The Unofficial OSW owners thread (aka osw owners share your pics)

[jimmyhigh 187]

Here's some quick photos I snapped. Lenze motor. holger quick release. Sportline 300mm wheel, and sportline 280mm formula style wheel. No wheel plates as of yet. 

 

I've been constrained for time, so I'll just give a few first impressions, and later I'll upload the unboxing video, which is amateur at best. haha. 

 

the setup was relatively easy thanks to the project brute force thread on iracing forums. also thanks to Dennis Reimer. He gave me all the settings I needed for Granity software, so the only think I needed to do was download the freeware MMos software. Alternatively, If you're short a USB port, or just play only iracing, you can run serial output instead and run Open Sim commander software. I just run MMos since its compatible. 

 

1: Iracing:

WOW. In the the Honda HPD-ARX prototype, the sensations were incredible. with Iracing ffb setting of between 8 or 9, It was a beast. But it wasn't TOO brutal, but I really do like the available torque. Its an awesome workout. When I'm warming up, I'll keep the ffb slider down a bit. But running it within the clipping meter (never let it clip) was just exciting. I felt bumps, slips, and momentum shift could be felt. I stopped paying attention to the spectacle of it all within a few minutes, though, and that actually was kind of a bittersweet moment. For so long I wanted this kind of wheel; a force feedback system that could convince me that what I was feeling was as close to the real thing as possible. Now here it is, and a thought crosses my mind: I'm still playing the same game as before. Now I really have no excuse to not drive the doors off any car. If I made this investment, its time to get the most out of it. As fun as it is to tinker and test all the new cars with this new wheel, I found myself eager to join a race and just carry on with my iracing leagues and series. I'm not saying that this wheel's wonder wears off by any means. No. Far from it. That amazement has returned each time I turn on the wheel and boot up a sim.

 It'll quickly sink itself into your senses (and muscles), and you'll find yourself just happy, content, driving in practice sessions for hours, no longer tinkering with ffb settings, but instead tuning your car, feeling subtle differences, and trying to shave off those seconds. The OSW is the death of my tinkering obsession with FFB. With both my old TM wheels, I often adjusted settings in attempts to find the right feel, or keep the wheel cooler to prevent fade, or just out of curiousity. Then I'd be adjusting the slider in iracing alot. So no more of that. a good thing perhaps. I'm happy with my wheel setup (finally!). Now I just drive my ass off. 

Other cars all have different feelings, and I run different FFB levels on the iracing slider depending on the car of course. The only thing worth adjusting after that is in the MMos Software, which is REALLY impressive. 

 

2. MMos software:

Right away, I'll let you all know that I run the software with overall strength at 100%. this doesn't mean there's clipping, it just means I'll have 29Nm of headroom available. this is how you need to run it. allow it to have the available headroom, and lower your settings in your respective sim.

 

there are settings that allow you to get a brief preview of the smooth / effects even while just on your desktop, or even while you've got iracing up and running (in the pits). Unlike the thrustmaster driver software I was accustomed to for years, where I could not adjust settings on the fly, MMos can run while I'm playing iracing, and I can adjust certain things if need be. this helped alot. the biggest slider / adjustment is the filter. this has the effects of smoothing out the raw sensations of the  Lenze motor. On the Lotus 79, hooooolly crap the wheel feels raw. Its almost too much detail. for a while I thought that bolts had come loose in my wheel shaft, because I felt these suble jiggles, some sharp and pronounced, others bulgy and smooth. Its the ffb at work. Some cars in iracing will have more of these sharp sensations, and its up to the user to decide whether they like the raw feeling or want it smoother. the BEST part of the filter slider in MMos, is that there really isn't much critical detail lost in the steering itself. I still catch slides, and feel road bumps. Etc. Its really impressive. It feels alot like dampening, but without the added weight, and loss of immediacy. SO perhaps there IS a little bit of tinkering involved, but its just ONE slider that I adjust. it feels good either way. there's no loss of detail regardless, its just a preference think depending on the car. I'll run the ffb filter at 9 for most cars. When I tried Assetto Corsa, I only ran the filter at 3. its a much different exeprience than I expected. Awesome. I'll touch on that more in another post. the filter is the key to everything as of now. I'm really happy with the MMos software. It's easy. I don't tinker much. I just dial in how smooth I want it, and then I drive. 

 

More impressions to come...its dinner time.

[Tsfc 193]

Ermagherd, sexy servoooo

Damn dude I actually can't wait to get mine.

I ACTUALLY CAN'T WAIT!!

so dope to see people happy with this thing. Money well spent!!

[jimmyhigh 187]

Ermagherd, sexy servoooo

Damn dude I actually can't wait to get mine.

I ACTUALLY CAN'T WAIT!!

so dope to see people happy with this thing. Money well spent!!

Iv'e a little extra time here, and I need to give ya some helpful info. 

purchase the following if you don't already have it:

 

*a thick cable to use a grounding cable. (speaker wire works!)

*A POWERED usb hub

*A power conditioner / UPS. (this prevents audible feedback in your speakers from the electromagnetic Interference)

[Thirsty 601]

sw4.jpgsw1.jpgsw2.jpgsw3.jpgIMG_20150827_114057.jpg

Here's some quick photos I snapped. Lenze motor. holger quick release. Sportline 300mm wheel, and sportline 280mm formula style wheel. No wheel plates as of yet. 

 

I've been constrained for time, so I'll just give a few first impressions, and later I'll upload the unboxing video, which is amateur at best. haha. 

...

 

 

It's great reading that post of yours 

[oqvist 29]

Ups yet another huge expensive

[Tsfc 193]

Thirsty thanks for the heads up my brother from another mother from down under

[B20PV 77]

Awesome post Jimmy! 

[Aqib 99]

When I tried Assetto Corsa, I only ran the filter at 3. its a much different exeprience than I expected. Awesome. I'll touch on that more in another post. the filter is the key to everything as of now. 

 

Would be interested to know the in game Assetto corsa settings you are using as well.

[jimmyhigh 187]

Played AC online for the first time the other day. It was pretty fun.

Here's a quick back story. AC was one of the first games I picked up when I got a gaming oc a while ago. I grew to loath it. Glitched menu system, cumbersome UI in race, crashes, etc.

It still hasn't improved much. Myself like several others experience the glitch where it looks as though its loading a race, then kicks you back to the menu. So my opinion of this game is soiled by these kinds of glitches and exoeriences. I really want to like it, I just couldn't stand the constant adjusting if settings and menu glitches every time I played it. Every time I played AC it felt like I hadn't configured it as I should. Something was always wrong. Every time I booted it up, I fixed something else. When would it be good to just drive and not tinker with these things!? It was inevitable there'd come a time when I finally figured it all out.

The OSW wheel gave me an excuse to give it another try, despite my frustration with it the past year. I hadn't played it in weeks, maybe even months at a time. First impression: great.

The force feedback settings didn't get mucked With much. I set most of the settings to default. I will post very soon, but I can tell you for certain I didn't have to tinker much. I reduced the ffb strength in the pit menu to anywhere between 78-85. And that felt REALLY strong, and VERY dynamic.

I've driven mostly the gt cars lately, including the BMW gt3, and gt2. Its much different than Iracing. It has a bit more of an elastic springy feel at first, and I immediately thought that there was something wrong. Then I hit some rumble strips and realized the ffb was definitely there. The springy sensation I felt was the cars steering tightening up as speed increased. I dialed out some of the filter on the MMos software, and things just got better. Less rubbery, and much more pronounced and raw, without as much harshness as Iracing.

I can feel many of the effects vital to controlling a car. Rear end Slips, scrubbing, weight transfer, and other things in the tires and steering rack ate pronounced and present, its just a different kind of feeling compared to Iracing. I'd say Iracing felt more realistic, but AC feedback feels great, and its a real treat to joy ride and race in da nordschleife!!!

One of the nice things about AC force feedback is that it requires less filter to be dialed in on the MMos software for the wheel. Iracing can get extremely raw when I run the filter lower than 6, depending on the car, while AC shines with crisp yet smooth ffb delivery even at a filter setting of 2! I suspect the ingame feedback has some smoothing going on but I won't be able to confirm until I get a screenshot and some video produced this week.

While my loyalty and devotion still resides in Iracing, I've decided AC has some unique offerings that are worth the hassles I've gone through. The OSW wheel simply served as a catalyst to give it another go. i still think the i game UI is rediculous and needs an overhaul, but the driving experience, VERY impressive graphics on tripples, and ultra tight force feedback give me all the more reason to keep coming back.

[jimmyhigh 187]

https://goo.gl/photos/GU4imVV7xpz8WwAe7

There's the really, really amateur unboxing video

[Tsfc 193]

When I was 4 years old I got a peddle kart. This was the best day of my life and spawned a life long obsession.

When this package arrives I think it will be aot like that day.

[UNKLE 1,429]

Great video, my beef is that none of us have ever driven an HPD prototype, so how do we know how heavy the FFB should feel? For all we know the HPD could be as light as a feather to steer and not require the arms of a gorilla to do a full race distance.

[jimmyhigh 187]

Great video, my beef is that none of us have ever driven an HPD prototype, so how do we know how heavy the FFB should feel? For all we know the HPD could be as light as a feather to steer and not require the arms of a gorilla to do a full race distance.

good point unkle. I'd have to say its one of the more exciting cars to drive. Depends on the track. Its a big challenge to describe force feedback.

Every car feels great even at low force feedback. I've never been exhausted after a race ornlong practice. I'll post some more videos of the OSW in other cars. Skippy, mx5, porsche, CTS v, formula Mazda, etc. I'm stuck at a wedding today. lol! I'll run some laps with low and medium and high settings. I'll take a page from Jeremy Clarkson and try to describe the sensations as best I can using dirty references and analogies.

[UNKLE 1,429]

Yeah I'm just ranting a little.

 

I hear Berney saying that he used real race drivers to determine the amount of torque in the wheel and they gave it the thumbs up, then the AF is tweaked to provide stronger FFB to keep the sim racers happy who are demanding more torque. Then some in the OSW camp say the AF is still not good enough and they want accurate 1:1 FFB, then I read in the iRacing forums from those than have driven some of the real cars that the 1:1 FFB can be way off for some cars in iRacing.

 

It's just frustrating having to second guess what the FFB settings should be and then rely on other people's opinions to try and get the most accurate FFB.

[jimmyhigh 187]

Bernie and sim x are a business. Their product generates tons of profit. I think it's safe to assume that their choice in motor had much more to do with money. During my visit, Bernie sr. Stated they felt they should have released the wheel at a higher price point because they felt people would pay it regardless, and that dealing with many of the sim racing community members was not positive, and often exhausting. I think their price is reasonable considering the resources required in assembly and development, and their forums are great for support etc. Its just not the kind of wheel id pay for.

I'm really not concerned with 1:1. As stated in many other threads including this one, I just don't wana muck with settings all the time, whether it's for a wheel, or game settings. That's why I went with osw. There's little to mess with, so beyond that I just turn the strength to where I like it, and seldom an I concerned with whether it's 1:1. Cars without power steering sure do put out a lot of torque though, but seldom do sim racers prefer that level of strength all the time, including myself, but it sure does add more excitement and fun to the equation.

[sebj 616]

From a high level view I think as sim racers we want to feel a bit more because we want to feel the cues that a moving vehicle provides.  I think Berney tried to give a real life feeling "wheel" but in a motionless chair (lets say without DBox, GS4 seat etc), that doesn't cut it.  I think he was successful at what he wanted to achieve.

 

I always try to get a sense of what I feel when I'm in a go cart or in my own car and most if not all the other cues come from my torso moving, the suspension travel, g-forces etc and the wheel simply provides steering column forces.

 

Anyway...It's easy to get lost in all the comparisons as most people only drive one type of wheel and typically have never raced semi/pro so they are opinions...as is mine

[jimmyhigh 187]

Well stated seb. I should add that I'm at a really boring wedding at the moment, and my lady is the photographer...its open bar though, so my rants may sound more passionate ( less neutral) that they should be. Lol

[Thirsty 601]

That's some good points you bring up there, Seb. We have to feel the whole lot through the wheel where in a real car there's so much more input.

Yeah, on the other hand there's a lot of information provided by the game - some wheels pass that information on and some not.

 

I'm with Jimmy, for me it's hard enough getting a car setup right, tinkering excessively with wheel settings is something I wouldn't want to do.

The reason for purchasing the OSw is I want to get the detail and I want it to be easy to use. Realistic torque is not a concern of mine...at least not at this stage, may change.

 

Cheers

[sebj 616]

Well stated seb. I should add that I'm at a really boring wedding at the moment, and my lady is the photographer...its open bar though, so my rants may sound more passionate ( less neutral) that they should be. Lol

 

No worries..I'm in the sim racer camp so I dont want my wheel to feel 'numb' and have torque to spare. enjoy the wedding!

[switchface 99]

...the setup was relatively easy...

...you'll find yourself just happy, content, driving in practice sessions for hours, no longer tinkering with ffb settings, but instead tuning your car, feeling subtle differences, and trying to shave off those seconds. The OSW is the death of my tinkering obsession with FFB.

...I'm happy with my wheel setup (finally!). Now I just drive my ass off...The only thing worth adjusting after that is in the MMos Software, which is REALLY impressive. 

...I'm really happy with the MMos software. It's easy. I don't tinker much. I just dial in how smooth I want it, and then I drive. 

 

 

I'm really not concerned with 1:1. As stated in many other threads including this one, I just don't wana muck with settings all the time, whether it's for a wheel, or game settings. That's why I went with osw. There's little to mess with, so beyond that I just turn the strength to where I like it, and seldom an I concerned with whether it's 1:1. 

 

Its comments like these that really speak to me.  Its odd though, as you'd think that setup and setting would be the negative for a 'hack' like the OSW - whereas you'd think the SimCommander software of the AF would be the strength.

 

I really do not like tweaking settings and would prefer a 'set it and forget it' type of arrangement.  It sounds like thats what you've found.

 

Any chance you can run R3E and report back with your findings?

[Simon Maltby 185]

I'm really not concerned with 1:1. As stated in many other threads including this one, I just don't wana muck with settings all the time, whether it's for a wheel, or game settings. That's why I went with osw. There's little to mess with, so beyond that I just turn the strength to where I like it, and seldom an I concerned with whether it's 1:1. Cars without power steering sure do put out a lot of torque though, but seldom do sim racers prefer that level of strength all the time, including myself, but it sure does add more excitement and fun to the equation.

 

I find this statement so confusing. You don't have to mess about with tuning the AF if you don't want to.  You don't even have to use the sim commander software, in which case the wheel will be setup exactly the same as an OSW, just with less torque. 

[oqvist 29]

If you have the options to tweak can you choose not to? Take rFactor 2 versus project Cars. In project CARs you have 36 parameters or there about. If you are unhappy with the ffb to test all combinations we are talking weeks of testing

 

rFactor 2 you just have three settings. Sure if you dig in the json file maybe you find more. To this point I haven´t managed to get the ffb in PCars close to rFactor 2 despite this. But at some point you get used to it and just drive. If you don´t like the ffb in rFactor 2 you will accept it sooner then like me spending 10h in PCars just to realize it´s impossible to get good feel for my taste

 

But I don´t think it´s the simcommander software it´s that Simxperience whent cheaper with the motor, rim and other items and they can´t compensate fully. If something feels right for me I don´t dig deep into the ffb. AC for example I have hardly touched the ffb because it feels so good on my TX. I know some have the same with PCars but not me.

[stevemontuno 172]

If you have the options to tweak can you choose not to? Take rFactor 2 versus project Cars. In project CARs you have 36 parameters or there about. If you are unhappy with the ffb to test all combinations we are talking weeks of testing

 

rFactor 2 you just have three settings. Sure if you dig in the json file maybe you find more. To this point I haven´t managed to get the ffb in PCars close to rFactor 2 despite this. But at some point you get used to it and just drive. If you don´t like the ffb in rFactor 2 you will accept it sooner then like me spending 10h in PCars just to realize it´s impossible to get good feel for my taste

 

But I don´t think it´s the simcommander software it´s that Simxperience whent cheaper with the motor, rim and other items and they can´t compensate fully. If something feels right for me I don´t dig deep into the ffb. AC for example I have hardly touched the ffb because it feels so good on my TX. I know some have the same with PCars but not me.

have you tried using this for Pcars ?    

 

http://pcars.oscarolim.pt/

 

ive just used this to do my global FFB settings plus map all my car FFB settings ,,,i used the Brake Rumble pack on my T300 and the FFB feels great now,

 

sorry for the off topic guys.

[stevemontuno 172]

i was going to get a motion seat in a few months, but im now swaying heavily on jumping into the OSW project and building a wheel instead now after reading into how good these direct drive wheels are,

[oqvist 29]

have you tried using this for Pcars ?    

 

http://pcars.oscarolim.pt/

 

ive just used this to do my global FFB settings plus map all my car FFB settings ,,,i used the Brake Rumble pack on my T300 and the FFB feels great now,

 

sorry for the off topic guys.

What wheel does he have? I used some similar for PC where you just downloaded a FFB folder for all cars with some different ffb settings like brake,, rumble etc