Setup for TrackIr

[Michael Moe 495]

Hi, i never used it but it seems like a good bushflying experience and wonder which setup is recommended?

Guess lots of experience out here

Thanks 

Michael Moe

[vgbaron 3,620]

You can choose either the TrackClip or the TrackClipPro. The TrackClip requires you to wear a baseball type cap which the clip fits on. The pro can be attached to a headset. I have used both but since I mostly fly with a headset I went with the Pro. They are both effective.

TIR takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it you won't fly without it.

Vic

[LosGenero 12]

And your room needs to be dark. TrackIR is very sensitive to sunlight. There are plenty of good videos in Youtube how to set up TrackIR. I recommend that you watch them first, then make your profile. I´m TrackIR user and I can´t fly without it anymore. 

[eslader 1,783]

I'd vote for the pro as well if that were the only choice. I had the clip, and the thing's very slippery and pops off of the baseball cap very easily. I ended up taping it down to the cap, which was sub optimal. And then it's just got these little curved strips of reflective material, with the center one set back from the front 2. So if you tilt your head too far up, the bill of the hat blocks the middle strip from the camera. When the camera loses track of one of the strips it stops working until it can see the strip again. It's easier to set the camera up to see the pro clip at all times than it is to set it up to see the clip.

TrackIR seems to be set up assuming you are running a 15 inch CRT monitor -- i.e. those of us with large screens have to either put the camera much higher than expected, which the software doesn't handle very well, or much lower than expected, and then the hat blocks the camera.

I currently use a Delanclip, which is a lot cheaper than a TrackIR. It uses a PS3 Eye camera with the IR filter removed (the guy who makes the clip will sell you a camera for cheap if you don't have one or don't want to perform surgery on it yourself). The clip itself has 3 LED lights which I find works better than reflective strips/dots. It doesn't care if the lights are on in the room, and even if the window's open on a bright sunny day it tracks perfectly because it's just looking for those IR dots.

 

I run Opentrack software (free) which outputs in the same format as TrackIR's software, but it will work with the actual (in my experience inferior) TrackIR software as well. I find the head tracking is much smoother and less prone to insane jittering spasms than I got with my TrackIR 5 setup. The camera is mounted on a tall monitor, but the software tracks it just fine.

I got the Delanclip Pro, which replaces the wired USB-powered lights with battery-powered ones that you can recharge via USB. It comes with little dots of Velcro that you can use to affix the clip to your headset, or to an elastic headband that you can get with it if you don't wear headphones.  Might want to look into that before you get a genuine TrackIR.

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by eslader

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

22 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

You can choose either the TrackClip or the TrackClipPro. The TrackClip requires you to wear a baseball type cap which the clip fits on. The pro can be attached to a headset. I have used both but since I mostly fly with a headset I went with the Pro. They are both effective.

TIR takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it you won't fly without it.

Vic

Truth!

11 minutes ago, LosGenero said:

And your room needs to be dark. TrackIR is very sensitive to sunlight. There are plenty of good videos in Youtube how to set up TrackIR. I recommend that you watch them first, then make your profile. I´m TrackIR user and I can´t fly without it anymore. 

Sorry my friend, though I wish I didn't, I'm going to have to disagree with you on that.  After using my TrackIR since circa 2005 I've used it under various lighting conditions without any issue, including normal day time room light.  To accomplish this you can adjust the light sensitivity of the camera.  Today I live in Florida and though I have my blinds closed I have no curtains and it's fairly bright in my office - I have no issues with TrackIR.  Mind you, I don't recommend you having a single bright light source behind you, but short of that, it should be fine by adjusting the light sensitivity.

32 minutes ago, Michael Moe said:

Hi, i never used it but it seems like a good bushflying experience and wonder which setup is recommended?

Guess lots of experience out here

Thanks 

Michael Moe

Michael,

The one piece of advice I think trumps all others is not to be afraid of playing with the settings.  I would copy the default profile (I call mine "Dave") and then play with all the settings so you can see what they actually do.  Believe it or not, I just use the Default profile (in exclusive mode) with the  Roll disabled. I have lost count of the number of people who I've spoken to (online, voice servers, forums and at conventions) who hated their TrackIR simply because they tried to use it in flight sim with Roll enabled and after taking my advice I know that at least some of them (who got back to me) then loved it!   I'm sure there are some out there who have gotten used to using a TrackIR in flight sim with Roll enabled and if so that's great. But I hate the TrackIR with it enabled and love it with it disabled.  CAVEAT:  I might well use a TrackIR with Roll enabled in DCS as dog fighting is a whole different animal, but I'm just too busy these days to spend time digging up and honing those skills again - but someday!

 

 

 

[RALF9636 1,956]

50 minutes ago, Michael Moe said:

Hi, i never used it but it seems like a good bushflying experience and wonder which setup is recommended?

Guess lots of experience out here

Thanks 

Michael Moe

I'm in the same boat and just decided to start with TrackIR for the new sim.

So some input from long time users would be appreciated. How do you use TrackIR in the sim?

Do you have it always on? Or just at certain stages of the flight? Or only in certain views and off in others (programming the GPS / FMC for example?). Do you use it in airliners as well as in GA aircraft?

Do you still use a Hatswitch as well at all?

How do you set up the motion adjustments? Deadzones or not (large or small?)? Slopes or steady movements?

Do you have different setups for different aircraft?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

Edited August 3, 2020 by RALF9636

[LosGenero 12]

6 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

Truth!

Sorry my friend, though I wish I didn't, I'm going to have to disagree with you on that.  After using my TrackIR since circa 2005 I've used it under various lighting conditions without any issue, including normal day time room light.  To accomplish this you can adjust the light sensitivity of the camera.  Today I live in Florida and though I have my blinds closed I have no curtains and it's fairly bright in my office - I have no issues with TrackIR.  Mind you, I don't recommend you having a single bright light source behind you, but short of that, it should be fine by adjusting the light sensitivity.

Michael,

 

I´we had a problems with lighting and because I´we have to use glasses, the TrackIR picks reflection´s from them and goes bonker´s. I tryed adjusting the lighting with settings, nothing seemed to work. Then I tryed tip from youtube, dark or dim room and my most of my troubles were solved. Glad that you don´t have problems witch I had with TrackIR.

Edited August 3, 2020 by LosGenero

[eslader 1,783]

I don't use the hat switch to look around, but I do have zoom in and out mapped to one of the hats because sometimes you need to zoom in close to read a display and you don't want to have to lean way over the desk in real life to do it. I also have the pause-tracking function mapped to one of the directions on that hat because sometimes you want to read that zoomed in FMS without every little movement of your head making the view jink all over the screen.  And I have "center view" mapped to the 4th direction on that switch in the sim, and also in the Opentrack software, which simultaneously resets the view to looking straight ahead, and resets the camera tracking to straight ahead as well. The view will drift from time to time as you unconsciously shift around in your seat slightly, so it's good to be able to reset it to a baseline.

 

[virtualstuff 758]

40 minutes ago, Michael Moe said:

Hi, i never used it but it seems like a good bushflying experience and wonder which setup is recommended?

Guess lots of experience out here

Thanks 

Michael Moe

I'm using trackir 5 since a few weeks in normal daylight or at night with trackClipPro.

It does take some getting used to, but when setup with the correct profile according to your
local environment (room distance between you and the monitor) it is butter smooth and I really like it.

When the times come you purchased the Trackir, happy to share my experience or give some tips howto setup...

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

4 minutes ago, LosGenero said:

I´we had a problems with lighting and because I´we have to use glasses, the TrackIR picks reflection´s from them and goes bonker´s. I tryed adjusting the lighting with settings, nothing seemed to work. Then I tryed tip from youtube, dark or dim room and my most of my troubles were solved. Glad that you don´t have problems witch I had with TrackIR.

I wish you'd have mentioned that before brother, I have a solution for you (well, a different one if you chose not to fly in the dungeon).  Glasses with an anti-reflective coating, though my present glasses do not have the AR coating and I'm still not having any issues.

Best wishes to you!

 

[RALF9636 1,956]

5 minutes ago, awf said:

When the times come you purchased the Trackir, happy to share my experience or give some tips howto setup...

Please, just go ahead, mine arrived just yesterday... 😉

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

9 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

Do you have it always on? Or just at certain stages of the flight? Or only in certain views and off in others (programming the GPS / FMC for example?). Do you use it in airliners as well as in GA aircraft?

Do you still use a Hatswitch as well at all?

Wonderful questions!

No matter what the aircraft, I will absolutely switch it off during different phases of flight, especially at cruise or if I have to do some operate many different systems. 

To accomplish this on the fly (instantly) I have the following setup:

F1 key (always easy to find without looking) is bound to Pause TrackIR.

F2 key is bound to Reset TrackIR

F3 key is bound to place the TrackIR in the Precision mode, which I use most often.

 

One could just as easily bind these settings to pushbuttons on a controller, but I have those already used up.

 

I hope this helps!

[virtualstuff 758]

Just now, RALF9636 said:

Please, just go ahead, mine arrived just yesterday... 😉

 

Do you have trackClipPro?

[LosGenero 12]

6 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

I wish you'd have mentioned that before brother, I have a solution for you (well, a different one if you chose not to fly in the dungeon).  Glasses with an anti-reflective coating, though my present glasses do not have the AR coating and I'm still not having any issues.

Best wishes to you!

 

Thanks for the tip, I live in Northeastern Europe and in winter time we have sunlight just a few hour´s in day, so being in a darkened room is same than being in outside. In last winter we didn´d have snow at all just rain from November to March and it felt even more darker. I have these dim curtains witch I pull to window when I´m flying and in winter time when weather is debressing it is quite nice to go in some warm place and fly there.

 

Best to you and thanks again for tips

[RALF9636 1,956]

7 minutes ago, awf said:

Do you have trackClipPro?

Yes