Fanatec Announcements: CSW V2 Reviews Out

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superbike81
I know the CSR has an adjustable drift mode that makes the steering respond quicker, but I haven't messed with it (hate drifting) so I can't comment on how well it works.
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I'll bet drifting is a ball, when you have it down. I just can't seem to get in the groove.
 
Stones
I'll bet drifting is a ball, when you have it down. I just can't seem to get in the groove.
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Oh I have no doubt it about it being fun, I just prefer grip over drift that's all. I wouldn't even have commented at all, but I didn't see anyone elosee mention the drift mode that the CSR has.
 
The larger/heavier the rim is the more force/power is needed to turn it and slower it is, end of story.

You can compare it to the alloy wheels on your car, the larger/heavier they are, your fuel (electricity or power) consumption increases and slower the acceleration (reaction, speed and most probably the ffb of your sim wheel) is.
 
ilonioum
The larger/heavier the rim is the more force/power is needed to turn it and slower it is, end of story.

You can compare it to the alloy wheels on your car, the larger/heavier they are, your fuel (electricity or power) consumption increases and slower the acceleration (reaction, speed and most probably the ffb of your sim wheel) is.
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I don't care about any of that really. Real cars have bigger wheels than are found on almost every consumer grade gaming steering wheel. I will gladly sacrifice a miniscule amount of speed and strength for a MUCH more realistic feel. Even the "nice" wheels like the G27, T500RS, and my CSR still feel like toys because they are so small. A real sized wheel is of great importance to me, and so is the quick release.
 
I grew up racing karts and Formula Ford, so ummm yeah. I've also spent significant time in Spec Miatas, and taken some laps in "time attack" prepped cars.

I know there are smaller wheels available, but most of the cars I've been in have used 330mm or 350mm wheel. Of course the specific models for certain types of cars are smaller, such as 250mm wheels used in some cars. But we were discussing the GT style wheel, and for realism, 300mm is entirely too small, I know it's only a 30-50mm difference, but that can make a big difference.

Now the F1 wheel for the CSW, I full expect that to be right around 300mm if not a little less, but most street/track cars will use something larger than that.
 
Think about it, I guess it depends what cars you prefer to drive most in games, but most of the cars I use are either open wheelers or GT style, so I'd rather have something around 330mm for a more realistic feel.

Have you ever driven a track-prepped street car with a 300mm or smaller steering wheel on the track? That small of a wheel really feels odd.

For example, a new Ferrari 458 uses a 400mm diameter wheel. Now imagine using a little 280mm wheel (like the 458 game wheel Thrustmaster sells) big difference.
 
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I agree with superbike81. Small size of rims in wheel controllers is a legacy from two reasons which are both invalid today.

-Small rim helped to compensate low power motors. Now we have better motors as people are willing to spend more.

-Before most players were kids. Now age of typical player is between 18 - 30.
 
I think the BMW GT Rim will be full sized.

The reason Spec Miata's wheel rims are 330mm-350mm is because those cars are very close to street legal vehicles. NASCAR rims would be around 400-420mm, while GTE would be closer to 320mm or 330mm. Nearly full-size, just not exactly.

Smaller rims still have advantages. Yes they were there to compensate for low powered motors, but now they're for better performance, without putting too much un-needed strain. Think of it this way. Will a Lotus Elise out perform a Lotus Elise with 100kg of ballast? Will the engine last longer? Both are yes. (Unless something just goes wrong)

Full size rim does increase the realism, so I think that Fanatec should use accurate sizes for the CSW, and better performance sizes for the CSR Elite.
 
I agree as well a bigger wheel rim is nice as long as it doesnt affect the FFB to much. I have modded my G25 with a bigger wheel and the first one i got was a 350mm and it was to big and heavy and FFB was weak but after i switched to a 320mm and it was perfect not much of a difference in FFB compared to the stock wheel rim on the g25

it also made less of a difference when i jumped in my real car. After playing hours of gt5 with the small wheel of the G25 and then jumping in my car it made it really awkward and made my car wheel rim feel (340mm) huge lol
 
superbike81
I know there are smaller wheels available, but most of the cars I've been in have used 330mm or 350mm wheel. Of course the specific models for certain types of cars are smaller, such as 250mm wheels used in some cars. But we were discussing the GT style wheel, and for realism, 300mm is entirely too small, I know it's only a 30-50mm difference, but that can make a big difference.

Now the F1 wheel for the CSW, I full expect that to be right around 300mm if not a little less, but most street/track cars will use something larger than that.
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To be fair, I've just checked the Momo Corse wheel of my road car (it's a homologation model) and it's 350mm, so you've probably got a point.
 
So true with the giant rim after playing with a wheel. My wife drives a jeep wrangler and driving that after using my gt2 is crazy. The jeep wheel is like 2.5 x the sum wheel.
 
Ok, something other than a size discussion ....

Does anyone know how bright the shift indicator lights are on the CSW Formula and GT rims? I use iRaceDash on my Android phone, but it's not very bright.

If the CSW lights will be brighter, great, but if not I'm going to attempt a DIY shift light setup.
 
superbike81
Ok, something other than a size discussion ....

Does anyone know how bright the shift indicator lights are on the CSW Formula and GT rims? I use iRaceDash on my Android phone, but it's not very bright.

If the CSW lights will be brighter, great, but if not I'm going to attempt a DIY shift light setup.
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As in lumins, lol? I do not think seeing the lights will be an issue.
 
superbike81
Ok, something other than a size discussion ....

Does anyone know how bright the shift indicator lights are on the CSW Formula and GT rims? I use iRaceDash on my Android phone, but it's not very bright.

If the CSW lights will be brighter, great, but if not I'm going to attempt a DIY shift light setup.
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I don't think I've seen them light up in any of the videos yet so I can't say, but you could always just open up the wheel and desolder the existing LED's and solder new brighter ones on there. It isn't that much work. All you need is a decent soldering iron that you can adjust the temperature of and has a very fine tip. It isn't that hard and it's not a time consuming job either. You just need the right tin and braid for desoldering. Always use tin with a rosin core when soldering onto circuit boards.

The stuff I use personally are...
Tin: Velleman solder 60/40 rosin core, diameter 1.0mm, 17gram. http://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?id=523160
Desolder braid: Chem-wik desolder braid (green) size 0.075" or 1.9mm. http://www.chemtronics.com/products/product.asp?r=1&m=2&id=23
Soldering Iron: Velleman Soldering Station VTSS4. http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=385738
 
superbike81
Ok, something other than a size discussion ....

Does anyone know how bright the shift indicator lights are on the CSW Formula and GT rims? I use iRaceDash on my Android phone, but it's not very bright.

If the CSW lights will be brighter, great, but if not I'm going to attempt a DIY shift light setup.
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Have you checked out iSpeed, I use it on a second monitor and I love it, besides all the split times you also get a female voice so you can hear the splits and other times.
 
urm
good luck on soldering smd type LED. The appearance is done by light guides.
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You already opened up those CSW wheels then? Looking at the pics and videos they look like regular LEDs though.
 
left888
Have you checked out iSpeed, I use it on a second monitor and I love it, besides all the split times you also get a female voice so you can hear the splits and other times.
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I've tried iSpeed but I use iRaceDash on my old Samsung Galaxy S phone. I love the app for the data it provides, however neither app has a bright enough shift light to really see. I'd like something similar to the brightness of the SLI-Pro like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxdgprGPTfg

I would actually like to get the SLI-Pro, but I think it might be overkill since I'm already going to be using iRaceDash.

Another question, will the display on the CSW GT wheel display game info or is it like the CSR wheel which the screen is only used for tuning the wheel.?
 
superbike81
Ok, something other than a size discussion ....

Does anyone know how bright the shift indicator lights are on the CSW Formula and GT rims? I use iRaceDash on my Android phone, but it's not very bright.

If the CSW lights will be brighter, great, but if not I'm going to attempt a DIY shift light setup.
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paskowitz
As in lumins, lol? I do not think seeing the lights will be an issue.
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Well I hope they are much more visible than the G27 rev indicator lights. Those are completely useless for me and I use a proper cockpit.
 
Yeah, that's my problem, if they are somewhere in between the G27 and SLI-Pro, I'll be happy.

No way am I going to tear into the wheel to replace LED's, just not confident enough, and my soldering skills are crap.
 
superbike81
Yeah, that's my problem, if they are somewhere in between the G27 and SLI-Pro, I'll be happy.

No way am I going to tear into the wheel to replace LED's, just not confident enough, and my soldering skills are crap.
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I have shaky hands but I just started with soldering to replace batteries on my SNES cardridges. I wanted to save my super Mario world damn it. lol

I know how you feel though, not wanting to mess up a 150 euro and up wheel for just some LEDs. ;)
 
superbike81
I've tried iSpeed but I use iRaceDash on my old Samsung Galaxy S phone. I love the app for the data it provides, however neither app has a bright enough shift light to really see. I'd like something similar to the brightness of the SLI-Pro like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxdgprGPTfg

I would actually like to get the SLI-Pro, but I think it might be overkill since I'm already going to be using iRaceDash.

Another question, will the display on the CSW GT wheel display game info or is it like the CSR wheel which the screen is only used for tuning the wheel.?
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How about the brand new SLI Pro APP! If you have a bright smartphone like my new Samsung Galaxy S2 you might not even need anything else. Can't wait to try this baby out (just a $7 donation fee)

http://www.eksimracing.com/?p=52
 
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lemansfanatic
How about the brand new SLI Pro APP! If you have a bright smartphone like my new Samsung Galaxy S2 you might not even need anything else. Can't wait to try this baby out (just a $7 donation fee)

http://www.eksimracing.com/?p=52
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Thanks for this! I'll give it a shot, it's only $7, and if I end up needing to get the SLI-Pro anyways, that same $7 can go towards the software I need for it.

I've got the Galaxy S II now as my primary phone as well.
 
Fanatec's comments about forza 4 new patch and steering modes for wheel users:

"The steering mode "simulation" let all cars oversteer more easily. Even the slowest Nissan Datsun 510 going uphill on Fujimi Kaido will oversteer easily although the power of the car is not enough to go higher than second gear most of the time. Do an oval track with a Mercedes C63 and you will fly off in every corner. Tim Schrick mentioned the tendency to oversteer the virtual M5 already on his comparision to the real car and he was using the old simulation mode.

I think the problem is not the oversteering but calling the mode "simulation". If T10 would have chosen "drift mode" it would have been more appropriate and still makes sense as it is fun to play. Remember: difficult not equal to realistic.

If you want to have more realistic car behavior and be faster than in the old simulation mode, you need to turn the steering mode to "normal" now.

If you stay in "simulation" mode it helps to turn down the sensitivity to 270° or even lower to 180° to make ultra fast movements. This is nothing for smooth drivers! "
http://911wheel.de/?q=blogs/thomas
 
Raitziger
If you want to have more realistic car behavior and be faster than in the old simulation mode, you need to turn the steering mode to "normal" now.

If you stay in "simulation" mode it helps to turn down the sensitivity to 270° or even lower to 180° to make ultra fast movements. This is nothing for smooth drivers! "
http://911wheel.de/?q=blogs/thomas
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Perhaps the problem is a combination of the non-linear steering inherent to Forza 4 together with exaggerated weight transfer, so that tiny movements of the steering cause exaggerated movements in the car weight and cause oversteer.

The total lack of linearity in the Forza 4 steering implementation has been discussed on all Forza 4 forums, including http://www.forzaplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=690.

In my testing, switching to 720 degrees and increasing the linearity setting on my GT2 to 020 made all the cars in the game far less twitchy in simulation steering mode because the setting cancelled out the very non-linear region in the center of steering in Forza 4. This meant I could be far smoother. I suspect this is true in both normal and simulation steering modes.
 
So Simulation mode is very drifty now? I'm wondering now how much T10 care about the Sim Racers.

Hope my wheel get's here, be a nice birthday present from Thomas! :lol:
 
Crispy
So Simulation mode is very drifty now? I'm wondering now how much T10 care about the Sim Racers.

Hope my wheel get's here, be a nice birthday present from Thomas! :lol:
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Eh? Still not there. I tell you the customs did this on purpose. lol

Hrm... I don't know how much T10 cares but MS cared enough to allow 900 degree steering, H-shifter, clutch and progressive handbrake support so Fanatec wheels work properly for sim racers on the Xbox. How the game developers code their games however is a different matter. Let's hope CARS will kick ass next year when released on all platforms. ;)
 

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