How to adjust brake sensitivity

[Bram Hengeveld]

Is there a way to adjust the brake sensitivity in iRacing? Especially on the Corvette the brakes lock way too easy with just a slight push on the pedals, compared to a real life Corvette C6.R.

 

[Dario Jagar]

there is a brake curve in controls settings, default somewhere at 2,6 I think, pull it to the right to 5 or something, still not perfect but should be better

 

[Ingemar Petersson]

before you start a race or practice go in to options and readjust your brakes , just click on brakes and follow the instructions

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

There is a measure button in options to adjust it

 

[James Yates]

there is a brake curve in controls settings, default somewhere at 2,6 I think, pull it to the right to 5 or something, still not perfect but should be better

5 is way too high, that's too far past realistic.

Use the measure option and see what you get - It recommends 2.43ish for me so I'm running 2.45 and its fine in every car. If you lock the brakes up all the time you're braking too hard, simple as that.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Not entirely true. In a real Corvette you can hammer the brakes down completely. Actually thats the only way to brake with such a car, push as hard as you can. Doing this in iRacing results in locking up constantly. It starts to screech already when i push it a little over 70% procent or so. For the rest the car is absolutely fantastic. Only the traction control is missing to make it fully realistic

 

[James Yates]

Not entirely true. In a real Corvette you can hammer the brakes down completely. Actually thats the only way to brake with such a car, push as hard as you can. Doing this in iRacing results in locking up constantly. It starts to screech already when i push it a little over 70% procent or so. For the rest the car is absolutely fantastic. Only the traction control is missing to make it fully realistic

Only at high speed though, at lower speeds you cant brake fully. I forgot my Corvette setting which is 3.45 - the only car that needs an increase. With that you should be able to brake fully at high speed then back it off a bit. You also have to remember that when you say brake fully in real life its unlikely that its pushing the pedal all the way down - if you did that there is something wrong with the brakes.

To get the best out of the braking you need a load cell system.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

You also have to remember that when you say brake fully in real life its unlikely that its pushing the pedal all the way down

Actually that is how it is. Those cars are setup like that and rarely lock up during races. But then again on a G25 pedal set you don't have to unleash 120 kg of brakeweight either

 

[Jamie Wilson]

In a real car there is no such thing as x% braking; it's a linear relationship between the force applied to the pedal and the force applied through the braking system. G25 etc pedals operate on the basis of there being a linear relationship between the distance you move the pedal and the force applied through the braking system which is not the same thing. The brake curve factor setting is to try and apply a nonlinearity to your pedal input value to match the first scenario. Mine is always set to 0 as I have a load cell brake pedal.

Indeed my brake pedal hardly moves at all beyond the initial phase of braking (pushing the callipers onto the disc), it's how hard I push it that makes the difference - very natural, and very subtle as you can control how much force you put through your foot and leg much better than how finely you can move your foot.

In the real car there is a lot of pedal force required, so you're able to put more force into the brakes in the sim because you just need to move the pedal against a low resistance spring. You just don't have the ability to finely adjust your braking because of the nonlinearity inherent in travel-based pedals - that's why you're locking up. To address it, tweak the brake force curve factor to try to correct that nonlinearity to give you a slightly larger window to play within at the limit. On a load cell brake you just feel it naturally and make a tiny muscle adjustment - that's how it should feel.

The real drivers may well brake as hard as they can but that doesn't neccessarily mean that they're at what we know as 'full brakes' in the sim.

Similarly some cars have a lot of torque in the steering column, but because of our equipment shortfalls, we have to make do with much lower forces through our steering wheels. Just as we don't need as much force to turn the wheel, we need less force to push the brakes - it's just an unfortunate reality of simracing that we have to put up with. Instead of altering the feel of the brakes to accommodate these shortfalls though, iRacing have kept it as accurate as possible and let us try to improve the situation at controller input level, otherwise it would be totally wrong when the hardware shortfall is rectified.

For example, in race 07 if you set the car up with "100% brake pressure" (which doesn't exist) then it's still difficult to lock the tyres up fully - and I have to brake very hard with my pedal to achieve a low resulting pressure - not linear at all. It's that sort of bad practice that iRacing try to avoid, it should be addressed at input level rather than in the physics engine.

So, tweak that setting and bearing all of the above in mind, be prepared to brake 'less' (or should I say move your foot less!). Or buy a set of CST pedals or equivalent, as in my opinion and experience, a load cell brake pedal is the number one thing that'll improve your simracing experience.

 

[Johnny Carr]

iRacing utilizes the screeching tire sound as an indicator for the driver to determine how fast he/she is going through a turn or applying brakes.Were the brakes actually locking up?Did you watch a replay to see?

Johnny Carr

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Mine is always set to 0 as I have a load cell brake pedal.

I've actually been looking for a load cell brake pedal recently. Which one do you use? How is the quality? I'm leaning towards this one ATM: http://www.apelectrix.com/

 

[James Yates]

I've actually been looking for a load cell brake pedal recently. Which one do you use? How is the quality? I'm leaning towards this one ATM: http://www.apelectrix.com/

He's got some CST's. The one you linked is apparently very good though.

 

[Jamie Wilson]

Sorry, missed the post.

I use a set of CST F1 pedals - like these ones, but I have mine mounted on a box without a heel plate (yet), and I have the square brake pedal rather than the narrow one. Todd builds them to whatever spec you want, so mine are configured exactly like the AP Racing pedalboxes used by almost all touring car teams:

Best pedals you can get on the market, and Todd is one of life's precious few properly decent blokes as well.

You don't have to shell out though, that Andy Pastore load cell has had a load of positive responses over in the iR forum, and if you combine that with a Leo Bodnar G25 adapter to increase the resolution, I would've thought it's even better.

A load cell brake is the number one thing that'll improve your driving. I once had to send my Frex Simwheel back for a couple of weeks which meant reverting to my old G25 - didn't make the blindest bit of difference pace wise, but if I had to revert to my G25 pedals I don't think I'd be able to cope.

 

[Kevin Ascher]

@Bram

For brake force issues:
I can set my FANATEC Clubsports up in a way that I am physically unable to create more than 40% of the maximum brake pressure.
So it's not really a software but rather a hardware thingie that made the Corvette's brakes lock up too early.

 

[Mark A Warmington]

I've actually been looking for a load cell brake pedal recently. Which one do you use? How is the quality? I'm leaning towards this one ATM: http://www.apelectrix.com/

Thanks for this link. As soon as he starts taking orders again I will be placing my order. One of my team mates swears by his load cell brake as well - so I neeeeeeeed one .