Assetto Corsa is an incredibly realistic driving simulator. However, it can be enjoyed with a controller just as much as with a racing wheel. Here are our recommended controller settings to make Assetto Corsa extremely smooth and driveable.
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Despite being released over 10 years ago, Assetto Corsa remains one of the most-played sim racing games on Steam. Its popularity can be attributed to its excellent driving simulator and incredible mods.
Assetto Corsa has been released on PC as well as both Xbox and PlayStation consoles. This means, a good majority of players are using a controller, whether that is an Xbox gamepad or a PlayStation DualSense controller.
In this settings guide, I’ll show you our recommended controller settings for Assetto Corsa on Xbox, PS5 and PC.
If you are thinking about buying a racing wheel for Assetto Corsa, check out our recommendations for the best Assetto Corsa racing wheels.
Assetto Corsa may be one of the most realistic sim racing games available. However, it is also one of the most played on Steam and available on Xbox and PS5. A good majority of players use a controller instead of a racing wheel, and with the right settings, it can feel incredibly smooth and intuitive.
A racing wheel does increase your level of control and overall immersion when racing Assetto Corsa. You’ll have much more detailed and precise control over each of the cars, and the force feedback can inform you of how your car is behaving on track.
Racing Assetto Corsa with a controller is much more accessible. It can be a more relaxing experience as you can race comfortably from your sofa, a chair or your bed. Some players are even quicker with a controller than those using a racing wheel.
If you are considering choosing a racing wheel for your Assetto Corsa, read our recommended buyer’s guide. In it, I look at the best racing wheels for your Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Evo.
Depending on whether you are racing Assetto Corsa on console or PC, you will have slightly different ways of setting up your controller.
On a console, you have to use the dated Assetto Corsa UI, which hasn’t aged as well as the gameplay. The controller settings are in the main menu, where you will have access to all the settings I’ll mention in this guide.
If you are racing Assetto Corsa on a PC, I’d highly recommend downloading Content Manager, a free mod for the game that replaces the entire UI and menu system. Content Manager makes it incredibly easy to set up races, change a wide variety of settings, and install mods.
I’ll be using Content Manager throughout this guide, but remember that all settings are available in the original menus if you are racing on an Xbox or PlayStation.
Read our complete tutorial on how to set up Content Manager for Assetto Corsa.
To set up a controller for Assetto Corsa, follow the steps below;
By default, steering with a controller can feel incredibly sensitive as small analogue stick inputs relate to very fast steering inputs in game. When racing at high speed, this can cause your car to lose control completely.
Our goal with these settings is to slow the steering speed down and make all inputs much more manageable and natural with a controller. These settings will mimic games like Forza and Need For Speed, making driving the car much easier.
Below are our recommended Assetto Corsa controller settings. These settings are designed to make steering much smoother and more controllable for use with all cars.
Recommended controller settings for drifting. These loosen up the car and make steering more sensitive for quick direction changes.
I’ll provide some additional information below to help you understand what each controller setting in Assetto Corsa does. This can help you know which settings to change when making adjustments to your controller.
The speed sensitivity setting adjusts how sensitive your inputs are when driving at different speeds. Increasing this will slow your input sensitivity while travelling at higher speeds. Keeping this around 50% will ensure your steering feels the same no matter what speed you’re travelling at.
The steering speed changes how fast your analogue stick inputs translate into steering inputs. By default and at higher values, moving the analogue stick slightly causes the steering to travel to full lock incredibly quickly, which can cause many issues when driving at high speeds.
Imagine you were moving at 150mph and turned your steering wheel full lock in one direction. The results would be pretty bad. This is why I’d recommend lowering your steering speed setting to slow down your inputs with a controller.
The steering gamma adjusts how your inputs are translated to in-game steering. The higher the gamma setting, the less impact moving the left analogue stick will have on your steering. Lowering this setting will make your steering inputs feel sharper in game. However, I’d recommend setting the gamma relatively high to increase your levels of control and prevent the steering feeling too jarring.
The steering filter works alongside the gamma to set the overall speed at which your steering moves by adding layers of dampening. Higher values will apply more filtering to the steering inputs, in turn, slowing them down.
The steering deadzone controller setting in Assetto Corsa will create an artificial deadzone at the center of your analogue stick. If you find your car drifts to one side while not touching your stick, you should increase the deadzone to eliminate this. Only increase the deadzone enough to stop any stick drift. Normally 2-4% is ideal.
The rumble effects setting is a global controller for how strong your vibrations will feel. You can leave this close to 100%, but set based on your own personal preference.
Depending on which controller you are using, you may need to adjust some of your inputs. By default, the gear shifts will be assigned to the face buttons, however, inputs such as looking left, right and backwards along with clutch inputs aren’t correctly assigned.
To change your Assetto Corsa controller button mapping, you can select any of the current inputs. Then press the new input you wish to use on your controller.
You can navigate through the sub menus, main, additional, system and patch to access extra inputs and functionality such as wiper blades, indicators, ERS and DRS etc.
With our recommended settings in place, you can head into any car in Assetto Corsa and have much greater control while driving with a controller. Assetto Corsa is incredibly fun, being a huge sandbox thanks to the incredible Assetto Corsa mods.
You can use the links below to shop for your favourite sim racing products, or for any products that we may have recommended. These links are affiliate links, and will earn us a small commission, with no additional cost for you.
Assetto Corsa is an incredibly realistic racing game, however, with the right settings, you can enjoy it with a controller. In fact, many players can be faster racing Assetto Corsa with a controller compared to a racing wheel.
You can edit the controller settings from the controls screen within Content Manager if you are using it. If you are racing Assetto Corsa on a console and do not have access to content manager, you can change your settings from both the main menu settings, and the controls menu when you load into a race session.
To configure your controller and the button mapping in Assetto Corsa, head into the controls settings from Content Manager which is available on PC. You can then scroll through the button mapping. To change any settings, click into a function and then press the new input on your controller.
Rich is the founder, F1 car setup creator and content writer for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com
View all articles written by Rich
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