rec.autos.simulators

I just got Precision Cart racing from Microsoft.  I use a TM Nascar pro
wheel and pedals.  As I drive around the track I am all over the place.
The steering is very sensitive. I've tried playing with the linear and
sensitivity control with no luck.

Any ideas on how to stablize the car?

Also, evertime I exting Cart, my desktop icons are shifted all about.

Any Ideas.

g

Yah.
That is one main issue among a ton of others.
See any yellow flags?
Good "SIM" eh?
Take it back.
It ain't worth your time or money.

It is very difficult to get a good steering setup in this game. To cut down
on sensitivity you can  lower the wheel lock setting, increase the null
zone (after patching) and setup your wheel as a joystick,  instead of a
race car controller. Good luck...I've fiddled with the steering for more
hours than I've played this game and still can't find a steering setup I
actually like. It's either too twitchy or too slow to respond...no middle
ground here. Poor coding I guess. That is one of the many reasons this game
gathers dust on my shelf and F1RS is getting all my spare time. Better
control and better AI!

                                                        Ken
The Game Pad
http://gamepad.org/

I can tell you that it will NOT get any better. Even if you do find a set-up
you are happy with, it will not be the same next time you start the game (
notice I said game and not "sim" )  Take it back while you still can and get
F1RS or even GP2. They are both a lot more fun to drive and much better to look
at as well.  Don

Don't listen to the bullshit advice from some of these r.a.s. people. My
cars handle perfectly. You just need some good setups. E-mail me and I will
be glad to help you if you'd like.

Dave

Have the same set-up as you and had the same problem...and almost gave up on
it.  However, now that it is working properly, I can say that CART:PR has
phenomenal steering.

1) Make sure you are using the patched version of CART:PR.

2) Get your steering properly calibrated in the Thrustmaster Control Panel.

3) Back off the null zone to 1% or 2%--anything more and the steering will
jerk from dead centre to whichever direction you are turning.

4) Set the non-linear adjustment to 0.  Anything else is fake--real cars
don't have non-linear steering (at least not the way it is programmed into a
computer simulation).

5) Set the speed sensitive steering as low as possible.  I use 10% (and wish
I could use 0) and a little bit of this fakery may be necessary as a wheel
controller does not modify its input requirements as you go faster, the way
a real car would.

6) Most important!!  Get the patch that allows you to modify the DirectX
built-in null zone (5%) to a lower setting (again, I use 1%).  This improved
all the other DirectX games immensely, too.

7) If you are not a car set-up wizard then download some Pro set-ups from
The Apex or another CART:PR site.

8) Possibly a last step...re-calibrate everything again now that the DirectX
has been altered.

As much as people here like to run down CART:PR (and the AI does still suck
and there are several other glaring problems that remain after the patch),
with proper set-ups and a controller that is properly configured and
calibrated it blows away every other sim. on the market except for F1RS in
the driving feel realism and accuracy department.

A lot of steps, but it is worth it.

P.S., Like every other sim., if your frame rates are not high, then the
control will suffer commensurately, so also turn-down the graphics if you
don't have a high-end video card and/or CPU.

Marc.

--
Kevin
(Remove the "x-" prefix from my address in order to reply via email)

Sure they do.....

The other thing is that oversteer is heavily built into the setups, so
if faster turns are causing your car to jerk all over the place, take
out some front wing or add rear wing.

I've messed with combinations of settings on the non-linear steering
and speed sensitive steering slider.  In order to get settings you can
live with you really need to determine at what speeds you don't like
the handling.  If the car is all over the road even at very low
speeds, its likely you need to work with the non-linear steering
slider, since that isn't affected by speed.  Try increasing it to get
rid of some of the twitchiness around the middle.  Leave speed
sensitive steering at 50% or less until you've gotten the low speed
stuff taken care of.  Once you have, if you find that your car is too
quick to jump around at high speeds, try turning up the speed
sensitive steering switch up while leaving the nonlinear steering
slider alone.  Finally, car setup and practice will help the rest.  

I read all the other responses to your post and its a shame that
people just choose to use your question as an excuse to trash the game
some more while not making any attempt to answer your question.  I'll
leave the decision to keep it or take it back to you, but I hope that
the above helps you tune the steering more.  Its never going to be
great, but it might become fairly tolerable.

Randy

Ken,

That's right Ken, my goal in life is to hang out here on r.a.s. and tell
lies. If you would like, why don't you come to the Game Zone and see for
yourself how well my cars handle. I can ride inches from the wall all along
the straightaway at tracks like Miami and St. Louis and I can handle the
street and road courses fine too. The cars respond perfectly to whatever
input I give them. The people on the Zone seem to have cars that handle
great too. Take a look. The reason they do is because they and I know how to
set up a car and how to drive. Maybe when/if you tried CPR the problem was
YOU. It simply could be that you can't drive very well.

Dave

Whatever....I have no time for your infantile insults.
                                         Later, Ken

Go to car setup and use the Race Car Engineer feature.
The Default car setup is usually soft.
On The Question " How does is the car's ride "
Choose answer  " Tool soft and imprecise."

The Race Car engineer will adjust the damper and spring setting to a harder
and more precise feel.

Try it you'll be surprise how different it feels.

Lets be fair.  Some of the problem lies with CPR as well.  I decided
not even to run the Long Beach CARTorl race today because getting used
to driving a CPR car completely wrecks my ability to drive an F1RS car
because the physical inputs and oversteering physics model supercede
your ability to overcome them with setups or driving controls.  CPR
can be made more fun, but it takes work.  That's one of its biggest
problems -- it takes work and a willingness to let go of things you
know are wrong in order to properly enjoy it.  F1RS, NASCAR 2, and
IndyCar 2 didn't suffer from these problems.

Randy

However:

I did have this problem, and updated video drivers solved it.
Check your video card manufacturer's website for the drivers
you need...

- Mike.

============================================
    Mike Holthouse - Indianapolis, IN
 My new philosophy is to never explain my
 philosophies. I wish I could tell you why.
============================================

You also may need the CPR patch - only the patch has the adjustable
deadzone setting that some systems need to drive smoothly. I was all
over the road too, until the patch allowed me to set a large deadzone.

Joe