Using Flight/Rudder pedals with Assetto?

[Exigeous]

I know that flight/rudder pedals present a single axis to Windows and you need minimum 2 axis, one for gas and the other brake. If you think about them as having a value range of -100 -> 0 <- +100 you could set 0 -> +100 to gas and 0 -> -100 could be brake. You'd likely need a decent deadzone at the bottom of each virtual pedal.

I'm trying to get a friend into sim racing, he's currently a flight sim buff with a nice Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS and Saitek flight pedals. I found a used T300 for him but it didn't come with pedals and as the Saitek's are sitting right there curious if they can be used. Did a good bit of searching and failed as everything I found was going the other direction, using racing pedals as flight pedals.

Thanks!

[Mr Crisp]

With flight pedals, you cannot push down both pedals to the floor, correct? Its a `rudder` control, so its like push left pedal and right is up and vice versa?

If thats the case, I really don't think its worth trying to use them, they won't give the right experience for sim-racing.

You can buy a Thrustmaster FFB wheel with pedals for around £150 or less new- but I would totally get proper pedals for sim racing IMO.

[BluesyMoo]

A "proper" flight pedal set also has left and right brake axes that correspond to pressing on left and right pedals. It should really present 3 independent axes to Windows.

It'll work better if you can physically lock the rudder axis... Then it'll feel like a gokart set up.

[Exigeous]

Guys I realize this is far less than optimal, let's not focus on that as that has nothing to do with my question of CAN you do this, not should.

MarleyMoo I'd forgotten about the toe brakes, I wasn't sure if those were analog or digital but analog makes more sense. The pedals I have don't have toe brakes so I forget about that. If those do each map as a separate axis you're right it should be easy enough to use those two axis rather than the main rudder axis.

[Simon said EAT DUST PLAYER_1 !]

then the answer is: do you left-foot-brake?
which means: applying brake independently from the throttle with your left foot. Sometimes even simultaneously as in e.g. dirt-surface rally-racing.
((Well, the answer for the more experienced drivers would be obviously "yes". But for beginners and intermediate, let's say it is not a common thing to do.))

If that is what interests you, then a proper pedal-unit makes sense plus some way to secure it to your seat/rig so it won't move on it's own.


edit: just read the whole thing:
there is a setting called "combined pedals" which essantially merges throttle&brake into one axxis. Some pre-historic (by today's standards) games used a combined pedal-axxis for analogue throttle&brake-input. I remember playing the original TNFS with a Joystick back then. Older Logitech wheels had the driver-setting of merging the foot-pedal axxis, as well. Because the apps/games were coded that way and did not allow seperate for inputs. Heck, I believe even my Thrustmaster driver today offers this.

Although most current hard-core sims probably don't support a combined axxis natively, I am sure there will be software to emulate the behaviour of one and offer it up as a seperate input-device, essentially mimiking what many of today's road-cars call brake-force-override (as soon as you touch the brake-pedal, it's input overrides any throttle-position and zeroes out the throttle) - although with one physical axxis this state doesn't really exist.

[Exigeous]

@Simon - thanks for the input, I totally understand everything you said. After talking with my buddy he's just gonna pony up and get a wheel, either the Thrustmaster T300 or Logitech G920 (I'm steering him toward the T300).

As for left foot braking as you likely know on the street I'd virtually never suggest that - when gaming it's not nearly as big a deal as the game is far more forgiving than a real car. I've been racing for about 10 years now, currently run in a Lotus Exige TTU/TT1 racecar. It's a manual race gearbox so I heel toe but I left foot brake in it when I need to brake but don't need to downshift. Took me about 6 months of street driving to get the sensitivity in my left foot to be as good as my right, it's actually easier on the track as usually when I left foot brake I'm using near full force and don't have to modulate fine detail like on the street. As such I always left foot brake when I sim race - and in fact I always wear my SFI racing shoes as it just feels so odd to only wear socks. If you're curious at all here's a lap at my local track with multiple camera angles, including my feet so you can see heel-toe and left foot braking.

HEADPHONE WARNING - VERY LOUD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9neCzTQozY

Anyway thanks for the input guys, seems he'll be all set soon.

[Simon said EAT DUST PLAYER_1 !]

thx 4 sharing. That's a nice capture of some impressive driving. Makes me smile on how similar this game makes me handle that Lotus. What's your take on the game's acuracy compared to your race-car? Is it even comparable?
Always great to see real-world sportsmen finding their way into the sim-community! I am just a sim-potatoe unfortunately.

Don't really mind the apparent sound-clipping as I am a "I wanna be able to still hear stuff should I ever turn 70" kind of guy, meaning I like my car's exhausts quiet and I use sterero-monitors (desktop-speakers) on low/moderate volume levels :D ((less noise, more sound))

Greetings from Germany!

PS.:
if that T300 you mentioned does not come with pedals, while the optional plastic T3PA that I use currently are quite usable, modulation on soft-braking (with the rubber cone installed) isn't really where I would like to see it. Thinking about getting the Fanatec CSL pedal kit with the additional 90Kg load-cell brake-pedal (~€210 plus shipping though). Stand-alone usb on those pedals, so it will work in proper sims like A.C. -- some lesser games (e.g. console-ports like the abysmal SLRE) might struggle, though.

[Exigeous]

Thanks for the kind words, I actually was a sim racer before real racer. After getting serious about racing I also got serious about sim racing - racing consumed me. If you're curious here are details on my setup - {LINK REMOVED}tinyurl.com/EliteVRSetup

As for the in-game Exige handling like mine - NO, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Note: I could be confused with Forza, I'll check and report back. I recall the in-game car being VERY twitchy and tail happy. My car is just a *bit* modified, 385whp at 1900lbs :-). Even with that huge power it's very impressive how planted my car is, it lives to grip. On semi-slick I can get 1.7G sustainable in a fast sweeper.

Oh and sim racers rock, no stupid "get a reall car" trolling here. I've been instrcuting racing for about 7 years, my two best types: women and gamers. In that order (best, not fastest). Sim racers understand many of the basic terms at least, they don't have a blank stare when I say "apex". The hardest students - those who think they're great - and aren't. At all. If you hear me compliment someone's car color, yeah.....

Oh, as for the T300 setup it did come with the slightly upgraded pro ones with clutch. I have to say I love my V2 pedals with the inversion kit, have you seen the monstrosity they have for $500??? Pictures or details of your setup? So far game compatibility hasn't been an issue. Save for F1 2015, didn't allow separate USB devices for wheel and pedals. I do use a number of joystick/input device apps to remap things at times, there are details in the rather long guide I linked above. If you use "alternate" controllers there are a few gems on there. It can be hard to manage stick, throttle, handbrake, shifter, dash/button-box, flight pedals, racing pedals, ButtKicker USB audio card, Motion Platform, LED displays, etc. etc. etc. When playing Elite I have 7 different apps running for various things ;-)

Anyway sorry for the ramble, fun chat for sure.