rec.autos.simulators

<snip>

I just read another posting and another owner of Virtual Pilot said that
his wheel is just like mine, so I don't think it's  defective. I'm not
saying that VP totally sucks. What bothers me is that why it gives me
only 50 degrees of turning angle  while the mechanical angle is around
90 degrees? That's 40  degrees of wasted angle.

It's the same thing to turn the wheel 25 degrees as to turn it  to the
full lock. Even if the actual maximum angle was 90 degrees, I think it
is not too much. The TSW gives you 270 degrees!  Imagine how much more
precise you'd be using 270 degrees instead of 50 (or 90, I don't know if
that 40 degrees really matters).

Well, why to drive a Forti-Ford while you could have a
Williams-Renault? ;-) In my case, it's a money issue. If i had the
dough, I'd throw my VP out of the window and order a TSW.

I love the pedals, though.

Thanks for your time. :-)

Yeah, TSW would be superb. Too bad it is so expensive, I don't have that
kind of money. The wheel without the pedals would cost abt $200, plus
the p&p to Finland...

<snip>

I don't know if it would be any better if it had no "free play",
compared to TSW's 270 degrees range VP's 90 degrees is not much...

I just started working on NCR2, and I'll have to reduce the wheel lock
(tried Talladega with 12 degrees... didn't stay ontrack too long)

Ever tried GP2? In GP2 it is possible to configure the steering device a
little bit differently than in Papyrus sims. It has a max wheel lock and
a "reduce with car speed" -value. I have to keep both values high, so at
low speeds the wheel lock is high and the the faster the car is  going,
the more the simulator reduces the max wheel lock value.  This causes
problems on circuits with fast corners. If I set the max lock value
higher, the car feels impossible in slower corners. If I set the
reduce-value lower, the car feels jerky all the way on any track.

hard
<snip>

Thanks for your time. Now I'm positive that my wheel is not broken.
Let's keep up this conversation though, maybe we'll get some good hints
on configuring VP.

No I haven't. I've got to keep my non-computer and especially my
computer related obsessions to a minimum, otherwise I sleep on the
couch.

Well...there is one more thing that comes to mind:
Since the pedals have no freeplay, I am very careful when I calibrate
them (N1 & N2). I "short" calibrate them. Example: If I get a reading of
10 when I push the pedal all the way down then I calibrate it at 15 so
that when I'm racing, if for some reason, it only goes down to 11 the
program will still see it as all the way down. I adjust it alot more
with the pedal all the way up (especially the brake). I am also very
careful to make sure I'm not getting any bounce from the pots. This is
kind of a prerace ritual for me. If it's not right then I keep doing it
until it is.

Good luck,