I'm having a blast using trackir 3 pro with the virtual cockpit at high resolution which, combined with the right eyepoint adjustment and zoom setting, the instrument panel is still very clear on the monitor and the immersion is fantastic. However, there is a problem: Sometimes, the "virtual yoke" in the virtual cockpit blocks the view of one of the lower instruments, so I have to switch to 2d cockpit (which I honestly hate with a passion). Does anyone have a workaround for this? I'd love to make the "virtual yoke" transparent, stationary or completely absent. Any 3rd party virtual cockpits designed with this in mind?

I have trackir2 and am mostly satisfied but some instruments have a sparkling glitter effec that is only visible when using trackir. Im guessing this is just a by product and must be lived with. Do you have this same issue with version 3? Also what are the major advantages to moving from the 2 to 3 version? Appreciate your comments.RegardsBob

I don't experience this "glitter effect" you describe. The movement is significantly smoother and feels more accurate with the TIR 3 pro vs TIR 2. If you regularly fly using TIR, I consider it a worthy upgrade.

No that glitter effect shouldn

bump!

The yoke blocking the instrument panel is a real problem. It would be nice if you could remove the yoke from view altogether. It's possible to do this, for example, in Dennis Simanaitis's Spruce Goose (sprgoo04.zip at flightsim.com). But that's not a plane that you fly every day. A possible workaround if you have Active Camera: find a view that does work (e.g., reading the gauge from up close and above), then save that view it as a preset.It would be nice, though, if there were a line in, say fs9.cfg, that would remove the yoke from the VC in any plane that had one.

Is there a big difference between the regular and pro models? I currently own a Dell D800 1.7GHz M processor, 1GB memory with 64MB NV4200Go graphics. I get around 10-20 FPS with my current settings (maxed at 1920x1200).As far as the yoke is concerned, I'm a little confused. The yoke is there in real life. If the eyepoint is set up properly, why would you need to remove the yoke? Is it that in real life you can make your head move back and forth a little to compensate and TrackIR doesn't model this?Thanks,Thomas Perry

I really cannot comment on the relative difference b/n regular and pro models of TIR 3, other than to make a decision based on the specs described on the naturalpoint website. I have personally only compared the TIR 3 PRO vs TIR 2. The virtual yoke seems to obstruct more than I would expect in the real aircraft. Modifying the eyepoint does not seem to help with this unless the eyepoint is moved to impractical extremes. I think this is a MAJOR oversight by MS since my research indicates that the only way to do away with the virtual yoke is to modify the aircraft model itself, and the original gmax models for the default aircraft are not apparently available to do this.Virtual cockpit I believe is seriously defective because of this.

>Does anyone have a workaround for this? I'd love to make the>"virtual yoke" transparent, stationary or completely absent. You can indeed make the VC yoke transparent provided it is actually textured. You do need to know your way around in a paint program a little bit and know how to handle texture conversion with DXTBmp (small freeware program).Before going into details let me know if this thought appeals to you. :-roll >Any 3rd party virtual cockpits designed with this in mind? Yep,with our MAAM-SIM DC-3 you have a 'no yoke in vc' option.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/97487.jpgYou'd have to have some affinity with the old girl of course :(regards,Jan

When will that be available for us regular people :)About TrackIR 3 and TrackIR 2. There is a real difference but you have to remember that the higher frame rates the smoother panning.So if you are flying at 10-20 fps you won

>I have trackir2 and am mostly satisfied but some instruments>have a sparkling glitter effec that is only visible when using>trackir. Im guessing this is just a by product and must be>lived with. Do you have this same issue with version 3? Also>what are the major advantages to moving from the 2 to 3>version? >>Appreciate your comments.>>Regards>BobThe difference between the 2 is in the FPS they run at IIRC, and both are beyond that of the naked eye. So it really doesn't matter.I have a TrackIR2 Pro and don't see any glitter effect. TIR2 Pro runs at 100FPS IIRC. Anybody who says they can see a difference between 60-75-and 100fps (SOLID for EACH!) is not dealing with a full deck (of course neither am I!!! :-lol). Once you get beyond 30 FPS (actually even 25 FPS as long as it runs locked at that speed!) it really doesn't matter in FS. How "smooth" the TIR runs at doesn't mean anything if your computer can't meet the same standards. A TrackIR 3 that can run at 150 FPS looks like 30 FPS on a computer that can only put out 30 FPS (go figure! lol). The TIR2 Pro and 3/Pro Models all exceed the amount of FPS that ANYBODY gets in FS so it really doesn't matter.I wouldn't waste your money if you already have a TIR2 Pro (do you have a Pro or a Standard?)Hope this helps!:)

Thank you for your very helpfull reply regarding how to make the virtual yoke transparent.I am very excited about your idea since it seems that it should work and it (hopefully) is not too hard. I'm a total newbie to repainting *anything* much less aircraft in fs 9, but I've programmed software and I'm generally a quick study with any software.Are you able to provide a clear, simple way to change the texture on the virtual yoke to transparent?I would like to start of with modifying the default cessna 172 a/c in fs9.:)

>>I have trackir2 and am mostly satisfied but some>instruments>>have a sparkling glitter effec that is only visible when>using>>trackir. Im guessing this is just a by product and must be>>lived with. Do you have this same issue with version 3? Also>>what are the major advantages to moving from the 2 to 3>>version? >>>>Appreciate your comments.>>>>Regards>>Bob>>>>The difference between the 2 is in the FPS they run at IIRC,>and both are beyond that of the naked eye. So it really>doesn't matter.>>I have a TrackIR2 Pro and don't see any glitter effect. TIR2>Pro runs at 100FPS IIRC. Anybody who says they can see a>difference between 60-75-and 100fps (SOLID for EACH!) is not>dealing with a full deck (of course neither am I!!! :-lol).>Once you get beyond 30 FPS (actually even 25 FPS as long as it>runs locked at that speed!) it really doesn't matter in FS. >>How "smooth" the TIR runs at doesn't mean anything if your>computer can't meet the same standards. A TrackIR 3 that can>run at 150 FPS looks like 30 FPS on a computer that can only>put out 30 FPS (go figure! lol). The TIR2 Pro and 3/Pro Models>all exceed the amount of FPS that ANYBODY gets in FS so it>really doesn't matter.>>I wouldn't waste your money if you already have a TIR2 Pro (do>you have a Pro or a Standard?)>>>>Hope this helps!>>:)>>No you will actually see the difference as soon as you get it. I did upgrade from the TrackIR 2 PRO to TrackIR 3 PRO. Not because I was dissatisfied with the TrackIR 2 PRO though. It

Hi.See my "SpeechBuddy2" message, it may help if you try and set your

>I would like to start of with modifying the default cessna 172>a/c in fs9.A wise decision, shouldn't be too hard.First you need two small FS texture handling programs : DXTBmp,which you can get here http://fly.to/mwgfx , and Image Tool which comes with FS.Have a look first at the bitmap you're going to be working on.Open DXTBmp, choose 'load normal image' from the file menu,point to your FS9/Aircraft/C172/texture folder (not texture.1 or texture.2)and choose 'c172_c.bmp'.When the bitmap has loaded you'll see the Yoke texture in the upper left area, right above the wing texture. All that is needed is to fill that Yoke image with pure black color ( RGB 0.0.0 ).Most VC textures are in so called DXT1 or DXT3 format to save VC performance.Paintprograms cannot handle these formats so you'd need to first convert a DXT1 or DXT3 back to a 'normal' 24bit bitmap.You *could* just do that with DXTBmp by simply choosing 'save 24bit image' from the file menu however you'd notice quite a severe loss in quality of the bitmap when looking at it in your paintprogram.Better is to choose Image Tool for this kind of conversions. Open Image Tool and load 'c172_c.bmp' as described above.Forget about the 9 Mip Levels for now,just choose View/Mip Maps from the menu and check '1', choose Image/Format and check 24bit.Now save as 'c172_c_ work ' or something ( you don't want to loose your original c172_c.bmp ) Now open your paint program ( you could perform this simple task even with Windows Paint but you might want to get yourself Paint Shop Pro which, i believe, has a trial period.I use Corel Photopaint and Adobe Photoshop myself). Load your just created 24bit 'c172_c_work.bmp' . There are of course several methods of replacing the Yoke image with pure black color,i'll just briefly describe the use of the 'multiple sides' tool here. First select both the paint color and fill color as pure black.Depends a little on the paint program you're going to use how to achieve that but mostly it will suffice to just double click one of the little colored squares of the palette, this will then show an 'advanced' palette menu with which you can choose any color by filling in the RGB values. Make these show 0,0,0. Now you have pure black as your paint color,make sure also the fill color is the same as the paint color. Select the 'multiple sides' tool from the tool box or bar and carefully draw along the contour of the Yoke image. When done normally a double click will now fill the area with pure black. Save the bitmap as,say, 'c172_c_work2.bmp' . Open DXTBmp and load 'c172_c_work2.bmp'( select 'load normal image' again). Notice the little white 'alpha channel' window in the upper right corner of DXTBmp. You should see an all white image of the bitmap with only the Yoke image appearing as a solid black form.Before saving you might want to uncheck 'include mipmaps' ( under Preferences), they are not needed in the VC, you'd want nice crisp looking textures, not some blurry diminished quality version.All that's left now is to choose the texture format you'd like, if not a too complex VC i'd certainly choose 32bit but DXT3 is a good choice as well. When you have unchecked 'include mipmaps' select the file menu, select ' save extended image' and from the dropdown menu select either '32bit extended' or 'DXT3 with Alpha'. Make sure you have a back-up of the original 'c172_c.bmp' and save your new bitmap as 'c172_c.bmp' in the C172 texture folder ( remember NOT the texture.1 or texture.2 folder ) Now start-up FS , choose the C172 ' White with blue and grey' and enjoy an onobscured view of your C172 VC dashboard ( that is if all's gone well of course :( ) Good luck! :-coolJan