We recommend that you always start with default settings in your wheel profiler before starting the game, including overall force feedback gain and rotation angle. You can run 540 degrees from software on the PC, but the steering lock in-game remains unchanged, so your ratio would differ from the default. You can adjust this in the game's Steering Sensitivity slider in the Advanced Wheel Settings section below. This is a commonly misunderstood setting, so it’s essential to give this a read.
Normal vs. Simulation Steering
Having the option to choose between “Standard” or “Simulation” steering in the assists menu is one of the reasons so many players of different skill levels can enjoy Forza games, whether using a gamepad or a wheel. Forza is controllable and natural on a gamepad, and these systems are a significant component of that feeling. There are multiple systems layered together to create Normal steering. Simulation Steering turns these systems off. The input layers of these systems are turned off any time you use a wheel, regardless of the steering setting.
The “Standard” steering assist may make FFB feel less sharp and reactive because it influences the yaw inertia of the car to help maintain control during rapid lock-to-lock steering situations. This makes the car somewhat less agile than simulation steering and more stable.
Advanced Wheel Settings
Below are the tunable settings for wheel users. We strongly recommend starting with default settings to get a feel for how your wheel works with the game, then tune for a specific desired outcome, one setting at a time. If you start moving multiple sliders without understanding the effects of each or how they interact with each other, you may be creating an unpleasant experience.
VIBRATION
This option toggles controller vibration on and off.
MOUSE FREE LOOK
This option toggles the mouse camera control while driving
STEERING AXIS DEADZONE INSIDE
This sets the size of the inner deadzone for steering. The larger this deadzone, the more the steering wheel will need to be moved before the car begins to turn.
STEERING AXIS DEADZONE OUTSIDE
This sets the size of the outer deadzone for steering. The larger this deadzone, the less the steering wheel input will be recognized by the game.
STEERING LINEARITY
This sets the mapping between input and steering. Lower values provide more accuracy near the center but less accuracy near full lock. Higher values provide more precision near full lock but less accuracy near the center. 50 is a linear mapping.
ACCELERATION AXIS DEADZONE INSIDE
This sets the size of the inner deadzone for throttle. The larger this deadzone, the more the throttle will need to be pressed before the car begins to accelerate. Turn this up if the throttle input is registered when the controller throttle is neutral.
ACCELERATION AXIS DEADZONE OUTSIDE
This sets the size of the outer deadzone for throttle. The larger this deadzone, the less the throttle will need to be pressed for the car to accelerate as fast as possible.
DECELERATION AXIS DEADZONE INSIDE
This sets the size of the inner deadzone for brakes. The larger this deadzone, the more the brakes will need to be pressed before the car begins to slow. Turn this up if the brake input is registered when the controller brake pedal is neutral.
DECELERATION AXIS DEADZONE OUTSIDE
This sets the size of the outer deadzone for brakes. The larger this deadzone, the less the brakes need to be pressed for the car to brake as sharply as possible.
CLUTCH AXIS DEADZONE INSIDE
This sets the size of the inner deadzone for the clutch. The larger this deadzone, the more the clutch will need to be pressed before the car’s clutch will begin to disengage. If the clutch input is registered when the controller clutch is neutral, turn this up.
CLUTCH AXIS DEADZONE OUTSIDE
This sets the size of the outer deadzone for the clutch. The larger this deadzone, the less the clutch will need to be pressed for the car’s clutch to be fully disengaged.
E-BRAKE AXIS DEADZONE INSIDE
This sets the size of the inner deadzone for e-brake. The larger this deadzone, the more the e-brake input will need to be actuated before the car’s e-brake will begin to apply. Turn this up if the e-brake input is registered when the controller handbrake is neutral.
E-BRAKE AXIS DEADZONE OUTSIDE
This sets the size of the outer deadzone for e-brake. The larger this deadzone, the less e-brake input will be recognized by the game. Turn this down of the game registers full e-brake before the input is fully pressed.
VIBRATION SCALE
This sets the vibration intensity.
FORCE FEEDBACK SCALE
This sets the level of Dynamic Force Feedback strength on your steering wheel. The larger this value, the more of the car’s align torque you will sense through your wheel. This does NOT scale Damper or Spring effects. It controls the scale of combined trail feedback and dynamic forces. This is NOT an overall gain on forces. Center strength of align torque falls into the Force Feedback slider. This is where align torque lives and where the Force Feedback Minimum and Understeer values are intended to help. The ratio between input FFB and output FFB is 1:1 to avoid saturation at the default value.
Do NOT turn Force Feedback Scale to zero - this is the most common mistake wheel users make. The Force Feedback slider isn’t an overall gain on all torques. It scales the dynamic FFB function only. It is a scale on the combined mechanical and pneumatic trails and high-frequency load change inputs. If you want more overall force, leave this at the default setting and adjust the gain in your wheel settings outside the game.
In FH4, this setting affects the global FFB output, not just the dynamic alignment force that comes from physics. If the physics input torque is 1 and you are running 100% of the FFB scale, the result is 1. In FH4, the FFB output is set to be in line with the physics input by default (50), so while it may feel weak, it doesn’t saturate your wheel’s FFB motor when you are driving. If you want more overall force, leave this at the default setting and adjust the gain in your wheel settings outside the game.
CENTER SPRING SCALE
This sets the Dynamic Centering Force of your steering wheel. Larger values provide a stronger centering force, while lower values provide a lighter centering force. Lowering this value too much may cause steering oscillation. Too high a value reduces the dynamic align torque you feel from the car’s tires.
Essentially, the spring is the force pulling the steering wheel toward the center; that is to say, gravity through caster, KPI, and scrub radius (the distance in front view between a car’s kingpin axis and the center of the contact patch of the wheel, where both would theoretically touch the road). This force is overcome at speed through the pneumatic and mechanical trail, the causes of align torque (the torque that a tire creates as it rolls along, which tends to steer it). The faster you go, the less center spring force you should feel, and the more you feel from the tires steering themselves.
TIP: We recommend that you NOT turn Center Spring Scale-up significantly - too high, and this effectively cancels dynamic FFB - the only force you feel is your wheel trying to center itself, rather than the dynamic align torque at from the car’s wheels. We recommend you leave it alone or turn it down.
WHEEL DAMPER SCALE
This sets the resistance to the movement of your steering wheel. Larger values provide a heavy feeling, while lower values give a light feel with little to no resistance. Lowering this value too much may cause steering oscillation.
The damper is precise to the user's wheel and is very subjective. Effectively it adds a constant resistance force to the steering that may prevent oscillation. Still, at the same time, it slows down the steering wheel velocity, making drifting, where you need a quick reaction from the steering wheel, harder. Many wheel users think that the damper is wrong no matter what it is set to because it is not coming from the alignment physics; in reality, every car’s steering has a mechanical friction component. When a car is powered steered, it is damped as well.
TIP: Wheels with more built-in torque, like Thrustmaster and Fanatec wheels, actually benefit from some damper scale; wheels with less built-in torque like Logitech G920 and G29 require little to no damper scale. If you have a Logitech G920 or G29 steering wheel, you may want to turn both the Wheel Damper and Center Spring down to get more feel from the tire.
FORCE FEEDBACK MECHANICAL TRAIL SCALE
This sets the mechanical trail to align torque, which balances the suspension contribution to the Force Feedback on your steering wheel. The larger this value, the less prominent the loss of traction will be in understeer. Lower values provide a more prominent understeer feeling and less overall alignment torque.
In FH5, this feedback parameter multiplies the mechanical trail; the higher the value, the more consistent the FFB will feel across the slip range and remain higher when the alignment peak is exceeded.
This FFB functionality is intended to allow you to find a balance between pneumatic trail and mechanical trail. Lowering the FFB Mechanical Trail will expose the pneumatic trail effect coming from the tire at the cost of having a peakier feeling, especially when the peak is exceeded, which is why you feel more understeer when FFB Mechanical Trail tuning is low. It alters the shape of the total alignment force that drives the FFB when the grip limit is exceeded. This shape is not changed from physics at the default and recommended settings.
TIP: We strongly recommend that you leave FFB Mechanical Trail at its default setting and that you don’t change it randomly if you are struggling with understeer or oversteer on the car you are currently driving. Again, if you have too much understeer/oversteer in your car, it is not the FFB that is doing it; it is the car setup. If you have far too much oversteer, change the setup of your car (spring, anti-roll bar, differential accel/decel, camber front/rear, toe, front/rear damper) to fix the issue and make the car drive as you like, same as when you want to fix understeer. Drifters may prefer to run this value higher than default to have more alignment force (basically feels the same as having more caster).
FORCE FEEDBACK MINIMUM FORCE
This sets the pneumatic trail to align torque, which scales the build-up of Force Feedback with the lateral load. Larger values provide an aggressive tire response with lateral input and a heavier feeling. Lower values give a weaker response curve and a lighter feel.
No changes are applied to the FFB from physics at the default setting. At minimum setting, the force produced at a minimal slip angle is reduced; while this helps reduce oscillation, it makes the feeling near the steering wheel's center point vaguer. At max setting, the force produced at a minimal amount of slip angle is boosted, increasing the feeling near the steering wheel's center point of the steering wheel, but this may trigger oscillation issues.
FORCE FEEDBACK LOAD SENSITIVITY
This sets the maximum contribution that the tire lateral force and vertical load can apply to the FFB alignment torque.
Increasing this value will let the FFB reach its peak at a higher amount of vertical and lateral force acting on the tire; this is suggested if you come across highly grippy cars and feel the FFB gets too strong sooner than you would expect.
Similarly, tuning this to a lower value will increase the FFB torque at a lower amount of lateral and vertical force if a car has a meager grip.
ROAD FEEL and OFFROAD feel
These two settings allow tuning the micro-vibrations at the tire contact patch level that get transmitted to the steering column and reproduced on the top of the FFB alignment torque.
Because of this, they have no impact on the alignment torque FFB strength, but they add an extra layer of details that represent how well the tire/suspension system manages to smooth out these vibrations before they are sent to the wheel.
These vibrations are torque-based and shouldn’t be confused with the vibration coming from the rumble motors (see vibration scale section).
STEERING SENSITIVITY
This adjusts the ratio of your steering wheel’s degree of rotation (DOR) to the car’s front wheel's actual degree of steering rotation. The steering ratio defines the ratio between the steering wheel rotation and the turn of the wheels. In other words, how many degrees of steering wheel turn is required to turn the car’s wheels by 1 degree. For example, a steering ratio for an average passenger car could be 13:1, which means that 13 degrees of steering rotation are required to turn the wheels by 1 degree.
Along with Force Feedback Scale, this is one of the most commonly misunderstood advanced settings. A point of confusion among wheel users is that the driver’s hand animations in cockpit view don’t turn the steering wheel more than 90 degrees in either direction. This does not represent the actual in-game steering wheel rotation, just as the graphical tire steering lock angle is not a 100% representation of the primary physics steering lock. This is one of the reasons a dashboard camera view has been added to game camera views.
Altering the sensitivity completely alters the input/output map of the steering, effectively changing the steering ratio of the car. The most common issue is when a user changes the steering wheel rotation degree from the software in combination with the sensitivity, resulting in erratic car steering behavior or not getting the desired result.
Steering Sensitivity only works above 30 mph. The steering is linear at default (50), so the ratio is not altered from the intended steering setting.
If your wheel is set to 900 degrees and the car has 42 degrees of lock, and you set Steering Sensitivity to 50, you get the following: The car’s intended steering ratio is 10.7 (900 /2 /42 = 10.7), or in other words, 10.7 degrees of rotation are required to steer the wheels by 1 degree.
At 540 degrees and 50 Steering Sensitivity, the car still has 42 degrees, but now your ratio has altered in the following way, 540/2/42= 6.4, so 6.4 degrees of rotation are required to steer the wheels by 1 degree.
If you set your wheel’s degrees to 900 and the game Steering Sensitivity to max (100), your output is double the amount of your input, so if you turn your wheel by 180 degrees, this turn the wheels twice the amount they would turn with sensitivity set at 50.
Steering Sensitivity cannot increase the car’s steering lock above its maximum limit, so if a vehicle has 42 degrees of lock, this will remain the utmost degree at which the wheels can be turned. At a 100 sensitivity setting, your input is double your output, and the steering lock can’t exceed 42 degrees; therefore, you will hit 42 degrees of the lock at 450 degrees of rotation. Any extra steering wheel rotation beyond this angle will not further turn the wheels.
ON PC: Your wheel’s software controls the steering wheel rotation (180 up to 1080 depends on the wheel’s hardware), but in-game the steering lock is fixed on every car (only drift suspension upgrade can increase the steering lock of your car) and is different on every car. The Steering Sensitivity slider alters how the wheels are turned for a specific steering wheel rotation. You make the sensitivity higher; you make the steering more responsive because the steering ratio is smaller; if you instead set the sensitivity to lower, the steering ratio increases; therefore, the steering is less responsive.
For, PC the steering sensitivity modifies the input/output map as shown in this graph down below.
X represents steering lock, Y defines steering wheel degrees.
TIP - we suggest you adjust wheel rotation in software OR Steering Sensitivity in-game, not both.
- Unless your hardware is limited in terms of wheel rotation, set your device to 900 degrees and then play with the in-game Steering Sensitivity to adjust the steering ratio to what you like or need based on the car you’re currently driving.
- Keep the Steering Sensitivity setting unchanged (50) and play with your wheel software to set the steering wheel degrees of rotation until you're happy with the controls based on the car you’re currently driving.
This is where some of the experience helps, and it is not uncommon to run a quick ratio on sports cars that generally have less steering wheel lock.
Example: Car X modern supercar has 36 degrees of lock, but its max wheel rotation is 750 degrees in real life. In this case, you want to either set your wheel rotation to 750 degrees and keep sensitivity to 50 or increase the sensitivity up to 70 and keep the wheel rotation set at 900 degrees. Either way, you will drive with the same steering ratio, and the car will feel identical.
Note that while setting your device to a lower degree of rotation will force your hardware to stop rotating at that angle, steering sensitivity will not; because of that, while the two things will effectively give you the same result, running max sensitivity may feel counterintuitive, mainly when you use the wheel to its full rotation.
Series 19 and Rally Adventure Update
- Steering Rotation – This sets the range of steering degrees of rotation on your wheel device but does not affect the Steering Lock.
- Steering Lock Multiplier – This sets the angle formed by the front of the vehicle and the direction of front tires at maximum steering angle. The lower this value, the lower the angle will be.
- Steering Speed Sensitivity – This sets the amount of Steering Lock of the car with speed. Lower value will provide a lower steering lock at high speed. By default (1.0) the steering lock does not change with speed.