Fanatec CSR - heavy/tight feeling? (vs G25)

[rtsbasic]

I'm not really sure what to make of this, but I find the FFB on the CSR much much heavier than the G25 it replaces, and I'm not sure if I prefer it? I know the wheel is belt driven, but it doesn't free-spin at all and feels almost tight while in use. This is across all platforms, and I've had a play with the settings without finding a better setup.

I don't really want to go back to the G25 setup as the CSR is better in every other way, does anyone else feel this way or is it just me? Maybe so many years with the G25 and other geared wheels has changed my expectations? Counter-steering is notably more difficult by comparison, with the CSR.

 

[eKretz]

Not sure if I understand what you're saying. Free-spin? Do you mean while the wheel is powered off? It should never free-spin when there's power, just like you won't ever get the steering wheel in a real car to free-spin unless the tires are off the ground or something. Counter steering is difficult in real life, it's not supposed to be easy. The whole point of the CSW and it's ilk like the T500 etc. are to get as close as they can to realism. If you are having trouble drifting try adjusting the DRI setting up. This makes the wheel way TOO easy to turn IMO. I run mine off, but YMMV.

 

[Vinceton]

Yep, it's a wheel with a lot of friction.

The CSR elite/CSW will have slightly less, but only slight. No where near free spinning as the g27.

Personally, I hate these belt driven wheels with the majority of games out there. I didn't enjoy them until I tried them out with rFactor and iRacing. In those sims, belt driven wheels are superior. They are strong, detailed, silent, and the unpowered friction is more realistic.

 

[LogiForce]

I went from a G25 to a T500 and finally to a CSW. In my opinion compared to a real car the G25 feels far to loose and sloppy. It's basically just a toy by comparison.

Jack up the front end of a car, put it on some axle stands and take a seat behind the wheel. Now if you are without powersteering turn the wheel, else try it also first and than after starting the engine to power the powersteering hydraulic pump.
If all is well you should now see how 'free' a real wheel should spin in real life, and how it should be for a pc/console wheel.

Of course some people might argue about the pros and cons of low friction, but that's beside the point.


Anyways, if it's hard to turn lower FOR, SPR and DPR. Or increase DRI as eKretz said. Or just build some muscle and new muscle memory.
I had to adjust too between my wheels. Heck, I even have to adjust whenever I change to or get a new keyboard to type on.

 

[skazz]

On my fanatec GT2 I use drift 5, spr -3 and dpr -3 I'm GT5. It's still less free spinning than the G25 but I like the feel way better than default settings.

Just experiment: everyone has their own preference.

 

[Pharohbender]

a lot of the time you screw around with the FFB setting, i found its better to try lower or increase the FORCE setting instead,the FFB setting makes all the settings lower or higher where as the FORCE setting only effects the forces of the wheel and not the other shock and vibration settings - i find im fighting the wheel sometimes and its harder to steady up or hold the line but the fanatec wheel has extra feeling hard to explaing like loosing wheel grip and understeer i normally have 70 -130 force depending how strong i feel or tired.
and playing with a f1 wheel or bwm rim ehh really cant beat that but i do miss my logitec...
oh and i found the best game for the csw is really RACE 07 my GOD people you must try this game its amazing! the effects on nurburgring WOW.

 

[Raitziger]

Put drift mode to 3.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

A wheel is not supposed to be free spinning, If it were then that would be really a bad thing and if that is what you want you can get this by turning the FFB to 0 then it is as free as can be. Can't drive with it but it is free spinning so much so that you can't feel the center position. A real car has a lot of resistance on the wheel under normal conditions, or most do anyway. Some of the old Fords from the 70s were very very easy to turn the wheel if they had PS but that was never a good thing IMO.

The CSR can be set to have about the same resistance as a normal car. It can also be set higher or lower and it is very smooth and quiet. I do not use any drift spring Lin or damper just FFB ABS and SHO. Feels great while driving.

Drifting? I'll leave that to someone else, nauseates me to drift a car in game for any length of time and I really don't see the appeal of it. Give me a good car to drive around the ring any day.

 

[rtsbasic]

Just to add, thanks for all the feedback guys. I do agree that a G25 has a much lower level of resistance than any real car, but I've never oversteer'ed a real car and had such heavy steering to fight when reacting to it. Not necessarily drifting, but even a Ford Focus will oversteer in "everyday" track conditions, and I've never felt I'm fighting the wheel to bring it in line, but the CSR is a bit of a struggle.

Still playing with settings but enjoying the CSR a lot more now Using drift mode on Forza feels more correct (or, as correct as wheels get, you still notice some assists), but on PC sims (mostly Race07 and iRacing) letting the drivers do the rotation and leaving all the ffb options untouched seems to give the best range of feeling. GT5 I've not settled on yet.

 

[RacerXX]

You can mod an Elite to comparable or lower drag than a Logitech. Been enjoying that for a long time now. And it's faster.

 

[skazz]

Just to add, thanks for all the feedback guys. I do agree that a G25 has a much lower level of resistance than any real car, but I've never oversteer'ed a real car and had such heavy steering to fight when reacting to it. Not necessarily drifting, but even a Ford Focus will oversteer in "everyday" track conditions, and I've never felt I'm fighting the wheel to bring it in line, but the CSR is a bit of a struggle..

Those kinds of moments are where the motor feels rather underpowered - it simply can't spin the rim fast enough. This means that while a real car wheel would maintain the front wheels facing the direction of momentum if you let go while skidding, the sim wheel gets in the way and the direction of the front wheels is artificially affected, meaning that you are more likely to spin (as far as I see it).

But that's the one element of sim racing where you need to spend more to get more realism: the more powerful the turning force requirement, the more powerful a motor you need in your wheel to get the wheel spinning freely like a real car.

In the absence of spending thousands of euros on exotic sim racing gear with hugely powerful motors, the only thing to do is to accept that the wheel will not spin fast enough. So train yourself to react quicker with countersteer and if necessary help the wheel by assisting the motors as they attempt to spin the wheel where the race sim wants it to be.


P.S. on a Fanatec wheel any setting below 100% FFB on wheel slows down maximum spin speed. Always change forces in game and leave 100% on wheel if you want the Fanatec to spin at it's maximum capability.

 

[wajdi1977]

I went from a G25 to a T500 and finally to a CSW. In my opinion compared to a real car the G25 feels far to loose and sloppy. It's basically just a toy by comparison.

Jack up the front end of a car, put it on some axle stands and take a seat behind the wheel. Now if you are without powersteering turn the wheel, else try it also first and than after starting the engine to power the powersteering hydraulic pump.
If all is well you should now see how 'free' a real wheel should spin in real life, and how it should be for a pc/console wheel.

Of course some people might argue about the pros and cons of low friction, but that's beside the point.


Anyways, if it's hard to turn lower FOR, SPR and DPR. Or increase DRI as eKretz said. Or just build some muscle and new muscle memory.
I had to adjust too between my wheels. Heck, I even have to adjust whenever I change to or get a new keyboard to type on.

the CSW is a better wheel, but I know that there are a lot of real-drivers that prefer the ffb of the G27/g25 over the CSW/T500rs!