Two months ago we presented you our review of the MOZA R3 and since then, we have continued testing. Here are a few useful tips and tricks for setting up and to improve the experience with your MOZA R3.
The MOZA R3 Racing Bundle burst onto the sim racing scene in June, offering an affordable Direct Drive alterantive. It is also MOZA's first Xbox-compatible wheel base - which had one big weakness initially: Assetto Corsa Competizione and F1 24 were not compatible.
Luckily, this has since changed, making the R3 a better choice for sim racing beginners on both PC and Xbox via the included steering wheel. For anyone who has the bundle or is thinking about getting it, we wanted to give you a guide to the setup, the settings and a few tips so that you do not have to spend a lot of time tinkering, but can have fun racing as quickly as possible.
Make An Informed Decision
As always, the first priority with sim racing hardware is to make an informed purchase decision. Let's say you want to buy your first Direct Drive wheel and you have a certain budget limit, so R5 or even R9 bundles are out of the question. Especially with the R5, you should look for special offers - it normally costs 200 EUR more than the R3 here in Germany, but it is currently on sale, so the difference is only 70 EUR.
Instead of the R3's 3.9 Nm, the R5 offers 5.5Nm, which is a noticeable jump that feels a bit more serious, and the finish and material of the steering wheel is also a bit better. However, there is one factor that may be decisive for you: only the ESX wheel that comes with the R3 bundle makes the MOZA wheelbases Xbox-compatible.
Other than that, I would like to reiterate the conclusion of our review: The R3 is a small powerhouse that surprises with its compactness and still delivers respectable power and detail, especially with the light and thin ESX wheel. Beginners, casual racers and children in particular will have a lot of fun with it. We will be doing a comprehensive overview of entry-level wheels soon, but we can already say that the R3 is definitely one of our recommendations in this segment, especially in combination with the Xbox.
Setting Up Your Gear
When you first unpack your bundle of wheel, R3 base, pedals, and table clamp, you should briefly familiarize yourself with the connections and cabling, which are explained in detail in the manuals for both the Xbox and the PC. On the Xbox, the pedals must always be connected to the RJ port whereas on the PC, they can theoretically be connected separately via USB.
The R3 is likely often mounted using the desk clamp, so we tried it out. It holds the wheel firmly in place. Meanwhile, the pedals had a good grip on our floormat, but it is advisable to support them somehow at the back. It is actually also advisable to order the brake with the performance kit, as a little more resistance makes the feeling much better compared to just pressing against the Hall sensor.
Especially on cars without ABS, you need to be able to apply the brakes more precisely and build up muscle memory. This small add-on with spring and elastomer can be easily installed in less than five minutes and significantly enhances the brake. However, the resistance will then likely be too great for the pedals to be free-standing, so bolting them down is unavoidable. The bolt pattern also allows the bundle to be mounted on most sim rigs, in our case on the Simlab P1X Pro.
MOZA R3 Settings
Modes & App
It is important to know that you can switch the mode of the R3 between PC and Xbox by pressing and holding down the S1 and S2 buttons. This is sometimes useful for troubleshooting, switching back and forth if the wheel is not properly detected by the Xbox or does not provide Force Feedback.
When setting up the wheel for the first time, it is recommended that you connect the wheel to a PC or laptop and download the MOZA Pithouse software from there. This is the only way to get the latest firmware for your devices. For Xbox-only users, it is also highly recommended to download the MOZA Companion App for iOS or Android, as at some point you may want to customize the wheel's angle to suit your preferences or in-game settings.
Steering Angle & Deadzones
It is also advisable to work with the presets, especially for beginners. For example, Assetto Corsa Competizione has a preset hidden under the GT segment that sets the wheel to 900 degrees. For EA Sports WRC, you can use the Rally preset, which sets the wheel to 540 degrees.
Continue by checking the control settings of each title to see if the values match or use the calibration. F1 24 still has a wheel angle problem with our setup, as you can see above. If you set it to 360 degrees in the game and on the wheel, it is extremely nervous. You have to set it to 2000 degrees in the app to get the right angle ingame, so a patch is urgently needed.
While AC, ACC and WRC feel the best to us, you can also have a good time with Forza Motorsport, it just has a different approach and has the most cars and track combinations on Xbox. It is still getting a lot of updates, too. The cars do feel a little spongy and floaty, but after experimenting with the settings and getting used to a few races, I had some fun with it.
Here are the wheel settings I used to drive Forza Motorsport - the deadzones are always a matter of preference. I am usually a fan of no deadzones at all and direct input even at the lowest input. While I might still buy a steering wheel for Forza Motorsport because the clean driving feels rewarding in the end, I would not say the same for Forza Horizon 5. As mentioned in the review, this title gives me no feel for the axles and weight of the vehicle, clearly making it a gamepad title in my opinion.
In general you must accept that there are less buttons on the Xbox than on the PC, which we also discussed in our review. However, the layout in ACC for example allows you to quickly adjust TC and ABS with the left and right buttons and access the in-car menu with the menu button. Incidentally, the shift LEDs do not work on the Xbox, in case you were wondering. This is simply because, unlike the PS5, this console does not support these telemetry functions.
Avoiding Clipping
One topic that even beginners should have heard of is clipping. Along with audio-visual cues and basic steering angle, Force Feedback is the most important sensor for feeling what your car is doing. If I lose traction on the rear axle, my car starts to understeer and push over the front wheels, my tires lock up when braking without ABS, and so on.
Now, it can happen that the game outputs stronger forces than the R3's engine can produce. At that moment, the effects we feel through the steering wheel are literally cut off and we are talking about clipping. The more torque a wheelbase can generate, the less likely it is that this effect will occur, and of course it also depends on how the individual sim or game is tuned.
On the Xbox it is also possible to see FFB scaling in ACC or in Forza Motorsport Telemetry for example. In the ACC's case, the bar will turn red when you are losing effects. If this happens every time you take a slight curb or when the car slides, you may want to gradually reduce the Force Feedback in the driver or in the game.
With a 3.9 Nm wheel, however, you do not want to lose much more force, so you will have to find a compromise that feels good to you. With 100% force in the driver and 80% in the game in ACC, it was ok for me and the clipping was only slightly noticeably on harder curbs. Be sure to keep this in mind, especially when you start to take sim racing more seriously.
We hope you have enjoyed our additional explanations and that they have helped you get started in virtual racing with a steering wheel! It is definitely worth it and a lot of fun, even if a little research is sometimes necessary. However, there are plenty of places to go, especially for the wheel settings of various games, as well as other YouTubers who put a lot of energy into explaining everything in great detail. Or, of course, the community and forums here on OverTake.gg!
Let us know your experiences, tips and tricks for the MOZA R3 on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
