Thrustmaster Reveals Aggressive Product Reveal Roadmap

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Thrustmaster Ferrari SF1000 Add-On Wheel.jpg
Sim hardware creator Thrustmaster has revealed an ambitious timeline for the unveiling of their upcoming products, including a new pedal set and direct drive wheelbase.

Thrustmaster revealed a long list of new products they intend to reveal before the end of this year. Among the new products are two new racing wheels, a new pedal set, flight sim yoke, flight sim joystick bundle, and a new ESWAP controller.

Thrustmaster New Products 2021 01.jpg

The product likely to catch the most attention in the sim racing world is the new direct drive racing wheelbase for PC. Some people in the sim racing community were disappointed in Thrustmaster’s reveal of the T-GT II wheelbase in June, as it seemed like an inadequate response to market competitor Fanatec’s CSL DD wheelbase. Whether Thrustmaster's DD wheelbase attempts to compete with the popular and budget-friendly CSL DD base or higher-end direct drive systems remains to be seen.

Two other key points for the sim racing community include the new pedal set for both PC and console users, plus a hybrid drive wheel bundle which is also designed for PC, Playstation and XBox. Nothing has been revealed about either product, but with mid-range pedals already on the market in the form of the T-LCM set, a higher-grade pedal set could be a good market position for Thrustmaster to enter.

For fans of flight simulators, you can expect a glimpse of Thrustmaster’s new joystick and yoke products before the end of 2021. This could prove to be another successful product for TM as the massively popular Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 continues to grow. This seems to be reflected in Thrustmaster's announcement that the joystick bundle will be available for PC only, and the yoke will be available for both the PC and XBox formats, which currently support FS2020.

Thrustmaster has also made mention of a new ESWAP controller and customization packs for both Xbox consoles and PC. These will carry on Thrustmaster’s customizable gamepad concept, allowing gamers to swap components of the controller to find their ideal ergonomics and style.

Thrustmaster closed the announcement tweet with a plea for patience and mentioned that they would answer questions about each product only after the respective reveal.

Let us know your thoughts on this extensive development roadmap for Thurstmaster. Are there products here that interest you?
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

Kuku Maddog
That T248 looks like it will appeal only to 12 year old kids, now we know where the unemployed Aussie Holden designer’s ended up ;) , and replacing the t150 (which should be discontinued :poop: ) , is pointless, when realistically they just need to , or if not will be forced to , lower the T300 prices to more direct dollar for dollar competition for the entry level to Logitech .
Thats the reality of their current belt line up, everything has to drop down a rung on the ladder, but they have just replaced the wonky bottom rung ….
 
Stephen Gibbs
I think the T248 (not sure what the numbering is referring to) looks a half decent entry level wheel and pedal set tbh. The pedals look an improvement on the t3pa which a lot of casual racers use. Yes for full on sim racers it wont cut it but I have plenty of friends who just play one game on console such as f1 and this would suit them perfectly.

Lets hope the hybrid drive and DD are at the right pricepoint, that is key imho.
 
Dzul
Premium
randomcallsign said:
The hybrid drive is the T248. The price is around 400usd or 350euro
Click to expand...
That would explain the pricing. but still not in par with current entry-level wheels... a Logitech G-series is €249-299 ATM. For sure TM is trying to sway sales away from those, with the load-cell and the little LCD screen being the main differences to justify the higher price I assume.
 
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Kuku Maddog
Dzul said:
That would explain the pricing. but still not in par with current entry-level wheels... a Logitech G-series is €249-299 ATM. For sure TM is trying to sway sales away from those, with the load-cell and the little LCD screen being the main differences to justify the higher price I assume.
Click to expand...
I don’t think it’s load cell :thumbsdown:
 
Dzul
Premium
That would be a bummer for that price... shall we call it "spring-cell', by the looks of it? :D
 
X-Vector
If the price of €350 is correct it should be a replacement for the T300/TX, not the T150/TMX Pro.
That LSD screen seems interesting, though.
 
GP20
gamma123152 said:
Let's hope that TM makes their wheels of higher quality now.

I bought the ferrari wheel (exact model number I don't remember) which was around 700 euro... it was cracking so much when driving that I had to return it... it looked really nice but the quality was just unacceptable. Really terrible quality for such an high price. Even the Logitech G920 wheel felt better in terms of build quality.
Click to expand...
The Ferrari SF1000 wheel has never been sold for 700 euros and the frame is made with carbon fiber.



It looks like you have an agenda.
 
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Turk
TRASGU said:
The new DD fanatec wheel changed the game, because it's all metal, tiny, powerfull enough for most of the users, has the hype, and people will have to pick between a plastic base that's not that much cheaper than it's counterpart put together with a much higher quality wheel and compatible with a bigger and higher quality ecosystem.
Click to expand...
The only reason I went for Fanatecs clubsport wheel base over the CSL (which had just come out at the time) was because of the metal construction.

I'll avoid plastic in any product that going to get abuse.
 
Mekonrider
In the UK, Fanatec need better distribution into places like GAME, Argos, Smyths and the like if they are take on Thrustmaster with the big sales numbers rather than niche sim racers.

Casuals probably don't even know Fanatec exist until they move beyond being casuals.
 
D
Kyuubeey said:
Later F-16's do have something similar to ^ (Auto-GCAS) although it's largely for pulling up, not down. :p

What I was talking about is more like stick force feedback mapping so that 1G always corresponds to 5lbs or whatever; although I doubt it's linear because the control surface maps sure don't seem to be if the manuals are concerned.

I guess subjectively it could feel like there is no feedback from the system, when in fact there is a constant check to provide an indication of flight performance via the haptics.

There is no direct feedback from the surfaces and the F-16 isn't even a hydromechanical system like the F-15, it's purely electronic (Mostly? There are some physical sensors to measure deflection to determine stick force IIRC), so to get any kind of resistance (Apart from the small mechanical resistance/friction/whatever near center) you'll need the system to provide a feedback to the electronics and push against the stick with something.

EDIT: Actually, that is dumb. It's a lot easier to just make the flight controls do something at say 5lbs; than to make 5lb correspond to what the flight controls are doing! I suppose it wouldn't be a feedback system in that regard per-se. I'm not sure how they do it in the F-16 to be honest; earlier FBW systems used pulleys and whatnot to provide different stick forces, but you don't *need* that in an electronic system.
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Let's put this argument to bed once and for all. The F-16 DOES NOT have any sort of feedback system.

The F15 has pulley and bell cranks and all flight control surfaces are controlled with the flight control stick (located between the pilots legs). All the pilot inputs go under the cockpit and enter onto what could be referred to in lamens terms as a giant cluster screw of pulleys and bell cranks (though it is more complicated than that obviously).

The F-16 uses 100% fly by wire. The inputs a pilot makes are read my a computer called the Flight Control Computer (FLCC for short) and those inputs are then transmitted to the respective servo-actuators for each flight control service (electronic signal transmitted into a hydraulic actuator).

When the first set of F16s were delivered to the Air Force back in roughly 1978, the side-stick has ZERO movement. It relied on pressure from the pilots right hand to be transmitted into the unit. The pilots hated the feeling of no movement and demanded it be changed. So, they fixed the aircraft that were currently in service and built the new aircraft to the new spec. The current version of the F16s from that point forward have what I could only describe as about 1/4 of an inch from center travel. 1/4 of an inch isnt very much either, but the pilots all loved it when they flew it. I know this because as a Crew Chief, I talked to a Colonel in the early 90s that told me this whole story from first hand knowledge. The system has ZERO force feedback of any kind. NONE!!

If you have any further questions, I will be glad to answer them.
 
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Kyuubeey
Bad metal
Defender said:
Let's put this argument to bed once and for all. The F-16 DOES NOT have any sort of feedback system.

The F15 has pulley and bell cranks and all flight control surfaces are controlled with the flight control stick (located between the pilots legs). All the pilot inputs go under the cockpit and enter onto what could be referred to in lamens terms as a giant cluster screw of pulleys and bell cranks (though it is more complicated than that obviously).

The F-16 uses 100% fly by wire. The inputs a pilot makes are read my a computer called the Flight Control Computer (FLCC for short) and those inputs are then transmitted to the respective servo-actuators for each flight control service (electronic signal transmitted into a hydraulic actuator).

When the first set of F16s were delivered to the Air Force back in roughly 1978, the side-stick has ZERO movement. It relied on pressure from the pilots right hand to be transmitted into the unit. The pilots hated the feeling of no movement and demanded it be changed. So, they fixed the aircraft that were currently in service and built the new aircraft to the new spec. The current version of the F16s from that point forward have what I could only describe as about 1/4 of an inch from center travel. 1/4 of an inch isnt very much either, but the pilots all loved it when they flew it. I know this because as a Crew Chief, I talked to a Colonel in the early 90s that told me this whole story from first hand knowledge. The system has ZERO force feedback of any kind. NONE!!

If you have any further questions, I will be glad to answer them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you're not wrong. F-16's system is not so much a feedback system as nothing is fed-back, the force is fed-in moreso.

They do effectively the same thing (Selected stick resistance for selected flight conditions) but F-16 does it directly, while F-15 sends deflection inputs to a black box that actuates the hydraulic controllers, and then provides stick forces mechanically to match the output. I'm fairly sure F-15 isn't an actual manual system, it's not like the MiG-29A where the stick can lock-up at higher airspeeds unless I'm missing something.

F-16 should measure deflection as well seeing as you can't really measure force, I'm pretty sure it's done with two axis deflecting; but if the pilot and computer is concerned, they're solving for the resulting SSC resistance, so you can just do a direct input/output map and skip all of the crap.

Btw, I've been told that all of the YF-16 and all of the F-16 have some deflection in the SSC, it's just almost~ zero in the early models, to the point where you can't really even feel an actual center detent. Don't know how true that is, but small tidbits like that don't usually get mentioned to anyone outside of a technical manual. There's also no practical travel stop so pilots were just dialing in 100lbs+ and injuring themselves.
 
Dzul
Premium
Defender said:
The pilots hated the feeling of no movement and demanded it be changed. So, they fixed the aircraft that were currently in service and built the new aircraft to the new spec. The current version of the F16s from that point forward have what I could only describe as about 1/4 of an inch from center travel. 1/4 of an inch isnt very much either, but the pilots all loved it when they flew it.
Click to expand...

I find this very interesting feedback from the actual users themselves, do you
happen to know why they rather have a bit of 'looseness' on the flight stick?
 
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D
"New racing pedal set" is one of the most interestings from this. I have the tlcm pedals but want better so are we looking at a pro version of them or something even better, let's dream for this - a budget hydraulic pedal set for £300! :D
 
Kyuubeey
Dzul said:
I find this very interesting feedback from the actual users themselves, do you
happen to know why they rather have a bit of 'looseness' on the flight stick?
Click to expand...
One of the reasons given is that you need some deflection to be able to tell when you've moved from the roll axis to the pitch axis and vice versa, and also when you're close to center. On takeoff a lot of pilots were rolling into other planes because there wasn't really a detent.
 
Dzul
Premium
Indeed an important reason, "feeling" the plane as much as possible. Thank you for the insight! :thumbsup:
 
Kyuubeey
It's a bit funny knowing that and seeing all the flightsimmers ask for sticks with no center detent. Or when flightsimmers want sticks that return to center extremely quickly if you let go. Meanwhile actual real pilots usually want the opposite. :rolleyes:
 
D
Dzul said:
I find this very interesting feedback from the actual users themselves, do you
happen to know why they rather have a bit of 'looseness' on the flight stick?
Click to expand...
Imagine a Playstation analog stick (or xbox) that didnt move at all when you applied thumb pressure. All it did was measure how much thumb pressure you're applying to the stick and then moved the character on screen. This is what the F16 stick did.. there was no movement of the stick. It simply sent the pressure readings applied to it to the Flight Control Computer and then the aircraft did what it was told. Since pilots (and most everyone else) are creatures of habit, they were used to jamming the stick of the F-4 or F-111 or F-15 from side to side and such and making the aircraft do what they wanted. Then they jumped into this new fangled F-16 and the damn stick didnt move at all. THAT'S WHY.. lol
 

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