Hello Everyone,

I wanted to get opinions on using a camera addon.  I’ve been using track ir ( and very satisfied) for many years, as discussed in another thread recently. 

I’ve stayed away from the camera addons for unknown reasons really.  I would love to hear any opinions.  Do you guys swear by camera addons? Can you live without them, as I have, or am I really missing anything? 

My intent is not really to start a “which is better” debate, but to learn if I should finally add a camera addon to my sim experience.  

I can’t imagine flying without Track ir! Will I feel the same about camera addons if I finally decide to try one?

Thanks, I appreciate your responses in advance.

I've also never considered getting one until now and I must say, using TrackIR too and since July having had an Oculus Rift I always thought why the hell should I ever get one... Chaseplane and Ezdok seem to make so many problems and to me it seems I pay a lot of money for features I hardly can use with complex addons like PMDG aircraft. But then, watching Youtube there are so many camera angles that look so great, mainly outside. But then again I remember myself sitting in the cockpit and I really have never cared much about the Ramp traffic, airplane loading and that stuff. Maybe I would walk around my airplanes a couple of times, but that would be it. Then I had just another payware addon I never use. If you want to do a walk around you can also use the P3D avatars.. Shift+E or so. it's a bit anoying to control but I don't think that Chaseplane or Ezdok is much easier when your keyboard is placed somewhere behind your yoke :DD I decided I'm fine without any camera addons. With TIR I am much more flexible.. I can do my cockpit work and still look where I taxi 😃

I recently got Chaseplane after being kind of frustrated with the restricted movement P3D offers. The 'Avatar' feature is great but again the controls take away from enjoying it. 

I had been reading a bit about Chaseplane and asked a few friends who got it before me on what it was like. They all were reasonably happy with their purchase and seemed the enjoy the new mobility it offers to marvel at your airplane or just walk around the airport. So, I got it too. 

It does enhance on the immersion quite a bit and it has a lot of standard features (compared to EzDok) like shaking, breathing, momentum effects, etc. I think Ezdok has more of these little options that you can tweak to your satisfaction. The community section in Chaseplane allows you to browse and instantly download pre-created views for almost every airplane add-on out there so setting it up for your plane of choice is pretty quick, allowing you to focus on doing your pre-flight on time. Chaseplane is also compatible with TrackIR, according to their website.

Joystick, Yoke, Keyboard or even an XBox controller - you could use any of them to manipulate Chaseplane.

BUT there are two things I don't agree with - Price and always online connectivity.

It's a camera add-on and I don't think it's worth more than $15 at full functionality. I browsed their website for other products and the pricing generally is on the higher side, for me, even for the immersion packs. This is, however, a subjective function so I'll let you decide how much a camera add-on is worth in your eyes.

The 'Always online' function is supposedly going to be changed where you don't need to have a persistent online connection in order to use the add-on but we're on v1.0.9 at the moment and I haven't seen anything to suggest this has changed.

If you're okay with the above, it would certainly be an add-on you could quickly get used to and enjoy but I can certainly live without it.

1 hour ago, rcoultas said:

My intent is not really to start a “which is better” debate, but to learn if I should finally add a camera addon to my sim experience.   

Hi!

I'm from the EZdok development team.

I can just say that we paid a lot of attention to the different effects that make the perception of the flight real. We made the shaking of the pilot's camera dependent on turbulence (turbulence values are taken directly from ActiveSky), shaking depending on the engine RPM (if you fly on small GA aircraft), shaking from the landing gear and flaps. We pay much attention to the realism of the flight.

Now we are conducting a closed beta test of the new version of Ezdok Camera 3 with improved interface and new features. Soon it will be available, I think until Christmas. Soon we will be able to offer a new reality, but the existing version of EZCA v2 on the realism of the effects of flight is what we are proud of.

Edited October 30, 20187 yr by Nickbe

32 minutes ago, Nickbe said:

Hi!

I'm from the EZdok development team.

I can just say that we paid a lot of attention to the different effects that make the perception of the flight real. We made the shaking of the pilot's camera dependent on turbulence (turbulence values are taken directly from ActiveSky), shaking depending on the engine RPM (if you fly on small GA aircraft), shaking from the landing gear and flaps. We pay much attention to the realism of the flight.

Now we are conducting a closed beta test of the new version of Ezdok Camera 3 with improved interface and new features. Soon it will be available, I think until Christmas. Soon we will be able to offer a new reality, but the existing version of EZCA v2 on the realism of the effects of flight is what we are proud of.

Don’t try to sell your product here. But I don’t know if it is against pmdg forum rules. 

15 minutes ago, ph-cxz said:

Don’t try to sell your product here. But I don’t know if it is against pmdg forum rules. 

I didn't take it as advertising, for what it's worth...

We'll take care of stuff like this if we find it objectionable.

19 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

I didn't take it as advertising, for what it's worth...

We'll take care of stuff like this if we find it objectionable.

Thanks for the explanation Kyle but as you might also know each human has it own view on advertisement.

47 minutes ago, ph-cxz said:

Thanks for the explanation Kyle but as you might also know each human has it own view on advertisement.

Fair, but when it comes down to it, it's our forum, and our rules.

I have chaseplane and find it extremely useful once you get the views set up. It helps me a lot during preflight as I can move from panel to panel easily. I have gotten so used it I have a hard time flying without it now. 

Thanks to everyone.  The comments are very helpful, and I truly appreciate the feedback.

Couldn't imagine flying without Chaseplane. Works with VR as well.

18 hours ago, Nickbe said:

Hi!

I'm from the EZdok development team.

I can just say that we paid a lot of attention to the different effects that make the perception of the flight real. We made the shaking of the pilot's camera dependent on turbulence (turbulence values are taken directly from ActiveSky), shaking depending on the engine RPM (if you fly on small GA aircraft), shaking from the landing gear and flaps. We pay much attention to the realism of the flight.

Now we are conducting a closed beta test of the new version of Ezdok Camera 3 with improved interface and new features. Soon it will be available, I think until Christmas. Soon we will be able to offer a new reality, but the existing version of EZCA v2 on the realism of the effects of flight is what we are proud of.

I was glad to see Nick here. I have used EZCA since having to switch away from Active Camera (for those who can remember THAT). It has been an invaluable part of my simming and I look forward to Camera 3 with great anticipation. I have no plans to fly anything without EZCA (even when I occasionally add TrackIR).

C

I've had EZDOC and Chaseplane.  Chaseplane had, for me, a more intuitive interface.  Getting CP views defined does take some time, but you can "overload" a button on the joystick, such as the hat switch so every time you click "back" for example, you move to a new section of the cockpit displays so I can cycle through all the main components of the cockpit quickly using the one same button.  Every time I hit left hat, it looks first 45 degree left, then if I press left hat again I get a full 90 left.  Because it doesn't "snap" to these views it is like looking left in real life, it "swings around" to the new position.  Same set for the right hat (looks right w/ 2 views).  I also have it setup that by pressing the hat forward, it takes me back to the default pilot view no matter what I was looking at previously.

A hat switch on my throttle steps through various outside views, which is a lot of fun on those segments of flight where not much is going on.   When I want to pop back into the cockpit pilot view, as stated I just press the forward hat on the joystick (HOTAS Warthog w/ extension).

Takes some setup time, but in the end it's quite customizable and allows one to come up with a configuration that makes sense to them.  The key is to experiment since you're probably not going to get it perfect on the first try. 

I did loose my Internet connection for a few hours one weekend, and I couldn't enjoy flying without CP, so I'll second the idea that allowing it work in a local mode would be ideal.

Mark Trainer

 

As much as I can’t fly without Track IR, there are a couple of minor things I would like to change about it.  I have to constantly re-center the view, and I also have a button assigned to “freeze” the view so that I can more easily push a button or flip a switch.  I would like to use Track IR more or less just to look out the windscreen to fly and use the camera addon to smoothly and naturally look at various panels to operate switches.  

It sounds like a camera addon will fit in nicely.  Now I just need to do a bit of research.  Great info, thanks!

Get chaseplane. EZdock is the reason for dozens of posts here.