rec.autos.simulators

I am finding GPL with the Logitech wheel to be an exciting experience.
The addition of force effects to GPL's already marvelous physics makes a
tremendous difference in the quality of immersion in the simulated
racing world.  Also, the subtle forces transmitted from the front tires
are proving to be very valuable information about what the car is doing.
This helps me to drive more smoothly and closer to the limit, with less
drama and less effort.

I'm very e***d about this new capability.  It's almost like getting a
whole new sim!

To see my new Force Feedback page, go to
http://www.racesimcentral.net/, and view the News page.  Or
choose Help, then Controllers, and then Force Feedback.

Alison

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Peter
Vienna, Austria

-Andrew

I fiddled around with the core.ini settings a bit and also felt that higher
max_torque and lower damping produced better results. If noone else has
worked out something for this wheel yet, I could do some more systematic
experiments on the basis of your findings, but currently I am waiting for a
new patch that resolves my slowmo probs (yes, I am one of the few unhappy
ones ;-).

It would really be nice if someone could collect these infos for different
FF controllers on a website (I am sure you are aware that these issues have
already been discussed in several GPL forums). Maybe it would also be
helpful if Papy could provide some more details on how the FF params
(especially the latency value) are used internally.

Ciao,
Albert

--
Dr. Albert Gr"af

WWW:    http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag

But what should I do? I have a MS force feedback wheel, and Eagle Woman
writes that it is nearly useless with GPL! After having read her article
my F3-Ferrari laptimes in Monza went 2 to 3 seconds slower! And this is
no joke! The wheel became "worse"..., just by the power of words... ;-/

Any consolation? Is somebody happy with MSFF in GPL? Should I change
my new wheel to a Logitech? (When I was choosing my FF-wheel, the pedals
of Logitech made me take the MS. If I buy a Logitech, can I use the good
MS pedals?)

Arto

-Andrew

Maybe you should spend a week playing GPL with the keyboard, then boot back
up with the wheel.  I'm sure you'll think "this is one fine piece of
machinery!".

Take a break, drink an ale. Then go race.

I've had an MSFF wheel for several months now.  I needed to get another wheel
for my Son's computer, and after reading all the glowing praise for the LWFF I
ordered one from Egghead a couple of months ago ($112 at the time).  I have
to say that I've been quite disappointed by it.  It certainly looks better than the
MS wheel, but for me, the MS product just works better.  It has digital encoding,
doesn't have the funky reset/recalibrate factor, has more accurate centering,
better pedals and a more consistent overall feel.  I would imagine the CPU
usage greatly depends on the CPU and sound card, both of my systems are
very fast with SBLive cards and there's no percievable difference when
switching between the wheels.

As far as GPL goes, I really don't have the time to devote to it to be an expert.
I'm sure Alison knows 100 times what I do about it.  I'll give her config settings
a try with the LWFF, perhaps it will reduce the regret I feel for buying it rather
than another MSFF wheel.

I must also say that I'm no MS fan.  I would in principal prefer a product from
another company.  In this case the product just works better for me.

Best Wishes,
Scott

     I too have a MSFF wheel,and I've set personal Best times at every track
with it. While I don't dispute that the Logitech  uses less cpu cycles,I've
been able to maintain 36fps with all graphics on except cars only in the
mirrors.

    I've only expected to use my MSFF wheel a year or two,until the next
generation of FF wheels hits the market.  As I feel that there will be great
improvements.

Joel Willstein

I agree. No problems with the MSFF wheel. After reading Alison's excellent
article I do not doubt that she did, but ulitmately wondered whether she
played with the full settings available with the MS wheel? Certainly I find
that the wheel works very well with the MS settings turned to LOW for the
FF, and centreing OFF, and then use the GPL ini file for the tuning. The
castor 'effect' is there, the wheel is not notchy, and you get the full and
smooth range of effects from the car going light over a bump, to a full
blown jolt when it has ALL gone wrong! It is a pig however if you use the
FULL MS settings.
Steve

I heard a rumour that there are different versions of the LWFF
available, this must be true cause I can't imagine anyone liking
driving with these settings.

So I experimented a bit and came to these settings, a combination of
Alison and Eric's settings:

First I did follow all tips on Alison's site (Profiler settings, Game
control settings, and DXTweak settings).
Then I used these settings in Core.ini:

force_feedback_damping = 75.000000              
force_feedback_latency = 0.020000              
max_steering_torque = 65.000000000  

I love driving with these settings. Oh, and the car setup you use has
a big influence on the settings too. The sharp settings of Greger
Huttu are really good for the arm muscles :)

If anyone experienced the same dissapointing results with Alison's
settings (allmost no ff) please let me know. I'm curious if I did
something wrong or if there are different version of the LWFF indeed,
so that the settings needed vary with every LWFF.

Andre

I also found the steering torque setting Alison uses much to light for
my liking. W/ Eric's 65 the steering seems "notchy" and my wrists
actually get sore after the daily 30 min's of practise. Am still
experimenting w/ the other 2 settings, but like the damping so far.
(0 damping in profiler). Can't really tell the difference w/ the
latency settings. Both Eric's and Alisons work fine for me (strange?)

force_feedback_damping = 5.000000               ; Alison. Eric=65
force_feedback_latency = 0.020000               ; Alison. Eric=.225
max_steering_torque = 200.000000                ; Alison=330. Eric=65.

greets, Johan

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

I'm just a newbie at most of this so I've been trying everything everyone
suggests, looking for that magic combination. I'm slowly coming to the
realization that you need to start somewhere and then experiment. I believe
I was probably using something close to Eric's settings with the feeling
that the Ferrari was very heavy although not really tiring. But I was
felling the weight of the car in the esses at Mexico and the lightness in
the wheel when the front tires lose their grip. When AH's new article
appeared I read it and was thoroughly impressed with her explanation of
those mysterious settings in the core.ini file. It all made sense to me. But
when I tried her numbers, my reaction was exactly like Andre's. I felt
nothing! I felt like the car had lightened up tremendously and I wasn't
feeling FF at all. Didn't like it, so I went back to my original numbers.

I think you just have to change these settings one at a time and see how it
works for you. There are so many variables in all this, it seems that
there's no way to predict how they will play out in one particular
combination of wheel, PC setup, etc.

Meanwhile what a great thing it is that GPL allows us to fine tune all these
areas to experience what all too often for me seems to be so real. I forget
I'm not really driving that Ferrari, however slow I am.

BTW, I just placed an order for Nigel Nichols great pedals to compliment the
LWFF. After playing around with using my joystick as a clutch to see if it
really acted like a clutch versus the on/off action of a keyboard key, I
decided that real pedals are the missing key to my slowness! Never give up!

Gene

don

[|]-(_)-[|]