coder1024

I'm using CH pedals, a Saitek X-45, and cachya (head tracking SW) which provides an additional virtual joystick. The game handles all 3 controllers fine. When you go in options, you'll have a column for each available controller and can setup mappings for them. I have noticed what seems to be a bug where occasionally you'll load the game and go into options and some of the mappings from one controller will have been copied over to the other columns. As for setting up mappings, I used to have a very detailed setup for my X-45 in Falcon, however, I since have moved more towards wanting to use the cockpit switches instead. Although I'm sure this sacrifices some efficiency, it seems a bit more immersive to use the controls in the cockpit. So I think that's the way I'm heading with BS. Its especially doable given head tracking. We'll see how it goes though.

sounds like it would be a good time to buy TIR 4, they have it on the site for only $99 now :) and comparing 4 to 5, it looks like 5 is only minimally better. a slight FOV increase, more resolution, higher FPS, but the resolution and FPS are prob overkill as many here have said that TIR 4 works perfectly smooth with BS. given the rave reviews for TIR4 and that its only $99 now, it might be worth considering.

Well I've been using cachya and haven't seen any FPS hit. I want to try the networked mode so I'm setting that up, but even running on my flight machine it hasn't seemed to slow anything down. I think its just an option there in case someone has a slower machine or for whatever other reason wants to offload it. It certainly doesn't hurt to have the additional flexibility. Also, since it works with whatever webcam you have, you might have some crappy webcam driver which does slow things down. At least with the option, you have an out in that case. If I can get the upgrade process to work, I'll give it a shot and crank it up to 640x480 @ 30FPS and see how it does.

yea I hear ya. Tough to say the 100FPS over 30FPS helps or how much without sitting them side by side and doing an objective test, but regardless it is technically "better". I do wonder whether or not its actually tracking all 100FPS or just capturing it and sampling every Nth frame. Also I can imagine that since its focusing on IR, visible light distractions would be less. I just make sure I have a light in front of me, no light behind me, and adjust my webcam settings. One complaint I do have with cachya is the ridiculous upgrade process. You download the free trial, then click upgrade and enter your email and key and it upgrades you to the full version. Problem is, when it does this it just appears to hang for a long time with no feedback or anything. Anyway, once this is through its great, its just a bit of a crappy update system. I'm trying to do this on my laptop now (to try the networked tracking) and it appears to just be continually trying to connect via https to vancouver.global.com and failing. Then eventually it times out. So I guess you have to just wait a bit.

what do you use for the collective? I find using a HOTAS stick works much better since it has the separate throttle which you can use as a collective.

http://www.3000ad.com/

just push the pause button when you go to get the beer :D

Both cachya and TIR are doing very similar things. they're examining a video source and looking for a target. With TIR its an IR target pattern, with cachya its a special image you print out. I only mentioned the client-server thing since people have mentioned performance vs. resolution/FPS tradeoffs here. So if performance would be an issue, with cachya you can offload it to another machine. I use cachya and it doesn't seem to slow down the system at all. And I wouldn't think TIR would either.

I just noticed the below in the TIR5 thread. My webcam can already support 640x480 with cachya. I only bring this up since I believe it was mentioned that TIR has higher resolution than using cachya. According to this, I don't think thats true. So I would question anyone saying TIR has higher resolution than what you can get with cachya. Even TIR5 is still only 640x480. Granted, I normally run cachya at 320x240 @ 30FPS as that seems plenty good. Also another note is that I think TIR claims a much higher FPS, but I'm not sure how much that helps.

One approach you can use with cachya (not sure whether or not TrackIR has this ability) is to run the tracking piece on a different machine. So you could have another machine and then crank the resolution and frame rate as high as you can for your web cam. Then, on the machine you're flying on you just have cachya connect up to the other machine. Then, there's essentially zero load on that machine from tracking and you can have your cake and eat it too :) Having said that, I run it on the same machine and haven't seen a need for more resolution/frame rate yet. I'm running 320x240 resolution at 30FPS and it works great. The head motion is very smooth and responsive. But just noting the above as it does provide a way to crank up the res/FPS without affecting your flight computer performance.

I haven't heard any reasons why its a "far better solution". Nor have I heard anything which indicates that others have "tried to reach and failed to achieve". I've used cachya and it seems like a perfectly workable solution and seems to achieve exactly what its supposed to, namely provide 6DOF head tracking. Its supported very well in BS and is customizeable. Nor have they been a problem for me with cachya. Honestly, when I started BS, I was at the point where I assumed I finally needed to just spend the $150 and get TrackIR (to get TrackIR + headset clip). It was at that point I happened across a link for cachya that someone else had posted. All I know is that I only paid $15 and I have 6DOF head tracking. I wouldn't be surprised if TrackIR has better performance in some areas, I just don't see anything compelling in the discussions on the two products which would clarify what the actual benefit is.

Please allow us to change settings while in the cockpit. For example, when you hit the ESC key, add a button "Options" which takes you to the regular options screen while the game is paused. This would allow tweaking controller settings, mappings, etc. and then testing them and repeating this. As it is now, exiting the whole way out, changing 1 setting, and then waiting for it to load again is a bit tedious.

double-check the control settings. I use an X-45, CH Pedals, and the cachya head tracking virtual joystick. So in control settings there are 3 joystick devices. I've found that when I configure one, sometimes I'll run the game again later and it will, for some reason, have copied the assignments over to other joysticks so I have to go clear them. Maybe the axis which is locking up is assigned to multiple devices or something?

As for lighting conditions with cachya, I've found it works really well by just minimizing the amount of backlighting. So you don't want a light source behind you. Having one in front of you to illuminate the target is good, just not behind you to confuse the tracking.

I've just started using cachya and have had an excellent experience with it so far. Since the price for cachya is dramatically lower than TrackIR, it doesn't even need to be as good in order to be a better choice imo. Hard to beat $15 :) As for ease of use, I had it up and running and tracking my head in very little time. I was stuck for a bit trying to figure out how to configure things in BS, but the key was using the virtual joystick and just setting up the view axes. I've never used TrackIR, so I can't really compare. However, a tracking setup for $15 is hard to beat. I'm sure TrackIR has some advantages, its just a matter of whether or not you want to spend the $$. As for performance, I believe you can run cachya on a separate machine, plug the webcam into that machine, and then just connect over the network from the machine you're on. In this way, the other machine is doing all the image analysis and tracking of the target. If you're having performance issues this might be a good way to go. Not sure if TrackIR provides this sort of client/server mode.

ah I see. well that's more time to skill up on the Ka-50 then :)

according to this the game released for download Dec 2008. So wouldn't it be 9 months from then not 9 months from when it was available in boxed form?

I think I have the info I need to get cachya working with DCS Black Shark. See the below thread if you're stuck as well. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=40979 The basic idea is to enable the virtual joystick in cachya and then configure the view control in DCS to use the axis from that virtual joystick.

Thanks for the responses! I probably should have posted a link originally and a brief note as to what cachya was. Looks like the trick is using the virtual joystick and then configuring the axis for that joystick. Thanks for the sample settings I'll give those a try.

I just bought cachya and got it setup and working. The preview window and 3D sample work great. But the next question is, how do I get this to work in DCS Black Shark for view control? Can anyone who has this working give me some quick tips on where to start?

I just bought cachya and spent some time configuring it and I have to say I'm extremely impressed so far. I tried freetrack and fiddling with wiring up my own LED assembly and all, it ended up being a royal pain and I never did get it working. With cachya, I printed out the tracking image, put it on a cap and it was almost immediately working. Then I spent some time tweaking things of course, but still cachya seems like a FAR better solution than freetrack and certainly a lot better than paying $150 for TrackIR. Anyway, having said all that, I have cachya working fine in the cachya app with the preview window and the sample 3D test. But now I'm wondering, what exactly do I do to make this work in DCS Black Shark? If this is obvious, I apologize for being a noob :) But I'm not sure what the missing piece is to actually let me feed the 6DOF data from cachya into DCS Black Shark. Any tips?

I like that one! Yea, honey, I got them both for $130! Completely accurate statement :)

I still recall playing an Apache sim on the commodore 64 (I think). I'd love to see a new Apache sim. I'm looking forward to learning the Ka-50, though.

I'd suggest getting cachya for $15 and then using your webcam for head tracking. I've been thinking about TrackIR for awhile, but haven't wanted to spend the $ on it. With cachya, its $15 and uses your webcam. I've tested it out briefly and it appears to do everything needed. I'm sure the TrackIR performance might be better (higher res/update rate/whatever) but this seems to work and is quite a low price :)

as long as I can activate it an unlimited # of times (even if that requires requesting more activations) I'm ok with it. The key is that if there's gonna be activation, I should be able to reinstall my machine as many times as I want and still be able to play the game I bought. From what I've read that is the case with BS, you just might have to request more activations if you run out.