This page was updated on 08/06/2012. See the end of the post for more information.
iRacing FFB Tool is an application that helps you detect when your force feedback is clipping and also choose an optimal value for the FFB strength multiplier in iRacing, so you can use it at it’s best. Clipping in force feedback has the same concept that audio clipping, that is basically having a force strength (waveform amplitude) “outside” of the limits. If you have a very strong FFB multiplier, a very low torque on the steering shaft might already send 100% of force to the wheel controller, meaning that you won’t be able to feel the FFB details on forces above the current one, as your wheel is already working at it’s maximum torque.
The graph below was captured using this tool and shows the steering shaft torque, in Nm, the current FFB being sent to the wheel (you can see that there’s a lot of clipping) and the optimal FFB multiplier to remove all the clipping.
The tool can also be used in real time, showing when your wheel is clipping while you are driving. The picture below shows the main window, where you can see the data from the live telemetry along with the clipping monitor.
Force Feedback Vest
iRacing FFB Tool main window
'Auto detect the optimal force feedback force level based on your driving. Simply hit the 'auto' button found in the settings tab or F9 black box after driving a few laps to apply the detected force levels.' It's now posted with the release notes (by David T): 'I forgot a release note. I added in code to auto detect the optimal FFB force slider. Oct 20, 2018 irFFB can feed the 360 Hz steering column torque data recently made available in iRacing telemetry to your wheel, upsample and apply low-latency digital filters to the standard (60 Hz) iRacing FFB output and modify the feedback via a number of effects based on live telemetry. It can also drive a 'Jetseat' and fans if you have them.
The window is properly sized to fit an iPhone display, so you can play the game while using your iPhone for displaying the information. For that to work, you’ll need an app that turns your iPhone into a secondary monitor, such as AirDisplay or iDisplay. Below you can check a video of the software working. I’m not using an iPhone in the video, but you can see the game and the software working in real time.
Update: 08/06/2012
- Configuring iRacing to work with the Oculus Rift. Freezing and/or Stuttering issues when using VR with iRacing. How to re-center your view in the Oculus Rift. Multiple Screens 3. How to set up a 3 screen display using nVidia GTX graphic cards.
- In the iRacing Software. Launch the SIM (in a Test session for example) Click Options and in the Drive tab. Set 'Enable Force Feedback' to on. Set Force Feedback Strength to 20% (you can adjust to your liking) Set Damping to 0%. Also please note the auto option for setting the force levels. Although not Logitech specific, it is the quickest way.
I just added an option that will export 4 bytes of data through the serial port with some clipping information. This allowed me to grab that data with an Arduino and show it in real time on the display, without having to run the sim in Windowed mode.
It will show the percentage of the FFB being sent to the wheel, along with a LED representation of the forces, which will go red when there is clipping. You can check it out on the video below (yep, it’s 2AM here and I’m wearing a robe…):
To learn more about that display and how to use it with the Arduino, just check my “DIY Shift Lights and Dashboard” page on this link. It’s the same wiring and library. Here is the Arduino code to deal with the data sent by the FFB Tool:
iRacing FFB was coded in Visual C# 2010, so you need the .NET Framework 4.0 for it to work.
This tool is distributed as “donationware”. If you find them useful, please consider doing a small donation.
DOWNLOAD (v 1.3): http://www.fergonez.net/files/iRacingFFB.rar
CHANGELOG:
Iracing Force Feedback Test Program
- Version 1.3
- Added an option to export clipping data through serial port
- Version 1.2
- FFB and Tolerance settings saved where you exit the app
- Added tips at the bottom
- Added force feedback charts
- Added peak meter
- Increased sample buffer to 50000 samples
- Fixed bug where it will only consider positive values when predicting the optimal FFB
- Version 1.1
- Added option to calculate the optimal FFB setting based on the current set of samples
- More intuitive interface
- Version 1.0
- Initial release