Automobilista 2 Custom Force Feedback - Overview & Recommendations

I had a strange experience last night when running AMS2...

I jumped in to an online lobby in the p3 Roco. When I went on track the FFB felt really weak. At first I thought it was the car, as I hadn’t used it with the new RF files, so I tried adjusting the in car gain to 120%, but it didn’t really help.

When the race was done, I shut down the game and deleted the AMS2 folder. After reconfiguring all my settings, I tried driving again, and the ffb came back to normal.

I don’t know if this is related to using a custom file, I will report this properly as a bug (I haven’t checked to see if other users have reported it yet), but I thought I’d mention it here, because it made me think of the discussion about weak ffb with @OMiT.

If you are finding the AMS2 ffb very weak, I would suggest deleting the documents/Automobilista 2 folder (you can copy your graphics and ffb files, but you will need to reconfigure most settings, and you will loose car setups etc).

Hope this is useful to someone.

 

There have been a few people complaining about losing FFB in the past week or so, across multiple wheel bases (anything from DD1 to G29). Seems odd given that nothing really changed with the FFB. I wonder if the recent Windows 10 update is playing some havoc on people's peripherals, although I don't understand why only AMS2 would be affected.

 

The fact that the ffb was there, but just very light combined with the fact that deleting the folder resolved it, makes me think it’s the game, but with so many variables, I can’t be sure it’s not a Windows issue (or firmware etc). My Windows install recently did some updates, so that would fit from a timeline perspective.

 

this happened to me between sessions once, at race start unfortunately. FFB suddenly became very light. Well it turned out, ams2 decided to de-calibrate my wheel, puting rotation out of sync. As soon as i manually set DD1 rotation to 450 degrees it immediately fixed itself. Im not sure if that could be an issue for others too.

 

Ah that’s interesting. On reflection, I probably should have tried recalibrating the wheel before deleting the folder (I had to do this after deleting the folder anyway).

 

I had some weird things happening tonight, was like the wheel was a constant pressure. And had some graphics issues and camera changes to bumper cam by default ?

 

lol the bumper cam issue at start of race is still there? I think I saw that a year ago

 

Hi everyone, tried the latest file rFuktor 3.2 and though it feels great, had to make some tweaks for my csw 2.5.
Lowering tyre resistance timing, raising the rack and a few other changes has made all the cars I tried nicely balanced, I haven't felt the need to change anything when swapping between them which is ideal for me!
Great work again @Karsten Hvidberg @Shadak @Panos Schoino
Thought i'd leave it here if anyone wants to try it.
my game settings are 60/50/60/25

 

@Alegunner68 What on wheel settings do you have?

 

Sen aut, ff 100, for 100, dri -2, brf 50, fei 50, everything else off I think.
I see there was a new driver released in January, might try it later.

 

Yeah I don’t think I’ve seen it for along time, but it’s done last couple of days on cold start.

 

I had the "wheel go weak" event, then backed out of lobby, went to re-join, and then stuck in pits, no control of game at all. Had to re-start PC.
This is by far the most annoying random bug, and if it doesn't get solved in the near future, it's going to continue to put a clamp on Multi-Player league racing in AMS2.
When this happens, I hear the other drivers say, "Let's take same car and track in another SIM, this isn't ready yet"
One year anniversary is coming up shortly, and if at all possible, it would be nice to claim that AMS2 is ready for prime time racing.

 

Trying alehouse settings but on a non changed file and on a tx. I didn't mind it but felt as per previous scientific experiments lfb was too vibration-inducing. A slightly smoother but still vibration-present setup for me was gain at 100, lfb at 0, fx at 50-60 (mine was today 60) and damping today I used 70 with the 3.2 file and it was really good.

Its possible a middle of the road lfb setting may be beneficial, but all those vibrations I had previously were brought out in a mode 'dynamic?' yes, fashion than just the raw lfb.

So it may be possible for someone now to put lfb on or on low, on such wheels - but gain at higher and dampening up so turning is not so hard (50 was the point needed for last file), will make it work.

The detail in the center and over the wheel/road with this file is better, seemingly. I am not sure I like the exaggerated back of the car, maybe it will be better if the game further supports that.

However. Assetto Corsa its not a vague back end in that title, and it makes the front solid through FFB, so the whole car is driven on the feel of the front/where you put the tires/where to turn the wheel, and if you go too far in that title it spins the car off balance and you feel the center behavior alter. Maybe not the worlds most realistic interpretation but for actual driving - like in raceroom, its the most clear-cut type of indication.

I feel as though AMS2 is more about feel. The turn it to the apex vision in my brain (maybe vr is different) is not as defined. And I think AMS2 is more vague in terms of 'absolute' feedback. But its not because the feedback file is bad, it seems, maybe not as honed all over. Not sure.

In saying that its hard to say its worse in absolute terms, because AMS2 seems to definitely be more sophisticated in the model. I.e if you take the excellent skills to bring about a result on both sides, its almost like in AC they only want you on the line. Not too sure. But its more limited in that regard.

Impressions done with ginetta p1 type at Brands Hatch. AC last drive was audi r8 LMS/ultra something, at Bridgehampton and driving really fast, and Mugello, so they were top tier combinations.

Notes: I did not change file, I prior used alehouse in game settings along with ACorsa test>> maybe rear wheels impact on steering front is too much by 25% not sure. Have not fully felt wheel slip yet for an impression, but am going that fast to see and so it seems its really good/ fits in well. That part of the sim I can tell. Which is maybe why the torque thing I suggested same. But my testing is limited. Apart then in the bias if so, I prefer it less, maybe I could get used to it and go better, as its not too bad.

What is certain is that I pretty much like it. And further tweaking as the foundation is solid, file said that and I believe it true, is to just adjust damping up and down probably, 75, 65 maybe. Usually 50 I am going to guess for probably open wheelers. May be then gain could become 90 instead of 100

- Wound up at 100 gain (it can do it and should always do it, this is a tx level)
- 50 damping (unchanged from ver 3.0)
- 0 LFB its not needed. Ever for tx level belts, I mean it can be used just not needed
- 60 fx - in this version 3.2 I can tell there's more fine grain to be had, and its why lfb could have went up (uneeded), and the graph is sufficiently busy and buzzy, kept high, detailed enough. And no clipping.

The last thing I want with lfb, which it does, is make smooth enough roads feel like gravel. Sure the suspension is not made for comfort, but its not that bad. So I just wonder, its like an old playstation rumble controller when you use it or something. Its blunt.

edit: so I also went back and did the gt3 porsche at brands and the above settings its really great, so as I probably said elsewhere some top tier simming

 

Interesting you mention the front feel. I've thought for a long time now that a lot of cars lack front tyres bite especially during longitudinal weight transfer (compared to certain other games and RL race cars). And maybe some of the pronounced understeer and possible LSD issues in some cars could be connected to this as well. To an extent it gets better with setup changes but some of them need to be unrealistically extreme to remediate this...

 

I think you detail it out further there. Thats it. Its that bite. We used to get it when grip went and came back on, a kind of bite, and we get it after spinning out, but its never just there 'on tap' waiting to be poured like a beer.

I have found that strange too; maybe thats whats missing a lot.

 

@Stakanov

Just thought I'd let you know that your file is brill. I run 70 gain and have lowered fx to around 40 to minimise the logi rattle. I have dampening on 40 as I like a quite heavy wheel. The way your file loads up the forces in cornering is brilliant and I can also feel rear traction coming out of corners. The only thing I would like is a tighter center as I still have a small dead zone which can make going straight sometimes tricky. I'm still adjusting lfb to try deal with this. At the mo I'm at 75 for lfb but may go up another 5.

Thanks for all the work by all, the ffb in Ams2 is really hi def

 

Hey Gazzawesty,
thank you very much for the feedback .... and all thanks to Karsten and C. ....

- on FX I have nothing to advise you because it is an exclusively subjective voice.

- about the damping I remind you that, from Karsten's file post version 3.0, the cursor no longer manages the damping but the "power steering", so if you modified you don't dampen but you lower or higher the power_steering ... I wouldn't want this to take you out street.

- If you want an even center you can raise the LFB slider but watch out for values higher than 50-60 returns a bit of elastic effect that makes you swing the steering wheel with the most swaying cars .... or, alternatively you can try to set the first and/or second voice of the tighten as I set them before v.32 that is:
"(tighten_range 0.10)" .... not 0.05
and/or
(tighten_falloff 0.0100) ... not 0.0050
and/or
"center_full 0.5)" ... not 0.4

- Regarding the Gain, even 70 or 75 could be fine but watch out for clipping mostly with cars with high downforce such as F. Reiza, F. V10 Gen 2, etc...

Thanks again for the feedback ..... I hope to fix these anomalies with the next files

 

As Stakanov says, damping is now powersteering
Which actually makes the effect of the slider opposite, but correct when you think of it as powersteering "assistance". So higher number makes things not eas heavy after inital tyre loading, or rather, it evens out forces between steering angles. Lower damping slider will make the top end of torque heavier (the more you turn your physical wheel, the heavier it gets), higher numbers make it more even but then you might want to increase the overall gain a bit to compensate.

 

Good call on the tighten range @Stakanov , I'll give that a go next time I'm on.
When I played on Saturday it felt great throughout the steering range, but on Sunday it felt a bit lacking on initial turn in, a bit numb and lifeless.

 

Yeah I still run the tightening as I feel it does the better job on straights etc and avoids using high LFB which can make things a bit springy.
I’m still tweaking and have been experimenting with some things from your tune like timings etc, But haven’t come to any conclusions yet, you know how it is, feels great one minute then next time it’s just not really what you remember.
I’ve also been running lower and different stretch feel values, with a slight bias towards the front tyres rather than equal between front and rear. As in normal situations you don’t get the rear tyres feels through wheel. So generally trying to make SOP feedback more subtle.
This is all just fine tuning and isn’t meaning there’s problems in file, and Default tune is still excellent.