(...) yes, FFB eventually works, it only takes patience and commitment (and possibly Jack Spade's files). In my view, this is precisely what's wrong with the game. (...)
A detailed FFB manual - or even a Wiki - would also be helpful. Instead, the standard reply to any direct question is "search the forum". I think what is really killing PCars - at least for me - is arrogance.
Your post gave me an association to the situation where one is trying to assemble a somewhat complicated piece of IKEA flatpak furniture with no manual to speak of. Using emoticons, the reaction would amount to roughly this:
So, if I were to interpret what you (and others) are saying, would I be on the right track if I thought that the overarching feeling is one of being powerless to change things to one's taste and being angry and annoyed as a result? And that any pleas for help and directions seemingly go on deaf ears?
To be honest, I'm not sure that it is really arrogance as much as it is apathy if that matters any; "Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by ignorance" as the saying goes.
Now, I've followed the FFB development fairly closely and I still feel it is more black art than science, possibly with a pinch of poor UI design decisions (of which the developers themselves are painfully aware but unable and/or unwilling to fix this late in the product cycle despite how we all feel about the situation).
The FFB system in and of itself is, I would argue, very elegant in that it is essentially a pipeline with different functions (rear-axle g-force derived FFB aka SoP for "Seat of Pants" is one such function and FyScale aka "lateral force on the steering wheel" is another) strung together.
But even if the FFB system was created with the best intentions
(link), in hindsight it is clear that the system and how it is (and isn't!) presented to the user is too technical in nature in the sense that it is not a consumer amplifier with a few knobs to dial, but actually a toolset with which one can build a professional mixer console if that makes sense?
FWIW, I know what is in the pipeline for pCARS 2 and I'm fairly confident that we'll have access to both the full toolset and ... some more consumer friendly options.
In the mean time, AJ says that the most important thing to get right for ones particular wheel is actually the wheel-drag reducing options (Per Wheel Movement/Per Wheel Movement Squared/Wheel Position Smoothing) and possibly the options that counteract non-linearity in the wheel feedback (ScoopKnee and ScoopReduction). For instance, the G27 wheel is one of the wheels where the weaker FFB signals simply don't result in any wheel movement, which makes the FFB feel dead in the zone around just around TDC. This issue is addressed by the Scoop options as explained in the link above.
I'm slowly getting back into pCARS 2 development, so if you're interested in proofreading and copyediting, I might be able to convince AJ to engage in dialog with me on the subject of FFB and getting the basics right in the context of pCARS 1 with a step-by-step HOWTO for setting up the baseline FFB for ones particular wheel.
How does that sound to you?
I tried starting an FFB guide here
(link) last year, but I never got around to finishing it.