This page was updated on 08/06/2012. See the end of the post for more information.
- IRacing Force Feedback Settings. I’m a big fan of iRacing sim racing and I frequent their forums quite a bit. I’ve seen a number of posts, over time, on the iRacing forums about people asking for the right force feedback settings for their wheels. As it turns out, this info in its complete form is harder to come by then you might think so I.
- Sound Shift for iRacing is software that provides audio cues for gear selection, brake force and rev limit. All can be adjusted and even muted if you don't want all cues. This service contains its own Sound Shift files for iRacing users to download and use for their installation. Especially useful.
Over the years since we first started this project, there were also some changes to the iRacing software that would allow us to develop an even better product. So iBuzzer 2 and iBuzzer G were re-written from the ground up. As new features are released to developers from iRacing we plan to enhance the features of iBuzzer with future releases expanding on the current features found in iBuzzer G.
iRacing FFB Tool is an application that helps you detect when your force feedback is clipping and also choose an optimal value for the FFB strength multiplier in iRacing, so you can use it at it’s best. Clipping in force feedback has the same concept that audio clipping, that is basically having a force strength (waveform amplitude) “outside” of the limits. If you have a very strong FFB multiplier, a very low torque on the steering shaft might already send 100% of force to the wheel controller, meaning that you won’t be able to feel the FFB details on forces above the current one, as your wheel is already working at it’s maximum torque.
The graph below was captured using this tool and shows the steering shaft torque, in Nm, the current FFB being sent to the wheel (you can see that there’s a lot of clipping) and the optimal FFB multiplier to remove all the clipping.
The tool can also be used in real time, showing when your wheel is clipping while you are driving. The picture below shows the main window, where you can see the data from the live telemetry along with the clipping monitor.
iRacing FFB Tool main window
The window is properly sized to fit an iPhone display, so you can play the game while using your iPhone for displaying the information. For that to work, you’ll need an app that turns your iPhone into a secondary monitor, such as AirDisplay or iDisplay. Below you can check a video of the software working. I’m not using an iPhone in the video, but you can see the game and the software working in real time.
Update: 08/06/2012
I just added an option that will export 4 bytes of data through the serial port with some clipping information. This allowed me to grab that data with an Arduino and show it in real time on the display, without having to run the sim in Windowed mode.
It will show the percentage of the FFB being sent to the wheel, along with a LED representation of the forces, which will go red when there is clipping. You can check it out on the video below (yep, it’s 2AM here and I’m wearing a robe…):
To learn more about that display and how to use it with the Arduino, just check my “DIY Shift Lights and Dashboard” page on this link. It’s the same wiring and library. Here is the Arduino code to deal with the data sent by the FFB Tool:
iRacing FFB was coded in Visual C# 2010, so you need the .NET Framework 4.0 for it to work.
This tool is distributed as “donationware”. If you find them useful, please consider doing a small donation.
DOWNLOAD (v 1.3): http://www.fergonez.net/files/iRacingFFB.rar
CHANGELOG:
Iracing Force Feedback Utility
- Version 1.3
- Added an option to export clipping data through serial port
- Version 1.2
- FFB and Tolerance settings saved where you exit the app
- Added tips at the bottom
- Added force feedback charts
- Added peak meter
- Increased sample buffer to 50000 samples
- Fixed bug where it will only consider positive values when predicting the optimal FFB
- Version 1.1
- Added option to calculate the optimal FFB setting based on the current set of samples
- More intuitive interface
- Version 1.0
- Initial release