Best F1 2015 Settings for Thrustmaster T248
F1 2015 plays very well with a wheel. Unfortunately, the default force feedback settings for the Thrustmaster T248 aren't very good. First off, the steering angle needs to be set correctly to make the game playable. By default, it uses the full range of the wheel instead of the typical 360° for F1 cars. Secondly, the force feedback is much too strong, maxing out the motors of these wheels, making it so you don't feel much of anything about the car.
With some tweaking, we can fix both of these problems, greatly improving the game. In this guide I will show what settings to use in-game, on the wheel and in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, if playing on PC.
Thrustmaster Settings
The first thing that needs to be fixed is the steering angle. By default, F1 2015 uses the full rotation of your wheel, which is far too much for an F1 car. The steering angle should be 360°, meaning you can turn it 180° to the left and 180° to the right.
| On-Wheel Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| ROT | 360° |
| FORCE | 4 |
| FFB | 1 |
FORCE at 4 bars with FFB at 1 creates a perfectly linear force feedback response with no clipping, which is the ideal for any racing game.
| TM Control Panel Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 360° |
| Overall Strength of all forces | 65% |
| Constant | 100% |
| Periodic | 100% |
| Spring | 100% |
| Damper | 100% |
| BOOST | Off |
| Auto-Center | by the 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 F1 2015, so the values actually don't matter. Some games require them to be on for their force feedback to work, so I keep them at 100% as a general rule.
BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.
F1 2015 Settings
The game will complain that it doesn't recognize the wheel, but it still works just fine. You can just ignore the error message. The button bindings are unusual, though.
| UI Label | Wheel Button |
|---|---|
| A | Circle |
| B | R2 |
| X | Triangle |
| Y | L2 |
In Settings > Customise Controls > Advanced Wheel Settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Steering Deadzone | 0 |
| Steering Linearity | 0-10 |
| Steering Saturation | 0 |
| Throttle Deadzone | 0 |
| Throttle Linearity | 0 |
| Brake Deadzone | 0 |
| Brake Linearity | 0 |
You can raise the Steering Linearity to make the wheel slightly less sensitive when the wheel is centered, but this is up to personal preference.
In Settings > Customise Controls > Force Feedback Options:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Force Feedback | On |
| Feedback Strength | 75-80 |
| Environmental Feedback | 70 |
| Wheel Weight | 100 |
Feedback Strength is the overall strength of the force feedback. Adjust this higher or lower depending on your preference. The actual forces are calculated by the other two settings.
Environmental Feedback is the force you feel from the track surface, kerbs and going off track.
Wheel Weight is the primary force you feel in the wheel, based on the tire grip.
There is a very annoying problem with the force feedback in this game. The collision effect, either colliding with the wall or another car, uses the full Feedback Strength value, instead of the Environmental Feedback value as you would expect. This means collisions are overly strong on these wheels.
If you find the collisions too strong, you will have to lower the Feedback Strength value, and accept less overall force feedback.
Conclusion
You can still have a great time with the older titles in the F1 series, especially if you are on a weaker computer. The physics may not be as accurate and they may not have all the bells and whistles of the newer titles, but the basic racing is still a lot of fun.
Let me know if you have any comments or questions.
