FM7 FFB Updates Headline New Forza Motorsport 7 Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

A new update has dropped today for Forza Motorsport 7, with force feedback improvements set to headline the latest build.

Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios have released another new update to their Forza Motorsport 7 racing game on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, adding the 2017 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso as February's free spotlight machine, and a range of fixes and improvements to the title. Of the highlights from the new build, Turn 10 have improved the loading times of the software to present a quicker and more enjoyable experience for players, as well as enhanced Force Feedback that should provide a fresh experience behind the wheel for players of the title.

February Spotlight Car - 2017 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso
Proving that a Ferrari can be practical, the GTC4 Lusso does something few other Ferraris can: carry a family of four. Don’t let that practicality fool you, though, as this four-seater is everything you would expect from the Prancing Pony and more. Up front, you have a 680 horsepower V-12 that, while more subtle than its supercar brethren, is nothing less than breathtaking. From a throaty idle to an 8,000-rpm bellow, there are gobs of torquey power to pull you through the curves or launch you into orbit with a top speed of over 200 mph. There’s also rear wheel steering taken from the F12tdf that will help the car to rotate into corners with poise. In Italian, lusso means “luxury” but there’s more than just creature comforts here. The GTC4 is a thrill ride for the whole family, no matter if the destination is the local grocer or the switchbacks of the nearest mountain pass.

Updated Paint Space
Forza livery creators have some new tools to work with in the February update, as we’ve made some significant improvements to the paint space. First and foremost, the paint space itself now features four user-selectable lighting scenarios – Ambient Light, Ambient Dark, Sunny, and Sunset. This gives the players the ability to view their liveries in a variety of lighting environments, perfect for highlighting those problem areas in a design. In addition, we’ve brought the functionality of Forzavista into the paint space; now players can open doors and hoods, get inside the car, and quickly spin around their car to see how a design is flowing.

We’ve also added Photo Mode to the Paint Space; which can be accessed within the Forzavista option in the Paint Space. This update also adds a Free Camera system in the main garage (accessible via Forzavista), which allows unobstructed movement around the garage home space while in Photo Mode.​

Force Feedback Update
This month, we’ve introduced a Force Feedback (FFB) update for wheel users. This update addresses issues that were causing latency between the physics frame and the FFB frame, which manifested as oscillation. With this update, wheel users will feel less oscillation and hitching in wheel FFB.

In addition to these features and changes, we have made some back-end improvements that will improve load times into multiplayer races. These improvements will save players anywhere from 10-30 seconds during a load into a 24-car race.

February Events
New #Forzathon events have already begun in Forza Motorsport 7, with a great lineup of events and rewards coming throughout the month of February. Look for cars like the 2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S Forza Edition, the 1987 Ferrari F40, the 1946 Ford Super Deluxe Woody Wagon Forza Edition and more up for grabs, as well nearly 1 million in-game credits available to win across all of February’s events.

Our February crop of Rivals events have also kicked off. Forza 7 VIPs have access to a new event in the 1997 Maserati Ghibli Cup on Dubai. Over in Leagues, we’ve got our current “Keeping Pace” season happening now, featuring divisions like Formula 90s, Forza Touring Cars, and more, along with sweet rewards like the 1968 Dodge Dart HEMI Super Stock Forza Edition, among others. ​

FORZA MOTORSPORT 7 UPDATE NOTES:

General

• Fixed an issue where warnings could not be shown if player disabled opponent labels.
• Fixed an issue where certain telemetry HUD elements were misaligned in 16:9 aspect ratio.
• Signs that have been knocked down into the roadway now have a more consistent effect when hit by vehicles.
• When playing in Free Play on Teams, players’ team colors will no longer change in the Event Results screen as other drivers finish.
• Fixed an issue where PC players could not rewind a clip while using a keyboard and mouse.
• Fixed an issue where a player who joins a public Meetup hopper after the race begins receives poor visual feedback after pressing “Join Race.”
• Inconsistent text color of the “Free” breadcrumb between Marketplace menu and View Cars menu.
• Added badge for the Merkur brand.
• Added Tamo logo in several menus where it was previously missing.
• Centered Race Time and Current Lap time text in its UI box.
• Fixed an issue where, in drag, a vehicle would sustain damage to rear when assists were changed at the starting line immediately after acceleration.
• Fixed an issue where the “Low Bandwidth Warning” message overlaps HUD elements in a race.
• Fixed an issue on PC version where player gamertags and numbers were oversized during the 3-2-1 countdown during standing starts.
• Fixed an issue where 3-2-1 countdown was not correctly aligned to the screen.
• Fixed an issue where Rivals ghosts were appearing in Photo mode.
• Tuning increments are now consistent between localizations.
• Fixed an issue where driving over some rumble strips caused 100 percent damage.
• Updated the Car Collection Exclusive Content messaging to reflect unlocked exclusive cars.
• Drift HUD now shows best/last lap drift scores.
• Fixed an issue where HDR Calibration scale appears enlarged and cuts off part of the Title.
• Fixed an issue where changing Collision Mode to “Always Off” makes a player’s car clip through every collideable (tirewalls, cones, etc.)
• Removed opponent labels during the Event Results screen of the post-race sequence.
• Fixed an issue where opponent labels showed incorrect information on random cars behind the player.
• Fixed an issue where opponent labels were incorrectly displayed after the player exited the on-track Photo mode.
• Fixed an issue with opponent labels where the distance label was not reflecting an accurate distance when close to the opponent cars.
• Fixed an issue with opponent labels where the group number was still visible even after label was collapsed.
• Removed reference to prize crates in the More Info screen of Race Shop.
• Fixed an issue where players would become invisible if they selected “Back to Pits” from the Pause menu and then quickly rejoined a Meetups race.
• Fixed an issue in Meetups where players did not ghost during the first 20 seconds upon entering an event.

Audio

• Fixed an issue where music was not audible after viewing the Multiplayer initial experience video.

Tracks

• Fixed a bug that would cause lighting to “pop” on certain wet ribbon tracks during the track establishing shot.
• Adjusted suggested racing line at Dubai near right-hand wall before hotel.
• Fixed an issue where cars could fall out of the environment after rolling and landing on the roof or side in the gravel on certain tracks, including Silverstone.
• Fixed an issue on Hockenheim where dark “shadow” spots were still appearing on ground event after loose tires were moved.
• Fixed an issue where hitching occurred on Prague Short when driving in Free Play.
• Fixed an issue where cars would jump and/or hitch when scrolling between cars in Buy Car or My Garage menus.

Cars

• Fixed an issue with the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, where turning off the camera motion effects created a large hole in the dashboard when driving in wheel-less cockpit view.
• Adjusted driver camera with the 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda Convertible Barrett-Jackson Edition to better show gauges.
• Adjusted the performance graph in the Upgrade Shop menu for the 1963 Shelby Monaco King Cobra.

Spectate

• Fixed an issue where the Spectate camera goes out of the environment on certain sections of Suzuka West Circuit Alt.
• In Spectate, players markers will now be removed from the mini map once a player has disconnected during a race.

All in all, another solid update from Turn 10 Studios as they continue to steadily improve Forza Motorsport 7 on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.

Forza Motorsport 7 is available for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC now.

Check out the Forza Motorsport 7 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest from the smash hit Forza racing game franchise.

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[TuElite]

Is it playable now? Or does every car still feel the same muted laggy mess as before?

 

[theravenousbeast]

My post from the forza forums...

FFB is just as poor as it was before. Spent an hour and half trying to dial it in, only to once again realize that you cannot get it right. Either it:

A) tells you about the tyre grip but that tyre force overwhelms the wheel when correcting slides or

B) you get great feel for the weight transfer and can hold slides fine but then you know **** all about the grip

There's no middle ground to be found and even if you do it's only for that car. Also there's still an overall laggy feel to the forces. Just give any car a bit more of a left right and the FFB will take over and murder it by itself.

I don't know why they're bothering with it. If it's for the Forza RC guys, they'll just disable FFB, that's what most iRacing top pros do anyway.

 

[Durge Driven]

Even still I can't believe FFB is bad for all wheels , is it really ( I only drive it with gamepad )
But no matter how good the FFB was I would never waste the projected life of a good wheel hack-sawing away on some simcade

Turning off FFB on expensive wheels ? Seriously most of iracing top pros ?

Then they need to drive something decent like rF2

 

[dave kirk]

My post from the forza forums...

FFB is just as poor as it was before. Spent an hour and half trying to dial it in, only to once again realize that you cannot get it right. Either it:

A) tells you about the tyre grip but that tyre force overwhelms the wheel when correcting slides or

B) you get great feel for the weight transfer and can hold slides fine but then you know **** all about the grip

There's no middle ground to be found and even if you do it's only for that car. Also there's still an overall laggy feel to the forces. Just give any car a bit more of a left right and the FFB will take over and murder it by itself.

I don't know why they're bothering with it. If it's for the Forza RC guys, they'll just disable FFB, that's what most iRacing top pros do anyway.

NO, most iRacing pros do not disable FFB ffs

 

[ShredatorFIN]

They released update for FH4 wheel FFB as well some time ago. I think they might have actually worsened it, quite achievement....

Blows my mind how Playground can create basically graphics from the future, with brilliant optimization (FH4) but not create anything remotely enjoyable for FFB

Just imagine something like FH4 with Assetto Corsa physics. Would be a gaming heaven

 

[MarkR]

It’s the best FFB Forza Motorsport has ever had by quite some distance, and yes I’ve played them all quite a lot. It is now an intuitive wheel feel, exactly what I’d expect of the cars. These updates have also made it much more realistic for wheel users to match gamepad times is Forza.

Oh and to be clear I’m not in anyway trying to convince anyone, no point at all with that here on RD, this is just my view and I enjoy almost all the current racing games other than iRacing.

It’s difficult to know where to start with comparisons for such a wide ranging as Forza. I like to drive the same cars and tracks, with as close as possible setups, track conditions, tyres etc that I know well from several games. I gave these scenarios a run earlier.

The Huracan GT3 at Brands Hatch is as good as the same to drive in Forza, PCARS2 & ACC on console. The exact same wheel movements work, the track can be driven the same way. The same major bumps and undulations can be felt from the track. Effects like the cars diving into Druids and lifting on entry to Clarke Curve and the tyres struggling to find grip as the track turns and drops away are present in all 3 games. Moving between the 3 games on the wheel is easy and intuitive and that wasn’t the case in the past. Lap times in Forza and PCARS2 are directly comparable but AC has far more grip. Of course the latest Forza FFB doesn’t have the true tactile feel the AC does and those extra nuanced nudges of FFB in the wheel (acknowledging there are others who dislike AC FFB as rubbery) but it’s close enough and fully playable. The average gamer would have trouble telling one game from another, despite the endless arguments over the most minor details we see here.

Where Forza 7 FFB excels is in the road cars, the Megane 250 RS is a car I know well on road and track. Upgraded to match the Megane RS 265 Trophy spec can be hustled around the Nordschleife in 8:07 to match the real car lap and both peak and corner speeds match the real car remarkably closely. The wheel movements, weight and feedback are also close enough to the real thing. The feel of the front diff pulling the car through the apex and that few degrees of rear mobility only the Megane has in this hot hatch class is all there. Track limits are as well defined as any other game for time trials too - race regulations should be here next month for online racing too.

It’s also worth remembering that Forza is a tuning game. Some of the road cars are deliberately softly sprung and on standard road rubber. Add some lower and stiffer suspension, decent brakes, track tyres and adjust the arbs and they can be transformed - that’s part of the fun. Just as a cooking a Megane becomes an RS for real. As a way to learn tuning effects I know of no better game to start with, the effects of changes on the car are close enough to real. By contrast I still think the F1 cars in Forza are terrible when compared to F1 2018, Forza has a sweet spot from fast road cars to GT type racing cars.

No FFB system or racing game is universally popular, this latest Forza FFB is good enough. Of course there are better individual cars and tracks in some other games - but those other games also have some shocking cars and lack many features Forza has. The more niche a game like ACC the more it can focus on the the little details. Forza is a mile wide and an inch deep by comparison.

Forza is great as a massive car and track roster with upgrading, tuning, hotlapping and racing game. It is what it is and the FFB is good enough for that. Most of the other racing games have great elements too in a different way, it’s the best time to be a racing gamer.

I’m looking forward to playing Forza with the Fanatec DD wheels in a few months too.

 

[k_badam]

What kind of mentalist plays Forza with a wheel? xbox controller all the way

 

[theravenousbeast]

LOL I got banned from their forums for that exact post I quoted above.

Great one T10.

Their FFB can't be compared to F1 Challenge from 2003 let alone modern sims.

 

[Ken Tegrum]

What kind of mentalist plays Forza with a wheel? xbox controller all the way

When it comes to endurance racing, this can be very bad for hands, although there may be physical therapy stretches/exercises to help with that.

 

[ozm8ey]

$10 says the game still crashes sometimes when loading mp race. I'm downloading the update now

 

[Deleted member 197115]

They released update for FH4 wheel FFB as well some time ago. I think they might have actually worsened it, quite achievement....

Blows my mind how Playground can create basically graphics from the future, with brilliant optimization (FH4) but not create anything remotely enjoyable for FFB

Just imagine something like FH4 with Assetto Corsa physics. Would be a gaming heaven

Or Assetto Corsa with FH4 graphics.
To their credit feedback through controller is superb.

 

[Peter Kerényi]

I am having loads of fun with the Horizon series on PC with a gamepad, so I am also checking some FM7 videos how it looks, etc. I am afraid I wouldn't like it with a wheel though (FFB <- I wouldn't like to go lower than PCARS2 level quality, no 1:1 wheel animation) so I haven't bought it. Still, I am following the development of the game and the series and I cannot rule out getting into it one day.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Or Assetto Corsa with FH4 graphics.
To their credit feedback through controller is superb.

Yeah but open world AC similarly to TDU2 would be amazing. Although FH4 has too many totally arcade mechanics like spinning into a tree counting as "Epic drift" to fit with serious physics

The graphics are just out of this world (more importantly, they run like a dream) so I still play it sometimes

(Sorry for OT)

 

[MarkR]

They released update for FH4 wheel FFB as well some time ago. I think they might have actually worsened it, quite achievement....

Blows my mind how Playground can create basically graphics from the future, with brilliant optimization (FH4) but not create anything remotely enjoyable for FFB

Just imagine something like FH4 with Assetto Corsa physics. Would be a gaming heaven

Strange that I know plenty of console racers who like the FH4 FFB, it’s just opinion as with all games. The cars are fully controllable, there is good surface change feel in the wheel and cars can be set up well to do what you want them to. Yes it’s arcadey but it’s meant to be a fun joy of cars game. I think you are on topic because FH4 uses the same FFB and car tuning from Forza 7.

The drifters are really enjoying the new drift suspension with both pad and shell. I’m not a drifter but even I enjoyed the drift challenges in FH4, especially the full island drift lap in Storm Island in the superbly setup Formula Drift cars. Surely some of the best drift mechanics yet in any game. I agree with you about the arcade elements on the open world areas but events like the drift zones are well defined and some of the top scores are impressive.

FH4 and FM7 with AC FFB and handling that would, I agree, of course be even better.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Strange that I know plenty of console racers who like the FH4 FFB, it’s just opinion as with all games. The cars are fully controllable, there is good surface change feel in the wheel and cars can be set up well to do what you want them to. Yes it’s arcadey but it’s meant to be a fun joy of cars game. I think you are on topic because FH4 uses the same FFB and car tuning from Forza 7.

The drifters are really enjoying the new drift suspension with both pad and shell. I’m not a drifter but even I enjoyed the drift challenges in FH4, especially the full island drift lap in Storm Island in the superbly setup Formula Drift cars. Surely some of the best drift mechanics yet in any game. I agree with you about the arcade elements on the open world areas but events like the drift zones are well defined and some of the top scores are impressive.

FH4 and FM7 with AC FFB and handling that would, I agree, of course be even better.

I've tried to enjoy FH4 with a wheel, but it's really hard.

My main gripe is, that when you set the FFB to be so that it gives a decent feel on tarmac (basically, damper = 0, spring = 0, minimum force = 100 + high enough overall gain, to match the weight of non-clipping FFB in something like Assetto), the offroad sections become unbearable rattle, that I'm afraid will break the wheel. However, dropping minimum force to default 50 doesn't even solve the issue, and it will make the tarmac feel numb, with dead center.

Everything seems to be designed around using Spring and Damper, which yes mostly cures the rattle, but drowns out and deadens everything else too

Actually it's pretty okay with above settings, on tarmac. There's hints of logical weight transfer here and there (on "simulation" setting). Of course the physics are ridiculous in the way that every modern sports car has F1 level of grip or more. But I wouldn't even mind, if the offroad wasn't so atrocious rattlefest. Notable portion of the roads are non-tarmac. And often you don't have a choice which car to take for which road. (The extreme buggies or very old cars with loose steering don't suffer from this rattling issue)

The default FFB settings are horrible though, totally numb and dampened into oblivion. Why these non-sim games are so obsessed with using damper and spring as part of their FFB (same problem with WRC7)

 

[MarkR]

Fair enough, you've given it a good shot and are one of the few who can explain how it feels to you and the settings you use/have tried. Personally I prefer FH4 on the gamepad too, we use FH3 & 4 as our fun family car game, especially FH3 Hotwheels. Fully agree on the way the different cars feel on different surfaces, the supercars don't like offroad - unless you add the rally suspensin and tyres...the offroad setup Vulcan is superb for the long jumps for a bit of suspended reality.

Maybe we've just been spoilt by the likes of AC FFB, it's good but I still wouldn't want every game to feel exactly like that. I can see why Turn 10 prioritise stable 60fps on console over the last word in FFB fidelity because on console AC FFB feels good but the framerate is awful. PCARS2 FFB barely works on the base Xbox One & S with more than 6 cars on track, even though it still looks glorious. Wet tracks are even more of a challenge because for me even the latest ACC is no better at relaying what is going on with dry-wet or wet-dry track scenarios than F1 2018. In both Forza 7 and FH4 it's clear when the track is wet, or for FH4 snow covered, through effects in the wheel and the pad and I find that pretty impressive.

The closest analogy I can come up with for FFB in games is the mainstream like FH4 and Forza have the same sort of wheel feel as my generic VAG daily driver car - generally more weight than feel in the wheel but still effective if not the most exciting or feedback laden, there is always a bit of damping and the electronic aids will step back in no matter how 'off' they are set. That is how the Forza's feel to me. For a road car like the Megane RS 250 the wheel feel is pretty close to reality for me. Also I agree with you games like WRC7 and Dakar 18 fall into this category of FFB, fully playable but not the standout feature of the game. Like a VAG car you pick up these games and play them, they provide utility.

On the other hand AC (for those who like the FFB) is like the finely tuned helm of a Lotus Elise or Exige, the driver gets all the feedback yet the steering remains light and responsive. The car can be placed with pinpoint accuracy and the assists really are off so overstep the mark and you are on your own. Few games get close to this, several notable cars in PCARS2 (BMW 320 Touring Car, 488 GT3, Ginetta's etc) many cars in AC, not so much so far in ACC. Other games vary for me but others rave about them so yeah, opinions and subjectivity. Like a Lotus these games require some TLC and fettling by the owner (mods, tweaks etc) by the owner to get the most from them, they are a labour of love for the few.

To make a link back to the ales thread this is also shown in the sales numbers Forza, GT Sport, FH4 are accessible and in the millions sell like VAG. The more dedicated sims are like Lotus and sell in tiny numbers to a dedicated few.

I'll be interested to see if I can feel all these extra forces and fidelity people speak so highly of when I switch to the DD wheel and if that has any relationship to how similar real world cars feel.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Fully agree on the way the different cars feel on different surfaces, the supercars don't like offroad - unless you add the rally suspensin and tyres...the offroad setup Vulcan is superb for the long jumps for a bit of suspended reality.

Yes and for supercars it would even make sense, to a degree. But it happens with also something like Ford Focus, just the base car from the demo. Problem is probably my settings, because I don't want any of that internal, constant dampening that sims like AC and AMS never have. I could try some offroad setups, to be honest I didn't think that far.

On tarmac the FFB with my settings is almost enjoyable, it has many characteristics of a logical, acceptable FFB, when you just ignore the supergrip. There's countersteers and even road detail. But it requires pushing the minimum force to max, and removing damper/spring totally

 

[oliver65]

I'm driving with emuwheel 2.0 (not public, in test) and the FFB is nice. You have there a lot of selection for defining the FFB. Additional I have the next level motion 3 which works with the telemetry datas quiet good and give me more information than just the wheel.
I think some cars are quiet good and some are broken. With 700 cars thats normal, because they dont have from every car the correct datas.
The main issue is the steering ratio. I did several test and compared it to ac. This is in forza 7 wrong. I'm driving with 900 degrees and the wheelmovement are much sensitiver and smaller in forza 7 than it should be. For exemple in AC for a curve I turn the wheel 90degrees in forza just 70 and that dont feel naturaly.
Hope they will fix that.

 

[theravenousbeast]

I'm driving with emuwheel 2.0 (not public, in test) and the FFB is nice. You have there a lot of selection for defining the FFB. Additional I have the next level motion 3 which works with the telemetry datas quiet good and give me more information than just the wheel.
I think some cars are quiet good and some are broken. With 700 cars thats normal, because they dont have from every car the correct datas.
The main issue is the steering ratio. I did several test and compared it to ac. This is in forza 7 wrong. I'm driving with 900 degrees and the wheelmovement are much sensitiver and smaller in forza 7 than it should be. For exemple in AC for a curve I turn the wheel 90degrees in forza just 70 and that dont feel naturaly.
Hope they will fix that.

The steering angle you can see on the cars visually doesn't match the actual physical steering angle.