Best Automobilista Settings for Thrustmaster T248

Automobilista is an older simulator by modern standards, but it still holds up just fine. The physics and force feedback feel great and the focus on Brazilian motorsports gives it a unique set of content compared to many other games. Even though there are no built-in button bindings for the Thrustmaster T248, these wheels still work well with Automobilista. You have to manually bind all the buttons, but it's only a one-time set up.

The actual force feedback feels nice, but there is no way to change the strength of it in-game for these wheels. It is either at full strength or nothing. Thankfully, since you can adjust the strength directly on the wheel, this isn't much of a problem.

In this guide, I will show you the settings you need to set on the wheel and in-game for the best force feedback.

Thrustmaster Settings

Automobilista will automatically set the correct steering angle for each car in the game, including a proper Soft Lock, so leave the wheel rotation on Auto.

For the force feedback strength, FORCE at 3 or 4 works very well, depending on the car. Some are noticeably lighter than others, so you will have to change it accordingly.

FORCE at 3 or 4, depending on the car.

FFB at 1 creates a perfectly linear force feedback response, which is the ideal for any racing game.

Rotation and Overall Strength are identical to the ROT and FORCE wheel settings, respectively. Changing it in one place overwrites the other. I recommend changing these on the wheel and ignoring the values in the Thrustmaster Control Panel.

Spring and Damper are not used by Automobilista, so can be set to any value without issue. As a general rule, I leave these at 100% since there are some games that require them.

BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.

Automobilista Settings

In Game Settings > Controls > Inputs:

These wheels don't have presets available, so you will need to manually bind all the pedals and buttons. By default, it will load the Digital Gamepad preset, which isn't correct for a wheel. Make sure to rebind all the pedals and any buttons you want to use.

In Game Settings > Controls > Settings:

Controller Type needs to be set to Wheel when using a steering wheel.

Auto Steering Rotation lets the game set the wheel rotation to the real world value of the car you are driving. This includes a Soft Lock, so you can't turn the wheel past the car's actual steering rotation.

Force Feedback Effects is best left on Pure 360Hz. This updates the force feedback 360 times per second. The other options all update at 180Hz, which gives less detail. The options with Effects add canned effects for things like driving over kerbs. I don't recommend these, as you will feel the real effects directly through the physics when using Pure 360Hz.

Force Feedback Strength should control the overall strength of the forces you feel. Unfortunately, this has no effect on these wheels. It is either 0% or 100%. Instead, you have to control the strength using the FORCE setting on the wheel. I use either FORCE at 3 or 4 bars, depending on the car.

FFB Low Force Boost raises the lighter forces especially around the center point of the wheel. Setting this too high will make bumps in the road overly strong. These wheels don't need much of this at all.

Damping Preset needs to be set to None when using a steering wheel. The other options are only used when playing with a gamepad.

Conclusion

The original Automobilista is still great even today. While it has largely been replaced by its own sequel, it is still useful if you have an older computer that can't run the newer simulators with much higher system requirements.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.