Recommendation on first DD wheel? Upgrading from G29

[Sassanid]

I've been using a G29 for 2 years and honestly have been very happy with it for a $250 first wheel. No complaints at all for the price, but I feel like the time has come to upgrade to something better.

My budget for a DD bundle is around $600-700. I mostly race GT cars, drift and just cruise in road cars so I think a round wheel would be best at first. Would also like a clutch pedal and shifter but handbrake isn't necessary right now. Not sure if Moza or Fanatec is the best way to go in 2025 but happy to hear all suggestions. Thanks

[Asid]

Publicado originalmente por eqalidan:

Publicado originalmente por Asid:

I would take a good look at the issues at Fanatec, which have been there for a while. Issues with drivers, firmware and customer service. Go on their official forum for an idea.

Fanatec got taken over by Corsair recently but people still having issues.

I have Fanatec equipment.

the worst of fanatec issues should be dealt with due to new management, the whole threatening to sue people because of their own ♥♥♥♥ up on sending stuff out. other issues should be dealt with in time

Sorry for the late reply.

If you go onto the official Fanatec forum, especially the software section. You will see a lot of people have long term issues with the software/firmware.

Soon seems to be the official answer.... Some people never have any issues though.

I own Fanatec wheel, base + pedals.


Regards

[Sassanid]

Publicado originalmente por MrGrrnjeans:

Sassanid - excellent! Glad to see you are enjoying your new gear. As with any new setup, it will take time to get comfortable with it. Have fun. See you on the track.

Thx mate!

Definitely, it's now been a few days and every day I'm feel more confident with the new wheel and power. Took a few days to really gel with the new feel and ffb but I'm getting there.

[Sassanid]

Publicado originalmente por TPSY:

Cammus c5 if budget is tight, others will tell you cammus is junk and there is much better, but non-dd -> any DD is so vast an improvement that it is a good play without a big spend. I'd stay out of the thrustmaster ecosystem as there really isn't much there unless you want to use on consoles, but I think Fanatec is a better ecosystem for that anyways. imho try to buy once and cry once where you can. and you do get what you pay for most of the time. 5nm is good, 8-12nm seems to be a sweet spot, 15+nm might be good for the hulk. Load cell pedals > hall effect sensors. GL on your upgrade.

Agreed. If someone is looking for their first wheel to get in to sim racing today, I would definitely suggest stretching the budget a little more than the G29 and getting the Cammus C5 or the Moza R3 bundle instead. Even a weaker DD wheel will always be worlds better than the logi gear driven wheels. Back then I just went on Amazon, knew nothing about wheels and searched for affordable beginner wheels and the first one with the highest and best reviews in the results was the G29, and the funny thing is 3 years on it's still probably the best bang for buck for $250. But yeah if someone can stretch that budget a little more, C5 and R3 all day > logi.

[Sassanid]

Publicado originalmente por goblueteam:

Awesome! The wheel looks amazing in a real world picture(tough to judge advertisements)! Way better than my Fanatec BMW CSL wheel rim.

I think figuring out the settings is probably what takes the most time with a DD wheel, even between games it can be different/require a different settings profile.

Recently I started playing Le Mans ultimate and just could not get it to feel right, I finally found a video with a bunch of detailed information showing the output from the game and output from the wheel base and how the settings affected this.
Previously I had always put my wheel base to 100% gain in the wheel base settings and turned the gain down in the game to like 50-60 w/e I needed to stay out of clipping,

the method in this video for Le Mans ultimate showed that setting your wheelbase gain to like 55 and in game gain to 55(each base will be different based on preference and NM probably) actually made the game output and wheel base output match almost perfectly,

the other way did not come close to matching, it also does not lower the FFB nm they actually got slightly stronger output with the kind of matching wheel base gain to in game gain, even though there software said they lowered the peak output. I think I ended up at like 70 in my wheel base gain and 70 in the in game gain and it feels nice, I may have went down on the in game gain a little still.

Anyways theres a lot to try out when it comes to dialing in the FFB lol.

You also may just need to turn down your rotation if its really loose in the middle or there maybe be another adjustment in the game or car setup for that, in ACC its the steer ratio in the car setup you would lower to make the steering more sensitive in the middle, or raise it to make the steering looser/take more steering input.

the ports on the side is a odd thing to do, probably not the best design choice lol

keep in mind when playing with settings and trying new games/different games you should really hold on to the wheel at first so it cant get away from you, and kind of evaluate it for the first few laps lol
some games can put out way more power than others some how, if its not something your expecting it could probably hurt someone or surprise you, being a lower power base its less of a issue but even my CSL DD can sometimes surprise me, especially the first time I try a game out/go back to a game after a while, some games just have way more intense spikes of feedback.

I think maybe AMS2 is the idk harshest/can send some powerful spikes( this kind of makes it more fun). Original AC also is pretty strong but maybe less peaks its been a long time since I played that. ACC is more refined feeling,(in my opinion) I like it myself some dont.

Being on a fanatec base its hard for me to give to many tips/advice as it could be totally different lol. Im sure theres plenty of youtube videos out there with settings, I would probably try a bunch of them to see what you like, some like it loose and easy with detail some like it to be dampened and heavy, so its good to try a few profiles or try some different adjustments.

It took me a little while to actually idk feel like going to a DD was a massive upgrade, It was a little disappointing at first, It wasnt until I really did some research and got settings dialed until I could really tell the difference, its still hard to know if it made me faster or just more experience/practice did that,
I think catching slides and driving on the very limit its probably much better, but I think it still takes a lot of time just to get fast enough to the point where its going to make a difference,
maybe when your 1-2 seconds off alien pace depending on track length, your starting to get to the point where every little bit of information you can get through the wheel will help. Some people are super fast regardless.

I think the load cell brake pedal upgrade is probably the biggest upgrade,
im not sure if its simagic or simicube that does the haptic feedback reactor things for the brake and throttle but it might be worth considering, I think there fairly affordable basically base shakers you mount to your pedal they have some good reviews.
I just use some dayton audio bass shakers I got open box on parts-express for 20$ each, the haptic reactor things def seem better quality though, def more suited to put on a pedal, My bass shakers are mounted to the rig not the pedals.

Sorry for writing a book lol I think as time goes on you will like your wheel even more.

I agree with basically every point you made and as surprising as it is to some people to read this, and as much as I love the alpha mini and GTS wheel and smile every time I use them, my initial feeling was just sheer appreciation for the G29 which was such a little trooper that put up with all the abuse I threw at it for 3 years and still works perfectly like day one. For $250 I have zero regrets with it for my first wheel just to dip my toes in to the sim ocean and get my feet wet. Can't say enough good things about it as a starter wheel when on a budget.

As for the center vs cornering ffb, it's all feeling a lot better now that I've tweaked some settings according to other more experienced sim racers who also own the alpha mini. Slowly but surely it's all falling in to place nicely. For now I leave FFB strength at 100% in simpro software, but I''ll try matching it to the same number in CM and see if that's better. I have gain at 90% in CM so I'll try 90% in simpro tonight too and see how it is, thanks for that tip.

And I totally agree, once I get the next piece of the puzzle, new load cell pedals, that's what really going to help with faster lap times. Even though I'm already gelling with the new gear and going faster than before, this new wheel and base wasn't really about going faster, as I knew for that, the new pedals would be the obvious choice. This purcase was more a QOL upgrade and more about enjoyment and comfort when driving. I wanted smoothness, I wanted more realism, less clipping, less jankiness, not having to turn up my FFB in cars to 1000% in AC just to get some decent power and ffb. Now everything feels amazing at the default 100% or thereabouts. For my particular case, new wheel/base made far more sense. Also that was smart with the dayton audio bass shakers! You seem to be a DIY wizard lol. I'm probably upgrading the pedals later in the year or if I see a good sale sooner, but in the meantime I have my eyes on the P1000-RS pedals. I can't get over how beautiful they look.

[eqalidan]

Publicado originalmente por Sassanid:

Publicado originalmente por TPSY:

Cammus c5 if budget is tight, others will tell you cammus is junk and there is much better, but non-dd -> any DD is so vast an improvement that it is a good play without a big spend. I'd stay out of the thrustmaster ecosystem as there really isn't much there unless you want to use on consoles, but I think Fanatec is a better ecosystem for that anyways. imho try to buy once and cry once where you can. and you do get what you pay for most of the time. 5nm is good, 8-12nm seems to be a sweet spot, 15+nm might be good for the hulk. Load cell pedals > hall effect sensors. GL on your upgrade.

Agreed. If someone is looking for their first wheel to get in to sim racing today, I would definitely suggest stretching the budget a little more than the G29 and getting the Cammus C5 or the Moza R3 bundle instead. Even a weaker DD wheel will always be worlds better than the logi gear driven wheels. Back then I just went on Amazon, knew nothing about wheels and searched for affordable beginner wheels and the first one with the highest and best reviews in the results was the G29, and the funny thing is 3 years on it's still probably the best bang for buck for $250. But yeah if someone can stretch that budget a little more, C5 and R3 all day > logi.

the main problem with logitech is there instance on an all in one software solution when they remove compatibility from products they no longer support

most of my issues came from needing to be on lgs instead of the hub and even then on older versions of lgs instead of the last one because of issues with it even seeing the wheel, I have a g13 that the hub just will not recognize, but if the hub is installed lgs will not pick up the g13 even if it cant be used with the hub, and closing the hub will not make lgs see anything.

hardware wise, logitech is fantastic, as good as you can get for the price, software wise, a marginal step better than razor which is already one of the worst software experiences I ever had, the only good part about them is somehow the naga I had still keep its keybinds if I force quit the software from taskmanager, for some unknown reason razor would just eat an entire core of the cpu and keep it at 100% after a bit of time, restarting it didnt fix it, only restarting the computer would reset its clock. hardware wise, I could have easily stayed with logitech, but software wise, ANYTHING was better, and cammus has so far not given me issues, it doenst have profiles ready to go for many games, which is honestly whatever, but it works without 2 hours of troubleshooting and reinstalling software.

[Sassanid]

Publicado originalmente por eqalidan:

Publicado originalmente por Sassanid:

Agreed. If someone is looking for their first wheel to get in to sim racing today, I would definitely suggest stretching the budget a little more than the G29 and getting the Cammus C5 or the Moza R3 bundle instead. Even a weaker DD wheel will always be worlds better than the logi gear driven wheels. Back then I just went on Amazon, knew nothing about wheels and searched for affordable beginner wheels and the first one with the highest and best reviews in the results was the G29, and the funny thing is 3 years on it's still probably the best bang for buck for $250. But yeah if someone can stretch that budget a little more, C5 and R3 all day > logi.

the main problem with logitech is there instance on an all in one software solution when they remove compatibility from products they no longer support

most of my issues came from needing to be on lgs instead of the hub and even then on older versions of lgs instead of the last one because of issues with it even seeing the wheel, I have a g13 that the hub just will not recognize, but if the hub is installed lgs will not pick up the g13 even if it cant be used with the hub, and closing the hub will not make lgs see anything.

hardware wise, logitech is fantastic, as good as you can get for the price, software wise, a marginal step better than razor which is already one of the worst software experiences I ever had, the only good part about them is somehow the naga I had still keep its keybinds if I force quit the software from taskmanager, for some unknown reason razor would just eat an entire core of the cpu and keep it at 100% after a bit of time, restarting it didnt fix it, only restarting the computer would reset its clock. hardware wise, I could have easily stayed with logitech, but software wise, ANYTHING was better, and cammus has so far not given me issues, it doenst have profiles ready to go for many games, which is honestly whatever, but it works without 2 hours of troubleshooting and reinstalling software.

From experience I have to agree with this. My G29 wouldn't work with newer versions of LGS or Ghub for whatever reason, and I had to run Ghub version 2020.1.31123 and turn off auto-update to get it to work. Not the worst workaround but issues like this don't leave a good impression on customers when it comes to the software side of things

[Sassanid]

A few pics I thought I'd share of the new love of my life Gave me an excuse to use an old 50mm lens that's been laying around unused.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464707840
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464707962
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464708011
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464707697

[Sassanid]

The new unreleased Evo wheelbase and GT Pro wheel for $729.00!!

https://simshop.com/collections/wheel-bases/products/simagic-alpha-evo-sport-9nm-wheel-base-bundle-save?variant=50527595200832

Had I not ordered yet I think I would have gone with this instead. Better wheel and 4 years newer teach in the Evo wheelbase. 9nm vs 10nm on the Alpha mini though. I know there's always something better around the corner but this is an amazing deal!

[eqalidan]

Publicado originalmente por Sassanid:

The new unreleased Evo wheelbase and GT Pro wheel for $729.00!!

https://simshop.com/collections/wheel-bases/products/simagic-alpha-evo-sport-9nm-wheel-base-bundle-save?variant=50527595200832

Had I not ordered yet I think I would have gone with this instead. Better wheel and 4 years newer teach in the Evo wheelbase. 9nm vs 10nm on the Alpha mini though. I know there's always something better around the corner but this is an amazing deal!

if a deal like this is around when I upgrade its a hard choice between gt neo or gt pro round dual clutches

I would probably hold out for a higher end base at 12+nm as it would be a till it physically dies product, and seeing that the original ac is still going what 11 years later, I think I could easily find a few games I love and ride it till hardware death.