Fanatec firmware and RRRE, or something else?
Hugo Vranic
Member
in RaceRoom
I've described my problem here: https://forum.sector3studios.com/index.php?threads/fps-and-cpu-load-affects-ffb.18421/
Before I begin fiddling with firmware downgrade, which seems finicky, I thought I might ask here as well.
Comments
I play with an old office pc, which is at least 10 years old. A low case, sff with i5 3470, to which I installed 16Gb of memory, a 500Gb HD SSD, and a low profile GTX 1650 card.
I always play with a low, very low framerate, but I have never noticed anything strange in the ffb, especially on raceroom, which is the game I absolutely use the most.
Obviously I have a hard time running ACC with more than 15 cars on the track, because it easily saturates the cpu, but I could see that the raceroom at 40fps seems much smoother than ACC at 75fps (the limit of my monitor). I experimented with it running Raceroom at 40 fps with 60 cars on the track, and it still looked better than ACC with an empty track.
I have had great difficulty getting Fanatec equipment to work, but have never had any FFB issues. If and when it works it's fine, and it feels very smooth. I had serious EMI issues, not allowing me to play for more than 15 minutes, which I fixed somehow. Then my brake settings changed by themselves while playing, that fixed too. Now, about once a month, my pedals stop working for 2 or 3 seconds.
I believe that Fanatec equipment is picky, creates and suffers electromagnetic interference and suffers from various incompatibilities with the other elements of the system to which it is connected. Drivers also affect. I believe that all these problems that can be defined as "strange" or not very quantifiable are due to EMI or small incompatibilities caused by the drivers.
Unreliable is the word I would use to describe Fanatec equipment.
You should upgrade if possible so you can play at constant 59 FPS with VRR/V-sync enabled. It's much more enjoyable. If you want eye candy, make sure SSAA is enabled at 2x or 4x. Such a computer is about as much as a PS5 or something.
I'm running everything through two USB hubs. Zero issues regarding EMI or anything similar.
Anyway, I think I've found the problem and solution. Fanatec is not at fault at all. See the thread above if you're interested. (I almost feel bad for suspecting Fanatec...)
I read with interest.
It could be of help to others. There are so many people with "weird" or "sharp" ffb problems, and maybe their problem could be the saturation of one of the CPU cores? Did I understand correctly?
Afterburner and Rivatuner which are software supplied with almost all graphics cards should be sufficient to monitor the saturation of the Cores.
Yes, exactly! However, it's not really that easy, just to monitor the cores, since WIndows shifts even a single thread of operation around between different cores. What looks like 30% of load over many cores can actually be a saturated single thread operation (and your FFB turns to shit since it skips, refreshes slowly and stutters).
Monitoring frame times in RTSS or similar isn't enough either, since that only shows the timing of the picture refreshing. Behind the scenes it can be a mess despite a flat frame time graph.
I solved everything by making sure my CPU isn't overloaded by tons of overlay in OttoHUD. The FFB is absolutely beatiful now, running INT 1 and NDP Off - it's so detailed, smooth and dynamic!
Messing around with cpu affinity ("pinning"), disabling SMT/hyper-threading din't help, but I'll look into this again.
Actually, I believe a lot of people are playing with poor FFB, since they have so much smoothing that they hardly notice the difference. For me, it's like going from 640x480 to 4k resolution.
Oh... I was running the HUD in 4k, which apparently bogs the CPU for some reason. Now with the HUD in 1080p, I can run 4k in-game with as much overlay as I like, and everything is perfect.
Many thanks. I'm studying the thing. I would like to try to improve ACC.
I have no problems with RRRE, I use it with full Otterhud, Crewchief, and sometimes with Fanalab too. Always had fantastic FFB, with all filters at 0, forces at 100 and INT at 2.
But I wish I could improve ACC's FFB, I never really liked it much, and in fact my CPU suffers a lot with ACC. Although I must say that FFB does not improve at all if I drive on an empty track with a low CPU.
I'm not very good with these things, but I can dedicate a few hours to it.
Well, I started with Gran Turismo Sport and then 7, coming from a real-life passion of motorcycling. I was A+ (highest online rank). The day after I tried RaceRoom, I sold my PS5 as I knew I could never start that game up again. The physics and FFB can't even be compared.
ACC didn't have that effect on me...
RaceRoom feels very natural and intuitive to me. As soon as I started I could be quite competitive in online racing without even practicing. In ACC, I for some reason have to do many laps in a certain car to memorize the limits and then drive by memory.
And yes, regarding Fanatec tuning menu, everything on standard, NDP Off, and then as low INT as possible (I'm fine with 1). I haven't tried a game where that isn't optimal for me. With a CSL/GT DD wheel that is.
I hope I see you in RaceRoom!