Best Project CARS 3 Settings for Thrustmaster T248
Project CARS 3 is more similar to the GRID series than the previous entries in the Project CARS series, making it a rather controversial title. As the only racing game of this style that natively supports VR, Project CARS 3 fills a particular niche for me and I'm very happy it exists. Considering this isn't the most serious simulator, I wasn't expecting it to have the best force feedback, but I've been happily surprised. It's not the greatest by any means, but it does its job.
For the Thrustmaster T248, there are some unfortunate issues with it. Annoyingly, you can't navigate the menus using the buttons on the wheel. While the force feedback works well, there is no soft lock, which detracts from the experience. Thankfully you can change the rotation on the wheel directly, but it's not a perfect solution.
In this guide, we will first look at the settings you need to set in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, if playing on a PC. Then we will look at the in-game settings to improve the force feedback.
Thrustmaster Settings
Since the soft lock doesn't work in Project CARS 3 for these wheels, you will have to set the rotation on the wheel. You can do this even while you are driving a car without going into the menus and recalibrating the wheel.
| On-Wheel Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| ROT | Varies by car |
| FORCE | 4 |
| FFB | 1 |
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.
| TM Control Panel Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | Varies by car |
| Overall Strength of all forces | 65% |
| Constant | 100% |
| Periodic | 100% |
| Spring | 100% |
| Damper | 100% |
| BOOST | Off |
| Auto-Center | by the game |
Rotation and Overall Strength are identical to the ROT and FORCE wheel settings, respectively. Changing it in one place overwrites the other. Usually I recommend changing these on the wheel and ignoring the values in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, but we can't set 480° on the wheel itself.
Spring and Damper are not used by Project CARS 3, so their values actually don't matter. I keep these at 100% since there are some games that require them.
BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.
Project CARS 3 Settings
In Settings > Gameplay:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Stability Control | Off |
| Traction Control | Off |
I recommend turning off Traction and Stability Control. It gives you more control over the car and makes it a more dynamic driving experience.
In Settings > Wheel & Force Feedback:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Strength | 70 |
| Tone | 80 |
| Vibration | 65 |
| Menu Spring Strength | 40 |
| Steering Deadzone | 0 |
| Steering Sensitivity | 50 |
| Throttle Deadzone | 0 |
| Throttle Sensitivity | 50 |
| Brake Deadzone | 0 |
| Brake Sensitivity | 30 |
Strength is the main centering force. Setting this too high will make the wheel quite heavy.
Tone controls the feeling of the road surface vs tire grip. I raise the Tone to give a little more feeling of the tires.
Vibration is the vibrations you feel from the road surface, kerbs and collisions.
Menu Spring Strength just centers the wheel when you enter the menus.
Make sure Steering Deadzone is set to 0. For some reason, this defaulted to 15 for me.
I set the Throttle and Brake Deadzones to 0 and lower the Brake Sensitivity. The brakes seem overly sensitive to me, but this is personal preference.
Conclusion
It's unfortunate that Project CARS 3 was such a disappointment for so many people. Having a more casual racing experience in VR is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. If they had just named it Project GRID, they could have managed people's expectations much better. In the end, it's not the best game I've ever played, but I still enjoy it.
Let me know if you have any comments or questions.