Huge Upgrade for your Podium DD! Much more fidelity and faster response
Thomas Jackermeier
Member
When the Podium Direct Drive systems launched earlier this year, we included an improved Tuning Menu system compared to our belt-drive wheel bases. Several driver and firmware optimisations followed, along with FanaLab, which is becoming more flexible and powerful with every version.
Today, we’re introducing the first Performance Update for the Podium Series, which is available as a beta driver package (v352). This includes some major driver optimisations and firmware updates for the DD1 (including PS4 version) and DD2 wheel bases and motors.
FFB Optimisations:
- Reduced FFB latency by 23% - latency is the enemy of simulation, so lower latency means a general performance improvement in all aspects of force feedback.
- Increased resolution of the FFB signal to 16-bit (65536 increments) instead of 8-bit (256 increments) - this also helps with smoothness and response. The fidelity is now 256 times better!
- Improved FFB linearity - a more linear response means more consistent torque delivery across the dynamic range.
- Improved motor control with significantly less ‘loss’, to resemble the raw FFB signal more precisely. Simply described, the previous motor handling acted like a slight filter on noisy FFB but also reduced detail (1:1 game FFB can be quite rough and noisy, therefore we have added a new filter to the Tuning Menu called "Force Interpolation" - more on that below).
- Improved Spring Effect calculation to improve oscillation behaviour.
- Improved Damper Effect calculation to improve oscillation behaviour.
- Improved Natural Friction calculation to solve unwanted vibration.
New FFB Features:
- Linearity Mode “LIN” reduces maximum FFB output by a small amount to guarantee a consistent output between peaks and holding forces. Improved general linearity between game output and torque output.
- Force Interpolation “INT” (similar to the ‘Reconstruction Filter’ on OSW/SimuCube) filters and smoothens the incoming rough game FFB signal and increases the refresh rate. For example a 60Hz FFB signal (e.g. iRacing) looks like rough steps on a graph and can also feel like this, but using Force Interpolation, the signal is recreated as a smooth curve. In comparison to FEI, this filter is a lot more powerful as it doesn't influence latency as much, has a better smoothing algorithm and doesn't eliminate effects completely.
- Natural Inertia "NIN" simulates additional weight on the steering axis. This can be particularly useful when using light wheels like the P1 or McLaren GT3. It also makes the Natural Friction setting feel less ‘sticky’ on direction changes.
Other notable changes and fixes:
- All Tuning Menu parameters have been rearranged into a more logical order. Now the list starts with the settings that are constantly influencing the steering independent from the game, followed by FFB settings only influencing the game effects, then the vibration effects, and then settings dependent on connected hardware.
- Added dynamic tooltips in the Tuning Menu, which makes more effective use of the OLED, and should make Tuning Menu adjustments more intuitive and less intimidating for beginners.
There are many more improvements and fixes included in this update - a full list of changes are available in the forum.
We recommend that everyone with a Podium wheel base should try it! And because many of the optimisations are within the firmware, the Tuning Menu and motor performance improvements apply to consoles too.
Comments
That sound great but where is my new Porsche wheel?
i am absolutely going to echo the sentiment here on the Porsche rims. What is the story?
I know we probably all act like children, but when the availability date changes on the product page, and it was announced a month ago, I think we'd all like to be in the loop. Its a $650 product, that is used with our $1500 product. Please update on the status of shipments Thomas.
edit: I will say, the update sounds awesome. ive tried it briefly, and it was great. Looking forward to putting some more time in.
Are there issues with this firmware and my Dd2 working with fanalab 1.12? Is there a fanalab update coming soon?
from the other thread... fanalab does not have the new options available, and it resets some of the options to off, or what not. So yeah, incompatible at the moment.
There is a FanaLab update coming soon which will work with the newly added tuning menu features.
Unfortunately there is a small delay of a few days. We will notify all customers shortly.
Thank you for your reply Thomas. However, this should have been handled much more proactively. Communication is paramount. Please let those of us who have already given you our hard earned money as soon as possible when the wheels will be shipped.
Thomas,
i don't need to say anything these fine gentle folk have said already so kindly.
However, i told you this would happen, please dont make any more promises slick!
or at least make good on some! I will let you cats know how the ps4 side is soon , the DD1 for ps4 v346 vs v352 Pepsi challenge is on deck!
Looking forward to trying this tonight on iRacing - if anyone has any settings they can recommend please post them!
You can start with the settings you where already using, they will feel very similar. If you don't have found your own settings now you can find our recommended ones in the link below. We didn't update those yet but it will work fine to leave the new settings on their default while using the rest as recommended.
https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/653/iracing-pc-fanatec-recommended-settings/p1
EDIT: Fixed my issue.
Got it all up and working, fantastic results in my testing so far. Great job to you and the team Thomas.
All this sounds great! I was wondering if the latency gain is the same on the DD1 and DD2 electronics. Reviews said the DD2 already had a little less latency felt (slides better caught, etc) than DD1 ; is it due to the difference in the electronics or a Placebo effect maybe? Could higher torque power makes up slightly for delays (or latency felt) in FFB (for large and heavy steering wheels maybe)?
One other thing : is there an USB delay/latency that could be reduced by using special USB-PCIe card or USB3.1 ports or by disconnecting all other USB peripherals while playing?
Not a great result for me, first straight away I noticed some centre play with this update, I can lightly move the wheel a small amount back and forth where it then hits a wall of the proper resistance. Then firing up Assetto Corsa in a few different cars I’m getting the wheel shaking which can either die down after a second or two or develop into oscillating. Didn’t have either of these things before.
For those of us that would have put in a big order that included the Porsche rim, are we going to get the other items before Christmas to put under the Christmas tree are are we doing to have to wait until after the new year?
+1 please
All components of the the Porsche wheel are in stock and ready to ship. We just wait for a new firmware which enables the new intelligent telemetry mode so that you can make full use of your display. The wheel will be shipped this week and you have it before Christmas.
You are a gentleman and a scholar, Thomas! Thanks for the update, it's great news.
Well, I was planning on racing with it on Saturday... If you can’t ship it before Friday, can I pick it up in Hamburg on Friday?
You have the goods but you will not ship it until the new firmware is ready ??
Are you serious ??
I live in norway and if it had been sent yesterday or today maybe I would have had it before Christmas ...
I suspected as much, that explains the Youtubers showing the item but not demoing it. :-)
Personally I would be happier if you had shipped when you said you would; Delayed shipping + Christmas = disappointed customers. If we have the items we can load up the new firmware when you release it.
And again, communication should have been better - tell people there will be a delay before the delay. Manage expectations and you get less frustrated children whining on the internet. :-)
Update - Support staff are giving completely different information. I asked if item could be shipped immediately and I could update firmware when it was released and got this reply -
"thank you for your email.
We have delay and unfortunately we are not able to send it sooner, because we don't have it on stock yet.
Thank you"
So someone is wrong?
If the goods are blocked, my sales team does not see them on the inventory.
Please do not panic. We are talking about a delay of four days ;)
sound good but i having problems download the software & fanalab i have my podium racing wheel f1 im in the united state is a problems in this side
Tried V352 with the Dallara F3 using DD!, Formula F1 2019 in iRacing with recommended settings and found that enabling Linearity Mode “LIN” made a positive difference. 😀 Found that the hairpins at Donington will take some adjustment on my part for the steering now requires a handover.
Yes the DD1 is definitely an exclamation DD!,
Hello Thomas, you suggest we will all receive our BF2019 order with Porsche rim before Christmas. It sounds like a guarantee but 4 days delay plus holiday shipping volumes generally means delay on top of delay. Was your plan to overnight ship to all of us? What about folks that live in rural locations? Outside of the holiday season it has taken over a week to ship to Canada from the USA. (always found that odd cause sim lab can ship from Europe and its received in 3 days).
I'm not panicked. I'm not worried that I won't receive it. I'm just disappointed to be not kept in the loop on schedule slippage. Part of the sticker price feels like I paid for high quality service, not just a product. It sort of feels like I have 4 fewer days of time to sim with the new and exciting equipment.
Also the rotation is very noisy now.
Listen man, I think fanatec overall gets a lot of flack for their customer service, some is warranted, some is not.
But you, the leader of this company, coming on here and telling someone “dont worry, its only four days” is incredibly insensitive.
We ordered the product, paid our hard earned money, patiently waited for the release day, and still, have not had any sort of official word on what is happening. So you come on here and tell someone its only a four day delay? That four days could be eating into someone’s holiday vacation that they had planned on spending time using your premium products. This could be a christmas gift, that was assured to them they would receive it by Christmas.
I just spend $2300 with your company, and that remark right there makes me wish I hadn’t. This is all a bunch of smoke and mirrors it seems, and we have to pry information out of you. You really need to take a look at how your company handles relations with their customers, because you have had a pretty crappy month, all things considered, with PR amongst the sim racing community, and this is just icing on the cake.
Did you calibrated the motor driver so you have ACV v3 now shown in the DD OLED when you press Tuning Menu Button+Dpad down?
In particular, all this unfolds after they boast about how successful their 2019 Black Friday was. Your remark on the insensitivity is legitimate.