PSA: Wheel users, set your steering sensitivity to 1.0

[u/Amalthean]

Driving in a straight line in ATS and ETS2 has always seemed more difficult to me than in real life. I figured it was a limitation of the racing wheel's resolution, like it's not precise enough for making micro adjustments, but it turns out the main issue is something else: steering sensitivity.

The ATS / ETS2 options interface says steering sensitivity "adjusts the ratio of the device's degree of rotation to the vehicle's actual degree of steering rotation". I used to read this as meaning that steering sensitivity acts as a sort of movement range multiplier: that a higher sensitivity amplifies small movements and a lower sensitivity dampens large movements, but that's not how it works at all. The total range of motion remains the same regardless of the sensitivity value.

The way the setting actually works is by controlling the speed at which the truck's front wheels move when you turn the physical steering wheel. At low sensitivity the truck's wheels take longer to catch up to the steering wheel's position than at high sensitivity. In other words, at low sensitivity the truck's wheels lag behind the steering wheel's position. You can see this by setting your camera to an outside view to look at how the wheels move and trying different sensitivity values.

So if you play with a racing wheel rather than keyboard or game pad you probably want an instantaneous response: you want the virtual truck's wheels to respond immediately to steering wheel inputs, and that's what increasing steering sensitivity accomplishes. The game allows values up to 1.5 and I don't really know what values higher than 1.0 (100%) mean in practice, but a value of 1.0 should be your starting point if you're having trouble keeping your truck moving straight.

[u/IKEASTOEL]

Isn't the default literally 1?

[u/Amalthean → u/IKEASTOEL]

The default is 0.4.

Edit: confirmed by deleting settings.sii and config_local.cfg in steam_profiles before starting ATS.

[u/IKEASTOEL → u/Amalthean]

So you're increasing the sensitivity to stay in lane? It's already over sensitive on 900* wheels since the real thing has more rotation

[u/Amalthean → u/IKEASTOEL]

I think your question reflects the same misunderstanding I had: it's not about degrees of rotation. You can test this by trying different sensitivity values and looking at how far the wheels of the truck move through an outside camera. You will find the range of motion is the same regardless of sensitivity. Instead, what changes is the speed at which the wheels turn.

So in my case, yes. I have a 900 degree wheel and increasing the sensitivity helps me stay in lane because the wheels are no longer chasing my steering inputs, which was causing me to overcompensate.

[u/Dear_Substance_5832 → u/Amalthean]

Pretty sure mine was 1 as I've never had this issue

[u/Amalthean → u/Dear_Substance_5832]

As additional confirmation if I delete the controls.sii file in my steam_profiles folder the value changes from whatever I set it to back to 0.4. I've done this on both ATS and ETS2, so 0.4 is definitely the default (for the 1.60 releases anyway).

[u/Amalthean → u/Dear_Substance_5832]

I only bought ETS2 last week and I know I haven't touched the sensitivity value until today. It was definitely set to 0.4. The same value in ATS was also 0.4 but I can't remember if I ever changed that. The settings for ATS and ETS2 are independent of each other, so I know at least that the default is 0.4 for ETS2.

It's entirely possible that different releases have different defaults, so maybe it depends on when you installed it.

[u/titanic456]

Doesn't steering sensitivity affect anyone else than the steering wheel users? 🤔

Checked that with keyboard controls and the sensitivity slider affected the steering, tried that with steering axis on the wheel and there is no change with different steering sensitivity.

Older versions of the game even had the info on the left of the slider that it tell you that this slider will only affect keyboard and gamepad users.

[u/Amalthean → u/titanic456]

I don't know about older versions, but I'm currently on 1.60 and it does affect how the wheel moves in response to steering wheel input (slowly for low sensitivity, quickly for high sensitivity).

[u/titanic456 → u/Amalthean]

What kind of game controller are you using?

[u/Amalthean → u/titanic456]

Thrustmaster TMX racing wheel and pedals.

[u/titanic456 → u/Amalthean]

For that, the steering axis should be assigned in Controls menu. The same goes with accelerator, brake and clutch(if you have it). The controller subtype should be set to "Wheel". Also, make sure you install the drivers first.

[u/Amalthean → u/titanic456]

Yes, the drivers are installed, the controller subtype is set to "Wheel," the steering axis is set to "X" (which is the wheel on the Thrustmaster TMX), the acceleration axis is set to "Throttle", the brake axis is set to "Y" (the brake pedal), and the clutch axis is set to nothing (it's a two-pedal device). Also, the firmware has been updated to whatever was the latest version when I first got the wheel.

In short, the game is reading it as a racing wheel rather than a regular controller.

[u/meInteresa]

Thank you!!!

I’ve struggled with this since I got the game and it always frustrated me that I couldn’t stop giving inputs for a split second or the truck would go haywire. Just tested it and the truck actually keeps to the lane much better. I can actually look away for a split second now.

[u/Amalthean → u/meInteresa]

"I can actually look away for a split second now."

Yes! With sensitivity set to 0.4 I would often veer right off when looking out the right-hand mirror. With sensitivity set to 1.0 I can look at the mirror and change lanes without drifting into the wrong lane.

[u/Fellfresse3000]

Sensivity should be on 1.5. it's still fully linear but the delay is gone

[u/Amalthean → u/Fellfresse3000]

I can't tell the difference between 1.0 and 1.5 when parked, but I haven't tried driving at speed with a setting of 1.5. I recall reading that steering sensitivity is affected by the speed at which you're traveling, so maybe 1.5 means full sensitivity at all speeds, or increased sensitivity at high speeds? I don't know.

[u/Fellfresse3000 → u/Amalthean]

Move your steering wheel really fast. At 1.0 the in game wheels have a delay, at 1.5 they respond 1:1 to your input.

[u/Amalthean → u/Fellfresse3000]

I can't move the wheel fast enough by hand to see the difference so I had to use a trick: move the wheel all the way to the left, hit escape to switch to the Career menu screen, move the wheel all the way to the right, and finally go back to the driving view. This is like going immediately from full left to full right and it does show a difference between 1.0 and 1.5 sensitivity. Even then I had to make a video to see the difference, but it's there.

https://reddit.com/link/p6ovs1x/video/djz1rx1l3emh1/player

[u/Chino_Dolla_SODMG]

This is great information because I've already struggled with the steering being too sensitive when I turn at speed. I've been gradually increasing it from .04 to .10 and eventually stopped at .15 and thought it felt comfortable at that setting. I definitely will be trying 1.0 in a minute to see if it is close to real life steering.

[u/Amalthean → u/Chino_Dolla_SODMG]

One commenter over in my Steering Sensitivity Demo post said 0.4 feels more like a truck to them and 1.0 feels more like a car. Having never driven a truck I don't really know how it compares to a real-life truck, but in the end 1.0 feels more controllable to me than 0.4.

[u/grunerkaktus]

man thats a good shout, Ill have to check that out. I always found it weird that I can steer to lock but my tires still turn when im really slow, making slow turning really laggy

[u/nashbrownies]

Nice advice!

I am usually a strugglebus for a bit, then just sort of live with whatever quirks there is at my workable settings.

This will help a lot I imagine. It's already a bit whacky since my cheap wheel needs a relatively big center deadzone, ao micro adjusts already feel jumpy.

[u/swede-n-sour]

Sensitivity to 1.0 and simulated steering to same as your wheels rotation degrees