Best VRally 4 Settings for Thrustmaster TX / T300

VRally 4 is an arcade rally racing game. It supports using a wheel, but the default settings for the Thrustmaster TX and T300 are not the greatest, making the wheel vibrate excessively, masking a lot of the important force feedback.

When I first tried the game, the controls were so awkward that I almost gave up entirely. Using the wheel just seemed to make the game much harder to control. Obviously something was wrong. It turned out that the Steering Sensitivity needed to be manually set to get linear steering, which solved the issue.

With the steering solved, the rest of the force feedback was easily fixed by adjusting a few settings. The physics aren't altered, of course, so the cars still take some getting used to if you are coming from the DiRT Rally or newer WRC games.

In this guide I will show the settings I use to fix the steering and improve the force feedback.

Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings

VRally 4 will change the rotation angle directly in-game, so the Thrustmaster Control Panel can be left at the maximum. Be aware that the game actually changes this value and doesn't always reset it back to the original if you force the game to close or it crashes.

Spring is not used by VRally 4, so the value actually doesn't matter. Some games require Spring to be on for their force feedback to work, so I keep it at 100% as a general rule.

Damper is used to control the Overall Damping setting.

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

VRally 4 Settings

In Options > Controls > Key Bindings > Steering:

When I first tried the game, despite the interface showing the Sensitivity at 0, the steering was not linear, easily seen by the control gauge that changes when you turn the wheel. All I had to do was change the Sensitivity to 10 and back again to 0 to correct the error and allow proper linear steering.

Maximum Angle will change the value at the driver level to provide a proper Soft Lock. This can be annoying if it doesn't reset the driver back to its original value if you force the game to close or it crashes. Just be aware to check the Thrustmaster Control Panel if that happens to set the value back to normal.

In Options > Controls > Vibration & Feedback:

Overall Force controls the overall amount of all other forces.

Overall Damping adds weight to the wheel.

Self Aligning Torque is the main calculated force in the wheel. This is what you should adjust if you want the forces to be stronger or lighter.

Road Feedback changes the amount of force based on the type of road you are driving on. I don't find this particularly useful.

Overall Vibration controls the amount of all the vibrations.

Suspension rumbles the wheel when you go over large bumps.

Tyre Slip vibrates the wheel when you lose traction. I turn this off since you are sliding all the time in this game, making the wheel vibrate endlessly, which I find extremely annoying.

Collision rumbles the wheel when you hit rocks or other objects on the side the track.

Ground Surface rumbles the wheel when you go over a bridge, certain special terrain sections, or leave the main track. I like this effect, but you could turn it down if you like.

Engine vibrates the wheel when you hit the red line, which is fairly rare, so I leave this effect on, but have it turned quite low. You could safely turn this off if you don't like the vibration effect at all.

Steering Centre Force centers the wheel when you reset the car to the track, so it's fine on the default 100. It has no effect when you are driving.

Conclusion

This game was a real surprise to me. I truly thought it just was not going to be possible to play with a wheel, but once I got these settings right, the game just came to life. Now the wheel actually improves the gameplay and makes it easier to get a feel for the physics of this game, rather than being a hindrance.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.