Best VRally 4 Settings for Thrustmaster T248

VRally 4 is an arcade rally racing game. It supports using a wheel, but there are some issues when using the Thrustmaster T248. The wheel isn't natively supported, so you can't navigate the menus by default. With a little file editing, we can fix this on the PC.

The default force feedback is not the greatest, making the wheel too heavy and vibrate excessively, masking a lot of the important information. Thankfully, this is 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 how to add native support for the T248 and the settings I use to improve the force feedback.

T248 Bindings

You will not be able to navigate the menus using the wheel unless you edit the game file with information about the T248. It's actually very easy to fix. Since the T248 has a similar layout to other Thrustmaster wheels, we can just add the T248 identifier to the same bindings as several other wheels. Once you load the preset, you can customize the buttons in-game as normal.

To add support for the T248, open the file:

Steam Library\steamapps\common\VR4\Common\Settings\InputBindings.lua

Find the line:

--Thrustmaster T500RS, T300RS, T100, T150, TS-PC RACER, T-GT, TS-XW

The section that follows is the shared bindings for all these Thrustmaster wheels. All we need to do is add the T248 identifier (3063284815) to the GUID line to add support for it.

Edit the GUID line to add 3063284815 at the end of the list. It will look like this:

--Thrustmaster T500RS, T300RS, T100, T150, TS-PC RACER, T-GT, TS-XW
{
    Device 	= EnumDeviceFamily.I_ICF_STEERING_WHEEL,
    Index	= 4,
    GUID	= { 3059614799, 3060663375, 3059352655, 3061253199, 3062432847, 3062105167, 3063022671, 3063284815 },

If you have already been playing the game, go into the control settings and load the Thrustmaster Advanced Mode Racer preset for these to take effect.

Thrustmaster Settings

VRally 4 will change the rotation angle directly in-game, so leave the rotation on the wheel on Auto.

FORCE at 4 bars with FFB at 1 creates a perfectly linear force feedback response with no clipping, which is the ideal for any racing game.

Rotation and Overall Strength are identical to the ROT and FORCE wheel settings, respectively. Changing it in one place overwrites the other. I recommend changing these on the wheel and ignoring the values in the Thrustmaster Control Panel.

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:

Sensitivity at 0 should produce a linear steering. If it doesn't, raise the Sensitivity up to 10 and lower it back down to 0. I had to do this once to get linear steering for some reason.

Maximum Angle will change the value at the driver level to provide a proper Soft Lock.

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 didn't expect much from it in terms of force feedback, but it actually works very well. It's obviously not on the same level as the later WRC games, but it's more than good enough for what you need for this game.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.