hi im new to LFS just this week i purchased my license. my controls setup are dual action gamepad. i use a mini joystick for my accel/brake and left/right which can be twitchy. but its all i have and im not sure i can afford a wheel. its analogue i guess so itll have to do. theres tonnes of buttons too so it beats keyboard or mouse i guess.

i been in some servers racing away in FWD as these are easier and i ask for a setup that some guys send me and i use which usually shaves 1 or 2 seconds off my time but im still often 4 or 5 seconds off their lap times. i find the only way i do well is to be consistent and not make mistakes but i never win and i still make mistakes.

so i thought that maybe its my controls and others are using a wheel. so i studied people from spectator for a while (wow this helps loads) and it seems like im always skidding my wheels more than others. i think i might make a replay and ask you guys to watch to see what is happening but i have no idea how to make my car setup for this kind of controller. its like i am turning my wheels 90 degrees and the car is corning at 3 degrees (its a front wheel drive) this is like understeer i think?

do anyone else have this kind of gamepad that has analogue controls on it? what are the advantages / disadvantages and can you ever win over someone who is using a wheel? would a car setup be any different for this type of controllers???

sorry if i seem like a newbie this is my first racing sim, need for speed scared me away from online racing but this game changed my mind.

i think its harder to do the throttle and steer at the same time off one control stick, i learnt what trail braking meant so i been practicing that and i can still do that just about but i feel that it would be easier using my foot + hands to steer like in a real car.

is there any advantages of a gamepad, maybe its easier to recover because of less motion needed to turn the wheels, ie when im spinning in a corner i can whip the car back round facing forwards and still keep some speed, can you do that with a wheel or is it harder work??

1) You shouldn't even get into a situation where you need to aggressively counter steer, so in the end you're not faster than with a wheel.

2) The wheel gives a far greater motion range and allows for much more smoothness.

3) If you start to oversteer with a wheel, unless you have a DFP in 900° mode it should be fairly easy to catch the slide. Granted, it's not as instant as with a pad/mouse and it also requires more motion to get, but the disadvantage really isn't that great. Also, the wheel has force feedback which helps countersteering, too.

4) The gamepad doesn't provide any immersion whatsoever.


So in conclusion, there's actually no valid reason to use a gamepad (or any other input device) over a wheel. You can be very fast with any of the controllers, but only the wheel is immersive. Everything else feels very fake IMO.

Quote from AndroidXP :

... only the wheel is immersive. Everything else feels very fake IMO.

And that will stay this way until they build cars with keyboards/mouse/gamepads .

(Yes, I am aware of those joystick-steered-concept cars )

Vain

i use gamepad because of other games, a wheel is very specific to what games you can play with it but i really love LFS its tempting to buy a wheel just for this illepall

here is a picture of my gamepad

its really cheap one, but it has dual analogue on it but obviously the motion ranges are my issue here i think?? it feels like going down the straight i have to make my in-car virtual wheel turn too much to make fine adjustments, this can lead to a spin out at full speed down a straight.

im trying to set this thing up right with the game and my car but im not sure how i can.

does anyone have any ideas or tips on what buttons to use for what? i have 4 axis to work with and a bunch of buttons.

the left stick is left/right and also it is accel/brake too. this is hard to work with using just 1 thumb. so i try to use accel/brake on the left stick but my thumb is busy with the gears.....and then i have to try and use the clutch?? i heard i need to do gears differently too.

This is a quote from B2B@300 in that thread you linked me:

Quote :

I use an xbox controller (joypad) and these are the settings: (will post them just incase another joypad user is looking for help)
In the Car setup - I generally change the Max Steering Lock to about 16, and maybe bring the Brake Bias forward 1 point from the standard WR sets don't really touch anything else.
In the Options undrer Controller settings - I set Wheel Turn to 180, Wheel Turn Compensation to 0.30 and under the Misc section I set Analog Steer Smooth to 0.6.

can any of these settings actually limit my car controls in the game? a lot of these settings confuse me as to what they do and wether my pad is the same

Is there any black market doctors who can install an extra pair of thumbs on my hands?

1. You can use those settings in LFS. They work with all gamepads (actually they'd work with all controller-types, but they are suggested for gamepads) and will adjust the way the ingame steering-wheel reacts to your steering on the gamepad. That means the car will be less likely to jump around nervously.
2. You should definitely use one analog controler for steering and one for acceleration. Controlling both axis with one thumb is most propably too hard for any human being.
Try to use the head-mounted buttons (does your gamepad have those?) for shifting. Also you can use the autoclutch for clutching (I see no added realism here until you have a clutch-pedal).

Vain

In a XF GTR on SO town rev this is my best time in a setup someone sent me. 1:27.84 but they are all lapping at 1:24. i practiced quite a bit and know the line, and i got the right gears in the corners, and can keep up and even make passes in the race or maybe even get 3rd place if i dont hit too many barriers and i am gaining massive time on some people in places. i must of done a good 20 hours on that track now in the same setup but no cigar. I feel like i can control the car, if a little nervous when someone is along side me, but i think maybe the controls are limiting how far i can push that time, or do you think i need to practice or setup my controller differently or setup the car to suit the controller?? im not sure.

the top mounted buttons are just two, which is a bit of a let down, those are currently in use as look left / right.

if i put look left / right on to the 6 buttons on the front ill have to stop accelerating to look left or right.

maybe this is a sacrifice i need to make, i could try putting it on the left/right axis of the 2nd stick but i might find that ill be looking left or right while im accelerating or braking which is not good.

or i could try putting it on the D pad somehow, then i can look left or right as im going down the straight if i let go of the steering, oh wait maybe i shouldnt do that either hehe.

is there a way i can set look left / right to an axis but make it only do it once that axis is fully extended so it doesnt make it look left or right when i dont want it to?

did that make sense?

You mean turning one axis into two digital buttons. I think that's posible with a tool called "Joy to key", but I didn't spend more than 5 minutes with this tool so I may aswell be completely wrong .

Vain

ok i tried with look left right and rear view on the D pad and thats fine aslong as i use them down a straight and mirrors & sense of awareness in the corners.

i have been practicing with moving the throttle to the other stick it seems like the car is more in control

and im getting as good as my previous pb while still rough around the edges and hitting the wrong gears here and there so i think over time this new way will be better.

it feels like i got more control under braking now, and less tyre squeal in corners, and its easier to adjust my throttle/speed mid corner better. and my hands look more stable on the cockpit wheel.

i think with some more finer adjustments i can get this working nicely.

heres an example of a race i just did with the new setup.

example race 2.mpr

did that work?

i tried to attach a mpr file

do you think im skidding too much or my controls look twitchy?

Did you try to watch your own driving using the force-view?
Try to press F ingame (f.e. while viewing your replay). Then you'll be able to view the forces on your tyres.
When the force-indicating arrows turn red then this tyre has lost grip and is skidding. This is okay for the inner tyres during cornering, but I saw that sometimes also your outter tyres loose grip. That always results in running the corner wide and at SouthCity this usually means contact with the walls.
Review your own racing from the bumper-cam using the force-view. Then pay attention to the sound the tyres make when skidding and when "barely keeping the grip". The sound changes noticably. When you get used to this you can make out wether your tyres have grip or not, even without force feedback.
Otherwise good driving.

Oh, and before someone else get's to play this joke: "Use the force!(-view) Luke."

Vain

i watched it with force view on and i was monitoring my tyre wear too.

im not sure wether my driving needs fixing or the car needs to be tweaked.

while my car is corning im seeing green/blue arrows on the outside wheels and red arrows on the inside wheels is that meant to happen?

should i be aiming for green on the outside and blue on the inside?

ok something else...

in the sharp turn 2 (the one where u drop to 1st gear) i notice when i pull away from that corner that i sometimes have the steering on more turn that is needed because as im accelerating out of the corner in 1st gear i need more turn to get away from the barrier. it feels like i got understeer as im pulling away from the corner, my wheels are turned like 45 degrees but my car is only turning a small amount. is that because of the setup, or because im putting full power down too early while needing to do a gradual turn? wow i hoped that even made sense.

thanks for the help you guys are awesome

1. Everything beside red is on the outer wheel is good.
2. Most propably this is because of spinning wheels. Try to go around it with fewer power and see what happens.

Vain

That's only because you put down too much power too early.

I've just watched it and I think you're not really making any major driving mistakes. All you need now is practice, practice and some more practice. Your driving should get smoother, both on steering and accellerating/braking, and the correct lines will become second nature too. The less you actually think about driving, the faster you are.

E: Also yes, inside red tyres are pretty common. They aren't loaded, so they don't heat up anyways.