Steering assist?!

[jgf]

I fired up one of my rfactor installs yesterday and the FF was behaving strangely. An hour of troubleshooting, and inventorying my vast repertoire of unacceptable language, and it seems Steering Assist has become enabled. I did not enable it, in fact I have disabled all the hotkeys for those functions just so I won't accidentally enable something; The driving aids popup shows only auto-clutch enabled; enabling various levels of steering assist divulges that is the behaviour I'm experiencing, but turning it off has no effect. Any car, any mod, any track, the car is virtually driving itself.

Checked the other rfactor install, and all other sims, no problems; it is only in this install. Rummaging through menu options, ini files, etc. i find nothing indicating this is enabled so have no idea how to disable it. I can turn off FF in the controls menu but that is a poor solution.

 

[Durge Driven]

same place for all gmotor in Player file

[ DRIVING AIDS ]
Steering Help="0" // Now 3 levels, although full level now comes with a weight penalty by default
Throttle Control="0"
Brake Help="0"
Antilock Brakes="0"
Spin Recovery="0"
Invulnerability="0"
Autopit="0"
Opposite Lock="0"
Stability Control="0"
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car (except autopit)
Pitcrew Push="0" // When out of fuel in pitlane, allows pitcrew to push car (use throttle and gear selection to direct)
Auto Clutch="0"
Auto Lift="0" // Whether to automatically lift with manual shifting but auto-clutch (non-semiautomatic trans only)
Auto Blip="0" // Whether to automatically blip with manual shifting but auto-clutch (non-semiautomatic trans only)

 

[RasmusP]

Set a hot key for the steering assist and then enable it just for the sake of checking if it makes any difference at all.

If you can't make a "negative" test, always do the "positive" test to be sure.

 

[jgf]

same place for all gmotor in Player file ....

Nothing changed there in ages -
Steering Help="0" // Now 3 levels, although full level now comes with a weight penalty by default
Throttle Control="0"
Brake Help="0"
Antilock Brakes="0"
Spin Recovery="0"
Invulnerability="0"
Autopit="0"
Opposite Lock="0"
Stability Control="0"

 

[jgf]

Set a hot key for the steering assist and then enable it just for the sake of checking if it makes any difference at all.

If you can't make a "negative" test, always do the "positive" test to be sure.

Don't need a hotkey, can enable in controls menu: Steering Assist - Off, Low, Medium,High. Tried cycling through each setting, running a half lap each time, return to off. Made no difference.

My first thought (after a "WTF" moment) was FFB polarity. RealFeel assigns "11500" for strength as default; for whatever reason some mods require "-11500". The effect is very similar to a mild steering assist, the wheel isn't actually turned for you but there is a definite light feeling when you turn it to the proper position. I've not tweaked any of this in ages, but tried changing the polarity for the first car I was using ....boy did that screw things up, I can't even describe how the steering felt then ...perhaps imagine if every bolt in the front end were loose. I quickly put everything back to normal and looked elsewhere for problems.

 

[jgf]

The plot thickens, and my hair thins (as I pull it out dealing with this).

This "steering assist" does not occur at all tracks, but where it does it affects any car I drive there. Except!... I have two rfactor installs, they share the Locations folder. Cars from the second install have no problem at these tracks.

There is no logic here. If the issue is the first rf install it should affect all tracks, but it doesn't. If the issue is with the track it should affect any cars driven there, but it doesn't. The problem is with any car from the first install (so far, admittedly i've not driven every car, there are hundreds) at that track; while any cars (so far) from the second install have no issues at that track.

This lunacy is further complicated by the sudden onset of the issue. I ran cars from each install at the major "infected" track that morning, no problems. Returned that evening, cars from second install ran fine, switch to first install .... bam! steering assist. Doubly frustrating since one of the tracks in question is a favorite.

 

[jgf]

Well, I'm still slugging away at this ...and it's making a chump of me.

To reiterate, two rfactor installs sharing a common locations folder. Install A works fine, any car, any track; install B is like having steering assist on full, any car, any track. This suddenly started a few days ago. No driving assists other than auto-clutch are enabled, in menu or in ini files.

Disabled RealFeel, no difference. Unplugged wheel, started install B, shut down, plugged wheel back in, no difference. Replaced the controller.ini with a backup from six months ago, no difference; replaced with a backup from six years ago, no difference; copied controller.ini from install A to install B, no difference. Created new profile (not copying existing one), no difference. Apparently not an issue with any files in profile folder, nor with track files. Only other thing I can think of is a fresh install of rfactor lite, then start moving mods and track to it (might work but I will learn nothing from it, still won't know what caused the problem).

Definitely an FFB related issue as I can disable FFB, or set strength to zero, and the problem is gone ...along with all steering feel, so not a solution.

 

[Jim Duf]

Sorry I have no solution but just sharing an inverse experience. I have a mod used as a separate install I never succeeded to make function properly. Whatever I use (realfeel or plain FF, forced or not...), I have a very week feedback. Sounds like controler related, what is yours ?

 

[jgf]

Can rule out a controller issue, it works fine in GPL, GTL, GTR2, N2k3, Rally Trophy, RBR, and the other rfactor install. It is something in this particular rfactor install, though not, apparently, involving files in the player folder.

 

[Jim Duf]

I didn't meant a problem with the controler itself but a possible incompatibility of the FF configuration of this particular mod with some model of controler. M'y G25 works fine with other mods and GPL too.

 

[jgf]

But the problem is ubiquitous, any car, any track. And it was working fine a few days ago, with all cars.

 

[jgf]

Well, I have eliminated the problem, but still do not know exactly what caused it. A fresh install of rflite (so now three installs), linked to common track folder, it works fine; copied a mod from original install to this one, it works. So started snooping, what was different between the two newer installs and the original. While configuring the new install I noticed the "G" key toggles "HWPlugin", no idea what that is but in the new install there is no noticeable effect from hitting that key while driving; but, in the original install hitting "G" got rid of the steering issue. More snooping, there is a Plugin folder in each install but only the original contained a couple of "LeoFFB" files, this is part of RealFeel and has been there over ten years and obviously is not disabled when RealFeel is. Removed those two files and all is well, no idea why this would suddenly cause a full time full force steering assist.

May just dump RealFeel altogether; it can make a noticeable improvement but this is not across the board and is certainly not a "set and forget" utility; and its ini file grows to become an absolute kludge to deal with, containing not just a listing for every car you've ever driven but often multiple listings for the same car (under the car name, the AI driver name, your driver name).