Fanatec Wheel has Arrived!

NICE!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who plays in Socks...!!!

Looks like a nice setup, actually. I'm jealous. Congrats!

BiggLou55 wrote:NICE!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who plays in Socks...!!!

+1

...I can't imagine playing in shoes...would seem weird....I drive bare foot in real car all summer long

xraydash wrote:Looks like a nice setup, actually. I'm jealous. Congrats!

If you can swing it, the $$$$ you spend on it is WELL worth it. Completely changes the game! For the better! I still love my wheel and it's holding up to my abuse well....

One suggestion... Pick up the Wireless Headset with Bluetooth... For $40, it's great for chat as long as you don't need the game audio to go through it as well...

If those are the Elite pedals I see then you shouldn't really have a problem unless you're really into it and getting hard on the brakes etc. They have some pretty good weight to them. Very nice setup you've got there nub.

Love the look of that Elite. I wish the regular CSR was wrapped all the way around the steering wheel as opposed to having plastic bits but I suppose it works. As for the chair...long periods on the wheel can be a bit painful for me as I use a cheap plastic chair to sit on.

Viper you drive barefoot? I always found it feels funny to drive barefoot lol. I always drive with my trusty flip flops in the summer.

Most of summer I'm in sandals, and I hate driving in them, so yeah, barefoot. Shoes are obviously fine/normal in real car...I just don't wear them much from June-Sept.

BiggLou55 wrote:NICE!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who plays in Socks...!!!

That's what gets your attention?

LOL... I guess so!

To anyone who regularly plays with a wheel...have you guys noticed anything funny feel or different at all in your FF or whatever since the June 20 xbox live update?
I saw the thread on the FM4 forums about the update messing with the wheel or whatever, just wanted to see if anyone noticed anything different because I haven't run into any problems yet.

I did, but there was a second mini-patch the next week that resolved the issues.... No issues since the second patch...

I was ready to kill my wheel the other night, but a reboot seemed to return it to mostly normal.

I do have to reboot mine from time to time... It seems to happen when in a lobby for a while... I also have to restart the game as well.... Thinkin the last few patches screwed up lobbies a bit again!

BiggLou55 wrote:I do have to reboot mine from time to time... It seems to happen when in a lobby for a while... I also have to restart the game as well.... Thinkin the last few patches screwed up lobbies a bit again!

Hmm...mine wasn't a lobby, but it did sit at the menu for a while...wonder if it's just being 'idle'? That is the first 'weirdness' that I have had. I know a lot of people complaining about way worse behaivour, but I have not seen any of that.

The only problem I've had is after the update the wheel feels REALLY REALLY strong on f1 2011. I had the exact settings I used before the update which were perfect. I fired up f1 2011 the other day to get another GP out of the way in my career mode and the wheel nearly ripped my arm off when I got control of it coming out of the pits.

My wheel went clown-shoes last night, while trying to keep up with viper in the Challenger, and it took a power-cycle to get it right again. It seemed to disconnect, ffb pulled it all the way to the right and caused it to lose track of its center position, and the engine revving was in a frozen loop.

Nervous, I fired off some searches and found lots of hits related to the recent update y'all were talking about. I had no idea that this issue was on-going and as bad as people are reporting. I am counting on this being the cause of my issue -- I don't want to think that my wheel freaked out on its own.

I guess I'm lucky that it hasn't been worse than this, based on what I've read, but I am curious if I've ever really experienced the wheel like it is meant to be. I am taking GT5 home tonight to try the wheel on the PS3. If the difference is significant I'll likely join the belly-aching masses on the Xbox forums.

I think all of us at one point or another, have had our wheels just 'die' during a series race, and yeah, reboot is only way to get them back.

Lemme know about GT5and wheel...I have been contemplating picking up a cheap used system just to give GT3 a try....

I'd love to play GT5 with the wheel...I play f1 2011 with the wheel exclusively, I'm still getting faster with it on FM4.

As for the wheel dying, at least it wasn't a race with damage on . The first time it happened to me was during our mugen series. I was going 100+ down the front straight on suzuka and my wheel decided it would turn all the way right and I smashed into the wall and wrecked my car...limped to the pits and finished the race!

The second profile (the one I use for Manual w/clutch) on my wheel got messed up somehow. During the qualifier I forgot I had Manual w/ clutch still set and quickly went to my MwC profile on the wheel.... To my surprise I only had 180 degrees lock ot lock (normally I run 270 L2L)... You probably heard over comms... I was able to get back to my main profile and set ACL (autoclutch) before the start of lap 2, but it was already dirty... I only had Lap three to get clean so I took it easy and ended up 6th I think...

I've only had my wheel freak out once or twice.... Not really sure what happened to my second profile last night....

BiggLou55 wrote:The second profile (the one I use for Manual w/clutch) on my wheel got messed up somehow. During the qualifier I forgot I had Manual w/ clutch still set and quickly went to my MwC profile on the wheel.... To my surprise I only had 180 degrees lock ot lock (normally I run 270 L2L)... You probably heard over comms... I was able to get back to my main profile and set ACL (autoclutch) before the start of lap 2, but it was already dirty... I only had Lap three to get clean so I took it easy and ended up 6th I think...

I've only had my wheel freak out once or twice.... Not really sure what happened to my second profile last night....

It's a common issue with the wheel. You can't just go to a different tuning setting by clicking the button and changing. You'll have to turn off the wheel and change settings and then reconnect the wheel to the xbox. If you just change it, it'll lock you into 180 degrees lock to lock

So far I have only configured mine to just take Forza's in-game settings. I have yet to find a reason to fine-tune beyond that (other than some ffb reduction and some dampening).

Markve91 wrote:

BiggLou55 wrote:The second profile (the one I use for Manual w/clutch) on my wheel got messed up somehow. During the qualifier I forgot I had Manual w/ clutch still set and quickly went to my MwC profile on the wheel.... To my surprise I only had 180 degrees lock ot lock (normally I run 270 L2L)... You probably heard over comms... I was able to get back to my main profile and set ACL (autoclutch) before the start of lap 2, but it was already dirty... I only had Lap three to get clean so I took it easy and ended up 6th I think...

I've only had my wheel freak out once or twice.... Not really sure what happened to my second profile last night....

It's a common issue with the wheel. You can't just go to a different tuning setting by clicking the button and changing. You'll have to turn off the wheel and change settings and then reconnect the wheel to the xbox. If you just change it, it'll lock you into 180 degrees lock to lock

That's strange Mark since I've been doing that switch for quite some time now with zero issues. Last night was the first time.... I guess I'll just start activating and deactivating ACL on my main profile instead.. It's pretty much the same, just one extra menu click...

nubrocket wrote:So far I have only configured mine to just take Forza's in-game settings. I have yet to find a reason to fine-tune beyond that (other than some ffb reduction and some dampening).

If you are running the 737 FW on the CSR or the latest FW on the Elite, there is an "ACL" feature. ACL stands for Autoclutch, and will depress A (when active) to engage the clutch when using the paddles. This allows you to use Manual w/clutch and the paddles without needing to use the clutch pedal...

Ah, maybe it doesn't screw around like that anymore...I'll have to try it out, I've been powercycling my wheel to change settings since I got it so I'm not sure if it's changed!

After what seemed like 13 days of patching and loading, I finally got to try my wheel in GT5.

First thought was "Ah, so THIS is the feel the engine in the rim feedback that was advertised". I was initially disappointed in Forza when I felt little to zero wheel vibration in relation to the engine revs, but eventually dismissed it as not being a realistic effect anyway. I don't really feel it in my irl car so why should I feel it in the game? Well, that hardware certainly works well, because GT5 lays it on thick. I kinda like it afterall.

The overall ffb felt smoother, more consistent, and cleaner. I figure this is what xbox people have been complaining about since the patch? Forza feels grittier in comparison, like there's sand in the motor or something.

The d-pad worked for looking various directions, which I can't get to work in Forza. I immediately appreciated having that back. Is it really not possible in Forza or have I just not tried hard enough?

Even though I had my visibility back, I still bumped other cars, and the effect was very good on the wheel. Quite fun, actually.

My favorite "feature", however, was with the clutch pedal and shifter. I initially thought that it just didn't read it well or was calibrated wrong, but I later realized that that wasn't the case at all. It's just more realistic. The clutch catch point is about halfway down on the pedal press and you MUST shift cleanly or you'll end up in neutral. Forza tends to be forgiving with a rev-limiter type of effect if you miss a shift, but GT5 completely denies you the gear. I find the latter more realistic and it actually made me a bit giddy. All it's missing is that awful, awful, awful sound that real cars make when you screw it up and the sickening feeling you live with for a short duration afterwards.

What Forza seemed to do better, though, was rumble-strip effects, grass effects, and most importantly, front-tire traction effects. It might be because I was driving a low-end newbie car, but I never felt the understeery loss-of-traction that Forza always communicates very clearly through the wheel. I'll continue advancing in GT5 to see if it ever comes into play, but so far it's been a big nothing, and I've missed it. Where GT5's ffb was cleaner, Forza's feels more elaborate and full-featured.

Despite only being in GT5 for 45 minutes or so I can already tell that Forza is the more enjoyable product. That's not to say GT5 isn't fun and/or good, it just isn't...well...it isn't Forza. Forza is more fun to interact with and navigate through from the get-go. GT5 felt...weird...and the music was strange and elevator-like. It came back swinging when it was driving time, though, and I reckon that's really all that matters.

The experience also taught me to look into wheel calibrations for Forza (as already discussed in this thread). There was much more wheel travel (degrees for lock to lock, I guess?) in GT5 than I've gotten out of Forza. I didn't think I needed or wanted more, but after having it in GT, I am definitely going to start reaching for it in Forza. It's my own fault for not having already done that stuff, but I just didn't know any better.

Cash, did you ever figure out a solution on using your turtle beach headset with the wheel? I use the x31's and just want to make sure everything is compatible before I buy a wheel.