rec.autos.simulators

Well, anyone who has read my most recent posts, will know that I just bought
a New Guillemot/TM Ferrari FF Wheel. I like the quality etc of the wheel
but, I have been doing a bit of testing with and without FF turned on. I am
almost on the point of deciding (Like Jamnut), that FF is not for me, and I
would have been better saving quite a LOT of cash, and buying the non-FF
version :( I am finding the steering far easier to use with FF switched to 0
in core.ini. However, there is another problem far more serious than any
choice between FF and non-FF. It is the ridiculous amount of play in the
centre of the wheel, the famous DEADZONE :( It has been bad enough for me to
shut stop driving GPL and, shut the PC off absolutely fuming a few times
now, (just now included!). There was a fix available, a hacked version of
dinput.dll which, reduced the deadzone set by MS, to 0% in place of the
"standard" 5%. Sadly, this was only for an earlier version of DirectX (5.0
Maybe?). It will NOT work with DirectX 8.0a, which I now use. (Wheel won't
even work without the latest dinput.dll)! So, does anyone have an answer to
this? Is there a tweak utility similar to Dx-tweak for the LW FF wheels? If
so, where would I find it please? I feel at the moment that with the wheel
as it is, I don't even want to drive GPL, and that is MOST unusual for me,
as I drive it for a good few hours EVERY single day! So, you can see how
annoyed I am with this "play" in the middle of the wheel. When I turn my
steering wheel 1 mm, I expect the "road wheels" to move 1mm, NOT turn wheel
thru one quarter of an inch, let's say, before getting ANY movement from the
"road wheels!". I'm really fed up now! as the subject says. Please suggest
something to cure this, before I go completely mad and chuck the whole lot
out the window. Although when I was using my niece's TM Sprint wheel (3
years old), it had a few "twitches" with it, which caused a few calibration
problems, (wheel would not stay completely still when calibrated!), at least
I was able to drive quite well with it. I managed a 1:30:92 at Monza, and
was getting better all the time. Soon as I had this new wheel, I thought,
here comes a 1:29:xx (Or less) at Monza! Hahahahahaha! I DON'T think so! The
fastest I have gone at Monza with this Ferrari FF is a lousy 1:33:55 (lotus)
last night, and I don't know where that came from with the wheel the way it
is with this silly deadzone :( If there is NO cure for this, I am thinking
of taking it back, and hopefully they will swap it for a non-FF version!
PLEASE TRY AND HELP ME! Sorry for such a long message, but as you can see,
I'm VERY angry at the moment!

Fuming Mad Max (Andrew)

However, I have an LWFF, so I don't have experience with any other wheels.
DXTweak worked great for me.

| Hi Group,
<snipped>
| PLEASE TRY AND HELP ME! Sorry for such a long message, but as you can see,
| I'm VERY angry at the moment!
| Fuming Mad Max (Andrew)

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Sounds like your wheel's a piece of crap. Return it. Find yourself
an original LWFF--not the GP version. I got a refurbished
one at an online auction, and I immediately started driving
faster. A good FF wheel should make the car easier to drive, not harder.
After you get an original LWFF, get the ball bearing kit from
Jens, http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/jensschu/index.html. Mine's
on order, but others say the center play is entirely eliminated, and
that driving with the converted wheel is altogether delightful.

Be warned, LWFF wheels (original and GP) twitch in 2k. Don't get one
unless you're running 9x.

--Jeff

I got much faster after getting used to the FF. I didn't like it at first
either.

FF will make you slower at first.  Plus remember you are getting used to a
new set of pedals.  I found the pivot tops on the pedals unusable, so I
added a couple of washers and tightenned them up so they couldn't pivot.
That did improve them.

Right now I'm using the wheel from the Ferrari and the pedals from an MS
precision racing wheel.

Make sure you don't have the FF too strong, it's not supposed to pull the
wheel out of your hands.  And don't be afraid to turn through the FF, it
doesn't hurt the wheel.

As for the Logitech, I used to be a big fan of the original LWFF, but I
tried mine again recently and was really dissapointed in the feel given by
the FF compared to the Ferrari.  Plus the pedals on the LWFF are unspeakably
bad.

noisy.

It needs at least 10 hours in operation to become smooth and still improves
after that. One should not judge it as it comes right out of the box. My
first impression of the wheel was a bit like "God what have I bought now"
(coming from ECCI CDS2R) but when it's rubbed in so to speak and get used to
it, you have a great wheel for a very reasonable price.

Bart Westra

I've had the Thrustmaster Ferrari FF wheel for the past couple of months
now, but can't say that I've ever noticed this deadzone problem.  I
actually find it quite difficult to ensure that the car is going as
straight as I would like at times, especially under hard braking in GPL
when the car can suddenly veer off to the left or right unexpectedly,
even though I'm keeping the wheel as centered as possible.  I've had to
use a linearity setting at about 2/3rds non-linear to compensate for
this.  Is there a way of demonstrating this easily somewhere in the game
to show what you are referring to?
--
Peter Ives
Remove ALL_STRESS before replying
If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -14.08

Suggest test for deadzone by making sure wheel and drivers arms are
on, and in***pit view. waggle the wheel to and fro past centre
position. If there is a null deadzone spot, the on screen wheel will
pause at that point.
Cure using CTFJ from http://www.racesimcentral.net/~stickworks/

--
Laurence Wilmer

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