Soft lock is a force feedback effect that stops a sim racing wheel from turning past the point where the virtual car’s steering reaches its limit, creating a firm resistance that mimics hitting the physical end stops in a real car. Instead of a hard mechanical wall, the wheel’s motor pushes back to tell you that you have run out of lock.
To understand soft lock, it helps to know what it is not. It is not a hardware limit built into the wheel, and it is not the same as your rotation setting. Soft lock is a software-driven force that matches the wheel’s usable range to whatever car you are driving, so a truck with vast steering lock and a formula car with very little each feel correct on the same hardware.
Why it matters
Real cars have a fixed amount of steering travel, and hitting that limit is useful information. Without soft lock, your wheel might keep rotating well past the car’s actual limit, so the on-screen wheels stop turning while your hands keep going. That mismatch breaks immersion and, more practically, makes it harder to judge how much lock you have left mid-corner. Soft lock closes that gap.
Soft lock versus rotation and deadzone
These three settings are easy to confuse. Rotation is the total number of degrees your wheel is set to turn, often 900 for a road car or much less for a formula car. A deadzone is a band of movement that is ignored, usually at the center. Soft lock is the force you feel at the ends of the car’s actual range. Rotation sets the range, soft lock defends its edge, and deadzone affects the middle.
How games and wheels handle it
Most modern sims, including Assetto Corsa, iRacing, and Gran Turismo 7, support soft lock when paired with a compatible wheel and driver software. Reviewers and communities generally recommend enabling it and setting your wheel to a wide rotation, then letting the game apply the correct per-car lock automatically. Many direct drive and mid-range wheels reproduce this end-stop force convincingly; some entry wheels apply it more gently.
Which approach is right for you
If you drive a range of car types, enable soft lock and set a wide rotation so each car gets its true steering limit without you adjusting anything between sessions. If you drive a single discipline, such as formula cars, you may prefer to match your rotation to that car directly. Either way, soft lock is about accuracy at the edges of the wheel, and most drivers who value realism leave it on.
Soft lock governs the ends of your wheel’s travel, while its opposite problem, unwanted movement at the center, is covered in our explainer on deadzone. The way soft lock feels also depends on your wheelbase, so our explainer on the wheel hub versus the wheel is worth a read. To set all of this up cleanly, start with our Getting Started hub, and to find hardware that reproduces the effect well, see our best sim racing wheels guide.
