Is A Steering Wheel Faster Than A Gamepad? 

6:05 my rap career gets off to a rocky start :(

Keyboard and mouse is the input method of choice for real heroes.

The real pros are using a guitar hero guitar and wii remote

For smoothness, what i usually do is push the gamepad stick forward, and then just use it basicly like a wheel, that way the steering itself is hella smooth (not the jerky left-right bumps).

Y’all nerds here with gamepads and wheels and I’m racing with a thrustmaster t16000m flight sim joystick

Another interesting aspect of this is that many (as in, literally all) console racers apply not just input filtering and sensitivity adjustments for the controller, but the actual physics of how the car is controlled is different. In a console / gamepad optimized driving game, the steering angle is actually not at all directly related to your stick input - it's actually a combination of your car speed, gamepad stick angle, and a bunch of other tuning parameters. Basically it assures that you have optimal steering angle at all times - that's why you usually can't turn the wheels at a huge angle relative to your direction of travel... But in Assetto Corsa and most PC sims, that functionality doesn't exist at all - so even though you can adjust sensitivity and "speed sensitivity" (poor mans version of the perfect steering angle trick), you run into the issue you see in the video - the wheels turning too far and scrubbing massively. Just an interesting little tidbit as to why console racing "sims" / games feel so nice to drive, and the actual car physics may actually be quite good and realistic - but the only reason you can drive them confidently with a controller is because, behind the curtains, you are only really half responsible for what's happening :)

I have just started using a wheel and pedal setup in the last month, having used gamepads since original GT on PS one. I wouldn't say I am quicker yet but the one thing i noticed straight away was, how much less uncomfortable, the whole experience is on wheel. In order to try and obtain accuracy with a gamepad, i used to tense my whole upper body, right down to my hands, in an effort to provide a stable platform for my thumbs to make the tiny adjustments necessary on the analogue sticks. It would give me extremely tense neck and back related discomfort within 5 minutes of using the pad. now I feel I can drive for hours in relative comfort. It is exactly what I had hoped for and I won't be going back to pad anytime soon. BTW, I am 57 years old and a bit too old for all this shizzle, probably.

You can be as a fast with a pad, but in races where tyre wear and endurance comes in, the wheel gives a big advantage

You can be just as fast with a pad, but consistency is easier with a wheel. (My opinion)

BUT I WILL.. BUT I... BUT I WILL SHOW YOU GUYS MY OUTLAP. Brilliant, Jimmer. Timestamp : 6:05 for anyone that wants to see the glorious uncut Jimmer.

B U T I W I L L S H O W Y O U G U Y S M Y O U T L A P

Having driven exclusively with a pad for the last year and finaly getting a wheel, I must say that the bigest difference is how fun it is! Yes you can drive much much beter with a wheel with less effort. and you can make saves that would not have been even remotely possible on a pad. But the biggest difference is that it's just so much more fun with a wheel.

This is the best sim racing channel on RU-vid.

I can confirm that it is absolutely possible to be as fast as with a wheel using a pad if you are used to It. I am racing with a friend who has done over 200h in R3E with a pad. We race a few times a week online and he is just as fast as all the other guys with wheels. He has learned to read the movement of the car only from the image without physical Feedback, just by putting a lot of time in it. His only disadvantage is that his front tyres wear out faster, because he can't feel the point where the car starts understeering.

Seeing the pedal input is really cool, it will be nice to keep it for future videos aswell.

Saved controller configurations : (some normal names) , yeeeeeet Great video as always!

Try this, first, get the shifting on the bumpers (R1 up, L1 down). THEN, the magic trick is, you want to hold your steering joystick with your thumb fully up OR down, and keep it there when going straight, then to turn just slide it on the rim progressively to the steering input you want to give but always keep it maxed out to control your input by merging it in the inactive Y axis. You want to have the input as raw as possible so no saturation, max or near max sensitivity and on and on. I played many hours on trusty race 07 and was wicked fast with the FWD touring cars which require quite a bit of finesse on the tight road courses. This trick only works with games that allow you to use 100% RAW input. Even though some games may say you are using raw input in the settings there may still be dumb controller assists. Usually using a wheel profile fixes this, but on pretty much every console game there sadly always are unremovable assists. Hope this helps!

Awesome video dude. Not everyone can afford or have the room for a wheel/sim rig, so this is really encouraging to bring people into sim racing even if they use pad. And tbh this was a VERY tricky combo of car and track - a super powerful Group C car with no driving aids on a Brands Hatch track with a lot of elevation changes and tricky corners. I'm sure on other kinds of track, and with more modern cars - especially ones that use some driving aids by default like GT3 or LMP2 cars - this could be even closer.

I just bought Assetto Corsa today and im downloading it right now. I just have a game pad to play currently so this video was a HUGE help to start racing in this game. Awesome video Jimmy love your content. Keep it up, greetings from South-America

Love you’re enthusiasm and you looked wonderfully smooth behind the wheel

The faster the car the less sensitivity you'll want on the controller. Try it with an F1 car and you'll see just how much better the wheel is. Consistency is another huge factor as well as stress levels.

At this point, I'm likely an oddity in the sim racing world, but I've found myself to be slower when using my wheel compared to my game pad. It could very well be due to how much practice I've had prior to getting my wheel (Assetto Corsa included), plus there are times where I'm too lazy to get my wheel set up and just want to run a few laps, so grabbing my XBox One controller and plugging it in one of my PC's USB slots takes considerably less time to set up. That said, you certainly do have to focus a lot more with a pad since there's very little feedback as to what the tires are doing unless the game incorporates trigger rumbling.

I always love your videos but what i really love is how someone so funny and cool can be suck a badass...you're a great driver cheers m8

Thanks Jimmy as always mate. A question i had been given by a friend and i was curious. Love your work mate! love from aus :)

Let's ask JSR Rayzer JDM: sets #1 on community events in PC2 with a wheel then beats his time with controller to take the piss. It's possible to be fast on controller but it's way more work than I'm willing to put in and nowhere near as fun

When my wheel broke and my controller started glitching out i used a thrustmaster joystick on dirt rally. I actually learned it pretty well and got some top 150 times

Joystick extenders are a big help as well for extra fine steering input.

Cool I was very interested to see this video by you. Due to my lack of a permanent racing rig setup, I split my racing time about 50/50 between the wheel and gamepad. I find myself to be plenty fast with the gamepad indeed, but yeah keeping it smooth and clean diverts way too much concentration away from the actual driving experience for it to be properly enjoyable (in AC anyway). I'll give your suggested settings a shot; thanks for that!

Definitely want to see the keyboard video lol

As a guy with a couple hundred hours of sim racing on a controller, that steering sensitivity makes my eyes bleed haha.

You can definitely be just about as fast on a gamepad as you can on a wheel setup, I've been racing with a gamepad so long I hardly notice any sensitivity issues after a bit of tweaking to the settings. Great video Jimmy!

I can't remember which update it was but Reiza added some really nice dampening effects into AMS for gamepad users. Gives you a nice linear steering input.

How fast can Ouya go Bankrupt around the Nordschleife?

I couldn't use one to a competitive level. But I can tell many times when other drivers are on a pad. It just doesn't look so quite as smooth but there are exceptions to that I'm sure.

Thanks Jimmer Very insightful

Love this. Thanks for this!

if it's a 1 second on brands hatch, it can be 10+ seconds different on Nordschliefe. So a wheel is still important

Hi Jimmy, just got Assetto (cheap) but was too twitchy. Your controller settings have helped so much. Cheers Jimmer. nice one.

Probably everybody already said that your voice is so the same so original and natural formula 1 commentator! 🙈

It's not much about speed, using a wheel instead of a controller gives you much much more consistency throughout the laps... but with a proper setup and years of training, even gamepad can be very consistent. Oh, and thanks Jimmer, great video as always

10:05 the character move his steering wheel like me if i drive a car in real life

I'd love to see a keyboard video. I also know for a fact that a lot of people simrace using a mouse for steering, that could make an interesting comparison too.

Love this video! For a guy just getting into Assetto Corsa Competizione and not much budget for a wheel at the moment this has definitely helped! Xbox controller it is for me!

"This video was made possible by my former sponsors"

I got my best times on the Nürburgring with a Kinnect.

Hi Jimmy, awesome video! Can you also do a comparison of lap times with and without VR?

Reminds me of years ago when my G25 wheel died right after the warranty expired. But the pedals still worked, so I started using my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 for steering. It worked great for Shift and Shift 2, but wasn't supported by any racing games after that. I was rarely the fastest, but was consistently competitive, so it was a lot of fun. I'm eyeballing my Logitech MOMO wheel (Red housing) that's been stored away for a long time, but really want to get some Fanatec gear. Fair winds and following seas to all.

Well I think its time for Jimmy to sell his wheel and pedals and become full pad player for life!

If cars used controllers instead of steering wheels, Stefan Bellof would still be alive today and Maldonado would be an F1 champion.

I think its more about being consistent with a wheel. I know on a game pad i occasionally end up off the track. Nice vid.

If you put the virtual steering wheel rotation to 1080° it changes the whole game and feels pretty good tbh

But will he show us guys his outlap? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Jimmy is the guy that turns off traction control when using a pad. While the rest of us die even with traction control

Hi Stunning sim. You must love your job 👍🏻👍🏻

Excelent video! Now I'm going to: 1. Save up for a decent wheel-pedals-H shifter setup. 2. Until then fiddling with the controller setup which I was never done before. Thanks! And You got skills, Sir! I liked the part when You have been commenting your own driving. 👍🏻

i played my 1st 200hrs of ac with a ps3 controller that spazzed out when i squeezed it too hard

Jimmer, can we start a thicc sim boii and related clothing company? I have hundreds of shirts and a press in the garage, high quality. We can make some wonderfully funny shirts

Good vid Jimmy thanks.

Man that those game pad inputs looked like Philipe Massa in his first season with Sauber ...Wild😂

The best drivers use trackpads.

Nobody cares about speed, realistic feel and immersion is the point.

Just got a wheel after a few months of gamepad. Didn't improve my lap times as much as I hoped, but it seems easier to keep control and not send the car in a spin with the smoother inputs of the wheel.

The speed sensitivity needs to be about 60-70% for that car. Your advanced settings are spot on though. Thanks for another great video.

if a pad was faster, they use that in a real car. people who say its faster is cause they dont know most of the games have steering help for the pad so even if you turn it all the way the car only turns just enough not to oversteer. i respect pad players also but theres no way a pad is faster with no assits whatsoever

Your wheel actually makes the game significantly harder than it has to be in order to help simulate the reality we are all craving. Take away most of the force feedback and bleed away some of the games realism and I’m sure you could run much faster with a wheel than a game pad.

I had a pretty smooth steering profile for my controller, which took a good bit of trial and error - but it did work. So far managed to accomplish the same and shave a few seconds off most tracks with my g29. Not so much the same when I tried my old Momo FFB, horrendous lack of rotation on that thing and the pedals might as well be made of paper!

Hmm, I just remembered I used to have a Logitech wheel for the GameCube. Wish I hadn't sold it as it has to be pretty rare. But it definitely made games harder. Your setup looks pretty awesome though.

Cool video Jimmer! Keyboard video would be great, also, could we have a similar comparison with a cheap wheel without force feedback?

The footwork is amazing

Something that's helped me with a pad, not necessarily be faster but to be smoother, is to swap the gear shifts around. So up is on the left bumper and down is on the right. Counter-intuitive aqnd takes a bit of practice to un- and relearn, but it means you don't have to move fingers around to stay on gas or break *and* shift.

Looking forward for your mouse steering video.. I have never seen such video in youtube

My utter zen on a gamepad was on Gran Turismo 2 with the dual shock. I used one stick for steering the other for throttle / brake. Pure gamepad nirvana! Many an hour of endurance race was fought on that.

6:05 jimmer re-mix..... chart topper right there lol 👍🍻

I used to compete in iRacing with a 360 controller when I started out sim racing, and mostly finished in top 10. :) Did this try between a wheel and controller about a month ago in both AC, Raceroom, pCars2 and Dirt Rally, and was between 2 an 9 sec off with a controller. But only did a flying lap to set a time with both, so with more practice I would surely close that gap. The biggest difference is that it's easier to be smoth and precise with a wheel.

Before getting a wheel, i used to play all games with keyboard. I only got a wheel after facing snowy rally stages with m3 in dirt rally. What is interesting, when playing grid autosport, i used to run faster times with keyboard than with the wheel. I wasn't really used to the wheel back then, so i might give it a try again, after playing with a wheel for almost 2 years.

"Tawkie Drivie guy here..." LOL!! You're my hero man!

i use a gamepad at the moment but i also have hair trigger settings set so i can get the progressive braking and acceleration instead of just 0-100 instantly

What helps with smooth input is using the arches of the joystick spots to guide steering and not yanking to full lock

One cool trick for precision with a gamepad: push the stick forward so that it rests against the side of the controller and drag against it.. because it is shaped like a circle.

Talking from years of experience with gamepads, the biggest problems I personally have with pads on racing games is not being quick, but being consistent. This might not be the best example but it happens generally with all racing games I play. Lately I have been playing a lot of F1 2018, and I find myself having very painful, cramped fingers after some sessions (1 - 1.5 hrs) of driving, setting hotlaps. When I played with a wheel I also had cramped fingers but after 4 to 5 hours of playing. It's much easier to set a faster lap as well without having to force your hands in quirky positions on a gamepad

When the Dirt Rally early access started was about the time I got into PC Sim Racing. That game motivated me to get on the FFB money train. Once upon a time, I was pretty competent with a clicker, consistent world top 50 or better in the Forza games but after a few years using a wheel I am useless with a clicker. I may as well be looking out the window and mashing buttons for all the good I can do with one, so well done good sir, well done indeed. I will say a clicker in the right hands can be a useful tool, a friend of mine raced in iRacing with a clicker and managed to piss off a lot of drivers with wheels - he's a Scot and took great pride in mocking those slower than him at every opportunity. I have someone on my friends' list who races with a keyboard and is devastatingly fast, I'm no Sim Rig Fangio but I'm not slow either and more often than not when scrolling thru lap/stage friend's times there is Mr Keyboard seconds faster than I - and many, many others could hope to be. I guess what I'm saying is "Is A Steering Wheel Faster Than A Gamepad?" is a lot more nuanced and subjective than one skilled Englishman with one car, on one track, in one Sim. It would be entertaining/amusing to see how it'd turn out with you using the same format on Dirt Rally or RBR tho I do believe the latter would leave you with a GamerMuscle inspired hairstyle. Or even add VR into the mix, that is a video I would definitely like to see.

I really wish I had a wheel. I bought this and ACC on Steam, and they're so difficult on a controller. Maybe someday soon I'll start a rig and I'll be able to properly play these games.

I haven’t been able to purchase a wheel setup yet, but I do a ton of project cars 2 with the PS4 controller, and I use tilt steering. I’d like more fine throttle and brake control, but with my own setups and ABS being turned on with cars that allow it, I can be fairly competitive in online lobbies

Tyre wear would be interesting to see!

JImmy, I use a gamepad/controller and it is pretty easy to steer if you use this method: don't go directly left to right or right to left, but instead to be smoother, go from the left or right, along the edges of the area it can go, to the top, and so on. It really helps.

I remember going from controller to the wheel. Was not an easy as U think transition. I never spent more than an hour racing at a time on controller but with the wheel I’ve chucked away entire days. T300 Ferrari Alcentera

nice one Jimmy - I tried AC ( PS4 ) on a gamepad but didn't use your settings and I failed big ; )

Nice Vid. If you dislike understeer on corner entry then a 962 is a bad choice. It has no differential and needs to be driven differently in order to make the front grip. Basicly trail braking and feeding the steering in gently is the opposit of what you should do in that car. You want quicker/harder weight shifts so the inner rear wheel unloads and slips.

I competed in top split Blancpain Sprint Series in 2016 with a PS4 controller because my wheel died, as a 4k irating driver my lap time with a pad was only 0.2s off my lap times with the wheel, but I lost more time later in the race as the faster scrubbing on the front tyres meant hotter rubber and more tyre wear, so I was struggling by the ends of the races. Still saw me get a couple of top 10's and always in the top half of the field. You can definitely be fast with a gamepad, you can even be consistent. But you'll never be as smooth as with a wheel.

Nice performance. Good demo. Now tune the setup, then see how much faster the wheel is ;)

Jimmy is one sweaty boi after the gamepad xD

Hi Jimmy, I'm rocking the keyboard here.. the T300RS, my first ever wheel is in the post. I'd be interest seeing some of your keyboard times (especially the Nordschleife in the stock Skyline)

Maybe you should try the chase cam with joystick/gamepad. In my experience, I drive better on a chase cam view than in a cockpit.

I have just switched over to a steering wheel and there definitely are some growing pains! Obviously the wheel will be better when I get used to it, but when you use a gamepad for 20 years it is hard to switch over. I think the brake pedal and accelerator are forgotten about also. It is hard to get the "feel" of them at first.

I know this video is a year old but I have just got into Racing Sims, no idea why it took soooo long considering I've been an avid fan of Gran Turismo since the PS2 and have already invested loadsa-money on Flight Sims which brings me to my point. I am currently player Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2 using a hybrid setup, as in an Afterglow Xbox 360 Controller and my Thrustmaster Pro Flight Rudder Pedals - yep you just read that right, Flight Sim Rudder Pedals. I have locked the rudder function but the left/right independent wheel brakes are just the same as any throttle/brake pedals with full calibration and are spring loaded, they actually work perfectly well after some jiggery-pokery of config files. I use the Xbox controller for clutch, handbrake (trigger buttons), steering (left stick), gear up/down (left/right buttons) and the D-pad and A, B, X, Y, Start, Back buttons for ABS, TC, Brake Balance, KERS, DRS, Lights, Horn, Whippers etc depending on the type of car I am using (Road, Track or F1). For each of those car types I have the settings in a separate profile that I use as the template for individual cars which I can modify on a car-by-car basis if needed. Have you come across anyone else who has done anything like this? For Assetto Corsa it took hacking of the controller config file in a text editor which for me was no issue although getting the steering nicely balanced did try my patience and took a while but all is perfect now. PS: I only did this as I have yet to invest in a wheel and pedals and I only got these racing sims a week ago! I am looking at getting the Thrustmaster Ferrari F458 Italia Racing Wheel as an entry level wheel. NOT because it is a Ferrari product I hasten to add - hell now, I'm not part of the tifosi and never will be, I'm 100% Lambo man, and a 5 times stroke surviving Lambo man ;)

I can hot lap and do short races in which I can drive well with a 360 pad, however, the wheel is far more consistent and accurate andis far smoother resulting in safer driving and more dependable long term results. The vibration ffb on controller is very useful in relaying tyre slippage, understeer, oversteer etc, and the sound too is an aid in getting a read on the car esp as I drive always in car view.....And the ammount of tweekability in the sim I play (R3E) means also that a LOT more tweeking is needed to find settings that are both responsive and smooth, but is possible.... The keyboard warriors are on another level and I am in awe of those that can keep up with the pack esp over longer races... max respect! (Go Bulg!)

I found rolling the analog stick from full ‘Up’ position to the left and right is better than pushing left or right from the central/neutral position. But whatever works for someone is good.

Should try this again with Dirt Rally. The quick steering inputs with a controller is pretty helpful in that game. One tap left or right on an analogue stick VS possibly one wheel rotation with a wheel

My experience says that you can be really competitive with the gamepad on tracks that are typically high speed with mainly medium-to-fast corners. However when you hit a track which is more tight and technical, and doesn't afford you to really hit full throttle (such as Monaco) then that's when a wheel will always beat you. Pads don't work well in situations where you need to read the track quickly in order to put down a fast lap. Also the lack of real force feedback is a real disadvantage in these situations because you can't feel how the car is behaving which for me is an important aspect in being able to put down a fast time on the more technical tracks.

The best gamer muscle impression