Gamepad Support - Analysis, Suggestions, Wishes

All that is missing for me are tyre and track bump vibrations, ACCs gamepad settings are sublime and if Reiza can replicate the same vibration settings i would be so made up.

Doesnt stop me from playing AMS2, i have over 400 hours so Reiza are doing something right, the 2002 Beamer and C3r are my go to cars since the last update

 

I would reinstall AMS2 this weekend. Major physics updates to all cars and free weekend of USA DLC. I'm able to drive a 90's Indycar around Long Beach on gamepad. I wouldn't say its perfect but great fun and very playable now.

 

The problem is settings and input. If ME won't change it will be always the same. The fix is easy. It's very playable but hardly after much better games.

 

I played Horizon 5 for about 300 hours and then I thought it's time to revisit ME games. It's a good idea because Forza never had precise controls. And it's awesome. I am currently able to enjoy ME games without problems.

Another thing I found is damping (IIRC) in settings is steering rate. I always had 0 but if you like lower rate you can add some value. That's great because PC1 had just 3 options for it.

So current problems are mostly filters (input lag) and linear steering. That should be easily tuned.

 

I've been posting videos of myself playing racing sims with my Xbox 360 controller on my Youtube channel, there are some videos of AMS2, I've been enjoying it, but when I play games such as rF1 & AMS1 I can notice the difference and how in those games controller feels more responsive.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FS7kills/videos

 

Exactly, that's the problem. I don't play AMS1 or rF2 for now. Because of H5 I have tolerance for filtering and ME feels rather good then. It's funny how PC1 is still the best ME game on a gamepad because of low input lag. Most casuals hate PC1 steering.

 

So, what are the plans? ME games are probably the worst gamepad sims because everything else is the same and better. AC/ACC has it's own settings which is consistent with other games. R3E has most settings. AMS1/rF2 has same settings. I can switch between almost all games and have completely same steering. ME games are the only different ones. AMS2 is losing gamepad users...

 

There is basically no input lag in AMS2. The hard thing is getting rid of the stupid deadzone, because the game seems to have several bugs which lead to player settings not being saved. Whenever I delete my documents folder, I have to spend several hours in order to trick the game into giving me steering without deadzone, but it is possible.

 

I'll have to disagree on that. In my experience using a Microsoft Xbox 360 wired controller there's a pretty noticeable delay in steering input.
While in AMS1 I have very responsive controls and can steer either as slow or as fast as I want and be very precise with my steering in AMS2 there seems to be some sort of built-in filter/damper that cannot be turned off, it slows down steering and causes delay in the input, and this delay can make quick small corrections very difficult to perform and makes catching slides more difficult. That happens even if I have all aids off, and deadzones, speed sensitivity & controller damping all at 0.
About deadzones: when setting up my controller as a controller I have no deadzones when setting it to 0 (I put a bit of deadzone because my controller is a few years old and has a bit of drift in the center), when setting up my controller as custom wheel with deadzone at 0 there's a bit of deadzone (just enough to negate the drift in my controller, but ideally deadzone at 0 should mean no deadzone and let the user adjust it as needed).
Then there's the issue of lack of controller vibration. In AMS1 there's pretty good controller vibration and that can help get a feel for what the car is doing, when I'm about to lose traction, and so forth. In AMS2 controller vibration is almost non-existent even with vibration set at 100, that happens both with controller setting & custom wheel setting.

I don't mind the game having a default controller setup that's aimed at casuals that use driving aids, but ideally there should be an option for advanced players that don't use driving aids to disable all aids/filters/dampers, disable everything that interferes with inputs, enable raw input and fine tune from there, just like we can do in AMS1. Having controller vibration as good as in AMS1 would be great too.
It's possible to kind of get used to AMS2 controls and have some fun races but imo the game would be even better if developers implemented the improvements mentioned above.

 

Cannot confirm this; I definitely do not experience a particularly notable delay. There is a very slight delay when moving your wheel from one side to the other, but that is only fair, as wheel users can't move their wheel from left to right in a fraction of a second either. Catching slides in this game, to me, feels far more precise and controllable than in most other games I've played. The only problem I sometimes have is steering range in slow corners, which tends to be not enough in order to get full turn-in.

Sadly, I'm currently not where my PC is and can't check whether there's a notable delay now that I watch out for it. I'll make a video as soon as I'm home, but that'll be next Wednesday at the earliest.
(Dualshock 4 user here).

The only video of myself I've found where the steering speed becomes apparent is this; you can see it when I countersteer into a wall. Damping is set at 17; steering sensitivity at 45.

Is that a speed you can steer at?

 

Check Steam controller setup for dead zone, or disable Steam controller "control"

 

I use precision steering, not tap steering, my general controller settings across all my games is steering sensitivity and speed sensitivity at 50, controller damping at 0, steering assist & opposite lock assist disabled. Those settings might seem too sensitive for most people but they work well for me, in games such as rF1 & AMS1 those settings result in very precise steering, I can use small precise steering inputs to turn the car and make small quick corrections if needed, meanwhile in AMS2 I often have to move the analog stick more than I normally would and start moving the analog stick earlier than I would on turn entry as well as return the analog stick to the center earlier and more quickly than I normally would on turn exit because of the damn built-in filters that cannot be turned off and slow down steering. That's on a Xbox 360 controller, maybe responsiveness is different in other controllers.
I understand there's a limit on how fast one can turn an actual steering wheel but imo that's not a reason for developers to force built-in controller filters on every single controller user that slow down steering and cause input delay, let controller users decide themselves how fast they want their steering. Like I said many times before, Reiza should do in AMS2 what they did in AMS1, leave the filters/dampers in the game for people who like them and also have an option for players to disable all aids/filters/dampers, enable raw input and fine tune from there as they wish. If AMS1 had that option why not include it in AMS2?

 

Check PC1 and then PC2/AMS2. PC1 was the only good ME game except sensitivity curve.

Deadzone creates sensitivity settings and that's another problem. 50 is OK and deadzone is normal, I have 13. When I go down, deadzone rises and I need to go down with it. Numbers below 30 are with unconfigurable deadzone - useless. Good sensitivity should be 25 or 12 but it's not possible to set and still it would be probably strange.

 

Really don't understand what you're getting at tbh. The deadzone should not be related to the steering sensitivity and as far as I know, it also isn't. It's also not recommendable to set any deadzone at all, at least not for steering, because you're just going to confuse your thumbs.

And I did drive PC1 back in the day, but when I tried to go back a few months ago, it had too horrible physics to enjoy. Also, this was the game where pad drivers simply got less turn-in iirc.

I haven't driven rF1 & AMS1 with a pad, but I have configured my controller as a wheel on AC (which leads to any filters being turned off), and if that's the settings you drive at, it's pretty sensitive indeed; I personally wouldn't like to drive like that on a regular basis. On the opposite end is R3E, which doesn't allow you to turn at all and whose abysmal steering speed, as far as I know, can't be changed.

Still, even when switching from AMS2 to AC, I don't really actively have to adjust my driving when turning in (there are differences when correcting slides). To me, the turn-in on AMS2 is VERY immediate and requires almost no steering input - in fact, it seems to require less input than the wheel users have to apply.

Not as immediate is the countersteering, which indeed seems to have the same limitations a wheel would have. I can understand that it might be off-putting to deal with that if you're accustomed to 0 damping.

 

I'm guessing AMS2 has different input settings depending on the controller used, on my Xbox 360 controller I always have to move the analog stick more than I normally would in games such as rF1/AMS1. Hopefully developers will include more controller options in the future.

 

Did you try increasing steering sensitivity to 75 or even 100? That should, in theory, make the movement more immediate.

 

Yes, I even tried setting steering sensitivity to 100 and setting speed sensitivity & controller damping to 0, but it's still not sensitive enough for my taste. Just like in the PCars games and F1 games it seems like there's some sort of built-in controller filter that slows down the steering and causes some input delay.
In games such as rF1, rF2, GTR2, AMS1, AC, and Race 07 my Xbox 360 controller works fine, I can use precision steering and the controller responds exactly the way I want. I haven't played R3E in a while but I remember it working just as good with my controller as the other games I mentioned above.

 

Still nothing?

Last Gran Turismo has very interesting support. Every GT was on a gamepad rather bad, too arcadey, but this one is pretty good. Sad is we have so many good games but AMS2 is not among them.

 

Given Reiza's lack of response to requests for better controller support either it's not in their list of priorities or they'll simply never fix it.
I'm not a game designer but I'd imagine including an option to completely disable all the controller filters/dampers would be easier than actually creating and implementing those things. Maybe one of the developers could post some info on that.

 

I'm currently enjoying R3E free week, every time I play it I keep thinking "man I really wish AMS2 had controller support this good". In R3E there are filters to help casuals with tap steering but all the filters & dampers & helpers can be disabled, I have full control of the cars, controls feel very responsive, and vibration works well.