For anybody who has this wheel, first of all is it any good
and two is the force feedback any good in F1RS and GPL? How
well do the buttons and shift paddles work on the steering
wheel?
-Adam
I've only had the wheel for three days an this may be too short of a time to
judge it but I'll try to answer your questions.
I really like the wheel, the shift paddles are the best I've ever encountered
and the buttons are well placed. The wheel itself is quite substantial, with
good contours and a good size and I even like the color!
The software is easy to load and use. Logitech bundles the wheel with
Motorhead, which will not load for me, might be a bad disk, and F1RS which I've
had for a year. Neither comes with a manual.
The bad part...the pedals. The throttle and brake are just too sensitive for
me. The springs have very little resistance and an extremly short throw, making
them nearly the equilivant of an on/off switch. I've set the pedal sensitivity
as low as possible in the software and can slowly lap in GPL without burning up
the rear tires, but after 3 days I'm still not close to the times I set with my
old TM GP1 with CH pedals. F1RS is nearly impossible for me to drive, even with
all the aids turned on, which I hate doing.
GPL does not support FF so it's not an issue...F1RS effects
are...well...interesting. Curbs are cool, and you get a pretty good jolt
through the wheel if you bump another car, less so if you hit a wall.
The feeling I don't like is the wiggle you get when shifting gears, now mind
you, I've never driven an F1 car, and this may be "real" but I just find it
distracting.
OTOH, Viper Racing and Colin McRae (both FF titles) and TOCA (non-FF) are very
cool with this wheel. I could not get NASCAR2 to map correctly but I didn't
spend much time with it as yet.
I hope this helps. If you're interested in the wheel, buy it from a location
which has a return policy just to be safe.
-don
"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola
I have an ACT Labs Force RS. I read here in this news group that
I-Force controllers have there own software and controller chip. The chip is
in the wheel and processes the I-Force software, therefore it uses less
system CPU. Microsoft wheels as well as some other wheels rely on direct-x
calls which rely directly on the system CPU. Maybe whoever wrote the first
message I read will read this one and elaborate on it a little better than I
can. Hope this helps .
Dave VG
In non-FF games, specifically GPL, is the wheel smooth and do you get a
self-centering spring force? On the ACTLAB Force RS (which I had for a
couple days before returning), the centering spring force would go away when
entering GPL - I've heard this was also a problem another wheel that used
the Immersion I-Force technology.
Norm
>GPL does not support FF so it's not an issue...F1RS effects
>are...well...interesting. Curbs are cool, and you get a pretty good jolt
>through the wheel if you bump another car, less so if you hit a wall.
>The feeling I don't like is the wiggle you get when shifting gears, now mind
>you, I've never driven an F1 car, and this may be "real" but I just find it
>distracting.
>OTOH, Viper Racing and Colin McRae (both FF titles) and TOCA (non-FF) are very
>cool with this wheel. I could not get NASCAR2 to map correctly but I didn't
>spend much time with it as yet.
>-don
There are two ways to use the wheel with non-FF games, you can turn the FF off
which results in almost hyper-sensitive steering (although I believe this could
be dialed out with an adjustment to the dead zone in the software), or leave
the FF effects on, which doesn't seem to vary much from the feel in FF games.
There is a good centering force either way.
This wheel takes more effort to turn than the TM wheels I am used to, whether
in a FF game or not. I does feel marginally smoother than the MS FF wheel I
tried in the store. There's a lot going on inside this housing (which I'm
reluctant to take apart yet). It caused me some concern at first, I damn near
took it back yesterday, but I spent more time with it in GPL this morning and
I'm going to give it some more time before I make the decision whether to keep
it or not.
If anyone else has this wheel and could get it to work with NASCAR 2, would you
let me know how you did it. I cannot get the controller options screen to work
at all. The game will not recognize the throttle or brake. Thanks.
-don
"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola
>If anyone else has this wheel and could get it to work with NASCAR 2, would you
>let me know how you did it. I cannot get the controller options screen to work
>at all. The game will not recognize the throttle or brake. Thanks.
This may be a really dumb question. But I have to ask anyway :-)
Are you running N2 from a DOS box or rebooting (or exiting) into
DOS?
Thanks.
--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.
cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com
I have no problems running N2 or any games for that fact with my force
wheel. I can adjust the centering in the properties menu. I love this wheel.
I have tried most of them. If you buy it give it a chance. I went from a T2
wheel to this wheel. It did take a little getting used to but well worth it.
Need for speed III really shows this wheel off to its fullest. I bought this
wheel because it uses less CPU(see my post above). Good luck!!
Dave VG
>>In non-FF games, specifically GPL, is the wheel smooth and do you get a
>>self-centering spring force? On the ACTLAB Force RS (which I had for a
>>couple days before returning), the centering spring force would go away when
>>entering GPL - I've heard this was also a problem another wheel that used
>>the Immersion I-Force technology.
>>Norm
>There are two ways to use the wheel with non-FF games, you can turn the FF off
>which results in almost hyper-sensitive steering (although I believe this could
>be dialed out with an adjustment to the dead zone in the software), or leave
>the FF effects on, which doesn't seem to vary much from the feel in FF games.
>There is a good centering force either way.
>This wheel takes more effort to turn than the TM wheels I am used to, whether
>in a FF game or not. I does feel marginally smoother than the MS FF wheel I
>tried in the store. There's a lot going on inside this housing (which I'm
>reluctant to take apart yet). It caused me some concern at first, I damn near
>took it back yesterday, but I spent more time with it in GPL this morning and
>I'm going to give it some more time before I make the decision whether to keep
>it or not.
>If anyone else has this wheel and could get it to work with NASCAR 2, would you
>let me know how you did it. I cannot get the controller options screen to work
>at all. The game will not recognize the throttle or brake. Thanks.
>-don
>"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola
>>This may be a really dumb question. But I have to ask anyway :-)
>>Are you running N2 from a DOS box or rebooting (or exiting) into
>>DOS?
>DOS box
I was afraid of that but I had to make sure :-) It seems like this wheel
is no better than the MS-FF with so-called DOS support.
--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.
cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com
DOS box
-don
"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola
Yeah, it's very strange...one of the big selling points for the Logitech wheel
is the "Profiler" software. The wheel ships with software that is supposed to
map controller functions for most popular games, however when I try to apply
the profile to the various games they won't accept it. All my sims assign
controller functions within some sort of option screen and when the sim will
accept my imputs (GPL, F1RS, TOCA, CMR, Viper) everything works fine, but for
some reason I can't figure, N2 and Motorhead (came with the wheel...) will not
accept any controller functions except for the steering axis. When I try to go
to N2, the car takes off out of the pits in reverse, which is fun for about 30
seconds : -)
I've spent most of the day with the wheel and I'm starting to figure it out.
The most difficult part of this has been figuring out how to adjust the
sensitivity of the wheel. I've gotten to the point of adding dead zone into the
various controller functions to make them less sensitive to control imputs,
something I've spent years trying to get rid of!
-don
"To race is to live, everything else is just waiting." - Rudi Caracciola
Have you tried using your CH pedals with the wheel itself. To do this
though GPL would need to be able to use two directinput devices
simultaneously. I don't even know if that is possible with the directx
spec.
> Snip ... good stuff about LFF and how the pedals suck c.f. CH pedals
--
Bill Ryder
