Apart from your wife/partner thinking you're crazy, it's a no brainer..

Can't live without it.

There is little actual performance hit, but if your sim is straining, you will notice it in the lack of smoothness of your Track IR, whereas you might not realize it without. I run the TIR at a higher priority and off the main core so it doesn't struggle for the CPU time.

There is little actual performance hit, but if your sim is straining, you will notice it in the lack of smoothness of your Track IR, whereas you might not realize it without. I run the TIR at a higher priority and off the main core so it doesn't struggle for the CPU time.

That's an excellent point, and one I frequently forget.

And I must be the exception to the rule.  Have TIR5 and rarely use it.  Always unpack it (travel with a laptop),  but usually just use the hat switch.  

 

And every time I read one of these threads,  I vow to use,  and never do.  Now if I was flying a combat sim,  it would be a different thing,  but for a civilian sim,  I am not convinced it is necessary.

 

Hell,  I'll probably try it again tonite, LOL.  

I have a 27 " screen and was wondering how effective would a Trackir be with just one screen ?

TrackIR 5 and Pro Clip you'll never go back. align the receiver 1/8 of your screen width from the left.

Wow, thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be buying one for myself for my birthday.

I'm using it without trouble on a 42" screen. I have the TrackClip Pro, but I've never tried it (Always used the hat with the vector clip). 

The downsides of TIR use:

• Even though a solid 30 fps is smooth in FSX, TIR motion at 30 fps will appear a bit choppy/smeary.
• When you are used to using (i.e. addicted to) TIR, when watching FSX videos you get irritated when the view does not change when you move your head. (believe me, this does happen)

I've used TIR since 2007 and have loved every minute of it.  In FSX it makes a VC the VC; for combat flight sims it's as essential as a joystick and pedals.

A must have I have been using Trackir for 3 years now took about a week to get use to it. could never fly now without it

Mostly fly tubes and cant think of one reason to have it.

Wow, thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be buying one for myself for my birthday.

Do take a look at FaceTrackNoIR before buying TrackIR. If you use it with the PointTracker plugin option as the tracker and add an LED clip it's indistinguishable from TrackIR - I've compared them. Even if you're not a handyman and have to buy the LED clip (and a suitable webcam - you may already have one that works) it will still cost you less than half of what you'd pay for TrackIR 5. Go to http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm for the free software and http://www.delanengineering.com/shop/ for a suitable LED clip and webcam (he ships worldwide). My webcam worked without modification and my LED clip cost next to nothing to make - the instructions are readily available online. Avoid FreeTrack - it's not as smooth or configurable as FaceTrackNoIR and hasn't been updated for several years. I have no affiliation with any of these, I'm just an enthusiastic user who thought TrackIR was way over-priced.

I bought the Track IR 3 Pro with Vector Expansion for 3D movement shortly after it was introduced and I still use it.  I can't fly without it, at least not in a virtual cockpit.  The solution to the choppy, smeary, tearing graphics when panning with TIR is to use vertical synch.  I force v-synch on through the Nvidia control panel.

I'm leaning towards using FaceTrackNoir. My common things are on my © Drive. Everything related to FSX is in my (E) Drive. I have FSX scenery on my external hard drive. My question is which drive should I download to ? I also understand that no gear is used on  my head, is that true ?

 

Just make sure you grab a retina tracking cam

I don't see why TIR would be any less useful for tubes than any other type, beerwolfe. In addition to flying visually, just like any other type of plane, you have a much larger cockpit, from the vertical extremes of the overhead or the pedestal, stretching all the way to switches on the first officers side. I think it might even be more essential to have a Track IR than for GA.