Gamepad Support - Analysis, Suggestions, Wishes

The handling itself with the controller is very good, the best of the simulators. I don't like AMS1, rFactor 2, AC or ACC with controller.

With gamepad I feel the control of the car and I am close to the fast people with steering wheel.

What is missing is to improve the vibration both on curbs (because half of the curbs in the circuits are not felt) and on the asphalt in general.

 

Agreed, its the vibration and rumble effect that needs to be implemented fully, hopefully its not much of an issue and can be fully rectified.

 

I'm the opposite, I think all the games you listed are way better than AMS2 in terms of controller support, they're way more responsive than AMS2. They work great with precision steering but might be more difficult to play for people who use tap steering. In AMS2 there's always this feeling of some built-in filter that cannot be turned of and slows down my inputs.
That's why I'm in favor of Reiza including more options for controller settings, so that the game will be fun to play for everybody regardless of their driving style. DxAce helps a bit but it still doesn't work as well as in AMS1.

Afaik every single person in Reiza's development team is a wheel player, so I wouldn't expect improvements to controller support anytime soon.

 

Given how good the gamepad implementation is in ACC now, I'm willing to bet https://assettocorsa.gg/assetto-corsa-evo/ will be just as good on gamepad out the gate.

 

Mmm I hope so, I found original AC pretty ropey on controller, ACC for me was definitely better so hopefully they are heading in the right direction. If a title is to enjoy widespread appeal (and success) good gamepad support is a fundamental.
I still think GT7 (and the whole series) is the gold standard here, far better than ACC.

 

As a new game pad user, I’ve read all 16 pages here but I’m still struggling to understand some of the basic concepts of the controller settings.

Is there any chance that someone could post what they think are reasonable settings for a Xbox controller user for AMS2 in its current state? Even more interesting would be a simple explanation of what some of the sliders actually do so that I can knowledgeably change the settings to achieve the feel I’m after.

Thanks in advance.

 

This is what I'm using currently with the Xbox controller on another PC to my main one, I was testing it out this afternoon and it works quite well for me. What I find though is that some cars need a bit less/extra steering sensitivity depending how they drive. GT4s, GT5s, Formula Junior, Sprintcar, all work pretty well with these settings. The F1 cars are a bit too quick for me on a pad, I'm not very good with one tbh, but anything with more grip than grunt is fine for my skills.

 

"Reasonable settings" depends on your driving style.
Do you use any assists? Do you use precision steering or tap steering? Do you use custom car setups?
Generally precision steering works better with higher sensitivity settings, lower speed sensitivity and lower controller damping settings, and minimum deadzones. On the other hand tap steering works better with higher speed sensitivity and higher controller damping settings, lower sensitivity settings, and maybe some deadzones.

My suggestion is to start with all deadzones at 0, all sensitivity at 50, controller damping at 50, then work from there.
If there's any drift in your analog sticks put some steering deadzone to remove the drift.
If steering is too twitchy overall you can try increasing controller damping, or decrease steering sensitivity. If steering feels too sensitive on high speed turns increase speed sensitivity.
If steering is not sensitive enough start by lowering controller damping (even at 0 there's always some filtering when using controller that slows down inputs). If it still isn't sensitive enough overall increase steering sensitivity. If it isn't responsive enough at high speed decrease speed sensitivity.
Also, you might want to check steering lock in car setup. For tight turns like the hairpin at Monaco or the last turn at Long Beach you might need higher steering lock, if car is too twitchy you might want to try lowering steering lock.

My settings work well for precision steering but might not work so well for tap steering.

 

I think a lot depends on your skill level and what kind of player (tapper/precision) you are. I'd say I was pretty clumsy on a pad so I try to recreate a more accessible experience - auto gears, ABS/TC/SC on, low AI skill etc and I have to say AMS2 is really enjoyable like that. I do the full sim experience with my wheel on the main PC, but AMS2 is so satisfying on the Steam Deck played in that more simplified way, because the underlying physics still shines through and you rarely get that feeling in games that are built from the ground up in a more arcadey/simcadey way, so they aren't anywhere near as satisfying to drive.

 

Thanks all, I’ll digest and see where I end up…

 

I've spent some time this afternoon trying to get to the bottom of how the pad control is implemented. Like FS7 says, there is some filtering even when it's set to zero, but what I think is the problem is not filtering/smoothing per se, but how it works in Madness. It's more of a delay than a smoothing effect, so very fine movements around centre are really difficult to control. If you imagine the two or three degrees around centre, there's little control or movement at all as you move the stick, then just past that it kind of jumps to the steering angle. At first I thought it was to do with deadzones, but with them down to zero the issue persists.
I think smoothing is desirable, especially for those large quick movements, but it's getting in the way fore more precise fine control.
In GT7, you have extremely precise control over this first few degrees, but it is damped and smoothed at the same time and it gives great control and confidence.
I've started from scratch with settings, exploring what all the extremes do and I'm convinced that this one thing is the source of that niggling feeling that something is just a bit off.

 

That input delay can be a real pita in some situations. If I move the analog stick slowly it's not that big of a deal, but whenever I need to make quick small corrections the input delay is very noticeable. I've lost count of how many times I'm racing against AI, AI does something unexpected, and I can't avoid a crash because of that input delay. The faster the car the more annoying the input delay becomes.
Maybe the input delay isn't noticeable for people using tap steering but it's noticeable when using precision steering.

 

Some really useful inputs here! @FS7 is basically an expert on the topic
I agree with Mr. Hargreaves' comments, despite those issues AMS2 provides the best gamepad experience out there. In my case, I have a custom wheel "powered by vJoy™" that the sim seems to think it's a gamepad given the steering delay (no matter which controller profile is selected).

 

Gotta give credit do @Dicra as well, since I learned some stuff about gamepad settings from his posts, and his laptimes are faster than mine.

 

Steering sensitivity doesn't really affect car handling as you would believe when reading the term. It's more of a scaling setting: If you have steering sensitivity on 50, your inputs will be exactly linear (50% pushed stick=50% turn-in). Putting it to 0 will push that curve backwards so to speak, meaning low sensitivity to slight taps but significantly more steering in later areas (30% pushed stick=~10% turn-in, 80% pushed stick~70% turn-in, to give some arbitrary values). Putting it very high will mean you get full turn-in with very slight inputs.

Imo the setting range that makes any sense for this particular one is something between 30 and 50 (maybe even lower if you want the car to be less responsive to light taps). I don't actually know if at some point it starts to take away steering range if you set sensitivity too low.

What this shouldn't affect is steering speed and the steering range available, which are the two things that are more important to giving yourself more steering opportunities when driving the car.

I'd redirect you to @FS7 's post concerning these, with the addendum that very high speed sensitivity (above ~85) will destroy you ability to turn in through tight hairpins. You can compensate that with steering lock in the car setup, as FS7 said, but not recommended, because this makes the entire car more sensitive to input.

@Coanda This is by the way why the reworked UI needs descriptions for the pad settings.

 

Ive set my Xbox controller up as a Legacy Wheel, must admit it work's quite good too, unsure if it is good for anyone else, but this is my settings.

 

I have my controller setup as custom wheel + DxAce, it works better than the default settings imo.