Since coming back to sim racing I've been using an old, non-FF, Microsoft Sidewinder wheel. This wheel is actually still very serviceable which shows how well it's built.
However, thanks to MS's shortsightedness it is hampered by the lack of official drivers for XP. This meant no split axis pedals negating the ability to easily have throttle and brake on in corners. It also made starts on slopes hard.
The LM prototypes I race are equipped with launch control. On a sloping grid the brake needs to be on to stop the roll but throttle needs to be on to engage the LC. Needless to say split axis is essential to that.
So it was time to get a new wheel and the first choice, as allways, is to get a Logitech. They simply are the best choice unless going for the 'Rolls Royce' options.
The shortlist came down to the G27, G25 and, perhaps surprisingly, the Driving Force GT. Why is the DFGT a surprise? It's marketted as a PS3 wheel and as such comes with things you'd expect on a console. It has the 4 direction buttons on the right, a 'hat' and two 'trigger' buttons on the top. Also included are a button marked PS ( never having a PS3 I don't know but assume normally this has some specific function) and the select/start buttons.
Due to cost it was the DFGT I went for and getting it hope I was impressed with the quality. It is a very well built wheel and the pedals feel solid and have a nice feel. Alongside the afformentioned buttons it also has two more large buttons above the 'boss', a +- button on the lower left, the normal 'paddle' buttons for gear change and a sequencial gear lever.
Perhaps most intersting is the red 'collar' and button on the lower right on the wheel. This is in effect three buttons. The collar rotates left and right, and then there is a button in the middle. The collar thus is ideal for functions such as brake balance, turbo boost levels and wing settings ( say on a modern 2009 F1 car). I use the central button as the Launch control but equally could be say a KERS button.
Overall plenty of buttons and most are easy to reach. The 'trigger' buttons above the 'spokes' are a little awkward but I find I can use an index finger.
Having never used Forcefeedback at all before this was the next challenge. Setting it all up. I downloaded the latest driver from the Logitech website and set to work.
Initially it felt all wrong but having done some research I tried the settings people used for the G25. These seem to work quite well and perhaps the most crucial setting was to have RF's 'strength' setting to negative and FF effects to low.
In the driver I had everything except Overall effects strength set to 0% with the latter currently at 99%. I'm using 306 degrees of rotation, although the wheel is a 900 degree wheel this setting seems to work well for me ( it's a slider and I was looking at 300 degree's and ended up with 306).
With these settings the car starts to make sense. It's too early to really be confident the FF is setup right but so far she feels ok. I entered my first race last night driving around the modern N'Ring on the F1 layout. This is an interesting test as there are a good variety of corners and overall it felt pretty right.
This is definatly a wheel worth looking at, The buttons can be slightly awkward but it's not hard to get used to them and the important functions can allways be placed in easy to reach parts of the wheel.
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