Hi all,

I've opened this thread to share my wheel settings and some other aspects of the game and wheel setups that I find important to have a realistic feeling, as well as being able to control the cars safely and being able to make consistent lap times.

These settings are the result of years of research and testing. I'm not saying that they are the best, or the only ones to be correct, but I am actually very satisfied with them, and I can recommend them, especially to G25 users, but also to other wheel owners as long as the steering ratio is proportionally adjusted.

1 - Wheel settings in Windows Control Panel/Game Controllers



2 - Force Feedback settings in driver.plr file

(see File Attachement at the end of the post)
Obs.: edit this file at your own risk; remember to make a backup before any change - this way you can always go back in case something goes wrong
The settings here are very important also. Default game force feedback is not good in my opinion, because when the car looses grip the steering becomes very light, and there's no feeling from the wheels to help you to correct your steering inputs. You will find attached to this post the force-feedback section of my plr file. Just copy them and replace your own plr corresponding entries. I’m quite satisfied with these settings - I think they seem real, there is a good feeling of mass transfer during cornering, and it’s easy to counter-steer when the car oversteers, as the force feedback helps here.
My settings are for the G25, but should work with other wheels also, as long as you adjust the force-feedback strength. As an example, I use (with G25) for these settings 85% FFB in the Porsche 911 and 70% in the Alfa Junior GTA (add-on car). Different cars require different FFB strengths. Different wheels should require different FFB values.

3 - Steering Lock



This relates with the total rotation of your wheel, so different wheels will require different values to have the same steering ratio.
Example: I use 720º in my wheel, and my steering lock in car setup is 22º. The formula to calculate the steering ratio is:

(Steering wheel rotation : 2) : steering lock = steering ratio
-> (720 : 2) : 22 = steering ratio
-> 360 : 22 = 16,36

My steering ratio is 16,36. As a reference, the lower this number, the more direct and quick to turn the steering will be. It doesn’t mean that direct and quick is a good thing, it depends on the car. Formulas and Radicals have a steering ratio of around 10 (very quick and direct turning), GT cars between 12 and 15, and street cars and old race cars (as in GTL) between 15 and 20, So it’s not good, imho, to drive a GTL car with a steering ratio of 10 used for a Formula. You drive a Formula almost like a kart, and that is not the way to drive older cars. A higher steering ratio will give more precision and control.

Wheels with 240º (like Momo) - if you drive with default steering lock, which I think its 14,5º, your steering ratio will be:

(240 : 2) : 14,5 = steering ratio
120 : 14,5 = steering ratio
= 8,27

This is, imho, too much direct for GTL cars. The car will respond abruptly to the minimum steering input, and will be very hard to control, especially during corner entry and mid-corner phases. With a steering lock of 10º, the steering ratio will be 12 - not ideal for these cars, but much better than the default value.
Tip: always test in small steps. If, for example, your steering lock is 15º, and you want to try 10º, try 12º or 13º first, with a track and a car you already know well, to have a reference time and be able to see if the change was positive or not. Your lap times and consistency lap after lap will be the judges.
Don't expect to change values and shave right away 1 or 2 secs of your best lap time. You will need some practice to get used to the new steering inputs (you will have to turn the wheel a little more, instead of driving like in a kart, with almost direct steering). It worked for me: as soon as I got used to drive with a correct steering ratio, not only my lap times dropped, but I was able to drive in a much more consistent way lap after lap.