Best RaceRoom Racing Experience Settings for Thrustmaster T248
RaceRoom Racing Experience completely overhauled its force feedback system a while ago, changing it from one based on a lot of canned effects, to a purely physics-driven system. It now feels much more natural to drive and is quite similar to the other simulators. That said, it seems to be focused on delivering realistic steering rack forces, which doesn't convey as much information about the car as something like Assetto Corsa.
The Thrustmaster T248 works beautifully with this new system. The wheel is recognized as a TS-PC Racer, but works perfectly, including the telemetry on the screen. The default settings work fine, but there are some adjustable elements that I think improve the experience even more.
In this guide, I will show you the settings I use and what you may want to adjust for your own setup.
Thrustmaster Settings
RaceRoom Racing Experience automatically sets the steering angle for each car and has a proper Soft Lock, so it is best to leave the rotation set to the maximum on the wheel.
| On-Wheel Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| ROT | 900° |
| 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 | 900° |
| 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. I recommend changing these on the wheel and ignoring the values in the Thrustmaster Control Panel.
Spring is not used by RaceRoom, so the value doesn't actually matter. I leave this at 100% since there are some games that require it.
Damper is used by RaceRoom for the Stationary Friction setting, which simply gives the wheel weight when the car is stopped.
BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.
RaceRoom Racing Experience Settings
In Options > Controls > Control Sets:
The T248 is recognized as the TS-PC Advanced Racer by the game. This is expected for the T248. It does this to add compatibility with all the older games. Even the on-wheel telemetry screen works perfectly.
The only issue I had was I needed to manually bind all the pedals and buttons in the Key Bindings section.
In Options > Controls > Advanced:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Speed Sensitive Steering | 0% |
| Steering Dead Zone | 0% |
| Steering Sensitivity | 50% |
I keep these at the default values as they work perfectly.
In Options > Controls > Force Feedback:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Force Feedback | On |
| Inverted Force Feedback | Off |
| FFB Strength | 100% |
| FFB Minimum Force | 0% |
| FFB Maximum Force | 100% |
| Stationary Friction | 50% |
| Engine Vibrations | 15% |
| Bump Amplification | 25% |
| Gearshift Effects | 10% |
FFB Strength is the overall strength of the force feedback. Importantly, this can be adjusted on a per-car basis as the "FFB Multiplier" setting in the car tuning. I highly recommend binding the keys to adjust this. Each car has its own feel, and some are set too strong, so the force feedback clips too often in corners.
FFB Minimum Force raises the very lightest forces to a minimum level so they can be felt on weaker wheels.
FFB Maximum Force will set a hard limit on the strength of force that can be sent to the wheel, but will not scale the forces until that point. This is meant to be used for very powerful direct-drive wheels, where a very powerful jolt could potentially hurt you.
Stationary Friction is simply the weight of the wheel when the car is stopped.
Engine Vibrations adds a constant vibration matching the engine revs for a more immersive experience. Since it doesn't add any useful information, this is entirely personal preference.
Bump Amplification raises the strength of road features to make them stand out more. If this is set too low, you won't feel much road texture at all.
Gearshift Effects gives a little jolt to the wheel when you change gears. I found setting this too high gets annoying quickly, so I have it set very light. Feel free to turn this off if you don't like it.
Conclusion
This new force feedback system has made RaceRoom much more interesting. Being physics-driven instead of using a bunch of canned effects makes it much easier to drive naturally and brings it inline with most of the other simulators on the market. It makes it much easier to jump between games without having to relearn the feeling of the force feedback.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments.