steering sensitivity setting as part of a tune?

[nomis3613]

Hi tuners,
What do you think about including controller steering sensitivity as part of a tune?

Previously I thought it was more of a driver preference thing (ie a driver finds what they like and then always uses the same setting), but recently I've found it is as effective in tuning as other settings. For example, set the car up a bit twitchy then lower the sensitivity, or increase the sensitivity for a car that has doughy response.

Of course, it won't change the ultimate grip balance, but I think of the setting as the steering rack rate, so it does affect how the car responds while you are steering.

(or perhaps no-one cares because all the serious drivers are using wheels??)

 

[bigberry]

I was thinking a little about steering sensitivity, I have it at 0 - default on DS3 and ive never really messed with it. Other than rally cars on gravel as the dirt tyres make the steering feel very light so i would drop it to -2.

Recently in one of the shootouts someones car was reported to have understeer and said tuner mentioned the fact he uses 7 sensitivity may have something to do with it. As opposed to the tester I assume using a lower sensitivity.

Which got me thinking surely if a car understeers the sensitivity wont/cant remedy that ?
If it understeers it understeers right ? Just maybe the steering will feel more responsive I guess.

I havent really messed with it just thought id add my thoughts if those help any.

 

[MTLclllutch]

this would make a difference if the driver is just slamming the joystick from one side to another, at this point no tune will help so learning to be smooth would be the best option. I would think the higher number is the best as long as you can control it since you can react faster to things like over and understeer?

 

[savage388]

I was thinking a little about steering sensitivity, I have it at 0 - default on DS3 and ive never really messed with it. Other than rally cars on gravel as the dirt tyres make the steering feel very light so i would drop it to -2.

Recently in one of the shootouts someones car was reported to have understeer and said tuner mentioned the fact he uses 7 sensitivity may have something to do with it. As opposed to the tester I assume using a lower sensitivity.

Which got me thinking surely if a car understeers the sensitivity wont/cant remedy that ?
If it understeers it understeers right ? Just maybe the steering will feel more responsive I guess.

I havent really messed with it just thought id add my thoughts if those help any.

After messing with it for a while I keep mine at 2. Having a higher steering sensitivity Increases steering response and causes the car to respond much faster on turn in, transferring weight much faster and upsetting the car's suspension. When this happens cars tend to lose some understeer on turn in. This comes at a cost of course though, as inputs will become less smooth no matter how hard you try.

 

[C-ZETA]

Recently in one of the shootouts someones car was reported to have understeer and said tuner mentioned the fact he uses 7 sensitivity may have something to do with it. As opposed to the tester I assume using a lower sensitivity.

That'd be me. I use Sensitivity 7 as it gives the fastest drive for me and is the closest you can really make a DS3 to a wheel TBH. I do turn it down to 0 for speedways and offroad racing but 7 feels the fastest for me. But yeah, sensitivity can change car behaviour quite a lot with certain cars.

 

[neil1280]

It varies for me, I keep the really light and slippy cars or lmps at 3-5, lower power cars or and gtc or dtm cars can handle 7.

In a fwd the wheels just light up when powering out of a corner so best to keep them at about 4-5.

drift cars at 7 always

In regards to tuning i think it should be part of a tune, for me adjustment of this also feels like it affects body roll in corners etc so to be fair if someone has honed the settings of suspension on sensisivity 7 and someone plays on 1 the handling will feel diffferent, ive noticed my own times are better just by changing the sensitivity

 

[nomis3613]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Recently in one of the shootouts someones car was reported to have understeer and said tuner mentioned the fact he uses 7 sensitivity may have something to do with it. As opposed to the tester I assume using a lower sensitivity.

That'd be me. I use Sensitivity 7 as it gives the fastest drive for me and is the closest you can really make a DS3 to a wheel TBH. I do turn it down to 0 for speedways and offroad racing but 7 feels the fastest for me. But yeah, sensitivity can change car behaviour quite a lot with certain cars.

Yeah, there's a few people out there who believe 7 produces the fastest laps, and I've seen it for myself- it works (thanks Highlandor). Often I don't like the feel of 7, but I do believe it is fastest.

It varies for me, I keep the really light and slippy cars or lmps at 3-5, lower power cars or and gtc or dtm cars can handle 7.

In a fwd the wheels just light up when powering out of a corner so best to keep them at about 4-5.

drift cars at 7 always

In regards to tuning i think it should be part of a tune, for me adjustment of this also feels like it affects body roll in corners etc so to be fair if someone has honed the settings of suspension on sensisivity 7 and someone plays on 1 the handling will feel diffferent, ive noticed my own times are better just by changing the sensitivity

👍 that's how I look at the sensitivity setting these days

 

[squirlybmx]

I only change it depending on track/driving style, never by what car I'm driving.

Drifting - 0
Oval - 0
Road courses/rally - 7

 

[nomis3613]

Hi folks, thought I'd test whether sensitivity of 7 is actually faster these days, so I ran a few laps at High Speed Ring in the LF-A on sports soft tyres using my sixaxis:
Offline
Sensitivity 0 - 1:06.1
Sensitivity 7 - 1:05.7

Online
Sensitivity 0 - 1:05.9
Sensitivity 7 - 1:05.4

The extra front grip was most noticeable post-apex. Also, the tunes were set up for sensitivity 0, increasing it to 7 meant the extra turn-in was overwhelming the rear tyres. With some small tweaks to the tune to remove this, the times for sensitivity 7 would have been quicker.

 

[CSLACR]

Does that mean it's faster for you at 7, or faster for everyone at 7?
I know I prefer -2 when I do use the DS3, so I'm curious if it slows me down.

 

[nomis3613]

The results are just with me driving at this stage. If you'd like to do some testing and share your results, it'd be great to increase the sample size from 1 driver!

 

[CSLACR]

The results are just with me driving at this stage. If you'd like to do some testing and share your results, it'd be great to increase the sample size from 1 driver!

I'll see if I can, I'm pretty inconsistent with the DS3 anymore though.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Tire wear could be involved as well with the different sensitivity settings, so that 4/10ths advantage you achieved may wear the tires out faster, especially the fronts obviously.

 

[Taz69]

We dont care about tire wear just looking for the overall fastest lap time lol..

 

[nomis3613]

Tire wear could be involved as well with the different sensitivity settings, so that 4/10ths advantage you achieved may wear the tires out faster, especially the fronts obviously.

Yeah, good point. It might only work for magical wear-less tyres.

 

[dr_slump]

Since I tune with wheel it doesn't.... of course.

However, I always use 7 if I'm not on my wheel. I think 7 is the fastest.....