Best DiRT Rally Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150

DiRT Rally is a great game to play with a force feedback wheel. The game transmits a lot of information about what the car is doing through the wheel. Given the difficulty of controlling a rally car, you want the best control possible through the wheel.

Unfortunately, the default force feedback settings in Dirt Rally don't work very well for the Thrustmaster TMX and T150 (they are essentially the same wheel). Different wheels have very different characteristics for the force feedback abilities as they use completely different mechanisms.

Using the default force feedback settings, the Thrustmaster TMX and T150 will feel too heavy and hard to turn quickly, when it should be relatively easy. Thankfully, DiRT Rally allows you to change the force feedback settings on a very granular basis.

After doing a lot of research and my own testing, I found the best settings for the Thrustmaster TMX and T150. These really made a big impact on my enjoyment of the game.

Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings

DiRT Rally has a Soft Lock feature, so it will automatically set the proper steering angle for each car in the game. Set the maximum steering angle in the Thrustmaster Control Panel and calibrate the wheel in-game.

Spring is not used by DiRT Rally, so the value doesn't actually 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 in DiRT Rally for the Wheel Friction and Tire Friction effects. I don't use either of these effects, they only make the wheel a little heavier and are unnecessary.

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

DiRT Rally Settings

In Options & Extras > Controls > Advanced Wheel Settings:

Setting Steering Linearity to a negative value makes the steering more sensitive when the wheel is centered. This can be useful for older cars that have a larger degree of rotation, if it feels like you are unable to turn the wheel fast enough around corners. For modern style cars, Steering Linearity should be set at 0, or the wheel will be over sensitive when centered and harder to control.

In Options & Extras > Controls > Vibration & Feedback:

Self Aligning Torque is the main strength of the force feedback.

Wheel Friction and Tire Friction are Damper forces. In different ways, they both add resistance to the wheel only if you have the Damper force enabled in the Thrustmaster Control Panel. Wheel Friction is a mostly constant force that simply makes the wheel heavier. Tire Friction is mostly felt based on the speed of the car. When the car is still, you will feel the heaviness of the car when you try to turn the wheel. I don't like Damper forces on these lower end wheels, so I turn these off.

Suspension controls the vibration felt from the road surface.

Tire Slip is a canned effect that vibrates the wheel whenever the rear wheels lose traction. I have this set quite low, but you may want to turn it off completely as it is not a realistic effect most of the time, but does give you a little more information about what the car is doing.

Collision controls the vibration when you hit a rock or something on the side of the road.

Soft Lock is the force you feel when trying to turn the wheel past the real-world steering angle.

Steering Centre Force is only ever used when you start a race or reset the car to re-center the wheel. It has no effect when you are driving.

Conclusion

Before making these changes, I found the game fun, but often annoyingly hard to control. After applying these settings, I was no longer fighting with the force feedback and I finally had complete control over the car. This makes the game so much more enjoyable to play because you can actually control the car in difficult situations. I highly recommend you try these settings.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.