rec.autos.simulators

What I really want to know is whether the mechanism that reads input from
the steering wheel motion is digital (read very accurate). Microsoft's wheel
uses some sort of optical system to measure the position of the wheel and is
very precise. Many controllers, especially older ones, use something called
a potentiometer which tends to be less accurate and requires cleaning and
eventually replacing.

What does the Logitech wheel use?

Ta

Phil

I could be wrong tho... it happens all the time.

Trips

Seb

I bought one of these wheels yesterday, in all the documentation it is refered
to as a digital device, however there is no mention of whether optical devices
or potentiometers are used. I have not decided if I will be keeping the wheel
yet, so I'm reluctant to open it up and look inside as yet.

Initial impression...it's different...F1RS is really goofy, much like the sound
problem I experience (cutting in and out), the force effects seem to come and
go at will. I may uninstall the game and reload it from the CD which came with
the wheel to see if there is a difference.

Motorhead comes with the wheel also but I was not able to get the controller
options to map properly so I haven't tried it...looks pretty arcade-like
though.

Colin McRae is excellent with force feedback, I was immediatly under my times
with my old GP1/CH Pedal setup. TOCA, although it does not have FF, works well
also.

Viper Racing seems to be lacking somewhat in force feedback. I can feel jolts
from hitting other cars or stationary objects but there is no effect felt by
running off of the road. I only have the demo at this time and would like to
hear from others if this is true in the full game or not.

Grand Prix Legends is the reason I may return this wheel. First of all,
switching between combined and seperate pedals must be done in the Windows
control panel. I guess that's better than crawling under the desk as before,
but still a pain. My main concern is that the force needed to turn the wheel,
even with FF turned off, makes it very difficult for me to be as precise as I
was with my sloppy old Thrustmaster GP1. I have a couple of weeks to play with
it so I may improve in this area, maybe it was just the "Post Holiday, I can
hardly walk and chew gum, I'm so stuffed" syndrome.

One problem I did encounter, which seems very important to this ng, I can't get
N2 to map correctly. I am trying to run it from a DOS box in Windows, so it
should work. I'll play with it more today.

The hardware itself is excellent. The wheel feels very substantial, the buttons
well placed, and the gear paddles are a joy to use, much better than the
Microsoft wheel I tried out. The footprint is similar to that of my old TM
wheel, and the clamps work very well. It does not have a quick release like the
MS and some of the new TM wheels.

This is getting very long so I'll quit now and get back to racing .........

-don

"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola

Thanks for the review! It is appreciated. BTW, where did you get it from?

Yes you may have more problems than just lack of FF. I certainly didn't have
any
sound breakups and I have the 3D positional sound enabled and I did have
a MS-FF wheel. It worked just great. Did you edit the INI file and change
the FF setting for WHEEL?

before,

Well this makes sense as the entire wheel control is managed by Windows.
So I am not surprised there at all.

with

I found this to also be true of NR1999 and the MS-FF wheel. My old T2
certainly worked and felt better.

Well it is important to me! I certainly don't want 2 wheels on my desk.
So since I just bought NR1999, any new wheel I buy had better work
with it. I  did call Logitech  to ask if the wheel will work in DOS.
The tech engineer I spoke with said YES. (TM also said their FF
wheel will work in DOS). I'm affraid I may have to wait for my FF wheel
purchase until N3 comes out.

--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

Best Buy in Pasadena, CA.

Yes...there is a new driver available for my SB PCI 64 but the server has been
"busy" for two days. I'll try again today. The 3D positional sound is pretty
cool though, especially with my new Cambridge speakers : - )

From the Read-Me file:

3. DOS AND WINDOWS 3.X

Logitech Wingman Software is designed to work with the
Windows 95/98 operating systems only. Windows 3.x and true DOS (6.22 or lower)
are not supported. LWS 3.1 does support DOS games that run in a Windows 95/98
DOS box.

-don

"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola

--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

After another day of stuffing my perfectly good Brabham into the sand dunes at
Zandvoort and spinning my Ferrari through the chicanes at Monza, I've decided
to return the wheel. I love the look and feel of the Logitech but the pedals
(and I hate this phrase) suck! There is no resistance to these pedals and the
throw is so short that I'm not able to be at all precise with the throttle and
brake. I love CMR and Viper with the wheel, but I really spend most of my time
with GPL and F1RS and they are undriveable with this set up IMO.

I have two more weeks before I have to return the wheel, so maybe a few more
hours will change my mind, but I doubt it.

-don

"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola