Let's discuss iRacing - attempt #2

Ah my bad. But yes doesn't work especially with sims of this nature

 

@Karolinis
make sure linear ffb mode is enabled.

 

I am using it now, but I will try to turn it off as per recommendations of Gunja. I remember feeling a slight improvement when I turned it on, but nothing major..

 

With linear mode OFF the ffb dynamic range is compressed(reduced) by making lower end forces stronger which is suitable for low end wheels, I don't think you need this setting with CSW 2.5. Even with wheel like T300 I prefer ffb with linear mode on. Other than that I guess you can't do much, ffb feedback probably is car dependant.

 

Got it. Well, I don't have many cars - I drove MX5, free Cadilac, Solstice, bought a gt3 Ferrari (for local league racing) and Spec Ford Racer which I kind of felt gave me most info through feedback.. I also read in some other thread that to get most of the feedback, one should dive into .ini files and modify something there. Do you know anything about that?

 

Maybe it is a matter of getting used to, maybe it is a matter of specific cars, but I think that iR lacks of "dance" too. Maybe I think so because I drove Skip Barber lately and it is dead to me. I actually liked Miata and RallyCross Beatle.

I am starting to feel like I will not make it three months with iR, as I am barely racing already. Though there aren't much really good combos and modding for AC takes most of the free time. Lotus 49 would be cool, but for some reason C grade doesn't come so easy. For some reason close fights doesn't last. Feels like a lot of times simracers preffers to "stay alone". On the other hand those who are focusing on iRating, will not mind to do little tricks on you (and yes of course it is never my fault lol). Seems like iRacing, unlike AC with MINORATING, doesn't promote close racing.

By the way, can someone explain how braking works in iR ? At least with Skip barber, feels like it doesn't feel. Trail braking really seems not to be a thing. Everyone keeps just catching me on braking. Don't you trail brake in iR, or what ?

 

Removing price, iRacing isn't a bad SIM. Graphics and physics are good, and the simulation of cars are very good as well. No punts, no disrespect, and no jokes. iRacing attempted to simulate the MP4-30, a broken car before it was scanned. Don't expect too much out of the SIM version. Because it always broke when it was being raced. So iRacing did a very good job there. Comparing that to the 2017 Ferrari, it must be a joke comparison just to fire some shots... Oh, before someone says I am a iR fanboi, I am in the same situation as OP. Was there once but not anymore...

 

How?

 

On my T300 with linear mode on the wheel feels dead and numb and boring. With it off the while is lively and fun and informative. Whether that's the "correct" way or not I don't know, I just know I really hate the FFB with linear mode on.

I swear you have the exact opposite experiences I do. I just bought the Skippy last week and it's probably my favorite car in all of sim racing, it's so lively and real feeling, I absolutely love it! And I can trail brake in it all day long. And pretty much every race I do I have very close, exciting competition that lasts from the green flag to the checkers, it's awesome, best racing I've had in ages. And you can easily get to your C license in 4 races so I'm not sure why you're having a problem getting there.

 

Far from numb in my case with linear mode enabled, using 75% force in TM control panel. In fact it felt too strong/sharp in terms of feeling small bumps/vibrations when just driving straight with Spec Ford Racer (nothing like that I experienced in AC for example), with Mazda Cup ffb is less strong so increasing gain to 20 makes it pretty good across different driving situations (straight vs cornering). T300 has inbuilt compression, disabling linear mode adds even more compression, which makes ffb force variation across different loads less noticeable, without linear mode it feels just like a strong spring, thought that can help those who don't have good control of oversteer in iracing.

 

Yeah, that's like the exact opposite of what I get on my T300. With linear mode on there's no detail and just feels like a generic spring in the turns, with it off I can feel a lot more detail and information from what the car is doing. Weird.

 

Its been a few months since I'd driven iRacing, checked out the Ford GT GT3 and the front tyres are still clipping through the fenders, I reported this issue in the iR forum months ago. AC has more than double the cars that iR has yet Kunos has managed to resolve issues such as this. Utterly amazing that the Ford GT GT3 costs 10 euros which is the more than price of an AC DLC yet iR can't be bothered to fix basic issues such as this ? Absolutely ridiculous ! SMH

 

It's an old car that people probably won't bother buying anymore, probably doesn't make sense to put any effort into fixing it. Plus it's only a visual thing, doesn't have any effect on how the car drives or races. I'm sure AC cars are not 100% free of visual anomalies.

 

My point being, considering the monthly fee and the price of each car and track, iR QA should be much better. The age of the car is irrelevant, if its for sale it should be fixed.

Also oddball stuff like a foreground tree being overlapped back a background tree at Sebring as well as this cone which is partially submerged in the pavement. There is better QA in scratch built mod tracks that are free.

 

I guess I'm having too much fun fighting for the lead to notice or care about such things. To each their own.

 

Optimal braking is when the pedal is about halfway, and yes trail-braking is definitely a thing. Best to ask these questions int he skip forum, there's plenty people who will help you out.

 

The skippy is dead to you?? How! It's such a lively car. I always have crazy crazy good, close racing in the skippy... and I spend more time sideways in it than I should
Watch a few minutes of this race from Matt Malone, it's close racing through the whole thing - and pretty dang awesome, IMO (you can skip to like 16:00 in the video to watch the meat of the battle):


And definitely trail brake in the skippy. You use it to help the car turn. What exactly are you having trouble brake with respect to trail braking? The rear coming around?

Are you guys using any "spring" setting in your wheel control panel? I'm wondering if that's contributing here.... I keep my "spring" and "damper" at 0 and linear mode feels great with my TS-PC Racer.

These are your reasons? Really? By this logic, I can similarly claim: "SMH! Assetto Corsa is terrible! I can't switch from my TV speakers to my headphones without changing the drivers and then exiting and re-entering the track! What terrible implementation! You'd think for a game that costs $30 they'd have a better user interface than this! Absolutely ridiculous! SMH!"

Quite prejudiced, IMO.

 

I'm gonna copy/paste something I posted in response to a question on the iRacing forums here. I use a TS-PC Racer, hope this helps:

"Sorry for the massive paragraph below. There's no one specific set of settings in irFFB that will work for every person, and certainly not one set that works in every car, but I have done my best to explain each and give a range for where I typically set things. The Thrustmaster control panel settings can be set once and then forgotten, no need to make adjustments there.

Thrustmaster control panel:
Overall Strength: 90%
Constant: 100%
Periodic: 100%
Spring: 0%
Damper: 0%

irFFB:
FFB type: 60Hz Direct Filtered
Min Force: Anywhere from 0-6. Depends on the car. For example, I use a value of 5 in the Porsche Cup, but 2 or so in the Pro Mazda. I use this setting to dial out some of the lightness you get near center, which helps with feeling grip in initial turn in as well as feeling rear grip when accelerating out of corners.
Max Force:(remember that a lower value here means more force) Again depends on the car, as well as your other settings (Suspension Load and SoP intensity will significantly affect where this should be set). I've used everything from 18-40 or so. In the Porsche Cup, I use 24 Nm (with Suspension Bumps, Suspension Load, and SoP all set to 1). On ovals (in any car), this value will need to be turned up a fair amount to not get clipping. I recommend finding suspension effect settings that you like for each car, and then finding a Max Force value that works with those. I'll typically start somewhere 25-30 and work my way up or down from there.
A key note about Max Force - if you have your suspension effects all set to 0, irFFB won't register any clipping. If you want to run with suspension effects set to 0, I recommend calibrating this value first with Suspension Load and/or SoP set to 1, and then turning them off once you find a Max Force value that works. You may be able to reduce the Max Force value by a click or two after turning the suspension settings off.
Suspension Bumps: Depends on the car and personal preference. Some people like to feel a LOT of bumps. I like my bumps to be more nuanced - I want them to be informative, but not overwhelming. I'll set this anywhere from 1-20, but I'm usually between 1-10... and tbh, even more accurately, I'm probably usually between 1-5. In the Global Mazda Cup I know that I set this somewhere 15-20, because it wasn't strong enough otherwise, but that car is an outlier. As stated above, in the Porsche Cup, I run this at 1. 1 in the Pro Mazda too. Just depends on how much you want to feel the bumps - it can be immersive, but also can adversely affect your ability to control the car if you hit curbing wrong. I try to find a balance between immersive and control.
Suspension Load: This is a tough one. In some cars I can't stand the way this feels, and keep it at 0. In others, I feel like setting this somewhere 1-5 adds a lot of feeling to the car. Typically, I run this 1-2, and usually at just 1. Turning this up makes the peak forces of the wheel stronger, which means you need a higher Max Force value, which means the smaller forces get sort of missed. So I like to barely have it on so that I can run a low Max Force value. Some people swear by this setting and turn it up to like 20.... I find that's way too much. Less is more here, in my opinion. As stated above, I run this at 1 in the Porsche Cup, but I run at 0 in the Pro Mazda.
SoP: This is the second biggest boon of using irFFB, next to the smoothness, IMO. This is the setting that really allows you to feel the rear moving around. BUT - if you turn this up too much, the car can feel like it's trying to kill you. For example, in the Porsche Cup, you drive with a little bit of rear movement to get the max out of the car. Think Turn 3 of Interlagos (Curva do Sol) - the rear will be moving out just a little bit as you run out to the outside curbing following the turn. With no SoP effect, this can be hard to feel - you sense it happening more due to visual and auditory cues than FFB. With SoP effect just right, you can feel the rear sliding out a little by the wheel wanting to turn right slightly. It's subtle, but noticeable, and you're still in control. Having this set right really lets you drive the car on throttle with a nice feel for how much slip angle the car can take. If you turn this up too high, the car will give a STRONG sensation of feeling like it's going to spin as soon as the rear steps out even slightly, because the wheel will REALLY forcefully and abruptly try to yank to the right. So you'll be able to catch the movement the instant it starts to happen, but it's extraordinarily difficult to drive the car on throttle this way. And, if you do end up kicking the rear out accidentally, the wheel is really, really heavy to pull back after counter-steering. So a nice middle ground is important here. I usually start with this at 1-3, and see how I feel doing laps. If I need more information about what the rear is doing, I might turn this up to 5 or so. Maybe more in certain cars where I haven't done a huge amount of testing. If I'm feeling like the car wants to snap oversteer when the rear starts to move, I know that might be because this setting is too high, so I'll turn it down before I make any setup tweaks. In the Porsche, I run this at 1.
Increased longitudinal weight transfer: Unchecked. There are a few cars where I think this setting feels okay, but I actually lose pace with it checked. It's basically the same as increasing Suspension Load, as far as I can tell. If you tend to under-drive cars rather than over-drive them, maybe experiment with this. With this checked, Max Force will need to be turned up.
Use 360Hz telemetry: Checked
Use car specific settings: Checked
Reduce force when parked: Checked

Hopefully this is helpful. As I sort of outlined above, I think less is more when it comes to irFFB. Suspension effects are best when they're more subtle, with Max Force turned up as much as possible (i.e., the lowest number value possible without clipping). A general starting point to tune cars from might be something like this:

Min Force: 3
Max Force: 27
Suspension Bumps: 3
Suspension Load: 2
SoP: 2
Increased longitudinal weight transfer: Unchecked
Use 360Hz telemetry: Checked
Use car specific settings: Checked
Reduce force when parked: Checked

But tweaking to taste, and per car, is key.

Let me know if I can help answer questions or anything like that, happy to help."

 

The Skippy is a fun car, but, its road tyres rather feel like slick tyres. Frankly, i'd expect road tyres to have less grip, and that it's much more slippy, and that you drift much more than the Skippy in iR actually does. Drive the one in rF 2 (not saying that it's super accurate there, still), and compare. It requires much more "on the gas pedal" driving, which should be more like it for the Skippy, if you ask real world drivers driving the car. iR in my opinion has some real issues, even in the basics of tyre simulation, which can be quite a game breaker, if you have some demands in that regard.

 

I totally agree, the tire physics need a lot of improvement over the limit. I think the on-the-limit tire physics are nice though. I also agree that the skippy doesn’t drive the way I think it would IRL, and you need to approach it differently as a result.

I tend to want to over-drive cars, which you can’t do in iRacing, so my many hours in iR have given me much better throttle control and I’m a better driver overall for it. But yeah, I am hoping the new tire model gives better control and actually some driveability over the limit. Maybe a long shot, but I can hope!