rec.autos.simulators

I'm a little confused on how I would set up the wheel in games.  When
I'm configuring my controls do I just setup "turn left" by turning the
wheel left, and so on?  I know I can tweak dead zone and sensitivity in
the MS software, but I guess I'm wondering if games normally directly
support wheels, or if you set them up as you would a joystick/gamepad.

Thanks,
Carl

Hey Carl, I'm on my 3rd wheel at this point, and it seems as if the
calibration routine is pretty similar across the board, first, you calibrate
the wheel within Windows, turn the wheel both directions to the stops and
then center it, push throttle and brake to their full extent, set up
whatever buttons or paddles you might have for shifting. Then go to the game
you're playing (okay,okay,sim......) and calibrate the same things within
the game. That's a start, different wheels have different features which may
need to be set-up besides this, but that should get you racing.
Ed

-Larry

Here's my advice on setting it up:

1. Make sure you have the Sidewinder software installed.  If you're
running XP you also have to make sure that the little green and red
system tray utility is running or else you won't be able to use
schemes (in Win98 you can actually disable this using msconfig and the
wheel will still work well - plus you gain some system performance).

2. In game, when you select your controls it should be
straightforward, depending on the game.  In GPL and N2002, you move it
back and forth and push the pedals down and release them to calibrate
it, then you can just select the controls like you would
keyboard/gamepad/joystick, i.e. just select what you want to change,
say "turn left" and turn the wheel left.  Most other games are just as
straightforward.

3. My personal recommended settings for the wheel are as follows.
Keep the deadzone and sensitivity fully left in the sidewinder setup,
and make sure it's setup to use split-axis.  In Papyrus sims, go with
full-linear steering, you can't lose and you have great car control
that way.  In ISI games (SCGT, F1 2002, NT 2003) use 50% axis
sensitivity, 0% speed sensitivity, and 0% deadzone.  Finally, I
recommend unpluggng other controllers you have or disabling them in
the control panel when using the wheel, as some sims will have trouble
reading the buttons if there are multiple game devices enabled.  I'm
not sure why, but GPL especially is bad at this and won't see buttons
7 and 8 if I have any other devices plugged in, and if I have both my
gamepad and joystick enabled it won't see the brake pedal axis.

4. Since I don't have the FFB version, can't comment on the f-feedback
setup.  Someone like Larry who has that one can probably help.

Jason

Carl