BigBANGtheory

I am inclined to agree with you Boberro. I think as a free piece of software, its fantastic and it does definately work it just doesn't work well enough for me or my expectations atm. From my experience after spending a couple of hours experimenting with the settings is that you either introduce too much lag and or cannot keep the view stable outside of the deadzone. I will definatly try future updates, but I am going to have to revert to a FreeTrack or TiR solution for playing I think.

Well no you don't really what you have is a headtracking solution costing about £20 + 'a volume of your time' that gives result A vs. a £140 retail solution that gives result B. What we really need is a respected source to do a fair comparison, but its interesting to hear the opinions of people having tried FreeTrack and FTNoIR and then moved to TiR5. Mainly because having taken the plunge their expectations must be quite high, and if they don't like it they don't have to hold onto it because the resale value is pretty good. I wonder if SimHQ are avoiding it because of Natural Point advertising, who knows but it does seem an obvious target article for their readers.

There isn't many objective articles about comparisons between TiR5 and the 'free' alternatives. I would suggest that if you want to get on and enjoy the games rather than playing about and experimenting with headtracking then TiR5 is the way to go and that I'm afraid comes at a cost. TiR5 also seems to have an excellent resale value on eBay atm so if you don't end up using it you'll recover 70% of your costs I'd imagine.

Particularly (as time goes on) if the beta 1.6 turns out to be very similar to the public 1.6.

This is an interesting problem for many i.e. somekind of compromise between a pit project and a functional desk/workspace. Personally I think you have to decide right from the start if you want to dedicate the project to games/sims or share it for other purposes I think building your own desk space is neither one nor the other and you should ask yourself what are you gaining by going down this route. In my case I would love to build a pit, but for a variety of reasons I simply cannot at this point so looking for solutions in making a normal desk work better is the answer for me (may not be for you). The best solutions I have seen so far are: 1 x JoyLoc Clamp Mount for the Throttle 1 x Large Single Monitor with TrackIR5 Pro Center mounted Joystick solution that works with your chair, I think the pedestal design* which is connected at the base to the pedals is the best like the chap has done in this one (go to bottom of the page): http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=63585 *notice how the swivel chair hooks onto a lip and how the use of the pedals (now connected to the chair) will not effect the lateral movement chair given its on wheels. What I would add though is that the short Joystick extension(s) seen so far do offer the possibility of an offset of about 15degrees (which is good for central mounting) but I think even better would be to add a 'swan neck' bend into the extention to bring the stick closer to the pilot. This is to compensate for you not having to make a cut-out in the seat base. Finally simply arrange your monitor so it can slide forward on the desk to compensate for you having to sit further back to aviod the Joystick hitting the desk. Beyond that I would think a touch screen monitor, triple eyefinity or dual MFCD solution would be next on the list.

As an owner of a 6950 I would have to disagree, they used to be easy but AMD is reported to be laser cutting the additional shaders in the current production runs of chips. However the newer 6950 cards have better cooling and can potentially overclock above their older SKUs, with overclocking leading to more significant gains than the shader unlocks. Bottom line is the 6950 2GB is a damn good GPU but do your research very carefully if you are expecting to do a shader unlock in addition to overclocking.

I think you will find the PS3eye will track at 60fps using the modifications to the USB driver ini file due to the resolution FTNoIR want to run at. I still can't seem to get the hotkeys working whilst in DCS A10C full screen, not sure whats up there others seem to be ok.

Firstly I have a PS3eye with FaceTrackNoIR and whilst my tracking numbers do fluctuate when I stay still and I do get some shakyness in game the numbers are nothing like as big as you are seeing. If you are using the PS3eye I would recommend the ini file hack to increase the input upto 60fps, you obviously need a reasonable PC spec to handle this but nothing crazy. I have my camera on top of my monitor centrally looking at me pointed slightly downwards. Try using it with a plain back ground behind you. Clean the lens of the camera. Flatten your curves and raise the deadzones. TrackIR5 is probably a more capable solution I suspect the tracking is more accurate maybe if its causing you greif its a better solution for you especially if you find yourself not flying because FTNoIR is putting you off. Personally I would wait for the next version release first just to give it a fair chance.

...or you could just share it, as its 'Free and OpenSource' according to the sourceforge website?

Sure, mine even runs with FTNoIR... I was reffering to the combination of a VR headset like the Sony HMZ-T1 with a headtracker, prefferably something a little more reliable than Kinect.

Accurate & responsive head tracking with HD resolution + very wide FoV video head set is the way forward. I think this is a much closer reality than some of the investments in full body tracking and 3D with very mixed results. I hate to say it but what we really need is one of the next-gen consoles to adopt this and pony up for the dev costs and get such a device into mass production. Sony atleast seems to like video headsets atm....

On a seperate note I assume others experience this too... The facetracking API seems to respond to changes in facial movement like eyebrows, where as we are only really interested in head motion. I suspect this added motion or sensitivity increases the amount unwanted movement in game is it perhaps possible to switch it off or simply not utilise this feature of the API?

I wish someone like SimHQ could do an objective comparison between FaceTrackNoIR and TrackIR, and most importantly some feedback from NaturalPoint as to whats coming down the pipe... I don't doubt that TrackIR has superior tracking, the killer question is how much better having given both solutions a fair chance to perform.

I am going to answer your question in a round a-bout fashion if you don't mind... I honestly look forward to the day I see Saitek develop a top-end control system that surpasses the TM Hotas Warthog.

How is the Update 6 coming along?

Less than ideal, what do TrackPoint say in their excellent customer support forum? :huh:

Which controller settings in game did you tweak (I must admit I hadn't thought about playing with those)?

I have switched to a PS3eye cam @ 50fps now as well, I can't say I have noticed much difference between this and my earlier experiences with an MS Kinect RGB cam @ 30fps. The great thing about the PS3eye cam though is that you can grab a 2nd hand one off ebay at dirt cheap prices I think I paid £4.50 for mine incl. delivery! I still seem to have issues with the keyboard shortcuts not working when DCS-A10C is fullscreen, but yes it is easy to alt+tab out to make changes on the fly. Have you guys disabled or covered the LEDs on the PS3eye? I find them to be too bright and distracting for my tastes....

If I were you I wouldn't tell TM that, it was purchased for you as a gift. Its kind of morally corrupt of TM not to help out just because you're the 2nd owner they should be able to tell from the serial when it was manufactured. I would try asking them nicely and offer to pay the shipping cost.

I think you will find most of the 64bit users are running a custom headtracking API released (unsupported by ED) for DCS A10C as such I can't offer much help but maybe others can comment.

You say you are 2m away from your screen, do you have to be 2m away from your webcam?

I think the only way you can do it is to bring the main monitor forward on the desk as you sit further away in a desk chair, then have a detachable V shaped mount on the chair itself. The base profile of the TM Warthog isn't that large when seperated from its base plate... Of course this does assume you have enough depth in your room not to mention that desks by and large are fairly similar whilst chairs are much less so. The Joyloc for the throttle would still work in this setup... How do you find the positioning of the Joystick on the Joyloc? Does it feel ok?

What we could really do with is a Joyloc type solution coming off your chair for a center mounted joystick IMHO.

Yes, I use Win7 x64 with FaceTrackNoIR and the 64bit version of DCS-A10C it definately works in all 6 DoF. If you have a webcam already that can hold a decent fps there is little reason not to try it first. I don't think anyone has done a fair comparison between the two headtracking solutions yet. Personally my only objection to TrackIR5 is the cost in the UK (or import tax if purchased abroad) given the age of the product (circa 2009) and the reported history that NaturalPoint went from TrackIR4 to 5 with little to no advanced warning! In other words who knows if there is a TrackIR6 due out next month or if even if its development! :doh: NP need to communicate with their market better IMHO...

Are you guys tempted to get the joystick center mounted?