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We take a look at the new force feedback steering wheel and pedal combo from SC&TUltimate per4mer UP 300 Force feedback wheel.This is the lastest incarnation of the Ultimate per4mer range, based on the solid UP200 and adds X-Axis force feedback.The first thing you should know about this wheel is that it plugs into your serial port, therefore it will only work with DirectInput® enabled software (anything using DirectX5 and above). What this means is it will not work with any DOS games, even some windows 95 games may not work if they do not use the Microsoft® API. There is a 20W power supply to find a mains socket for, a long cable from the pedals to plug into the wheel and finally a serial lead to plug into your PC. First of all I tested the wheel as 'input only' with Gremlin Interactive's Motorhead (No force feedback support). The wheel worked perfectly with smooth action and no glitching or noticeable lag even across diferent 3D hardware -Matrox® Mystique 170, PowerVR® (3DX) and 3DFX® Voodoo® 1 in Direct3D® mode. Occasionally 3D drivers interfere with other DirectX® API's. The pedals are of the same type as the UP200 but are not interchangeable, they are however tough and well spaced. I cannot get the hang of one footed use, but two footed use is comfortable. Right then, shall I try to see what all this force feedback fuss is bout.. Hmmm ... what game to try? That'll do, Cart Racing from Microsoft. Works as a wheel but no feedback, thats disapointing. Silly me, lets turn on force feedback in the setup menu, always a good idea. Test drive, Miami, down the pit lane, accelerate, first corner, arrggghh..... Great, I now have two broken arms, a damaged table and my speakers have fallen on the floor. The first thing you notice is how much torque this wheel can produce. If set at 100% in the setup menu it can border on painful. Back to setup turn down feedback to 50%, and try again. When in corners you get what is known as 'Spring Effect', that is when you turn the wheel and the force that you would get where the wheels would try to straighten applies (It gets harder to turn the faster you take a corner, unless you start to understeer). This feels good!! Oop's turned a little early into that corner, its ok the rumble strip will save me. Arrgghhh.. my teeth have now fallen out, I've lost control and here comes the wall - you can guess what happens next?. Once I got used to this new feel, I started to use it to find the limit and got my times down to an all time low 26.8 secs even on my pathetic setup. I like this. There are infared sensors on each side of the wheel, which are used for a 'Dead mans Handle', that is when you let go of the wheel it will stop feeding back. This can cause problems as the buttons are high up and the sensors are low down, small hands will give problems. The drivers supplied are using the standard I-Force® 2.0 Licenced from Immersion® Corp, and appear to support all the features that games are throwing out. I have tested the feedback features of cart racing from microsoft,F1 Racing Simulator from UbiSoft, Sega Rally and Sega Daytona USA. The Pack comes with Wheel, Pedals, PSU, Mounting Brackets, drivers, Sega Rally, Daytona USA Uppers: Good Torque Robust Solid Mounting Load's of buttons to press Consistant Driver performance Downers: No Testing Utility Drivers could be Better Deadmans handle is too low down Silly Stickers on Wheel Conclusion: This is the first force feedback wheel I have seen in the UK, and its going to take some beating.
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