Best Need For Speed Heat Settings for Logitech G29 / G920

Need For Speed Heat, while most certainly being an arcade racing game, actually plays very well with a wheel. The default settings aren't great for the Logitech G29 and G920, but with a few setting adjustments, it actually feels very good.

The force feedback is very basic, which is all that is needed in a game like this. You never have to worry about losing control of the car; the physics are much simpler than that. It's much more about creating an immersive experience than any kind of serious driving simulation. Taken for what it is, the game plays very well.

In this guide, I will show the settings I use that complement the game the best.

G HUB Settings

Most arcade games play better with smaller steering angles. I found that 360° feels a little too sensitive and unnatural. 540° feels more natural, but can feel unresponsive in the center of the wheel. 480° ends up being a good compromise.

Need For Speed Heat can actually set the steering angle directly in-game, but I like to create a profile anyway, just so that it never accidentally changes the Desktop profile. Create a new profile for Need For Speed Heat with the following settings:

Need For Speed Heat Settings

In Options > Controls:

Wheel Maximum Rotation sets the steering angle, overriding what is set in G HUB.

Wheel Deadzone makes the game ignore the input in the center of the wheel. There is no reason to use this on these wheels.

Wheel Force Feedback controls the overall strength of the vibration effects.

Wheel Tire Force controls the actual force feedback. Setting this too high makes the feel heavy, but without adding any detail.

Wheel Spring Force controls the Spring force, which constantly pulls the wheel to the center. I found that even a small amount of this overwhelms the actual force feedback.

Wheel Damper Force controls the Damper force, which adds weight to the wheel. I don't like the feel of Damper forces very much, so I turn this off.

Wheel Surface Force controls the vibration effect you feel when you are on dirt. This is just a constant vibration and can get annoying if it's set too high. You may even want to turn this off, depending on your preference.

Wheel Collision Force shakes the wheel when you hit something. I like this fairly strong since it adds a nice bit of feedback when running down all those road signs and lampposts. Raising this too much will make the wheel quite loud when you land from jumps or get into a big crash.

Conclusion

Need For Speed Heat is surprisingly fun with a wheel. I honestly wasn't expecting much as I had always thought of the Need For Speed series as meant to be played with a controller. I was completely wrong at least about this title in the series. It's not the most amazing force feedback I've ever felt, but it's still a lot of fun.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.