Forza Motorsport Best Fanatec CSL DD Wheel Settings

Forza Motorsport is a game that really rewards those who race with a wheel. I’ve been using my Fanatec CSL DD a lot while racing with the new Forza game, and I have to say I’m really enjoying it.

I did have to tweak a fair few settings though to make Forza feel great with my CSL DD racing wheel. In this guide, I’m going to run through my optimised Fanatec CSL DD wheel settings for Forza Motorsport.

See if the Fanatec CSL DD appears in our recommended racing wheels for Forza Motorsport guide.

Watch our Fanatec CSL DD force feedback settings for Forza

Below are our recommended Fanatec CSL DD wheel settings for Forza Motorsport. Continue reading below to quickly review our recommended settings.

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Which assists to use with a racing wheel?

Just like I mentioned in my Logitech G923 Forza Motorsport wheel settings guide, I want to first touch on the assists. The assists can change how your racing wheel feels, especially the simulation steering settings.

If you like to leave assists on, that’s not a problem, just make sure you set the steering setting to simulation. This will make your racing wheel feel heavier and more force feedback to come through.

Also, try to race with manual gears. Many Fanatec wheels such as the McLaren GT3 V2 which I’m currently using have paddle shifters built in. It really adds to the immersion when changing gear yourself.

Once, you’ve set the steering to simulation and adjusted your other assists, we can move on to the button mapping.

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Racing wheel input settings

As with any new racing wheel you set up for Forza Motorsport, you should check the input settings. These settings are basically your button mapping. And they control what inputs control which in-game actions.

Run through these and make sure you throttle, brake, steering and shifting is all set to the correct input. To change the input, simply scroll to the setting you wish to change. Click it and then press the new input.

After the button mapping is all set up, head over to the advanced input settings. This is where we will change how the force feedback feels in Forza Motorsport with our Fanatec CSL DD wheel.

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Advanced input settings

These advanced settings let you tinker with various parts of the force feedback. Forza Motorsport actually offers quite a few different settings which is really refreshing as we have a lot of things to tinker with.

I’m going to show you my recommended settings for my Fanatec CSL DD. I’m using the 8Nm version of the CSL DD, so if you’re using the 5Nm version, you may want to adjust a few of these settings up. Mainly the force feedback scale.

Setting	Value
Steering Axis Deadzone Inside	0
Steering Axis Deadzone Outside	100
Acceleration Deadzone Inside	0
Acceleration Deadzone Outside	100
Deceleration Deadzone Inside	0
Deceleration Deadzone Outside	100
Vibration Scale	50
Force Feedback Scale	95
Steering Self Alignment	70
Mechanical Trail Scale	160
Pneumatic Trail Scale	30
Road Feel Scale	105
Load Sensitivity	35
Wheel Damping Scale	90
Center Spring Scale	35
Dynamic Damper Behaviour	50
Steering Sensitivity	50
Steering Linearity	50

I’ve set all my deadzone settings to 0 on the inside and 100 on the outside. This is quite simply the ideal way to set up a racing wheel. As long as your pedals and wheel are correctly configured, you shouldn’t have any issues using 0 and 100.

Then for the vibration scale, leave this at 50 and for the force feedback scale, I’ve gone with 95. Remember, if you’re using a 5Nm version of the CSL DD, you may want to crank this setting up. But if you’re using a DD1 or DD2, you may want to lower this setting a bit.

For the steering self alignment, I’ve gone with 70. This is a combination of both mechanical and pneumatic trail scale, and can be seen as a global controller for both these settings.

For the mechanical trail scale I’ve gone with 160 and for the pneumatic trail scale, I’ve gone with 30. These affect how pronounced the effect of losing grip are and when set too aggressively, they can cause your wheel to go very light to enhance the feeling of understeer.

Then for the road feel scale, this is an area where I thought Forza was lacking a little bit, so I’ve increased it to 105 just to try and get a few more of those track details to really shine through.

I’ve then lowered the load sensitivity to 35, set the wheel damping scale to 90 and lowered the center spring strength to 35 as well. Which is the force at which your wheel returns to cneter.

Finally, I’ve set the dynamic damper behaviour to 50. And leave the steering sensitivity and linearity to 50 to create a true 1:1 steering effect.

Fanatec Wheel settings

You can also change a bunch of settings on your Fanatec wheel directly. Here are the settings that I’m using on my CSL DD.

Setting	Value
SEN (Sensitivity)	900°
FFB (Force Feedback)	90
FFS (Force Feedback Scaling)	Peak
NDP (Natural Damper)	30
NFR (Natural Friction)	20
NIN (Natural Inertia)	0
INT (Interpolation Filter)	1
FEI (Force Effect Intensity)	90
FOR (Force)	100
SPR (Spring)	100
DPR (Damper)	100
BLI (Brake Level Indicator)	Off
SHO (Shock)	100
MPS (Multi Position Switch)	Auto

For the sensitivity, leave this at 900° which is your rotation within the wheel itself. For the force feedback, I’ve gone with 90. Again, scale this up if you’re using a 5Nm CSL DD, or scale it down if you’re using a DD1 or DD2.

I’ve gone with peak force feedback scaling, then I’ve gone for 30 and 20 on the damper and friction, and 0 on the inertia. And then for the filter, I’ve gone with 1.

Force effect intensity, I’ve gone with 90. And then for the force, spring and damper, I’ve left them all at 100 which is standard for a Fanatec CSL DD wheel. I’ve also gone with 100 for the shock.

Then for the brake level indicator and multi-position switch, this is down to your personal preference.

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Overview

With these settings, my Fanatec CSL DD really came alive. If you’re running a more powerful Fanatec wheel such as the DD1 or DD2, you may want to turn down some settings such as the main force feedback setting.

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