Best Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is the long awaited return of the Test Drive Unlimited Series. It's an always online game in the style of The Crew or the Forza Horizon series.
The Thrustmaster TMX and T150 work very well with it, but the default settings make the wheel way too heavy and stiff with very loud vibrations. This is easily fixed with the right settings. There is an annoying issue where the game can only read input from one device at a time. If you touch the keyboard or even move your mouse, the force feedback will disappear and the wheel will stop working until you press a button on the wheel.
This game has a few issues, but when the game is working properly, it's a good arcade racer with a large open world map to explore. In this guide, I will show the best settings to use to improve the force feedback and find workarounds for some of the bugs in the game.
Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown does have a Soft Lock, so you can leave the rotation set to the maximum rotation.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 900° (TMX) 1080° (T150) |
| Overall Strength of all forces | 75% |
| Constant | 100% |
| Periodic | 100% |
| Spring | 100% |
| Damper | 100% |
| BOOST | Off |
| Auto-Center | by the game |
Spring is used by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown for the Self-Centering setting.
Damper is used by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown for the Tire Load setting.
BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Settings
In Options > Controls:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Device | Thrustmaster TMX / T150 |
| Preset | Default Preset |
| Automatic Clutch | Personal Preference |
| Maximum Wheel Angle | 540 |
| Overall Vibration | 4 |
| Overall Force | 100 |
| Self Aligning Torque | 55 |
| Tire Load | 5 |
| Self-Centering | 25 |
| Wheel Recentering Force | 100 |
Maximum Wheel Angle is ultimately up to personal preference, but I recommend 540. The game clearly is designed around a fairly low steering angle, so I would say between 360 and 540 is a reasonable range.
Overall Vibration controls the actual vibration effects when sliding, surface texture, etc. This is almost an on or off setting, so I had to turn this down extremely low to get just a light vibration. I found the stronger vibrations to get annoying very quickly.
Overall Force is the strength of all the forces. This can be kept at 100 without issue.
Self Aligning Torque is the main force you feel. Setting this too high can make the wheel resist your inputs too much in corners, making the wheel feel heavy and numb.
Tire Load is a damper force that helps you feel the grip of the tires. These wheels have so much natural dampening that you can't add much of this without making the wheel far too heavy.
Self-Centering pulls the wheel to the center when the car is in motion. A little bit of this works well to speed up some counter steering, but setting it too high will cause the wheel to snap to the center all the time.
Wheel Recentering Force simply centers the wheel at the start of race and if you respawn. It has no effect during the race.
Troubleshooting
Force Feedback Disappears
The wheel will stop working and the force feedback will disappear if you use another input device, including a keyboard or mouse. Many times I didn't realize I bumped my mouse and caused it to happen. The solution is to simply press a button on the wheel, to make it the active device once again.
Unfortunately, this means that you will have problems if you have separate devices for pedals, shifter or handbrake. I don't know if there is a solution to that.
Conclusion
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has a lot of potential, but the bugs I've encountered make the game a little frustrating to play. Hopefully the issues will be fixed in upcoming patches. There is a lot to like in this game, so I will be interested to see how it develops.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments.