Sim Racing Wheels & Wheel Bases - Buyer's Guide

[Music] hello and welcome back to part three of our complete guide cysts and racing video series so far we've taken a look at the key fundamentals that you need to understand as you start your sim racing journey we've taken a deeper dive into the world of sim racing pedals already so be sure to check out those videos if you haven't already they'll give you a good fundamental understanding and make this video make a lot more sense as well so today we're going to be moving on into the world of wheels and wheel bases we'll have a look at the different types of wheel bases that are available and their various different pros and cons and as before the aim of this video isn't to try and push you towards any particular brand or product but rather to army with all the knowledge that you're going to need to do your own product research and come up with the best solutions to meet your needs and budgets with complete confidence so let's get started now the first important point to cover is that contrary to what may seem logical the wheel isn't actually the most important factor in driving quickly and consistently that might sound a little bit counterintuitive as the wheel is what provides a majority of feedback to the driver and sure a good quality wheel will definitely add extra detail and help you to feel what's going on with the car there's no question about that it definitely helps you to feel what's going on with the car a little bit more precisely but some of the fastest drivers around in the sim racing scene a winning using entry-level force feedback wheels such as the Logitech G 29 even the g27 or even the older G 25 so you need to get out of your head straight away that you need to spend a fortune on a wheel if you're going to be competitive that simply is not the case and that's been proven time and time again as I explained in part 1 and part 2 of the series already pedals and a solid flex free mounting solution for your hardware will have a much large impact on your speed and consistency that an expensive will have so why is it that that's the case it mostly comes down to muscle memory to put it simply your brain is very good at adapting to the inputs that it's presented with so as long as they're consistent for example as long as the feeling that you're getting through the wheel is consistent every single time you approach the limit of grip your brain will recognize this as a cue and begin to react instinctively regardless of what it actually feels like unlike with upgrading to more expensive pedals often give you a larger range of control as an input device and despite the variances in input resolution which we'll discuss a little bit later as well as far as being an input device is concerned a wheel is a wheel to a large extent in terms of the way it actually interprets your physical inputs and feeds them back into the game or the sim as long as you can feel the things that you need to feel to control the car adequately a more expensive wheel is unlikely to actually have a huge impact on your overall speed and consistency now that is certainly not to say that there's no point in buying a more expensive wheel or wheel base it absolutely will make a huge impact on the overall level of immersion and realism that you experience all I'm saying is that you don't need to spend a fortune to be fast and consistent if you have a limited budget you're generally going to be better off prioritizing pedals and a solid mounting solution over a more expensive wheel and wheel base now I have a few videos comparing my own driving performance using different combinations of equipment which I'll link in the description below for you as well now I'm not the fastest driver around but I am pretty consistent when it comes to using my own gear and chopping changing between gear definitely gave me a new insight into exactly how much of a difference in various different parts of equipment make in a setup so definitely check those links out in the description so with that out of the way let's take a look at the various different design factors which will influence how different types of wheel bases will feel now I'm not going to go through every single brand and model available as things can change over time and I haven't personally tested every single wheel in existence however I have linked to some really valuable resources in the description for you guys to check out for more specific information relating to various different brands and models in terms of hardware there are three main factors which combine along with the software to influence how a wheel base will feel and perform in terms of both the fidelity and the overall torque delivery or power delivery that you feel through your hands those are the type of drive whether it be a gear a belt or a direct drive we'll talk about the different types in more detail a little later on as well the type of motor that's being used we look at that as well and of course the strength of the motor so let's start off by talking about cog or gear driven wheel basis first now the approach taken to the system vary slightly between different manufacturers and even models within their ranges but generally speaking these use a series of gears to increase the strength of the feedback that you feel in lieu of a moe with more physical talk now this works much like the gearing inside a car will turn slower but with more torque relative to the speed of the motor itself so you can imagine it's kind of like you put your car in first yeah it has a lot more torque to get moving more quickly but the wheels don't turn as fast it's exactly the same sort of basic concept with this as well now this does work quite well and it certainly keeps the production costs down hence why it's most often found in the more entry-level hardware however this approach does have its limitations which manifests in a few different ways firstly they tend to be a little bit more noisy than the direct drive belt driven counterparts simply due to the unavoidable sound generated by the ears you know physically interfacing with each other this can be a little distracting when driving as well as annoying to others not only in the house they might be trying to sleep on soon racing or something like that but also if you're racing and you have a habit of leaving your mic open when you're in discord chat in places like that then you can be a little bit distracting and annoying to other drivers as well so just be aware of the extra noise that you will experience with a peer driven wheel now while manufacturers generally do do a pretty good job of minimizing this or using things like helical gears instead of straight cuts it's generally noticeable in strong oscillation type feedback events like aggressively driving over curbs or ripple strips and translated as a sort of knocking tight feeling the best way that I can describe this is it's like putting a golf ball or a marble inside a small plastic cup and rattling it from side to side now that's sort of an exaggeration in reality and it doesn't really feel as bad as you might be imagining based off that description but when compared to a belt-driven or direct drive wheel it's definitely something that's a little bit noticeable it's just kind of like a knocking feeling or a slight sort of slack in the response I guess is the best way to describe it now as I alluded to before because gearing is used to increase the torque delivery these wheels do also have limitations in how quickly they can rotate on their own this isn't something that most people are likely to notice during normal type of driving or tracks your street driving but it's certainly something that drifters in particular might want to consider now you might also be thinking that due to all the moving parts coggan and gear driven wheels will be more susceptible to wear and tear or complete failure over time but by most accounts they actually tend to be some of the most highly rated bases on the market in terms of their reliability and in fact my own logitech g27 last to be a good 10 years of pretty frequent usage without a single issue and actually ended up giving that away to somebody else who's continued to use it without any problems that I'm aware of at least so at least from my own personal experience I don't believe it to really be a massive issue in terms of these wheels but again do your own research here talk to people who have owned these for a long time but don't go assuming that because it's cheaper it's gonna wear out more quickly because that doesn't appear to be the case it's also worth noting that most cog wheels are going to be limited to around about 900 degrees of rotation as well this isn't going to be an issue for most people but again just something to be aware of particularly if you're doing drifting or things like maybe truck simulators for example that require a lot of rotation now one aspect that we haven't really touched on yet is the real-world implications of torque delivery or force feedback strength most real life Road cars even ones without power steering once they're actually rolling don't exceed around about 7 to 12 Newton meters of torque through the steering under normal sorts of driving conditions or in other words when you're not crashing obviously it can find a way to see that if you were to crash into a wall and the steering suddenly jerked or something like that that's why you see racing drivers let go of the wheel when they're out of control but by comparison the geared type force feedback steering wheel is currently on the market at least offer generally between about 2 and 3 Newton meters of peak torque so yeah even at full strength they're not going to be able to reproduce the same levels of forces that you'd experience beating around the track in a real car however I do feel that peak torque figures are often a little bit misunderstood remember that we're talking about the maximum amount of force here in reality most of the time steering a car around a track in real life you're not gonna have anywhere near those sorts of forces fighting against you even through static loads in corners now I may not exactly be the Hulk I don't exactly have the thickest arms in the world but I never found my g27 to be too weak so to speak when it came to the static road type forces that it was generating when I was cornering so again just something to be aware of unless you're built like a brick you're probably not gonna have a problem with feeling like it's too weak so in summary regarding gear and cog driven wheel bases these are proven to provide great value for money and they'll give you all the necessary input to be competitive at least however they don't come close to the level of immersion realism that you get with more expensive belt-driven and direct drive wheel bases so next let's take a look at belt driven wheels these are the next step up when it comes to the fidelity and talk they deliver an additional cost of course now belt driven wheels operate in a similar manner to gear driven wheels in that they use a lower torque motor by comparison to a direct drive wheel with some sort of a gearbox to increase the torque delivery at the wheel itself but rather than using physical gears that interface directly with each other they either use a tooth or a ribbed belt and gears to get the job done so at least with the wheel bases that I've personally tried this greatly reduces that sort of ball in a cup type shudder that I've described earlier in relation to force feedback delivery and gives a much more refined and lifelike feeling overall however it does introduce what can best be described as a dampening effect which is caused by the elasticity in the belt itself in many ways this can actually be a good thing as it smooths out some of the robotic feeling that can otherwise be present but all other things being perfect it definitely does reduce the overall fidelity in what you feel through the wheel compared to a direct drive wheel so for example Road textures feel less defined and a little less lifelike sharp changes in direction and understeer those sorts of feelings can feel a little bit smoother than they perhaps should belt driven wheels range from a torque delivery of around three to four Newton meters for the Thrustmaster C 300 RS to roughly eight Newton meters for the phonetic clubsport wheel base of 2.5 so there's quite a range of strength available within this category with plenty of different options available depending on which eco system you want to go for all your needs and budget but we'll talk about eco system in more detail a little later on in the video as well now before we move on to the technology behind direct drive wheel bases I want to take a moment to talk about the importance of software and firmware when it comes to what you feel through the wheel people very often get caught up in the numbers particularly when it comes to direct drive it's very easy to become focused on the peak torque because it's a finite number that is very easily marketable and easy to compare across different makes and models but just because one wheel has a more powerful motor than another doesn't automatically mean that it's going to feel better or offer more fidelity the motor has one simple job and that is just to do what it's told it's a responsibility of the firmware and drivers and software to translate the feedback information coming from the sim title itself into what you ultimately feel through the wheel now this is done through an array of complex filtering and signal interpolation and the quality of the software and firmware engineering is just as important if not more important than the quality and engineering of the hardware now I won't go into all the Nitty very detail now as it's beyond the scope of this video to a large extent but if you would like to learn more about exactly how force feedback works and what all the various different settings and adjustments actually do I have a very detailed video which I'll link above my head for you right now here you can check that out now I would definitely recommend doing that it definitely will offer some insight and help you to get the most out of whatever wheel it is that you end up buying now when it comes to direct drive wheels the motor is directly connected to the wheel that you're holding meaning that you're literally feeling absolutely everything that the motor does including the characteristics of the motors rotation itself so you can imagine regardless of the strength of the feedback if the motor is behaving badly or has an inherently not she or grainy feel then the feedback is also going to feel bad and this is largely boils down to how well the software and firmware are controlling the motor itself a great example of this can be seen in my phonetic dd2 review series which I've linked above my head for you right now I was initially quite disappointed with the overall feel provided as I've expected a lot more of a refined experience out of the dd2 but after updating to the latest firmware and software this completely transformed it to the point where it actually felt like a completely different wheel bus so the point here is don't underestimate the importance of well refined software as well as well adjusted settings resolution and interface data rate are also important factors as they'll also influence how quickly the wheel can react to changes in the game for a smooth output as well as relaying information for positional feedback from what you're actually doing into the game for smooth and fast input with no input lag now in terms of hardware besides the overall motive strengths direct drive wheelbase has come in a few different flavors depending on how much you're prepared to spend most manufacturers list the type of motor that they use in each motor type has its own characteristics which influence how they feel so it's quite important to understand them at a basic level the more entry-level direct drive wheel bases will typically use a stepper motor or more accurately a hybrid servo step the difference being that a hybrid servo stepper motor features a higher pole count than you'd normally find in a conventional stepper motor and also includes a position sensor to operate in a closed loop so the software always knows the current position of the wheel stepper motors by definition operate in an open-loop and don't have any form of positional feedback now due to their higher pole count hybrid servo stepper motors produce a higher amount of torque at low speeds and are relatively cheap to manufacture which makes them quite compelling for cheaper wheel bases however at higher speeds they can lose up to 80 percent of their talk now by comparison a servo motor as used in the more expensive direct drive wheel bases those are able to produce high levels of torque at high speed now they also operate at a much higher efficiency therefore producing less heat both hybrid servo stepper motors and servo motors are susceptible to what's referred to as a cogging or detent effect now this is where the strength of the electromagnetic field vary slightly between the teeth of the rotor and the stator depending on their relative position creating what's known as torque ripples or slight variations in the torque as the motor rotates this effect along with phase imbalancing produces the underlying nachi characteristics that are present in some direct drive wheel bases that you guys might have tried and you might remember this is something that I mentioned as noticing in my review of the cinematic m10 now in my experience this is something that you don't tend to notice so much after driving for a while and if you've never used a high-end servo motor wheel base before you might not even really notice that at all but little characteristics such as this do tend to take away from the overall feeling of realism and immersion after all the Holy Grail is for your wheel to feel as much like the wheel in a real car as possible more expensive motors with complex feedback systems and higher precision internals are able to minimize this effect in varying degrees to the point where it's quite literally unnoticeable in my semi cube to ultimate for example so once again here we're getting what we pay for so direct drive has become a little bit of a buzzword or a buzz term recently and what I want you guys to understand is that just because a wheel is direct drive doesn't automatically mean that it's going to be leagues ahead of other that are available to give you an example from my own personal experience again somewhat surprisingly to me at least I actually found it to be quite a difficult choice between the direct-drive cinematic m10 that I reviewed and the similarly priced belt-driven fanatic clubsport wheel based 2.5 the cinematic m10 is absolutely undoubtedly stronger and offers more fidelity or detailing the force feedback in the majority of scenarios but the clubsport gives an overall more well refined and lifelike feeling through the wheel and this combined with fanatics more advanced or more I guess mature ecosystem really made it quite a tough decision for me to choose between the two but that's just my own personal opinion and I'm sure that a lot of other people who have tried both as well will disagree with me there as I mentioned with my fanatic didi to experience the older firmware and drivers definitely didn't feel anywhere near as good as the newer ones and I'm hopeful that cinematic will also be able to refine their product over time in a similar fashion now the other major differentiating factor between different direct drive wheel bases is of course their motive strengths direct drive wheels on the market currently vary in strength from around about 10 Newton meters for the cinematic m10 all the way up to 32 Newton meters for the semi cube to ultimate I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that are using even stronger motors on the OpenSim wheel platform as well as I mentioned before keep in mind that the forces that you feel through the wheel of a real car usually for somewhere around the sort of 7 to 12 Newton meters market peak now from what I've seen the majority of high-end direct drive wheel base users seem to settle for a setting somewhere around the sort of 12 to 15 Newton meter mark based on the settings that I've seen shared in various different forum posts and online personally I run my semi cubes to ultimate at about 11 Newton meters of peak torque however the additional torque Headroom does reduce the likelihood of clipping as well as increase the potential for extra fidelity under low toxin REO so there is definitely other advantages to higher-end motors but the pig numbers themselves don't necessarily reflect how one wheel base will compare to another in terms of driving feel now there is one other type of motor called an outrunner motor which at the time of making this video is used exclusively by fnatic in their dd1 and CD two wheelbases these motors spin their outer shell around the inner windings and in my opinion these aren't inherently better or worse by design than a hybrid servo stepper motor or a servo motor again it boils down to the quality of the components use the resolution and sensitivity as well as a software and firmware being used to control it now there is some noticeable torque ripple effect present in my DD 2 when compared with my CV cubes with ultimate which in fairness does cost double the amount but it's a very small amount and honestly I tend to forget about it after a couple of laps of driving anyway unless I specifically pay attention to it of course but if I sit down in my simulator and close my eyes the semi cube to ultimate is the only wheelbase that I've personally used it could genuinely fool me into thinking that I'm sitting in a real car it really is just that good now I haven't personally tested a semi cube to sport or a pro yet so I can't tell you how those compared to the ultimate but I do hope to be doing that very soon I also haven't personally tested other brands offering such as the a cube feels pro or the sim steering too but should the opportunity arise I'll definitely let you know how those compare in my experience as well so that brings us to our final topic which is eco systems most entry-level wheels will have a fixed wheel which you can't change without aftermarket or DIY modification now it's important to note that there is definitely no shortage of such mods available these types of wheels often also come bundled with pills and in some cases are shifted as well which makes it nice and easy to plug and play with a single USB connection as well now this will typically make software configuration and ingame detection pretty simple as well and in my experience you can generally go from unboxing to driving in around about 10 to 15 minutes which is really great for a lot of people now as you move up interchangeable wheels become a feature as well starting with the belt driven offerings from frost master and fanatic and continued across all brands within the direct drive space this means that you can change the different styles or diameters depending on the type of car you're driving as well as your own personal preference ease of access to buttons and encoders for making adjustments to things like fuel trim brake bias or differential without having to take your eyes off the road can shave seconds off your lap times and definitely have done for me so definitely not something that should be overlooked either one important distinction to make is that within the Phanatic Thrustmaster sim magic and a key force ecosystems assuming you wish to retain full button functionality without using a separate connection to your PC the only wheels available without the use of a adapter of some sort are manufactured by the brands themselves or as we seem to cube to all seem acute one with an add-on Bluetooth module you have access to a growing range of Wireless wheels which connect directly to the wheel base as well as of course being out of mount any wide wheel that you'd want to use with a physical connection via USB to your PC directly as well so it's worth noting however that these wireless wheels don't offer anywhere near the same level of functionality as is offered within the phonetic ecosystem you can't make adjustments to your wheel feedback and pedal settings on the fly or display climate route via the semi cube wireless system like you can with fanatics ecosystem and this is one area where I feel fanatic do definitely still have an advantage over the competition in the direct drive space at present it'll certainly be interesting to see what Thrustmaster and Logitech can bring to the table should they ever enter the direct drive space the ability to change settings on the flight might sound trivial but it does make a huge practical difference as it allows you to set up different profiles for different Sims and cars and easily switch between them without the need to spend lots of time opening different software all tabbing or you know having to bring up overlays and things like that and it also avoids having to recalibrate every time you change cars as well as I said in my pedals video I'm not suggesting that you should pick one ecosystem and stick to it for the rest of your sim racing career but I do suggest that you carefully consider which ecosystem appeals to you and how it influences your purchasing decisions to keep things as simple as is practical less time stuffing around is more time driving and that is always a good thing so that's just about wraps it up for wheels and wheel bases if there's anything else that you'd like to know anything that you think I've missed or any mistakes that you think I've made please do let me know in the comments or feel free to jump in to our friendly discord community as well we now have over 1,400 members jumped up by about 200 members just in the last couple of days which is awesome and we're all happy to help you out and offer our expertise based off our own personal experiences there as well so link is in the description for that now in the next video we'll be taking a closer look at how to choose an appropriate monitor as well as triple screens and VR and then we'll be moving on to building a PC that's appropriate through your needs then finally I'll go into my tips for essential software and setup for sim racer so if you're not already subscribed now a great time to do so while you're down there as well make sure you click on the notification bell so you don't miss future videos when they're released and finally if you're enjoying the content looking at buying some si racing gear and would like to help me out I do have some affiliate links in the description below as well but you don't cost you anything extra but send a small Commission my way which is what keeps this channel running so I do massively appreciate your support there so with all that said enjoy the experience of choosing a wheel thank you very much for watching and I'll see you guys again soon bye [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Boosted Media

Views: 48,992

Rating: 4.9199386 out of 5

Keywords: sim racing, fanatec, thrustmaster, simucube, accuforce, Logitech, G920, T300RS, TMX, ClubSport, CSW2.5, Simucube 2, Simucube 2 Pro, SImucube 2 Sport, Simucube 2 UItimate, Fanatec DD1, Fanatec DD2, DD1, DD2, Direct Drive, Belt Driven, Force Feedback, driving simulator, how to build a driving simulator, best wheel for sim racing, best sim racing wheel, fanatec vs simucube, simucube vs fanatec, racing sim rig, racing sim cockpit, racing sim wheels, best racing sim wheels, racing sim wheel

Id: GHGg8u4FUBY

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Calpulli]

Love your videos man, keep up the good work!