Which sim has the most realistic FFB

[Deleted member 197115]

Not directly Sim Racing Hardware related, but couldn't find better place to post it as we don't have generic sim games subforum.
But as FFB applies to steering wheels which are hardware, I think it would right at home here.
Mod, please feel free to move if that breaks any rules.

So the question,
Which racing sim has the most realistic FFB.
Pick one.

You can also list sim titles you played from best to worst FFB in reply with wheel base in use if possible.
Sometimes favorite does not have the best FFB, please specify that as well if you can.

 

[super_gt]

I would add Live for Speed to the list.

 

[BrightCandle]

I don't know, I haven't driven the same cars anywhere near the limit of their grip anywhere but the simulator. I get sufficient information from AC, ACC, rfactor2, AMS and R3E for the basics. PC2 is lacking in the corner entry aspect, no braking/ABS feel and no understeer feel. The others, however, I get that information. I like the ACC feel quite a bit, the cars feel heavy.

 

[Ben Lee]

I have done limited racing in real life, however the one which gives me the feeling of driving a race car is Assetto Corsa. I have tried other sims and whilst they can be good, nothing comes close to AC of giving you that feeling of the car moving under you.

 

[Oxtar_]

I can't relate that Assetto Corsa is giving the most realistic car feeling. To me Assetto feels too stiff or too solid like the car is made of one big steel cube that doesn't have any chassis flex. (which Assetto actually doesn't have).


Raceroom and rFactor 2 gives more feeling that you are actually on rubber tires and when hitting on bigger curb it behaves to me more like i am excpecting and with that I mean how it feels on my wheel.

When hitting purposely too high curb on Assetto it kind of slams to wheel like there is nothing between the curb and my wheel. On Rfactor 2 or Raceroom doing the same thing it feels like the hit is coming more like through the whole car from tires to shocks and to steering rack and column etc. etc.

And what comes to FFB, rFactor 2 and Raceroom kind of ruined the whole FFB experience on Asetto Corsa to me. I can't just get the feel after those two anymore. Personally I can't tell which is better to me RRRE or rFactor. Both have excellent feeling but I like rFactor's brutaliness maybe more so voted that.

But thats just my opinion

 

[Speckle]

This is going to be an interesting thread as it is such a subjective thing.

The only sims on that list I've tried are AC, Rfactor 2 and P Cars 2. My unpopular opinion is that, for me, P Cars 2 probably has the best FFB of those. I will caveat that by saying that I use the Jack Spade config files and, without them, the FFB is utter garbage.

AC is very, very good. Rfactor 2 also seems good but, my track time is limited having only had it for a week or so.

 

[DrRob]

Not sure how to answer this one to be honest. I can only give a subjective answer on which FFB I like most. Or maybe I could give a vote on which I think might come close to realistic feedback. What I can definately do is vote for the one I like most and have the most fun with.

I have never driven a real racecar, above simulations have different physics concepts and different car classes / tyre models. Plus I have not tried all of them.
But out of AC, R3E and ACC, which I own, my vote is definately on ACC.

I have to emphasize though, that ACC only really shines since the introduction of the new tyre model, me upgrading to a DD wheel and understanding the GT3 tyre model from Aris' Video.

 

[robt100]

I would add Live for Speed to the list.

I would say I have to agree, the two most natural feeling FFBs I've experienced are LFS and ACC.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

To me Assetto feels too stiff or too solid like the car is made of one big steel cube that doesn't have any chassis flex. (which Assetto actually doesn't have).

@Oxtar_ , which wheel base do you use? Sounds like what I've experienced on DD wheel before moving to SC2 with more advanced filters. Tip for SC2 owners - set Ultra Low Latency to 5% or even more if you want more "rubber".
But I digress, sorry for off topic.

 

[Emery]

Out of the box? Latest Raceroom. It's the only one where I've not been compelled to fiddle with settings.

After fiddling with the CSWv2 wheel & in-game settings? rF2 and the wheel settings work with AMS. Biggest gripe is that it took a LOT of fiddling to get rF2 to feel best overall.

AC has way too much spring coming out of it, enough so that I had to adjust the CSWv2 to have lots of damping and I still don't like it. Out of the box, it has, as Durge liked to say, a soap on a rope feeling.

PCARS2 is somewhere above AC, but below Raceroom; too much fiddling required to not be as good as Raceroom is out of the box. PCARS1 was hopeless, far worse than AC.

I've never tried LFS, but, yes, it should be in the poll.

 

[Alistair McKinley]

That's a really tough question because each sims seems to have a different approach to FFB.
At the moment I would go for ACC, rF2 and AMS for the most satisfying feel in my G27. Also the newer cars in R3E feel really great, too. IDK, as I said: It's a hard question. I don't want to or can't commit myself.

(Yes, a G27 an old "beginner's" wheel and I shouldn't post here in the first place, I know that. Thank you. ;-) )

 

[Cote Dazur]

That's a really tough question because each sims seems to have a different approach to FFB.

If the question was which FFB is best, then I would agree, almost impossible to answer, at best we could say which we prefer, which a lot here did. It has been mentionned many time by developpers, the SIM community cannot read very well.
The question is: Which sim has the most realistic FFB?
We should be able to answer that one, all of us who drive, should have a good idea of what we feel in the wheel when driving, how realistic is FFB in relation to what we feel when driving?

Some like a FFB that if my wheel in one of my car felt like that, I would not drive to the garage, I would have the car towed to the garage! They have every right to prefer such a FFB in a SIM for a thousand reasons, but to the question is it realistic? no it is not.

To me AC has the most realistic FFB, as I can judge from my experience driving cars on and off track since 1974. Not perfect, not exactly like, but the most realistic.

I remember back in the days, I had a logitech driving force pro and a fanatec Porsche wheel, I was then driving gt4 or gt5, one day I found out Netkar pro, That was the day I discovered how great driving a SIM can be, for the first time it felt close enough as what a wheel in a car feels. By then I was only using the Fanatec, but decided to give a go with my logitech driving force pro, I got amazed at how good it felt even with a starter wheel like the logitech driving force pro. All that to say that your G27 is fine, plenty good enough to let you know which FFB is most realistic to you.

 

[Xiamoto]

I have no experience driving real race cars, so I would invalidate your poll. If you ask what my "perception is" for which sim has the most realistic FFB, then I am happy to particpate!

 

[safi hellie]

I have no experience driving real race cars, so I would invalidate your poll. If you ask what my "perception is" for which sim has the most realistic FFB, then I am happy to particpate!

Racing cars don't have FFB...
The poll isn't "which racing car has the best FFB in real life"
So you imput would be valid.
Sim racing can just be in a vacuum.

 

[tlsmikey]

Yeah, this is tough. Loved AC when it first came out, but now it's not in the same league as ACC, rf2 and AMS for me. There are cars in rf2 which i find to be absolutely amazing, but there are other official content cars that are horrible.

I think overall for me i'd have to lean to ACC and AMS. Hard to pick one.....probably ACC because it handles curbs better.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I have no experience driving real race cars, so I would invalidate your poll. If you ask what my "perception is" for which sim has the most realistic FFB, then I am happy to particpate!

"Realistic" in sim context for me personally means that car reacts to your inputs and road condition in the expected and predictable way, communicating back well what tires are doing so you can control it using that feedback, not only visual and audio cues.
And unless you are under aged or have some sort of disability, you are most likely drove a real car, perhaps even in some competitive or "spirited" way, or at least did some go kart racing.
Slick with street tires grip characteristics differences, physics stays essentially the same, street or race car.
Some sims like AC have lots of street cars, use those as a reference if uncomfortable judging feedback based on cars you never drove.

 

[Alistair McKinley]

If the question was which FFB is best, then I would agree, almost impossible to answer, at best we could say which we prefer, which a lot here did. It has been mentionned many time by developpers, the SIM community cannot read very well.
The question is: Which sim has the most realistic FFB?
We should be able to answer that one, all of us who drive, should have a good idea of what we feel in the wheel when driving, how realistic is FFB in relation to what we feel when driving?

Some like a FFB that if my wheel in one of my car felt like that, I would not drive to the garage, I would have the car towed to the garage! They have every right to prefer such a FFB in a SIM for a thousand reasons, but to the question is it realistic? no it is not.

To me AC has the most realistic FFB, as I can judge from my experience driving cars on and off track since 1974. Not perfect, not exactly like, but the most realistic.

I remember back in the days, I had a logitech driving force pro and a fanatec Porsche wheel, I was then driving gt4 or gt5, one day I found out Netkar pro, That was the day I discovered how great driving a SIM can be, for the first time it felt close enough as what a wheel in a car feels. By then I was only using the Fanatec, but decided to give a go with my logitech driving force pro, I got amazed at how good it felt even with a starter wheel like the logitech driving force pro. All that to say that your G27 is fine, plenty good enough to let you know which FFB is most realistic to you.

Thank you for your comment and for clearing this up. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding. You're absolutely righ: It says "most realistic".
Nevertheless, it's hard to tell because it also depends on which car you choose.

In PC2, for example, there are some (FWD) cars whose FFB feels very realistic to me but there are also some cars where this is absolutely not the case.

I would still go for Assetto Corsa because when I was driving the Abarth 500 for the first time - back in 2014 - I thought: "Wow! How can this feel so real?!"
I was and I still am pretty convinced by AC's FBB (regarding street cars).

But to be fair: I don't like the slow-velocity-FFB/physics of AC. The cars don't roll down the hill when they are in neutral position. And - more important regarding FFB: There is absolutely no restistance/friction in the wheel when the car stands still.

Thanks again for the clarification.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

And - more important regarding FFB: There is absolutely no restistance/friction in the wheel when the car stands still.

In AC standing still resistance is implemented via DirectInput Damper effect, unless you set it to 0 in config or in wheel driver it should be there up to 5kmh.
Edit:
If memory serves right, G27 gear drive was not reacting well to that damper and was recommended to set it to 0 for that wheel.

 

[Alistair McKinley]

In AC standing still resistance is implemented via DirectInput Damper effect, unless you set it to 0 in config or in wheel driver it should be there up to 5kmh.
Edit:
If memory serves right, G27 gear drive was not reacting well to that damper and was recommended to set it to 0 for that wheel.

Jupp, that's right.
It's only a minor thing because I don't tend to park cars in AC. I think, one of Kunos' developers once said the same ... that you don't drive that slowly in a racing game.

 

[nobby91010]

Using simucube all force feed back in all games feel fantastic and i dial in the wheel to match the sim and profile it in simucube
never had to tweek the wheel since i installed the sims, apart from ffb in game to when chosing a car i havnt driven before
so cannot determine the most realistic as i have all sims FFB very similar feeling to each other,my favorate sim at the moment is assetto corsa so will be voting
ASSETTO CORSA