racing.) When FF
started creaping in my friend convinced me to buy one and I went with
the MS Sidewinder wheel. I like the wheel over all, it's durable, good
effects... However, my racing suffered quite a bit. The car would
break loose for no reason, all by itself or near other cars. It has
become frustrating but I kept at it, trying all different settings
with sensitivity, linearity, amount of force, etc...

I just went back to my trusty TSW and I'm rock solid again. Always at
the top of the speed charts, Consistent laps, racing side by
side...it's great.

I do still like some aspects of having the FF but not to the point
where it's not fun anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I
could setup the MS Sidewinder settings and or in game settings to
allow me to use it competetivly?

Thanks again,
Mike

I wont go back to anything since I got my 2 MS FF wheels.  the red grip one
I use now is the fav too!

Here is a rundown for GPL & Nascar.  Caveat, though with this motherboard
(p4s5aDX) the wheel sometimes acts as though it doesnt see the "sidwinder"
profile, upon launch of Nr2003.  I can explain how to overcome this at the
end, if this becomes a problem for you too.

1st in the sidewinder app, make a new profile, set everything like the GPL
profile that came with the game, with FF on med, and return to center spring
OFF!  seprate axis! sensitivity to low, map front to rear forces.  (you will
find these in different tabs).

In NR2003,
Re-cal the wheel of course.  when I get done (just before you hit OK, I cal
with wheel just right of center (where I rationalize that *most* setups have
me hold the wheel to go straight down a straight, not perfect at all but
IMHO makes the wheel more comfortable, of cours this means you use fast,
expert, or most any downloaded sets (that dont use aids)).

set linearity to 80-90% (I like 85)
set forces to 90-100 %

Drive like hell!  FWIW,  I find that I can feel changes in tension onto the
FF when -or- _as_  the rear wheels are going to "break loose"  or the fronts
are about to push really bad,  To me this is awesome and helpful.  some
people hate it I guess, (or say they do) until they kind of adapt to the
information the wheel is able to be giving you about your driving
'situation.'  No Im not the fastest guy out there, in fact my records almost
sux, but usually this is because of other mental errors (not just mine
either), & not the wheels problem LOL.  But 7of 8 buddies moved from TM's to
MS, and they all agree (in fact still mention it when we happen to see each
other in person) how much we love the MS FF wheel.  again 6 of these guys
were pretty upset "out of the box" until I helped them get some settings as
a base...  Ala - the ones above.

Drive like hell...  Sting32

almost forgot, thanks to me having an invidia card, and never having any
other, I DONT know for sure if you can do this...
some times, like 3 of 10 launches of NR2003, the wheel will turn on the
centering spring and on at full!  this to me, overrides all the other
settins (read as "communication from the car's behavior" up through to the
dummy behind the wheel, all you will feel is the wheel trying to return to
center of it's travel.  that is when it sux really bad.)

The wheel will center "itself" as you launch the game, so to avoid this, I
hit the power button anytime to "OFF" (center of the wheel) until I get into
the racing screen.  once in a while it still centers, so I windows-key out
open the profiler, pick another profile, apply, pic the real profile (self
made "nascar03a" thru "nascar03d" are all the same on my machine) and apply,
then get back to the game with power off on the wheel again!  drive like
hell, but when race is over, or if Im gonna quit a race, I shut the power
off the wheel.  saves the 3 steps above for me on the next race.  Again my
other machine doesnt/didnt argue like this, both had 98 then xp...  YMMV.

Thanks.