V4Friend

Hi Trifty, If you read the thread, you could see that a fix is 'on the way'. We will release beta2 a.s.a.p. For now, maybe you could try flying longer missions, so the problem does not show so often :smartass:

Hi Julian, You are right: DCS is capable of using a Virtual Joystick for head-movement. FaceTrackNoIR v170 comes with VJoy, which also works under 64-bit W7. Unfortunately, very few games offer good support for virtual joysticks. It's a pity, because that would really be a generic and open way to get headpose-data to a game...

Hi Julian, Just a Q: what do you need/use virtual joysticks for?

@Rotorhead: could you please check your PMs?

Sorry, no notifications received... Hi all, Sorry I didn't respond before. Somehow, I don't receive notifications from the new posts any more :helpsmilie:. I'll try to give some answers. @vjamiko: I'm not sure, but I get strange views in DCS too, when the pitch goes higher that 90. So you have to limit the curve for pitch to max. 90 output. @turbohog: Bedankt! We have figured out that the 64-bit version of NPClient needs the 64-bit version of the C++ runtime libraries (vcredist_x64). This is the location where it can be found: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26347 It will be added to beta2. @alterscape: the camera for PointTracker can be selected on the camera tab of the settings. It's the selection called "Index". We will try to make that a more meaningfull selection later, but for now you'll have to enter a number and try... I'll put a test of DCS World on my ToDo list. Apparently, something strange happens there... I'm glad you have already found a quick-fix for now.

Hi vjamiko, Thanks for your feedback. But what do you mean with 'not fully customized'? Is something missing or wrong? You can change sensitivity by adjusting the curves and/or filter in FaceTrackNoIR.

Dear DCS-airmen and women, I am happy to announce that v170 of FaceTrackNoIR was released yesterday. The new version contains a number of important improvements, which also benefit many DCS-users. The most important new features: A new filter called Accela, providing great stability and yet maintain response; An IR-tracker called PointTracker. This was translated from the FreeTrack sources and is very useful for users, who already have an IR-headset; A new game-protocol called "FreeTrack 2.0", which supports all FreeTrack and TrackIR games, including all DCS-games. No 'game-fixing' or PPJoy is required any more. (Of course, the alternative headtracker interface of DCS also still works); You are welcome to try v170, please visit the FaceTrackNoIR website Wim Vriend FaceTrackNoIR Team Holland :pilotfly:

Hi doveman, May I remind you, that the version you can download there is NOT an official FaceTrackNoIR version? It's the working branch belonging to Stanislaw. We are very glad that Stanislaw creates code for FaceTrackNoIR and are working on merging it with FaceTrackNoIR. That takes time and an official release takes testing. So you are free to download from Stanislaw, but please don't complain if things aren't perfect yet. Of course, ideas are welcome :thumbup:

faceAPI uses a set of 'facial-landmarks' to calculate that rotations and translations. The non-commercial version used is a 'basic' version, options like lip- and eyebrow-tracking are actually disabled. So I'm afraid it's not possible to prevent the response, by deactivating things... :cry:

Hi TraumaBait, I'm sorry to hear that you have spent the last two months trying to get face-tracking to work. :( I wish you would have contacted me earlier. There are a few questions left, even after reading your impressively-sized post: what CPU does your PC have? Have you read the 'known issues' page on the FaceTrackNoIR website? The waterfall-error is caused by the IPP-runtime library. For some CPU's, the installer makes a mistake and installs the wrong DLL's. What you should do (it's also on the known-issues page): un-install the IPP-runtime, via Control Panel/Software; install the faceAPI demo; try the faceAPI demo: it should work now; try FaceTrackNoIR: if the demo works FaceTrackNoIR also should. There is an important difference between the demo and FaceTrackNoIR: the demo uses a newer version of faceAPI. For i5 and i7 CPU's, update 1.6 (under construction) of FaceTrackNoIR fixes this. Hope this helps to relieve your headache... :music_whistling:

Hi sgibson, It sounds like you installed everything fine. The logfile is written by the code in the DLL, so the DCS-part seems fine. In FaceTrackNoIR, do you see your face, with yellow outlines and do the input-values (left bottom of window) change? If so, everything should be fine (indeed, you need 'faceAPI' as Tracker source and FreeTrack as 'Game protocol'). Someone in the other thread mentioned pressing ALT-c, to change from mouse-mode to headtracker-mode in DCS. Could you try? Also, some users have advised to run both FaceTrackNoIR and DCS 'As Administrator'. As for your other post: no, there is no debug-mode in FaceTrackNoIR (yet). It might be a nice addition (I discovered that while making the DLL for DCS :D)

Well, update 6 is still 'under construction'. Frankly, the summer is not such a good period for computing and I had some trouble getting my new development PC 'up and running'. But autumn is here now (in Holland) and I will get back to it. :joystick: I have also sent an e-mail to CodeMasters (you know, from DIRT etc.) to persuade them to also implement an interface for 'alternative head-tracking'. Curious about their response... :music_whistling:

Hi Aries, Thanks for your feedback. I'll look into Sam's solution for that: it's always good to learn. BTW.: when you 'stop' tracking (using the short-key), I guess you still cannot use the POV, even with Sams' solution? A word for the ED-developers: I have asked (in a polite manner, I think), for some feedback in this thread. There has been none so far. Maybe it's interesting for ED to know, that the headtracker-interface DLL's have been downloaded 1400 times in the last two months (the stats of SourceForge have just been restored). I think that's enough indication to take it serious?! Thanks in advance. :music_whistling:

Fuzzy That might be a good idea: fuzzy logic! I'll have to sleep on it...

Right, so FaceTrackNoIR is now 'Kinect-compatible' :megalol:. What driver(s) do you use, with the Kinect? Of course it would be very nice if the Kinect hardware could do the maths, so the CPU of your PC would not have to. Does anyone know if that's possible? As for the view stability: that's a tough one. There will always be a trade-off between response and stability. Version 1.6 will be more stable, because the newer faceAPI is used. Maybe we'll have to do more with 'Neutral Zones', but that obviously has drawbacks too... If anyone has a brilliant idea: I'm listening :thumbup:.

Look: Hi BigBANG, You are using FaceTrackNoIR, with the DLL's downloaded from the FaceTrackNoIR website? Then the answers are: Yes, you can ALT+TAB to FaceTrackNoIR and change the settings 'on the fly'. I would recommend pressing ESC first, so you don't crash... Zoom should also Did you configure 'center' and 'start/stop' short-keys?

Hi jmod, Thanks! About 1.6: you may have noticed I got a little 'side-tracked', by the ED headtracker API and by a nice little sunny holiday :D. Development on 1.6 is well on the way, but there are a few things I started at the same time and which are all 'half-done'. With July being my "Tour de France"-month, the release of 1.6 will at least have to wait till August. :joystick:

@ironstrike: I have started a thread, which can be used to request improvements to the headtracker API. I would appreciate it, if you would also post your ideas there (the thread is still a bit short...). @Santini35: Have you loaded the fix for FaceTrackNoIR 1.5? It fixes a bug in the EWMA-filter: this bug can cause the view to freeze in any direction. Unchecking the EWMA-checkbox will give you a very unstable view! @jmod: unfortunately, I don't have W7 64-bit. So I had others do the testing for me. I don't know the specific quirks of W7 . I'm kind of depending on you to test it for me... Remember: It's still an alpha-release :music_whistling:.

@ashcanpete: I dropped you a PM... @Fishbot: good that you got that sorted. So the virus-scanner caused trouble? I might add that to the 'known issues' section... Did you install the fix for update 5? It's quite important, because the 'random direction' thing can be fixed by that. Did you also find the log file? Like you say: it should be in the root of C:\

Hello ED-developers, Releasing the headtracker-API was a good thing and showed that you are indeed listening to the users. The basics of the headtracker-API look good and implementing the 32- and 64-bit interface for FaceTrackNoIR (and FreeTrack) was not difficult. Since I have quite a bit of experience with head-tracking (and the necessary interfaces to various games and flight-sims), I hope you will also listen to some suggestions I have for improving the interface :smartass:. First, I think it would be good if DCS checks the status of the headtracker, to see if it is 'active'. The function getHeadTrackerData retrieves the data, but there's no way to indicate to DCS that this data is 'new'. As a result of this, DCS even forces the camera to '0', when the headtracker is not running at all (any more). The HeadTrackerData structure could contain a frame-counter or a field 'tracker-status', for instance. This would also give the user the option to pause headtracking, to push some buttons in the cockpit... The headtracker now overrides all camera-input of other devices, but it would be nice if both could work together. Input of other devices could be used as 'offset' to the head-pose (like it is done in Wings of Prey)? Users have asked me if it is possible to show some kind of 'On Screen Message', when the status of the headtracker changes. For instance, when the user pauses or resumes head-tracking, it would be handy if a status-message could be shown (HUD?). I'm sure other users will have similar or new ideas. Could this thread be dedicated to that? Thanks in advance for listening.... (again). :pilotfly:

Indeed, the interface for the headtracker API was released. Check the other posts...

Improvement? Hello 455, I think that zooming with keys will not work, when the headtracker API is used, because it kind of 'overrides' all other camera-controlling input. Other games (like Wings of Prey) do this smarter: they add other input as 'offsets' to the headtracker-data. That would be a nice 'feature request' to improve the API. When some more ideas boil up, I guess we'll have to start a separate thread for this kind of ideas?!

Learning is good Hello Sam, That's the second reason I started the FaceTrackNoIR project: by doing stuff, you learn the most :smartass:. It was only recently that I understood the DLL was overkill. If you have any ideas for improvement (of the interface or FaceTrackNoIR), feel free to contact me ...

2 DLL's Hello sam, It's nice that you also made an interface: with the headtracker API, anyone is 'able' to make their own version. I was busy uploading my version, when your post popped up... :joystick: About the 32/64-bit issue. Posts on the internet suggest that using a shared memory-mapping is exactly how that problem can be overcome! Since the FreeTrack 'protocol' is not much more than a memory-mapping, that is very convenient (mind you: I don't even load the FreeTrack DLL, I need no functions to read the data). The 64-bit version of DCS requires a 64-bit headtracker.dll (it cannot load a 32-bit DLL). So I made a 64-bit version of the DLL. This version uses the same memory-mapping as the 32-bit version, so that's working too!

@Caldwell: thanks! @ironstrike: I think we may have to start a new thread, in which we can report bugs and 'feature requests' for the headtracker interface?! I think the problem lies in the Lua-scripting, which is a part I cannot 'control'.