When I recalibrated my T-Lcm Pedals specifically for AMS2 it became wow again; settings included

Can someone tell me if braking improved in the past 3 or so months? Just did my pedals again and the difference in control is astounding. People who say the game is no good are lying or angling for special treatment.

Maybe braking is holding you back from driving even better but you did not know it? No matter your set up maybe you thought something was missing? Overshooting corners? Brakes squealing and lacking fine precision and control? Maybe you are cooking and wearing out your tires too much like I was, and wondering if I was ahead of the skill needed, or my skill was ahead of my equipment.

One of the best advantages to having decent pedals is the braking and acceleration aspects of the game become a lot easier and more defined. What if you did not set it up best/specifically for AMS2?

Like the title says I was messing with it a while back and changed things for another title and at the time it worked fine with AMS2, but I figured I would redo it. Little did I know I was over breaking at the start of a turn by maybe 15 or 20% these last few patches and under braking by its end.

tsk tsk. I could have also calibrated it in game too. Had not done that in ages.

As I have become a better driver I can obtain higher precision.

Now I can apply the right amount of pressure, if only I had done this several weeks ago.

In the calibration software I have exact same cut off zone at bottom - 2.5, 2.3, 2.4 (as close as you can get) for clutch, brake and gas respectively. Thats for the lower zone. For the high zone on clutch its at 88; this is important so you can properly drop it like in life. The bite I like is at the end of travel. For acceleration its 98, you may like 95? But note that the bottom and top values are literally exactly the same. I keep that at 98 so as to get the most travel out of it and its nice having a small suddenness to acceleration, to keep it as linear as possible to the braking. Whatever you like its only 3 points.

Now the brake sensitivity and the springs. Brake force is 80 and you adjust that in the calibration software down the bottom of the window, its a horizontal slider. It used to be 70 and that was just wrong.

For the springs I do NOT use 2 reds - I use one red spring down the bottom, the normal silver spring in the middle without any washers, and one black spring at the top. If you want red, you will have to adjust the sensitivity so when you press it down, you can have as much travel in the brakes as possible (for t-lcm the travel is not huge anyway, so I chose medium stiffness) and the purple bar in the software gets to the 100% mark without inordinate amounts of braking force needed. But set it per taste. You want to be applying the brakes in game so you can stop or slow down with precision. You will want to be able to get maximum force without sliding or overcooking your brakes.

Hit apply then unplug and replug the pedals. Now in the game recalibrate the pedals.

I do not think one should use two red springs unless you are a weight lifter, because precision can be had with the black and red plus silver middle, and its faster to go from really hard to soft, and I also know that with such springs and no washers, a setting of 80 sensitivity is almost ideal. I would think with these pedals if you had a totally controllable setup that needed sensitivity at 100 (or 1:1 ratio of input to output; which means the purple bar [actual perceived output] versus real brake pressure [green bar] would go up at the same speed. With 80% it allows you to apply hard pressure, without needing to slam down the pedals, and be within linear reach enough, but not too forgiving, or softer inputs.

Lets face it - these are decent load cell pedals, but they are not the best; and its better to take advantage of the recovery, too stiff and they lose their charm and become overly difficult with their limited travel, too light and its like why did you bother getting them... the middle ground where precision is like above is how I suggest setting them up.

But anyway the big take away is to calibrate your pedals no matter which ones you have or how heavy your legs are. High speed braking control is not to be taken lightly.

 

Just chuckling a bit at the weight lifter comment because I am not a particularly strongly built person (although before the pandemic I did walk a lot and do some running too) and I use two red springs and all the preload washers (actually I added an extra washer yesterday) in the silver spring. And I race in thin socks!

But your points on setting it up to suit your own abilities are good advice

 

Lots to discuss haha but I basically can't find my second red spring any more. Its possible I threw it out. I did have double red in there once but didn't like how it went with pre load and I didn't really bother playing round with the washers too much. And at that time playing so many titles its possible I calibrated it all wrong - or its possible the game has improved since this time last year with braking - now weights of cars and drivelines etc changed so much, inertia etc.

Thats the one thing I would do now. Go to the hardware and get more washers, as I like how it is without the preload flex, but the travel distance is less.

Its all tied down to a steel frame with the wheelbase on top so I could do the extra spring if I had it, but this is ideal for my setup all the same (even if maybe the red+red is a technical increase in improvement)

The biggest change I made was the sensitivity in the brake calibration software from 70 to 80, and recalibration in game. So I am not sure people are aware that 3 calibrations are needed to get the best out of the pedals.

Another reason I like it like this is that with the FFB side to side its got a nice weight to it, and now forward and backwards with acceleration and braking has the same kind of weight and/or throw about it - so I like how nothing jumps out. So if anyone is going to try one red and one black (default), its still about 80kgs of weight but not 100. I do not play in shoes or socks I just wash my feet haha. So with the brakes being like that it feels like nothing is sticking out in terms of immersion. The modularity is still increased for braking, and it means obviously with less speed loss you can be adding speed...before I was braking too hard slightly into turns and too soft sometimes out, over correcting. I was still doing decent times but now its just easier to obtain the same or better times. Its also more fun. So the pressure needed is linear and to get to the load cell and load it up by harder presses, its probably going to feel a little closer than when you set the springs to double red. The center silver spring I find slightly too spongy, but since I do not have the washers anymore (which I did not like the feel anyway of all that), its not a problem for me. The most important thing is calibration and having the full range and pressure-adding ability to get the brakes behaving good all round. So driving is more certain and can push it more.

A good car to try it all out with is probably the v10 gen 2 non retro one.

The reason I am highlighting this is, how it drives and brakes now, one really wonders if youtubers or people in general are staying on top of calibration etc, because it can make a massive difference to the impression of something - for example, the car above, all cars, you can really hustle and brake them and put them where you want, I am not sure other games have such nuance. I will definitely try another sim or two right now BUT I bet that they don't move as freely and have the range of movement than AMS2 allows. That v10 gen 2 really has a sideways heft and weight to it, with the custom 41 FFB anyway, and now the braking has been brought in line with it and acceleration by extension.

Its feeling more like a car than any other sim. This is more in line with how it should be; drive your own car down the road and you will notice that it doesn't magically pull itself up or gently nudge you into a turn, etc, like some sims seem to want to make you drive on the best line or something.

Just note that in games like ACC people need to decrease the traction control in GT3 cars to get the same kind of feeling as in AMS2 and set up the AMS2 car soundly.

When people talk about ACC having light braking and FFB, they do not take into consideration they might have TC set to 7-10. Its taking away a lot of the feel. I personally always set my cars in AMS2 where possible to have less traction control than more. If the AMG has a value of 40% in AMS2, then changing that to TC level 2 or 3, possibly 4, but 3 was tested, is pretty close to the feel in AMS2.

For me its ok as I know the difference - I am just wondering how many people out there compare the games, etc but never can give (through no real fault of their own) an apples to apples comparison as bad/dissimilar as that is already due to two different game engines.

Of course I have been racing the AMG with traction control 100% (means off/allows slip) and ABS brakes 0%. This is why the AMG in ACC with its TC 3 or 4 but not 7 went so well and compared favorably. In AMS2 with it all off makes for some good driving and braking ha at imola modern, felt really good to drive and brake with.

- also tried retro gen1 f1 the top car. the 1000 HP ones with 5 gears. holy wow

 

I recently switched from the T3PA pedals to the T-LCM and the difference is astonishing. In general, I usually don't lock up the brakes anymore in non-ABS cars and braking in general is more precise. I use the the default springs (black/grey) and don't think that I need to switch to the red ones. I can't remember which settings I use in the TM calibration app but I didn't really mess with it a lot. I have a very small dead zone at the beginning and at the end and can't remember the brake force setting but I believe it is around 70? I'll try some other settings next time around.

 

Apologies for the thread bump, but I just got the T-LCM pedals, and this looks relevant!

Can I ask, what should Brake Sensitivity be set to in-game, for these pedals? I've seen another thread with a post that suggests 50 is linear, which should be correct for load cell pedals, but I can't find a definitive answer. I'm new to load cell pedals and any advice would be hugely appreciated

 

Hi, I have 50% as sensitivity in all three pedals, as it should be the linear curve. No problems whatsoever with the TLC-M configured like that.

 

Hi Fernando, I have set to 50%, thank you very much for your reply. I think it will take me a good while to adjust after coming from T3PA to T-LCM but it's all fun

 

The calibration settings are going to be different for each person for sure. That's why a such thing as calibration software exists so you can tailor it to your liking. Some people are more heavy footed than others and vice versa. As long as you dial them in to your feeling you're doing it right.

 

Can I just add that seating position is related to settings too . I recently upgraded to a GT omega prime cockpit from a wheel / pedal stand and can comfortably put approx 30% more force through the brake pedal now .
With my previous seating position I was pushing in a more downward angle and kind of lifting my own weight , now the force is pushing laterally through my leg and back and into the backrest of the seat .
I've had to replace the red springs with solid rubber washers and increase the brake force settings to 90 in the Thrustmaster setup tool . Feels great actually and really happy with the results .

 

I've been through a few spring combos and several brake force settings on mine. I now run the black and gray springs plus a barrel bushing. Brake force at 97 gives me about 75% brake when the springs fully compress. I'm also running stiffer throttle and clutch springs.

 

You're welcome. Yep, it takes a little to adjust to load cell brakes, but it feels so natural that you will be doing better lap times and, more important, having a lot more consistency very soon, you just have to find your sweet spot playing with the control panel settings and trying different springs/washers combinations on the hardware.

There's no go back for me after trying load cell brakes, even with this entry level TM kit