Interested to see who uses what for head tracking, in-game

I had TrackIR for over a decade and made the switch to Tobii a few months ago. Long story short, if Tobii was as accurate as TrackIR it would be a no-brainer for me personally. I enjoy not having to wear a hat or have anything clipped to my headphone with wires as well as being able to use it in a bright room with windows open and not have sun/reflections interfere with the tracking.

Tracking is... fair. TrackIR seemed more snappy and precise. Tobbi is more smooth and fluid. For me mostly flying tubeliners and a bit of GA it works. My main issue is in certain head positions while keeping my head stable the camera is twitchy. For example, I will lean in and look down and two the right and hold my head still to look at something and the camera will shake a little bit making it hard to click accurately. This is really only at extreme angles but it is annoying. 

My biggest gripe - when contacting customer support they were super helpful and responsive (even during the holiday period) but at the end of the day their guidance was to use FaceTrackNoIR, a third party payware software, instead of their own software. I sent them a video of the issue and they acknowledged what I was experiencing and said their R&D team is aware and is working on a major software update that should resolve this but it will take time. But I was a little miffed by the fact that I spent $250 on this product only for them to suggest I pay more for a third party software to make it work better.

If they actually push out and update that resolves the issue and improves accuracy I'll be a happy camper. In the meantime I've just changed my habits to accommodate its shortcomings. 

My TIR broke after 10+ years and decided to give Tobii a go as I was excited about not having to deal with the wires or wear clips and I'm a very happy camper. 

I believe most simmers use TrackIR.

My first Track IR lasted 13 years. I bought a replacement Track IR, and the newer one is much better. I love the way Track IR works, wouldn't swap it for anything. 

I have, and use, both (but not concurrently). In X-Plane 12, I mainly use Tobii since the integration for XP allows me to pause the head tracking when I'm looking at some specific panel. Unfortunately, in MSFS, when you pause the head tracking, your view returns to the forward view which is annoying. So I tend to use my TrackIR in MSFS instead.

39 minutes ago, vrdubin6 said:

But I was a little miffed by the fact that I spent $250 on this product only for them to suggest I pay more for a third party software to make it work better.

Good to know this. My TIR5 is still working after 11 years but I was beginning to look at alternatives such as Tobii. It's already too expensive, IMO, for what's involved. Even in this niche market.

My understanding after looking into both, is that Eye Tracker is gold if you sit at a table or desk with a somewhat normal desktop monitor. As soon as your cockpit departs from this norm, such as mine where I sit about 5' from a 77" display, the eye tracker isn't going to work as well. In my case the IR tracker works very well (I use the active thing attached to my headset)... and it's really the only option available to me given my setup.  The IR setup is generally more flexible and forgiving than the eye system, but if you can use the eye system, from what I've heard, it's superior.

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by Virtual-Chris

Would add that I use an Tobii Head tracker (only) for months now, after using a TrackIR for more than a decade 😉 

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by vbazillio

26 minutes ago, vbazillio said:

Would add that I use an Tobii Head tracker (only) for months now, after using a TrackIR for more than a decade 😉 

Yes, it takes some time to set it up to how you like it on sensitivity, but I love it now. 

I use it on 100% head tracking as I couldn't get on with even just 5% eye tracking - I was finding it difficult to click on buttons / switches in the cockpit.

An excellent product, and it has transformed the sim for me, just to look out left and down at the ground seems so natural and easy.

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by bobcat999

My tracker is a trackball.  A MSFS must have.  One nonmoving device that does it all.

You can't turn your head as fast as I can spin a ball.

sp

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by Sky_Pilot071

I'm very curious if anyone had tried the TrackHat Sensor V2 which is an alternative IR face tracker to the Tobii.

Not having anything attached to my head puts Tobii to the top of my list.  I'm not into VR for the same reason.  To each their own.  

I'm going to try out Tobii pretty soon.  

I have TrackIR4 but I have never really warmed to it.

Used TIR for over 13 years, then got a HP Reverb G2 in 2021...no looking back to sim flying in 2D.  Should sell my TIR 5 and pro clip, both which I had for about 3 years, since they're now gathering dust.  My TIR 4 essentially died, would no longer detect IR.  Dang TIR rocked, but IMO is thoroughly decimated by VR in a G2.

Edited March 14, 20233 yr by TheFamilyMan