We Check Out the Fanatec Direct Drive Wheel

[Paul Jeffrey]

At the 2017 Sim Racing Expo today I had the chance to check out the new Fanatec Direct Drive wheel... here are my first impressions.

Now before going any further I need to give out some caveats. My time with the wheel was limited and used with the so far unreleased Project CARS 2 software. I had over three and a half laps at Spa in PCARS 2, under race conditions at night. Not an ideal scenario to give a serious and informed opinion, but enough to at least give me an idea of what we can expect to find come release day.

Using the Porsche rim from the Fanatec ClubSport range, the wheel felt like a marked step up from my personal ClubSport V2 I use regularly at home. The initial weight of the wheel on first turn into a corner carried more force, as did the step up in resistance once additional forces were applied to the car under heavy cornering.

The build quality was the usual Fanatec standard, well put together, stylish in finish and I must say a rather neat and "cool" solution in comparison to some of the other Direct Drive products available in the marketplace today.

Having spoken with Endor CEO Thomas Jackermeier at length about the new range (interview video to follow later), he confirmed the Podium series of wheels will be compatible with earlier ClubSport rims as well as receiving a brand new range of rims, pedals and accessories further down the line. Additional confirmation was given that two different DD units will be produced, both containing the same housing but with different torque strengths.

No release date has been confirmed as yet, however early development units are under testing as we speak.

RaceDepartment have requested and have been approved for a long term test unit, of which we will put through its paces once it arrives and give you a full and detailed review in the coming months.



Stay tuned to RaceDepartment for more news and insight from the Sim Racing Expo over the next few days and follow us on social media at on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Steam and YouTube.

Looking forward to the Fanatec Direct Drive range of products? Can the company challenge the established DD manufacturers? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[David Richardson]

The universal hub is all metal which is why it's so heavy but I will agree on VR, as long as the buttons feel good it doesn't matter what it looks like or if there are rev lights.

You still have an extra cord for the rim though which I really don't want and that is far more difficult and expensive to do on a custom wheel. I guess I'm bothered by plastic because my experiences have been with cheaper plastic wheels where you can feel the flex and creaking and in VR especially you really notice any issue which shouldn't be there.

Ye the cord i can change for wireless if i want but it's not really an issue and i wouldn't trust wireless in case it messed up, they have coiled cords coming from the wheel in real life on some rally cars so it adds to realism lol. Yes the fanatec hub is all metal,i have one in my house with a fanatec csw v2 that belongs to my mate, great piece of kit but it's about £350 now so honestly not worth it for me at all, my mate paid about £200 new just before they brought out the xbox compatible one, at that price it would have been worth it as you can use them on osw rigs also, with an adapter or a conversion, though that involves some diy. Fanatec make great products i'm not knocking them, and are the better option for tidyness for sure, but they charge way too much now, then again the GBP used to be worth a lot more, the fall has pushed things priced in euros right up.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Ye the cord i can change for wireless if i want but it's not really an issue and i wouldn't trust wireless in case it messed up, they have coiled cords coming from the wheel in real life on some rally cars so it adds to realism lol. Yes the fanatec hub is all metal,i have one in my house with a fanatec csw v2 that belongs to my mate, great piece of kit but it's about £350 now so honestly not worth it for me at all, my mate paid about £200 new just before they brought out the xbox compatible one, at that price it would have been worth it as you can use them on osw rigs also, with an adapter or a conversion, though that involves some diy. Fanatec make great products i'm not knocking them, and are the better option for tidyness for sure, but they charge way too much now, then again the GBP used to be worth a lot more, the fall has pushed things priced in euros right up.

Yeh the console compatabilty and branding definitely push the prices up which always annoys me on the latter as it's free advertising for them.

I have the XB1 hub as I got it 2nd hand for a good price but I don't need it and it always switches in Xbox mode on startup which is the main reason I'm thinking of switching. I do need an f1 rim though for open wheel cars in vr.....

 

[David Richardson]

Besides a DD wheel (unrelated to a company), i would prefer high tech pedals instead of a DD wheel. Braking and Throttle are far more important. FFB is coded by the game makers. Maybe the FFB is more sharp as effect itself but a DD wheel will not "create" better effects. If a game lacks certain ffb feelings, a DD wont solve that. The magic is the hands - feet coordination and i think a lot of simracers gain more with better pedals (far more accurate trail braking and throtteling) than DD wheel...

You are incorrect in regards to DD wheel not having more effects , the vast majority of ffb recieved by a non dd consumer wheel is lost and cannot be felt even if it is in the game, because there is not enougth torque. The more torque a wheel has, the more of the effects you can feel. The less torque, the less you feel. DD wheels can take the raw telemitry from the game and you still feel a lot more even if you completley disable the built in force feedback efffects such as road and kerb effects in AC. With a consumer wheel most of the the torque is reserved for large bumps, hits and turning but all of the fine detailed effects and smaller bumps etc are lost as there is no torque left at the bottom end to produce those effect. A DD wheel could use for example the first 5nm of torque just for small bumps and still have plenty left, in short a DD wheel has way more effects that can be felt and more fidelity as they arn't lost through the belt or lack of power. With a DD wheel, you can even feel the painted lines on the road according to one user, and tracks spring to life.

Also with a belt drive wheel before the effect can reach your hands it has to travel through the motor up a belt and to the steering column by which time it's gone or drasticly reduced, with a direct drive the wheel is attatched directly to the motor so can be felt a lot more even at the same Nm.

Consumer wheels also require you to drive over the top of them for example in slides etc you feel the back end slip out when its to late, and kind of have to guess how much you need to turn to correct it. A DD wheel is 1 to 1 with the game, if i happens in the game it happens in the wheel and you feel the grip going much sooner than on a consumer wheel and can tell exactly when the grip comes back.

Of course, you do not need the extra effects, in real life most bumps etc are lost through the tires and suspension and are felt more in your ass than anything, but it's nice to have just for the realism in steering alone. I advise you watch gamer muscles review of the sw20 on you tube, you will then realise what i am saying, it's hard to explain unless you watch his video.

Of course it won't make you any faster, a good driver using a logitech g25 will always beat a mediocre driver on a DD wheel, and pedals are more likley to improve your lap times than a wheel, i do indeed agree with that.

if you want to test this for yourself without buying a DD, get yourself simcommander which uses the games telemetry, some cheap bass shakers/transducers and a cheap amp to power them, and put the bass shaker under your seat . You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me. i only paid £15 each for mine and used a cheap car amp powered by a pc PSU i had spare, so it's not expensive, the most expensive part was the sofware at £80! (Edit. Software was $89 not £80)

 

[David Richardson]

Yeh the console compatabilty and branding definitely push the prices up which always annoys me on the latter as it's free advertising for them.

I have the XB1 hub as I got it 2nd hand for a good price but I don't need it and it always switches in Xbox mode on startup which is the main reason I'm thinking of switching. I do need an f1 rim though for open wheel cars in vr.....

Actualy regarding plastic I might be wrong, the back of the fanatec wheels that holds the buttons and circuit board etc looks exactly like plastic with no shine and a plastic like texture, but that might be the paintjob, as i just watched someone take the formula rim apart and then it looked like metal, so i'm unsure about that now. If they are metal that would explain some of the pricing.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

You are incorrect, the vast majority of ffb recieved by a non dd consumer wheel is lost and cannot be felt even if it is in the game, because their is not enougth torque, the more torque a wheel has, the more of the effects you can feel. The less torque, the less you feel. DD wheels can take the raw telemitry from the game and you still feel a lot more even if you completley disable the built in force feedback efffects such as road and kerb effects in AC. With a consumer wheel most of the the torque is reserved for large bumps, hits and turning but all of the fine detailed effects and smaller bumps etc are lost as there is no torque left at the bottom end to produce those effect. A DD wheel could use for example 5nm of torque just for small bumps and still have plenty left, in short a DD wheel has way more effects that can be felt and more fidelity as they arn't lost through the belt or lack of power. With a DD wheel, you can even feel the painted lines on the road and tracks spring to life.

Consumer wheels also require you to drive over the top of them for example in slides etc you feel the back end slip ot when its to late, a DD wheel is 1 to 1 with the game, if i happens in the game it happens in the wheel and you feel the grip going much sooner than on a consumer wheel and can tell exactly when the grip comes back. Of course, you do not need the extra effects, in real life most effects are totaly lost through the tires etc and are felt more in your ass than anything, but it's nice to have just for the realism in steering alone. I advise you watch gamer muscles review of the sw20 on you tube, you will then realise what i am saying, it's hard to explain unless you watch his video.

You're totally correct, belt driven wheels dampen so much ffb coming from racing titles, it quite amazing how much ffb information games actually output. A DD wheel is able to deliver multiple ffb sensation layers at once, which are effectively lost on belt driven wheels.

 

[Jeffers58]

You are incorrect, the vast majority of ffb recieved by a non dd consumer wheel is lost and cannot be felt even if it is in the game, because their is not enougth torque, the more torque a wheel has, the more of the effects you can feel. The less torque, the less you feel. DD wheels can take the raw telemitry from the game and you still feel a lot more even if you completley disable the built in force feedback efffects such as road and kerb effects in AC. With a consumer wheel most of the the torque is reserved for large bumps, hits and turning but all of the fine detailed effects and smaller bumps etc are lost as there is no torque left at the bottom end to produce those effect. A DD wheel could use for example 5nm of torque just for small bumps and still have plenty left, in short a DD wheel has way more effects that can be felt and more fidelity as they arn't lost through the belt or lack of power. With a DD wheel, you can even feel the painted lines on the road and tracks spring to life.

Also with a belt drive wheel before the effect can reach your hands it has to travel through the motor up a belt and to the steering column by which time its gone, with a direct drive the wheel is attatched directly to the motor so can be felt a lot more.

Consumer wheels also require you to drive over the top of them for example in slides etc you feel the back end slip ot when its to late, a DD wheel is 1 to 1 with the game, if i happens in the game it happens in the wheel and you feel the grip going much sooner than on a consumer wheel and can tell exactly when the grip comes back. Of course, you do not need the extra effects, in real life most effects are totaly lost through the tires etc and are felt more in your ass than anything, but it's nice to have just for the realism in steering alone. I advise you watch gamer muscles review of the sw20 on you tube, you will then realise what i am saying, it's hard to explain unless you watch his video.

Well said. With a DD wheel it's not so much the strong forces that make it stand out but more the small fidelities that are evident. Of course, the no.1 thing to upgrade would be pedals, you'll find the most amount of time with them. However, having gone from a CSW2 to a Bodnar V2, those small fidelities make a car more predictable, allowing me to find and maintain my limit.

 

[Icky427]

honestly the cswv2 is enough to wear me out in a pretty short time with a 320mm wheel, i cant imagine MORE torque. i guess i havent driven any manual steering race cars in real life so i dont know what kind of forces are involved in the worst of the worst. are there any other benefits other than just higher torque?

 

[Roger1fr]

if you want to test this for yourself without buying a DD, get yourself simcommander which uses the games telemetry, some cheap bass shakers/transducers and a cheap amp to power them, and put the bass shaker under your seat . You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me. i only paid £15 each for mine and used a cheap car amp powered by a pc PSU i had spare, so it's not expensive, the most expensive part was the sofware at £80!

if you want to test this for yourself without buying a DD, get yourself simcommander which uses the games telemetry, some cheap bass shakers/transducers and a cheap amp to power them, and put the bass shaker under your seat . You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me. i only paid £15 each for mine and used a cheap car amp powered by a pc PSU i had spare, so it's not expensive, the most expensive part was the sofware at £80!
Hi David,
Can you give us models you use. 80 £ § I'm very interesting.
Thanks

 

[RichardHessels]

You're totally correct, belt driven wheels dampen so much ffb coming from racing titles, it quite amazing how much ffb information games actually output. A DD wheel is able to deliver multiple ffb sensation layers at once, which are effectively lost on belt driven wheels.

Not the belt. The little motor the size used for kitchen appliances/rc cars en than on top the gearing trying to turn a 30 cm wheel.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Not the belt. The little motor the size used for kitchen appliances/rc cars en than on top the gearing trying to turn a 30 cm wheel.

That's right, it's not the belt itself. I just didn't want to get unnecessary technical and talk about gear ratios as all belt driven wheel bases have the same flaw regarding ffb.

 

[Leynad777]

You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me.

No, me as well. IMO a shame that SimVibe is not standard among a majority of sim-racers. The immersion-factor is as high as with VR, just without the cons.

Okay, i had some angry neighbors before i bought cheap rubber-dampers for the rig, so that the vibrations are decoupled from the ground. Thick washing machine mats doing close to nothing compare to the dampers. And this little dampers amplify the effect by far so you get micro-motions as well. It's incredible and i prefer my SimVibe-setup (6x 200 Watts shakers, 5 channel SimVibe seat & chassis, app. 700 Euro) far more than the motion-stuff i tested on the Expo. And i can't drive without shaking pedals on lockup anymore and motion is doing nothing informative in comparison.

 

[Mr Latte]

Sorry if off topic....

@Roger1fr and @Leynad777
Would you be so kind to consider showing your setups sometime in your own threads and discuss what you like regards tactile immersion in more detail? Part of my own hobby is taking this and pushing it to new limits of immersion. This thread isn't really the place to discuss or do it...

I would, however, welcome your discussion, experiences, and feedback in any of the tactile related threads on these forums or the "Tactile Immersion General Discussion" one, HERE.

Not for the first time recently but I would say if you like Simvibe then strongly suggest you try "Sim Shaker Wheels". When configured well, with good files used for the effects, currently I am finding it is more immersive than SImvibe is.

For immersion in relation to feeling, what the car is doing from the perspective of aiding the users driving. Be it feeling the wheels slipping or the back end come out, acceleration load forces or braking load forces and not just bumps or reactions with curbs. SSW is producing in my view more useful tactile than Simvibe and with a much easier UI and less frustration, also supporting 6 channels on a single soundcard.

 

[RaceNut]

honestly the cswv2 is enough to wear me out in a pretty short time with a 320mm wheel, i cant imagine MORE torque. i guess i havent driven any manual steering race cars in real life so i dont know what kind of forces are involved in the worst of the worst. are there any other benefits other than just higher torque?

People make a big deal about the torque and it has it's place in the discussion but, the really big advantage of DD is the overall dynamic range. It's far beyond what most people can understand until they spend some time using a DD-system.

 

[Emery]

honestly the cswv2 is enough to wear me out in a pretty short time

I can believe that with spring/damper turned on full (which is default setting), but that's not the correct way to configure the wheel for sims.

 

[Full_Ninja]

The number of people I have seen moaning at the 'paint scheme' is unbelievable. Clearly they don't get the joke!

I know and that makes the joke even funnier.

 

[Leynad777]

This thread isn't really the place to discuss or do it...

Not sure about that. When i was waiting for my Accuforce to come i tried SimVibe just because i had the software-key already and bought a sturdy 80/20-rig with enough possibilities to fix the shakers. First i just bought two shakers (Sinustech BS250, 30 Euros each, as good as buttkickers) plus an amplifier with four lanes and when i tried it first, i ordered two additional shakers the same day. When the Accuforce came it was certainly much better than the TX-wheel before, but i expected this and the real surprise and game-changer was SimVibe.

With a decent enough wheel i would suggest to go SimVibe first before switching to DD. The 3D-Feedback for the hole body is just a far bigger immersion-step when setup properly and likely cheaper as well. And you don't need to pay for Sim Commander twice respectively the Accuforce is 89$ cheaper with a SimVibe licence.

I only tried the Bodnar-wheel from the HE-stand at the Expo and would never switch it against my Accuforce, because i missed some vibration-effects that got dampened by the Bodnar due to the oscillation control, which i never needed. Thanks to Sim Commander i could add bumps to the FFB in pCars 1 which made it a lot better (full FFB on straights) and no game-slider could do that. The FFB in Dirt 4 i would call one of the best thanks to Sim Commander as well as the SimVibe-effects (feeling every stone). I'm very happy with all titles regarding SimVibe and FFB, but Raceroom just kicks ass nowadays. Since S3S optimized SimVibe-effects it got from poor to outlandishly, the FFB with my Accuforce setup (download at the owners club) is much better than with any other wheel on the market by far. And adding VR to the mix it's impossible to sleep for hours after a few laps. I don't have this problem in AC .

 

[Full_Ninja]

what I would really love to see enthusiast-tier hardware companies like Fanatec doing is to start to officially support GNU/Linux users. Sadly only one game so far with the Dirt Rally port released in early 2017 (hey: just 2 years late!). Yet I have had partial success in running rFactor-1 and RBR through wine in the past until Kernel 3.16 arrived and I was no longer able to deactivate the on-by-default center-spring effect on my G25 due to some changes in how Debian handled write-permissions to device adresses... ...which marked the end of my experiments (those take time out of my day, too).

I mean: Fanatec they are asking serious money for what I believe to be a serious product. I would be much more enthusiastic about "investing" in a €1000..€1500 tier wheel if I knew the hardware was not "locked" to an operating-system that - going forward - is set out to respect the users' freedom and privacy even less than it ever has in the past.
2020 is apporaching fast - and with that the end of Win-7 support, so I would welcome any hardware-manufacturer to start catering to a broader audience and stop releasing tied-in, disposable-by-limited-support hardware!
AMD has finally released some genuinely useful graphics-drivers for the Linux platform, Nvidia's closed-source drivers are steadily praised as hassle-free and with open APIs like Vulkan getting more love, I think this could mark a good time to start getting your feet wet.

Currently on a T300, which proves to be a paper-weight when it comes to my productivity-platform of choice.

Hold the phone Dirt rally supports linux? I agree with most of what you say. I would much rather devs support open linux then win10. If Dirt does support linux I wounder if I could get it to run on my Vive using the openVR steamVR support in linux.

 

[David Richardson]

if you want to test this for yourself without buying a DD, get yourself simcommander which uses the games telemetry, some cheap bass shakers/transducers and a cheap amp to power them, and put the bass shaker under your seat . You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me. i only paid £15 each for mine and used a cheap car amp powered by a pc PSU i had spare, so it's not expensive, the most expensive part was the sofware at £80!

if you want to test this for yourself without buying a DD, get yourself simcommander which uses the games telemetry, some cheap bass shakers/transducers and a cheap amp to power them, and put the bass shaker under your seat . You will notice that approx 80% of the bumps and texture feeling coming through your ass which are programmed in to the game cannot be felt in the wheel. Infact i think everyone should get bass shakers before they even upgrade pedals haha because without them driving feels dead, but that's just me. i only paid £15 each for mine and used a cheap car amp powered by a pc PSU i had spare, so it's not expensive, the most expensive part was the sofware at £80!
Hi David,
Can you give us models you use. 80 £ § I'm very interesting.
Thanks

I think you missresd my comment, the software alone is £80 (edit. It was $89 not £80, memory not what it was, so closer to £65) and you don't get anything with it. It wasn't £80 total. Sim commander is £80, the bass shakers are just over £15 each and are the same as some of the more expensive ones exactly just without the heatrsink which you do not need. I got them here...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zisaline-B...TF8&qid=1506024706&sr=8-5&keywords=transducer, the car amp i use is a 4 channel bassface DB4.2 but some people just use a cheap under £10 mini amp off ebay and say it works well, like this... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200W-12V-...085830?hash=item3f80b1f4c6:g:fNkAAOSwkRhZVfdr but ive never tried it i wanted a car amp with ports built for bass to get a true bass effect. I wired it up with an onld 400w PC PSU i had spare. Out of the box sim commander is set up pretty poorly unless you using an expensive butt kicker, you need to change the HZ of the effects to suit the bass shakers you buy. For example i use 20hz for small bumps, 60hz for large bumps, 55hz for gear change with mine, it felt terrible the way it was default. Engine vibration i set to max 90 hz. The bass shakers handle up to 100hz fine and do not overheat. The only effects i run are road texture, road bumps, engine vibration and gear change, it feels best with just those. Sim commander is vital, you can't just run it using bass alone as it's just not the same, i mean it's better than nothing but not in the same ballpark.

Oh and you also need 2 soundcards, one for the software and one for you regular use.

 

[Icky427]

I can believe that with spring/damper turned on full (which is default setting), but that's not the correct way to configure the wheel for sims.

i definitely turn the spring and damper off, but also im a weakling with noodle arms

 

[WOKOWEN1]

Like I said before. Don't spend your money on something that is trying to bring ffb forces to your hands when in real life it doesnt doesnt reach your hands. The real life road paint you feel in your hands can also be felt on a Logitech G27. The road paint you can't feel on a G27 you simply can't feel it in a real life car. So what's the point spendind money on something that is bringing motion to the wrong part of your body??? Get a good motion dof system or buttkicker because those are the only ones capable of simulating the 99% of real world forces. DD wheels are almost the price of a good motion seat+g27 and they can't give you more than 1% of real world car feedback simply because the real world steering wheels won't give you more than that.