Steering Wheel Question

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swbhoy

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Okay, go easy on the newbie if this has been previously discussed. I did a search and there are a few steering wheel discussions but none that seems to answer my question so.........having played, fairly successfully for a few months with a controller I just got hold of Logitech Driving Force GT wheel, expecting improved accuracy, greater control and resulting better lap times.
What I got was pretty much the exact opposite. Even cars that are usually steady as a rock with the Dual Schock like the Nissan GTR V-Spec or the Audi R8 Quattro turn into jittery monsters with understeer and oversteer in equal measures and braking from speed is a lottery, anything other than braking on the straight seems to be a recipe for a 360 spin.
I should point out that I have now only had it for a day and have tried to persevere by taking the Audi round Cape Ring a few times on practice and its getting a bit better, I'm now within around 10-12 seconds of my best Dual Shock lap time on the Cape but even then still much more prone to spin offs. Also, having previously driving AT I'm using the wheel's "flappy paddle" controls and have switched to MT , also taking some getting used to.
Now, if there's a question in all this it is.........has anyone else made the switch from one to the other and is there an adjustment period? Does it need practice or do I just give it up as a bad job and go back to damaging the nerve endings in my left thumb !?
Other questions.......why is the car so squirrely with the wheel , even in the straights at Sarthe the force feedback is twitching like a b%stard and the car is wavering whereas with the pad you could pretty much let go of the stick and she'll go straight all day.
And last question, do i need to consciously go easier on the brakes, hard braking with the Pad is easy, hard braking with the pedals is like trying to stop a horse on an ice rink.
So, two final final questions 1) Does anyone have any general tips for wheel driving and making the adjustment from a pad and if not 2) does anyone want to buy a Logitech Driving Force GT....almost new?:crazy:
 
It does take most people a little time to adjust from what I've read. I've been using FFB wheels for so long it's all just natural to me. But with a wheel, you actually need to learn proper driving techniques, suddenly very small details matter that were of no concern with the DS3. If you can persist at adjusting to it, the payoff is well worth it. GT5 will transcend just being a game.

For the brakes, you have to calibrate the pedals. You know how your wheel spins around when you first turn on your PS3, and then again when you start GT5? There is no way to automatically do that for the pedals, so before you get on track (in a menu/loading screen somewhere, anywhere) you need to depress all your pedals to their full extent and back. If you don't do this and your first application of the brakes is only 50%, then it will calibrate 50% as being 100% and they will be too sensitive. This will help you out a lot.

Also, read/watch as much as you can about performance driving, those skills will make you better at the game. Go to youtube and search for Skip Barber Going Fast, it's an old instructional video broken into about nine 10-minute videos. It's old, but everything still applies, and it applies directly to GT5. There are also many discussions on here about this topic, so look around and you will find advice from people who have struggled through the same transition.

Trust me, just stick with it and you will slowly become better than with the DS3 and you will have a ton more fun doing it. Once you get the hang of it, go to the Online Racing section of this forum and find a league to join, then GT5 will provide an endless amount of fun for you, way beyond what A-Spec/B-Spec can do. I'm currently in 2 leagues and every day after work I rush home to practice/tune my cars and learn the tracks for the upcoming weekend races. It's endless hours of fun and I haven't even touched A-Spec for a couple weeks now. ;)
 
You seriously couldn't find any other threads on this ?

Anyway.....Yes, I've made the transition 2 months ago. After having played the game with a controller for over a month I got a DFGT as well. It did take me some time to get used to the wheel, but that was a matter of hours. After the initial learning curve for the wheel, I noticed lap-times improving and certain events that I couldn't even get bronze or silver on, I now got gold fairly easy.
Most noticable event was the Nascar event where you have to take the outer and inner ring during a corner. I could not get bronze on that one with a DS3....with a wheel I l almost immediatly got gold.

Just hang in there, you'll get the hang of it sooner or later.
 
I felt EXACTLY the same way as the OP after a day or two with my DFGT (got it for Christmas this year). However, with some practice I was much, much better after a week. Not only am I now faster with the wheel, but it is much more fun because it feels like I'm really driving to an extent.

The "this isn't fun because I constantly feel like I'm going to wreck" feeling will go away over the next few days as you get more used to the wheel.

My suggestions to the OP:
1) Turn the force feedback down to 1 or 2 (it's default setting is 5). This is found under options in the menu where you can choose to play GT Mode vs. Arcade Mode (the screen before GTLife).


2) Practice with a slow car on an easy track for a while. I chose a stock Honda Civic on the High Speed Ring. I just kept doing it over and over until I started feeling more comfortable.

Eventually, you'll probably want to turn the force feeback back up (mine's at 8 now). Good luck!
 
One thing to account for that I have noticed is the brake pedal is much more sensitive than the DS3, and for some reason as crazy as it sound seems to be able to brake much harder, it took me a couple weeks to master the brake feathering.
 
One thing that really works for me was learning you don't HAVE to go full pressure on break/gas/wheel. Which is easy to forget coming from an x-button and a stick. Sometimes it's very much a game of precision. Too much of any of these three will send you spinning or under/oversteer while moderation works wonders.
 
thanks for the tips. i bought a DFGT 2 weeks ago but have not used it except for the day i bought it for less than 20 minutes. i haven't used it, not because i don't like it (haven't used it enough to determine that), but because i didn't have a proper "mount" for it. the day i used it, i was using a TV tray as a stand. it had the correct height but sooooo unstable. I recently bought an xlerator regular (should have got the big boy one instead of the regular but i digress on that) and hope to start practicing on my wheel soon. i appreciate the tips given in this thread though for when i do. (i had no idea you had to calibrate the pedals too, that should be in the manual or something)
 
Just picked up my DFGT today, thanks for the tips.
 
I've got the Fanatec Carrera and have been using it for about a week. I felt exactly the same as you. It felt meaningless to drive with the wheel when i was much faster with the controller.

But i've driven with the wheel a lot the last days and have gotten a lot faster and its alot more fun to drive with than the controller.
I'm not sure if i'm faster with the wheel yet but i think im getting there.

I drove the Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce yesterday wich i didn't really like with the controller but now i could drive it with more control and i'm starting to like the car more.
 
Like others have said, it's just a matter of acclimatisation and relearning.

After a point, you'll wonder how you ever did without a wheel.
 
I guarantee you will improve your game skills, lap times and fun. I used to use gamepad since GT1 and I am quite good at it. When I switched to DFGT I improved my time on Trial Mountain by nearly 1.5 seconds on the first occassion and you know what? The long curves like at daytona, speedway and capering is now picnic. You simply turn the wheel at an angle and keep it there with small adjustments. With gamepad, even with left analog it is much more difficult as the small amount of input might be just too much or too little. Exiting corners also are easier with the wheel as you can counter it to overcome oversteer. Not to mention the rally events where you slide all the time. I also easily won the Formula championship where it was very difficult for me to win the last 4 event.
Dont forget to set the wheel to simulation in the game settings. It is the best setting and if you feel the force feedback is too much you can also decrease it in the same menu. I am using it in the middle.

After my experience with DFGT and G27 I am %100 sure that this game is meant to be played with a proper wheel. Now I am looking for a custom cockpit which surely will reveal the strong side of the wheel more and improve the fun factor.
 
I had the same steering problems when I got my wheel. What i found helped so much was going into the options for wheels then turning off the power assist function. It makes a huge difference because with it on I found the car would overstear and freakout all the time. If your not that strong in the upper body try turning down the force feedback a little bit. (not trying to say your weak lol) Other than that you just have to get used to it but don't give up, once you get the hang of using the wheel it makes GT5 an entirely different game.
 
Thanks for the tips. Update on day 5 of wheel ownership.......
It's much , much better. I changed the wheel settings from Amateur to Simulation and Force Feedback to 3 and all of a sudden it felt much , much better. Still some jittering on the long straights but much more in the order of how a real car behaves, requiring awareness and minor adjustments rather than 6-8 feet lateral swerves which is what you get on Amateur with full feedback. After an hour or so practice with a little Civic "Gathers" Race car - one of the easiest driving cars in the game, I took the R8 Quattro round Nur. Nord. almost 7 seconds faster than my quickest pad time. And I golded the Sebastian Loeb Challenge road stage at Eiger Nordwand which I hadnt been able to do with the pad.

A couple of observations for others new to the wheel.....as someone else has said, if you're used to the pad you'll pretty much be used to the brakes and the gas being either full on or full off. This works fine on the pad but is a recipe for disaster with pedals. Gradual brakes and measured acceleration is the way to go with pedals. I think it makes you better because you have to think about braking distances and momentum more. With the pad in a decent car you could come off a straight doing 180 and jump on the brakes 100 yards before a hairpin and get round it but with the pedals you have to think it out more and in the end it results in better exit speed from the corners.

Secondly, for those that have so far avoided cockpit view, its much, much easier with the wheel. It feels a lot more natural than cockpit view with a pad and consequently you hit apexes much more cleanly and accurately than with the pad. I do have a criticism of cockpit view though; I know a lot of people say that its more realistic but I'm not so sure. It's much too confined and on some cars, the Citroen Loeb Rally car for example its like looking through a letter box. No peripheral vision at all and there's nothing realstic about that. Drivers, particularly rally drivers need good field of vision to be able to anticipate countours and terrain and so its just too restrictive - anyway, off topic as thats not specific to the steering wheel.

Lastly, and this is I'm sure, obvious but I havent got it right yet, seating position is crucial. The desk that I have the wheel clipped to has a footboard and so I cant get the pedals far enough forward and as such they are basically just below the wheel, not set about 2 feet forward as they would be in a car . Can still get the job done but its not comfortable for the longer races. So if you have a new wheel take time to make sure that you set up the seating properly. For the average driver the wheel should be far enough away that your arms are outstretched but not straight ( a slight bend in the elbows) and similarly your legs should be extended but comfortably enough that both heels can rest on the floor and act as pivots.

Anyway, after a disastrous start, things are looking up so anyone else thats new to it, persevere, it will improve and so will your lap times.
 
Good to hear that you are doing better with the wheel :)
I've started using the cockpitview since i got the wheel to and started to like it. But as you say some cars just have to small field of vision so i end up using the bumperview instead.
 
I found the wheel tough at first, but now i could not go back to a pad.

It helps too if you build a suitable cockpit if you have the time/materials/space. At first I had the wheel attached to the coffee table in front of the lounge TV. Very uncomfortable, sitting too upright, pedals at the wrong angle, gearbox next to the wheel instead of further down near your thigh.

I had to built a custom rig. Here's mine:

yDCP_0021.jpg


yDCP_0017.jpg
 
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