The big TrackIR topic

[Azone 39]

heard the news..for us newbs...what is it?

[OMGBBQ32 12]

For me, it's hard to explain... I'll leave it to the xperts.

[Azone 39]

found it...yeah baby!

 

gonna get some more toys

[RoboRay 126]

It's a small camera that sits atop your monitor, which tracks the movements of your head. This allows you to look around in the game without using any hand controls. The view motions are much greater than the head motions, so if you turn your head a little to the side, the view points far to the side. You can turn the view around, looking behind you, while still able to see the monitor.

 

Imagine completely effortless and intuitive control of your view, much like you look around naturally, totally hands-free.

 

This video uses a similar system called Freetrack, which was shown some time ago but has still not been released for Flight, but will give you an idea of what Flight will be like using TrackIR.

 

 

This is one of the big things that has been holding a lot of more serious flight-simmers away from Flight.

[Azone 39]

It's a small camera that sits atop your monitor, which tracks the movements of your head. This allows you to look around in the game without using any hand controls. The view motions are much greater than the head motions, so if you turn your head a little to the side, the view points far to the side. You can turn the view around, looking behind you, while still able to see the monitor.

 

Imagine completely effortless and intuitive control of your view, much like you look around naturally, totally hands-free.

 

This video uses a similar system called Freetrack, which was shown some time ago but has still not been released for Flight, but will give you an idea of what Flight will be like using TrackIR.

 

 

This is one of the big things that has been holding a lot of more serious flight-simmers away from Flight.

 

That is awesome. I'll have to reposition myself in front of my 55 in screen. Any recommendations as to which system to get?

[matt_gold 1]

To add to RoboRay's explanation, it not only tracks 3 axis of rotation of your head, (up down, left right, and cocking your head side to side) it also tracks 3 directions of motion. This means that if a strut or something is blocking your view of a runway (or aerocache) you could move around in your seat and it would be like moving around in your cockpit. Additionally, moving "inwards" can give you a nice close-up of your instrumentation. It's really useful, and an almost MUST for virtual experiences, like sims. In my humble opinion.

[Gibbage 199]

FaceTrack uses a modified web cam and software to track your face or dots on your hat. It requires a LOT of work on YOUR end to take apart your camera, and remove the IR filter. Then you need to make a hat with the IR dots for the camera to track. For those people that like to tweak hardware, you can save some money. On the other hand, you can buy TrackIR for 179$ I think, and not mess with the hardware. Set the TIR camera on your monitor, clip the lights to your headset or hay, and your set!

 

FactTrack if I recall has some lag since its software, and the tracking is not as smooth with lower FPS camera's. TrackIR uses a high FPS camera and does its processing much faster without taking up a lot of CPU overhead. If you can afford it, TrackIR all the way.

 

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

 

It truly brings you into the simulation.

 

FYI, you DONT need to turn your head 180 to move the camera 180. You only need to look left a little bit, like 45. You can also adjust the sensitivity of it to suit your needs. If you have a 3 monitor setup, maybe you wont need it as sensitive.

[jcomm 5,930]

A fancy and expensive piece of hardware that makes you look silly and can cause nausea...

 

Just kidding... Never bought one, tried to make one from an inexpensive camera, but didn't finish, used a friend's one and got sick....

[FrankFasi 0]

My wife hates it when I wear the cap with the trackclip on it. She thinks it's the stupidest thing she has ever seen, and usually asks me to remove it.

[Mike Ross 0]

My wife hates it when I wear the cap with the trackclip on it. She thinks it's the stupidest thing she has ever seen, and usually asks me to remove it.

 

Got the same wife's reaction but I don't care. She took a picture of me with the hat and she threatened to publish it on Facebook ... Never mind, I continue to use it anyway because it's an essential accessory for simmers ... :Big Grin:

[Guest]

Best explanation:

 

[FiLooo 0]

HeLLo

I was sceptical about that "gadget" but now.... ouchhhh!!! I understand now why many of you are enthousiast.

Great

Thx

[styler360 0]

Is the trackir 5 worth it? I still have trackir 4 which is a little broken but working well.

[dburne 2]

A fancy and expensive piece of hardware that makes you look silly and can cause nausea...

 

I have had Track IR for several years, starting with the Track IR3 , then the 4, and more recently the 5.

One major concern I had when I first got the Track IR device, was motion sickness. I get motion sick very easily, in fact I pretty much cannot play FPS games, as I get so naseaus when I do. Flight sims, and racing sims, had never really bothered me.

I was pleased to find out, using the Track IR device with my flight sims, did not cause any motion sickness for me while using. I was suprised it didn't, and very glad it didn't.

 

I know you were kidding but wanted to share as I am very susceptible to that, and thankfully do not experience it with Track IR.

[Stumpwiz 2]

gonna get some more toys

 

Oh, yeah :-). Thanks for the video links, guys.