Cheap Steering Wheels for PC or Console - Are They Worth It?

[Yasashii]

There are several scenarios for buying cheap steering wheels. The most prominent of these would be when you're on a tight budget or when you've never before used a steering wheel and just want to see whether you're going to like them before splashing out on an expensive one.

Whatever the situation might be, let me explain why there is a very good reason why cheapo wheels are sometimes called toys instead of actual controllers in the racing sim community.

First of all, most of them do, in fact, look like toys. Take a look at this Tracer Zonda, for example:

 

It really doesn't have an instant "pro" feel about it, does it? This is a wheel that I actually own and used in the past. It costs about $50. You can get a decent gamepad (or controller, if you will) for that money so you'd expect it to also hold true in the case of wheels, right? Well, let me tell you a few things about the Tracer Zonda.

First of all, if you're an adult, you're really not gonna want to have this thing mounted to your desk when someone comes over. Or, in fact, ever, if you have a wife. In real life it looks even worse than in the photo. See that silver element around the knob on the right? That's a flaky paper sticker. See those three buttons on the top of the body on the left? Yeah, those are fake. That horn button in the middle of the steering wheel can actually be pushed but it doesn't do anything, at least on PC. The wheel itself is also quite small and doesn't feel anything like a real steering wheel of a car.

On the technical side things get even worse. The wheel only turns by 280 degrees (lock to lock). The pedals feel terrible and have quite a big dead zone. It doesn't have force feedback or a handbrake lever. Even when keeping the wheel perfectly centered it will actually steer your car slightly to the right (if I remember right) and upon researching the problem online I had found out that the issue wasn't limited to my model only and, in fact, it's probably a thing on most (if not all) of them.

In short, it's an utter piece of crap and yet it sells well, at least in Poland. Anyway the pedals broke after a few months after purchase (still on warranty so got them replaced) and then again a few months after the warranty had expired.
 

 

So after the Zonda, I decided that I would spend twice as much money and get a better wheel. I went and got the Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Italia VG (about $100).

 

 

This thing looks much better. The wheel is considerably bigger, feels quite alright and has rubber parts to prevent hand slipping. The flappy paddles are actually made of metal (assuming you have the revised version). The turning angle is still a pathetic 270 degrees. Still no force feedback and no handbrake lever. Also, in contrast to most other cheap wheels, it doesn't have an exact central point to which the wheel will return upon letting go. This makes it challenging to keep your car straight unless you turn the sensitivity way down (which you should do anyway, considering the turning angle). Also: it has dead zones at the end of each turn, so if you're going through a tight hairpin at full lock and want just a bit smaller turn when nearing the exit, it's difficult to tell where the dead zone ends and actual steering begins.

This thing is also advertised as being Xbox 360 compatible. Great! If you're on PC, though, you're gonna have a bad time. I had assumed the thing would just get detected as the standard Xbox 360 controller but it doesn't, it's its own thing and works in a weird way. As far as I was able to figure out, it doesn't actually generate Xinput when connected to PC, so it won't work with games designed to work with the Xbox 360 controller. It doesn't generate Dinput either, just raw input, which some games support, some don't. So in order to get this freakin' fully-PC-compatible-advertised thing to work in Test Drive Unlimited I had to use Vjoy and UJR to remap it to a virtual standard controller. What a doozy.



So far I've reviewed two random wheels that I happen to own. What's my point? Maybe I just made poor choices? Well, you could say that but just read some opinions on cheap wheels by other people on various forums on the internet. Everyone who bought one at some point will go: "What a piece of %$%^!!!". Why is that, you may ask?

The issues I mentioned here are not limited to just these wheels. Pretty much all cheap ones will have dead zones, build quality issues, possible incompatibilities and, most importantly, won't give you an experience that's anywhere near like driving a real car, which is, after all, their ultimate purpose. If you just want analog input, why not a joystick? Yeah, those still exist.

The most important features those wheels lack is a proper turning angle, clutch pedal, H-shifter, and force feedback. Some have vibration feedback but that's just a stupid gimmick, if you ask me, and actually can be a problem. Remember that unless you're willing to spend money on a mounting rack, you're gonna mount it to your desk which will send the vibrations all through your house so late night sessions may be a problem, especially if the vibration feature can't be turned off (and yes, it often cannot).



"But Yasashii, I don't need super good build quality or great control. I'm not even into sims. I just want a wheel to have a bit more control than I normally have with a thumb stick on a controller in arcade racing games." - Ah, here's the rub. You'd think they'd at least be good for that, but trust me, that assumption is going to backfire on you.

Keep in mind that arcade racers are usually made with controllers, or even keyboard in mind, and as such don't feel proper with a wheel. They usually require you to make super rapid and frequent changes of direction (which aren't a problem on a controller, you just shift your thumb slightly) and on a wheel, you'll constantly be shuffling back and forth.

And even if a game doesn't require rapid input it will still likely feel weird with a wheel, it's quite difficult to explain. It's just... you know what? Just don't.



The lesson to learn here is that there are only two kinds of wheels: proper, expensive ones, and useless pieces of dudu. They are more expensive and they have every right to be. They are bigger and, as such, they require more resources to build, store and distribute. They need high-sensitivity sensors for the input (so that there's no jitter) and pretty powerful electric motors for the force feedback. Don't expect to be able to pay for a wheel the same money as you would for a standard controller.

Make the right decision and just buy the Logitech G27. It's as simple as that, really, assuming you have the money. If you don't: save up. The "I'll just deal with some compromises" strategy doesn't apply here, sadly.

[SCHISCHKA]

turning angle is everything.

the cheap ones are for children

[Yasashii]

Actually, I remember reading a story of a teenager that got really good at racing sims, won some championship and got accepted as a driver in an actual real life racing series.

So if I had a kid who's good at racing sims, I would get him/her a G27.

[WindirBear]

I remember I had one for the original Xbox.

 

 

Wildcat brand I think.

Never again.

[Techicolors]

On 3/18/2017 at 11:31 PM, Yasashii said:

Actually, I remember reading a story of a teenager that got really good at racing sims, won some championship and got accepted as a driver in an actual real life racing series.

So if I had a kid who's good at racing sims, I would get him/her a G27.

sounds like GT academy 

[Yasashii]

That was probably it, yes. I think I read about it in an article in the CDAction magazine some years ago.