Best NASCAR Heat 2 Settings for Thrustmaster TX / T300
NASCAR Heat 2 plays very well with a wheel, but it does need some tweaking to get the best experience when using the Thrustmaster TX and T300. The default settings don't provide enough force feedback and the steering angle isn't set properly. Thankfully, these issues are easy to fix.
There is no soft lock in this game, meaning that you can continue turning the wheel past the point you can in the real car. Nothing happens in game when you do this, the input is ignored entirely, but it makes it much harder to control in corners when you can't tell when you've reached that maximum rotation angle.
In this guide, I will show how to configure the wheel settings properly in-game and in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, if playing on PC.
Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings
The big issue with NASCAR Heat 2 is setting the steering angle correctly. In some games, the lack of a Soft Lock feature isn't that big of a deal because you only very rarely reach that point. In NASCAR, however, the steering angle is very small and you will frequently hit the maximum rotation angle. When the wheel keeps turning past that point, the game just doesn't feel right and the cars are harder to control as a result.
We can correct this by changing the rotation angle in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, which will provide the rotation lock, and modifying the in-game settings to match this. Ordinarily, I don't like having to modify the driver-level rotation angle, as it is annoying to have to change it when you load up a different game. In this case, there simply is no other way to get this to work.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 240° |
| 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 NASCAR Heat 2, 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.
NASCAR Heat 2 Settings
In Options > Controls > Wheel:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Input Device | Steering Wheel |
| Rotation Angle | 180° |
To work properly, the Rotation Angle needs to be less than what was set in the Thrustmaster Control Panel for some reason. Even though this is set to 180°, it will still use the full 240° rotation.
In Options > Controls:
The settings don't have any numerical values, just a simple slider. The default value is usually the center, which I will refer to as 0 in the following settings. The sliders can go from -5, if fully to the left, all the way to +5, if all the way to the right.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Steering Sensitivity | 0 |
| Brake Sensitivity | -5 |
| Throttle Sensitivity | -5 |
| Force Feedback Strength | +5 |
| Impact Effect | On |
Steering Sensitivity should be left at 0. Raising this will make the in-game wheel reach full lock before the actual wheel does. Lowering it will prevent the in-game wheel from being able to reach full lock.
Brake Sensitivity and Throttle Sensitivity are personal preference, but I recommend turning them all the way down to get a more linear response.
Force Feedback Strength controls the resistance to turning based on the tire grip. The force feedback is very light in this game, so I raise this to the maximum.
Impact Effects shakes the wheel when you hit other cars or the wall.
Conclusion
The only thing that can't be fixed is that the steering wheel animation doesn't match your input exactly when in cockpit view. The animation only goes 90° left or right and it changes based on how fast you are going. Thankfully it's pretty close to the real life motion, so it's easy to ignore.
Let me know if you have any comments or questions.