Project Motor Racing handles force feedback differently than most racing simulators by splitting its force feedback adjustments across two distinct menus: global input device settings in the main options and per-car force feedback sliders located inside the vehicle setup menu. Leaving both sets of sliders on default often results in an overly light steering rack, aggressive center notchiness, or clipping over curbs.
To get natural road texture, tire load transfer, and controllable slide catch, you must balance both the hardware/global settings and the vehicle-level setup.
Understanding the Dual-Menu FFB System
The force feedback in Straight4 Studios' Project Motor Racing is separated into two tiers:
- Global Input Device Settings: Accessed via Settings > Controls > [Your Wheelbase] > Input Device Settings. These sliders control the overall signal strength, basic low-speed boost, braking load translation, smoothing filter, and dynamic headroom sent to your hardware.
- Per-Car Steering Wheel Settings: Accessed during an active session or Race Weekend via Vehicle Setup > Steering Wheel (or under the Tires and Chassis tab depending on game patch). These sliders govern steering rack rate, rack feel, alignment boost (self-aligning torque), cornering load boost, mechanical friction, and a three-band force equalizer (Low, Mid, High).
Because per-car settings save strictly with your individual vehicle setup files, loading a different car or overriding custom setups will reset these sliders. Wheel geometry changes—such as aggressive caster or toe angles—will also directly alter the physical steering resistance transmitted through these sliders.
Global Device Settings Baseline
For direct drive wheelbases (such as Fanatec GT DD Pro, Moza R5/R21, and Logitech Pro DD), the global menu acts as the master signal output.
| Setting Name | Recommended Starting Value | What It Does & Why |
|---|---|---|
| Global Gain / Strength | 70% – 100% | Master FFB signal multiplier. Some community tests recommend 100% to preserve dynamic range, while Logitech Pro DD users often dial back to 70% to avoid harsh spikes on sudden impacts. |
| Low Force Boost | 0% | Artificially amplifies small forces near center. While helpful for weaker gear/belt wheels, it introduces an unnatural dead zone or lumpiness on direct drive wheels. |
| Brake Feel Boost | 10% – 30% | Increases front-end resistance under heavy braking to simulate longitudinal weight transfer during trail braking. |
| FFB Smoothing | 0 – 10 | Applies a low-pass filter to smooth harsh spikes. Setting this to 0 preserves maximum raw detail (preferred if your wheelbase software handles filtering), while 10 eliminates digital notchiness. |
| FFB Headroom | 100 – 300 | Reserves dynamic force margin for sudden curb impacts and bottoming out. Increasing to 250–300 helps reduce abrupt jolting or clipping when hitting curbs at high speed. |
| Rumble / Haptic Strength | Wheel-dependent (15% – 75%) | Governs high-frequency motor vibration (curb traversal, rev limiter, lockups). In earlier versions (such as PMR 2.1), TrueForce haptic integration faced performance constraints; dialing this back reduces clunky cog-like rattling. |
Per-Car Wheel Settings Breakdown
Once on track, open Vehicle Setup and scroll to the Steering Wheel menu to refine how the car's front axle interacts with your hands.
Steering Rack Rate & Stiffness
- Steering Rack Rate (Ratio): Defaults around 1.0. Increasing this value between 1.3 and 1.8 makes the steering ratio faster without breaking 1:1 hardware synchronization. A higher value requires less physical rotation to catch oversteer slides, though it concentrates steering forces into a narrower rotation band.
- Steering Stiffness: Dampens linkage jolts. Set between 1 and 5. Higher values (near 10) can make road textures overly harsh on high-torque direct drive wheels.
Core Force & Tire Dynamics
- Strength: Controls car-specific output (often ranging from 0.0 to 2.0). A setting of 80 to 1.0 provides ample cornering resistance on 8 Nm–11 Nm bases while keeping the force clip meter from pinning on high-load sweepers.
- Rack Feel: Governs direct tire-to-rack feedback versus simulated body forces. Default is 1.0 (100% rack output). Lowering this slider (e.g., between 34 and 90) softens abrupt center clunking and prevents the rack from feeling like a harsh on/off switch.
- Alignment Boost: Controls the self-aligning torque generated by pneumatic trail. Setting this between 0.16 and 0.52 lets the wheel naturally countersteer and whip back to center during oversteer slides.
- Load Boost: Enhances cornering tire load and grip threshold drop-offs. Increasing this slider (tested up to 2.0 on Fanatec DD and Moza R5 setups) makes front-end grip scrub easier to sense before understeer pushes the car wide. On certain vehicle profiles, excessive load boost can trigger mid-corner clipping.
- Friction: Adds flat resistance across the rotation range. Direct drive setups generally perform best with friction turned off (0 or 0.020) or slightly negative (-0.100) to allow free wheel movement around top dead center.
Three-Band Equalizer (EQ Low, Mid, High)
- EQ Low (0.8 – 1.7): Manages low-frequency chassis pitch, rolling weight, and heavy lateral loads. Keeping this near 1.0 maintains substantial weight transfer without feeling sluggish.
- EQ Mid (0.5 – 1.0): Dictates suspension compression, mid-corner curb rumble, and tire stress. If your wheelbase exhibits harsh rattling over curbs or reaches clipping easily, lower EQ Mid down to 0.5–0.7.
- EQ High (0.0 – 1.6): Controls fine pavement grain, small surface bumps, and engine RPM vibration. Direct drive users often lower this to 0.0–0.6 to eliminate grit and coil whine, whereas audio-transducer or TrueForce wheels can utilize higher values (1.5+) for track texture.
Base Profiles for Popular Direct Drive Wheels
Below are community-tested baseline configurations established on recent patches (such as PMR 2.1 and 2.3 updates) across common wheelbases:
Logitech Pro Direct Drive (11 Nm) & RS50
- Logitech G HUB / Wheelbase Settings: Strength: 11 Nm (or 9 Nm baseline) | Force Feedback Filter: 4 to 5 | Dampener: 10 to 30 | Rotation: 900° | Brake Force: 30.
- In-Game Device Settings: Global Gain: 70 | Low Force Boost: 0 | Brake Feel Boost: 30 | FFB Smoothing: 10 | Headroom: 150 (up to 300) | Rumble: 15.
- Vehicle Setup (Steering Wheel): Strength: 80 | Rack Feel: 34 | Alignment Boost: 36 | Load Boost: 044 | Friction: 060 | EQ Low: 08 | EQ Mid: 1 | EQ High: 1.5.
Fanatec GT DD Pro / CSL DD (8 Nm)
- Fanatec Tuning Menu: SEN: 900 (or Auto) | FF: 100% | NDP / NIN / NFR: Off (or NDP at 5–10 if experiencing straight-line oscillation) | INT: 5.
- In-Game Device Settings: Global Gain: 100 | Low Force Boost: 0 | Brake Feel Boost: 20–30 | FFB Smoothing: 0–5 | Headroom: 100.
- Vehicle Setup (Steering Wheel): Strength: 1.0 | Steering Rack Rate: 1.3 | Steering Stiffness: 5 | Rack Feel: 90 – 1.0 | Alignment Boost: 30 – 0.52 | Load Boost: 20 – 1.02 | Friction: nothing | EQ Low: 1.0 | EQ Mid: 0.5 – 7 | EQ High: 6 – 1.0.
Moza Direct Drive (R5 / R21)
- Moza Pit House: Base FFB: 80%–100% | Damping, Friction, and Interpolation: Off | Maximum Steering Angle: 900°.
- In-Game Device Settings: Global Gain: 100 | Low Force Boost: 0 | Brake Detail: 10–20 | FFB Smoothing: 0 | Headroom: 100.
- Vehicle Setup (Steering Wheel): Strength: 60 – 1.0 (or up to 2.0 for 5.5 Nm Moza R5) | Rack Feel: 1.0 | Alignment Boost: 30 – 40 | Load Boost: 0 (or up to 2.0 if sensing understeer is prioritized) | Friction: -0.100 to 0.0 | EQ Low: 1.0 | EQ Mid: 4 – 0.5 | EQ High: 0.0.
Troubleshooting Common FFB Problems
- Violent High-Speed Oscillation on Straights: Frequently reported on GT3 cars (such as the Aston Martin Vantage) at speeds over 200 kph. First, confirm your wheelbase software rotation matches the in-game 900° limit, and add 10-30% damper (either in game or in wheel software) and some natural inertia gradually while testing ingame.
- Center Dead Zone or "Notchy" Steer Transition: If the wheel falls light at 0° and suddenly catches with a harsh clunk, set Low Force Boost to 0 in device settings. Lower Rack Feel down from 1.0 toward 0.35–0.50 and increase FFB Smoothing to 10.
- Excessive Curb Rattling or Dynamic Clipping: If the wheel maxes out its torque ceiling or rattles loose over rumble strips, increase FFB Headroom to 250–300 in the device settings and drop EQ Mid below 0.6 in the vehicle setup menu.
- Missing Feedback After Updates: Ensure your wheelbase manufacturer firmware is updated to the latest available build. If forces drop completely after a patch, verify control assignments, re-calibrate the 900-degree rotation axis in the controls menu, and ensure custom vehicle setups have not defaulted their internal Steering Wheel tabs.
