Best Automobilista Settings for Thrustmaster TX / T300

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.

The Thrustmaster TX and T300 work great with Automobilista. They are recognized natively by the game, so you don't have to manually bind any buttons. The actual force feedback feels great with plenty of detail. There are only a few options to adjust, so getting the force feedback working its best is very easy.

In this guide, I will show you the settings I use to get the best experience with the game.

Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings

Automobilista will automatically set the correct steering angle for each car in the game, so leave the rotation in the Thrustmaster Control Panel at the maximum.

Setting Value
Rotation 900° (TX) 1080° (T300)
Overall Strength of all forces 75%
Constant 100%
Periodic 100%
Spring 100%
Damper 100%
BOOST Off
Auto-Center by the game

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:

Automobilista will be able to detect these wheels and set all the button bindings directly.


In Game Settings > Controls > Settings:

Setting Value
Controller Type Wheel
Auto Steering Rotation On
Force Feedback Effects Pure 360Hz
Force Feedback Strength 100%
FFB Low Force Boost 46%
Damping Preset None

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 controls the overall strength of the forces you feel. With Thrustmaster wheels, this needs to be set to a positive value. Setting it to a negative value will invert the force feedback. I found you can keep this at 100% without the wheel feeling too strong, but it's possible there are some track and car combinations where you may need to lower this a little.

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. If you lower this too much, you won't feel any bumps 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.

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