Best WRC 8 Wheel Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150
WRC 8 is a really strong rally game. The physics are believable and the courses are very detailed. Games like this work best when played with a force feedback wheel. Unfortunately for the Thrustmaster TMX and T150, the default force feedback settings don't give the best first impression. There are way too many forces and vibrations creating a lot of noise that makes it difficult to tell what is happening with the car.
Thankfully, the game provides a great deal of customization when it comes to the force feedback settings. I tested every setting until I found a nice balance of forces so you aren't fighting the wheel yet still get plenty of information about the car and road surface.
Settings
In the Thrustmaster Control Panel:
Set the rotation to its maximum.
Under Gain Settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Overall Strength of all forces | 100% |
| Constant | 100% |
| Periodic | 100% |
| Spring | 100% |
| Damper | 0% |
| Auto-Center | by the game |
The Damper applies a constant dampening effect (on top of any in-game settings), making the wheel feel heavy. On lower-end wheels, there is plenty of natural dampening in the wheel mechanism itself. (Dampening is used on higher-end wheels to solve oscillation problems.)
The Spring force constantly pulls the wheel back to the center, but, unlike the Damper, it is completely controlled by the game, just like the Constant and Periodic forces. Most games don't use the Spring force at all (their native physics simulations do this already), so it actually doesn't matter what the value is set to in the Control Panel.
I leave the Spring force on in the Control Panel, making the in-game settings the only factor controlling the force feedback. This makes the settings consistent across all games and prevents confusion in the few games that use it about why a FFB setting seems to have no effect.
In WRC 8:
In Options > Controls > Key Bindings > Steering:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Sensitivity | 1 |
| Deadzone | 0 |
| Saturation | 100 |
| Rescale | Off |
| Invert | Off |
I turn the sensitivity up just a little bit to make the wheel more sensitive when centered. You might even raise this a bit more, depending on your play style.
In Options > Controls > Settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max wheel angle | 540 |
| Overall force | 100 |
| Self aligning torque | 85 |
| Tyre load | 0 |
| Self centre | 0 - 10 |
| Recentre force | 100 |
| Overall Vibration | 50 |
| Tyre slip | 40 |
| Suspension | 90 |
| Ground surface | 80 |
| Engine | 20 |
| Collision | 80 |
All the forces needed to be lowered quite a bit, especially the vibrations. I like how the WRC series games separate the force feedback from vibrations and has separate overall levels for each type. It makes it easy to keep the same proportions of forces, while raising or lowering them all equally.
The Self Aligning Torque is the main force that tells you what the car is doing. You can turn everything else off and have a very good experience from this force alone.
Tyre Load is a damper effect that makes the wheel heavier or lighter based on the road surface. On these wheels, the effect is quite subtle, as there is already more than enough inherent dampening in the wheel. I turn it off completely as it really doesn't add any useful information except to make the wheel slightly harder to turn.
Self Centre is the spring force, which artificially pulls the wheel back to the center. If you use this at all, keep it very low, just enough to provide a slight assistance to keep the wheel straight. If you turn this up too high, it will make the wheel feel very heavy, constantly resisting any turn you put in the wheel.
The Recentre Force is only used when you reset the car after going off the track. It just puts the wheel back to the center. It has no impact while you are driving.
The vibration forces tell more about the surface of the track, but they need to be turned quite low, or else your wheel will be vibrating constantly.
The Tyre Slip vibrates the wheel whenever the car loses traction. If this is too high, it can be very jarring every time you slide the car around a corner.
The Engine setting vibrates the wheel whenever the engine hits the red line. I don't particularly like this, so I have turned it down to the point where you practically can't feel it at all. You could turn this higher if you like the effect.
The Suspension, Ground Surface and Collision all work together to give the rumble effects as you drive over bumps, go off the track or hit things on the side of the road.
Conclusion
Especially in a rally game, simply being able to control the car is half the fun. Your wheel needs to give you the right information to be able to do this. Once you get the force feedback working correctly, you can really start enjoying the game without being distracted by the feeling of the wheel.
Let me know if you have any comments or questions.
