Best SnowRunner Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150

SnowRunner is a very different style of driving game than I normally play. It's often more of a driving puzzle game as you work a truck out of the mud. I wasn't expecting much from the force feedback in a game like this, since there isn't a need for the kind you would have in a racing simulator. I was pleasantly surprised to find it actually has very good force feedback designed specifically around driving through the mud and other rough terrain.

The default settings for the Thrustmaster TMX and T150 make the wheel too heavy, but this is very easy to fix with some setting adjustments. Unfortunately, the game does not have any default button bindings for the TMX. You will have to manually bind the buttons before you can even navigate the menus. It's a strange oversight.

In this guide, I will show you the settings I use to improve the force feedback and what you may want to adjust for your own setup.

Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings

SnowRunner doesn't have a way to set the steering angle in-game, so you have to do it in the Thrustmaster Control Panel. 390° will make the wheel match the in-game steering animation. I found using a larger, more realistic steering angle gets annoying when you're stuck and having to turn the wheel a lot, but feel free to set whatever you are comfortable with.

Setting Value
Rotation 390°
Overall Strength of all forces 100%
Constant 100%
Periodic 100%
Spring 100%
Damper 100%
BOOST Off
Auto-Center by the game

Spring is not used by SnowRunner, so the value doesn't actually matter. I leave this at 100% since there are some games that require it.

Damper is used by SnowRunner for the Friction Gain setting. I've commonly recommended turning this off, but it is required for this game, so make sure it is at 100%.

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

SnowRunner Settings

In Settings > Game:

Setting Value
Steering Mode Steering Wheel

It's important to tell the game you are using a steering wheel and not a controller.


In Settings > Steering Wheel:

Setting Value
Type Thrustmaster
Wheel Presets Custom (TMX) / T150
Wheel Sensitivity 1.00
Force Feedback 0.75
Tilt Gain 0.30
Friction Base Level 0.17
Friction Gain 0.45
Spring Gain 0.30
Collision Gain 1.00
Vibrotactile Force Gain 0.00

Wheel Presets selects the preset button bindings for each wheel. For the TMX, you can choose Custom and manually bind the buttons and pedals or choose any other Thrustmaster wheel and figure out how the buttons have been bound with trial and error. For the T150, the proper bindings already exist.

Wheel Sensitivity lets you change the steering linearity. 1.00 is linear steering.

Force Feedback is the overall strength of the force feedback.

Tilt Gain will make the force feedback react to how tilted the truck is. Setting this too high exaggerates the effect to a point where the wheel feels very odd.

Friction Base Level is the constant low level of friction in the wheel at all times. Setting this to 0 will make the wheel have no weight when you are driving on normal roads. Setting this too high will make the wheel heavy all the time.

Friction Gain is the maximum amount of friction that will be added to the wheel. Setting this too high will make the wheel very heavy much of the time.

Spring Gain makes the wheel want to pull back to the center. Setting this too high will make the wheel very heavy when turning.

Collision Gain is the force when you hit something. This isn't very strong, so can be set at the maximum without a problem.

Vibrotactile Force Gain is only used by the Logitech G923 for its TrueForce feature. It has no effect on these wheels.

Conclusion

I like the way the wheel feels in this game quite a bit. I always find it awkward to use the wheel using a third-person camera, which you have to do a lot in this game, though. There are times when it's probably easier to use a controller, but I just prefer the wheel.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Question or Comment?