This is quite a common debate in many sim-racing forums, and usually there's two camps that emerge. The first one is the "mass market" part of the community, who for the most part agree that the force feedback wheels provide a much better experience than any non-force feedback device in a similar price range. On the other side, there is the people who invested a small fortune into their non-ff high end setups and claim (much like the marketing material for those wheels) that force feedback is a technology that at this point only detracts from the overall experience. From both sides of the debate, it seems to me that for the most part the people are trying to justify their purchase decision, and this goes doubly (or is it ten-fold :P ) so for the high-end non force feedback wheels.
In my opinion, if it is fastest laptimes you are looking at, force feedback will never help you in this respect and may indeed even hinder you. Although it would be fair to say that it is actually the pedals that come with most mass-market wheels is what will hinder you most, especially the brake one (if you are not running ovals :P ). I also do not find it surprising that people who have non-ff wheels and try the ff ones will find them awkward. The reason for that is that they are simply having to recalibrate their inputs as they got used to driving without the simulated forces on the wheel, much like driving a real car requires a different control loop from a driver than sim racing does, as the feedback from your bottom tells you an additional fair bit about what's happening.
I believe that FF actually provides a rather significant additional signal for the sim-racer. It will not help you improve your laptime, but what it does is help you in the situations where you overstep the limits. I find that, for example, opposite lock, which comes completely naturally with force feedback just as it does in a real car, is a serious guessing exercise without it. Now, although I am sure that with enough practice it can be done just as efficiently without FF as it can be with it (I do remember doing that easily in the old GPL days), it is important to note that in one case it requires a lot of determined effort to improve on it, and in the FF case it's something you don't give another thought. While it is true that FF might slow down some of the very quickest inputs, I never felt that it would be a hindrance myself (hey, I am getting old, no such fast inputs possible anymore
) and on the other hand, especially since the wheel is already helping you move in the proper direction once a quick input is required, and that goes even across the center in the opposite lock situation.
I would say that FF still has a long way to go, but as it is now, to an average sim racer it provides so much more feedback and immersion that it would be a shame not to use it. In the future, I do hope a system that is not based on electric motors but perhaps some electromagnets or similar might provide less resistance and a smoother drive, and at that point there will be no point in not using FF at all.
In my opinion, if it is fastest laptimes you are looking at, force feedback will never help you in this respect and may indeed even hinder you. Although it would be fair to say that it is actually the pedals that come with most mass-market wheels is what will hinder you most, especially the brake one (if you are not running ovals :P ). I also do not find it surprising that people who have non-ff wheels and try the ff ones will find them awkward. The reason for that is that they are simply having to recalibrate their inputs as they got used to driving without the simulated forces on the wheel, much like driving a real car requires a different control loop from a driver than sim racing does, as the feedback from your bottom tells you an additional fair bit about what's happening.
I believe that FF actually provides a rather significant additional signal for the sim-racer. It will not help you improve your laptime, but what it does is help you in the situations where you overstep the limits. I find that, for example, opposite lock, which comes completely naturally with force feedback just as it does in a real car, is a serious guessing exercise without it. Now, although I am sure that with enough practice it can be done just as efficiently without FF as it can be with it (I do remember doing that easily in the old GPL days), it is important to note that in one case it requires a lot of determined effort to improve on it, and in the FF case it's something you don't give another thought. While it is true that FF might slow down some of the very quickest inputs, I never felt that it would be a hindrance myself (hey, I am getting old, no such fast inputs possible anymore
) and on the other hand, especially since the wheel is already helping you move in the proper direction once a quick input is required, and that goes even across the center in the opposite lock situation.I would say that FF still has a long way to go, but as it is now, to an average sim racer it provides so much more feedback and immersion that it would be a shame not to use it. In the future, I do hope a system that is not based on electric motors but perhaps some electromagnets or similar might provide less resistance and a smoother drive, and at that point there will be no point in not using FF at all.
