In partnership with the Logitech G923 TRUEFORCE steering wheel and pedal set.
There’s a great affinity towards Logitech within the sim racing community, principally because many drivers started out with one of its wheels.
Having been in the market for over 24 years, and many users still dusting off their G25s and G27s, the company is taking steps to build upon this loyal foundation and capitalise on the burgeoning virtual racing scene.
It’s going about this through the creation and implementation of unique technological innovations.
When Logitech launched its G923 sim racing steering wheel for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, it wasn’t just a new moniker, different coloured buttons, a beefier motor driver and a more powerful MCU compared to the existing Logitech G29 and G290.
No, it also introduced TRUEFORCE – a proprietary technology that is much more than just the vibration of the wheel.
“There are actually two elements that make up TRUEFORCE,” explains Richard Neville, Portfolio Manager, Simulation and Controllers, at Logitech.
“We have kinaesthetic force feedback, which is what most people are used to with force feedback wheels.
“That’s the lower frequency, higher spring, forces you’ll feel as you build up into a corner or as you lose grip.
“But, there’s also what we call the vibrotactile side of things. This is higher frequency, finer detail, feedback that you feel through the wheel of a real car.
“This can be derived from the audio of the game, but it can also come from the physics engine as well.”
Those little, almost imperceptible, extra vibrations you get through your car’s wheel when driving over an imperfect road surface, or in a racing car should you enter a corner with just a fraction too much speed and start to understeer, thus scrubbing the tyres.
These are additional to the main feedback you feel as a car shifts its weight or the downforce loads up, and it’s these elements TRUEFORCE layers over the top of the regular sim racing experience.
Alongside the hardware upgrades, the TRUEFORCE interface is a key differentiator between not just Logitech’s G29/G290 and the newer G923 steering wheel, but also similarly priced devices on the market from different manufacturers.
“It’s not using direct input on PC and it’s not using the interfaces that are standard on PlayStation and Xbox either,” says Neville.
“It is our own interface. Very importantly, running at 4000Hz.
“Game developers have to do extra work to actually incorporate support and it’s been interesting to see the level of adoption.
“There have been a lot of studios who are hugely interested, they just love this idea of giving all this extra information to the driver.
“Quite often, it’s honouring the good work that they’re doing with their physics and their audio departments.”
If you’ve experienced the DualSense feedback on a PlayStation 5 controller, there are parallels between that system and TRUEFORCE, both utilising physics and the audio base – except the latter is in steering wheel form.
There is another benefit that TRUEFORCE brings to developers, too, however.
“Up until now, with the existing interfaces, developers didn’t even know the angle of the wheel as it stands at the moment”, explains Neville.
“Which is bizarre when you’re thinking about it. They know what it was set to, but they don’t know what it currently is.
TRUEFORCE actually has the information and allows them therefore to have a greater level of control over what is going on with the wheel.”
The interface has made its way across to the G Pro Racing Wheel, Logitech’s first-ever direct drive sim racing system. Sitting at the top of the range, the Swiss company now has a broad racing game ecosystem.
“The G29/G290 is the number one wheel in the market,” highlights Neville.
“It’s the one that most people in the last six years will have started their sim racing career on.
“Then the obvious reason the G923 exists is we wanted to make some improvements over the entry level products and have that set-up available. Then of course the G Pro is for the all singing all dancing people who really do want the power and the fidelity of direct drive.”
So three model lines, two of which use TRUEFORCE, once again proving that detailed feedback isn’t just about raw horsepower, but subtle details too.
“TRUEFORCE was something that we felt was missing from force feedback up to now,” says Neville.
“We really wanted to bridge that gap between the real and the virtual. So you are getting as much information as you can about what the virtual car is doing.
“It’s part immersion and it’s part of giving you that extra information that allows you to control the car better.”
In partnership with the Logitech G923 TRUEFORCE steering wheel and pedal set.
