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How does the Head Tracker thingy work?


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Ok,

 

I've read mention of the Head Tracker (TrackIR)...

 

Now, can this thing zoom into my controls inside the cockpit so I can deal with selection of my weapons systems???

 

Does this help with immersion...

 

Because baby, let me tell you.....that's what I am alllll about!!!!

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Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the "Red Baron". He scored the most officially accepted kills in World War I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.

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It allows 6 directions of freedom. You can turn, nod and tilt your head plus move in/out up/down and left/right. So you can lean foreward to get a clearer view of instruments etc.

 

It takes a little getting used to as you need to kerp looking at the screen with your eyes as you rotate your head around and the movement is scaled so you only need to move your head say 20 degrees to look behibd you in game.

 

The scaling/response curves can be tuned in software so you can get it to your own tastes.

 

As to immersion YES it improves it massively.

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Turn your head, lean out lean back, twist... it follows your head movements... this or similar is a HUGE benefit for DCS World. I could never imagine playing without something like this now.

 

Old Vid

 

 

 

WELL HELL YEAH SOLIDER!!!

 

 

Which one should I get?????

 

TRackir5???

TrackIR4 pro???

 

What works best for DCS?

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Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the "Red Baron". He scored the most officially accepted kills in World War I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.

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I thought it had great immersion until I started using the Rift. It's not even comparable IMHO. Some will no doubt bring up the use of 4K monitors + TrackIR is better, but I would have to disagree.

 

TrackIR is great. You turn your head a little bit, and the virtual head moves to change the view. But the fact of the matter is, your eyes are still facing the monitor. This is subtle nuance, but to your brain, it really makes all the difference.

 

So, to summarize, TrackIR is great for immersion, but nowhere near as good as rift. Of course, Rift's current resolution limitation makes it less desirable.

 

hsb

hsb

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I thought it had great immersion until I started using the Rift. It's not even comparable IMHO. Some will no doubt bring up the use of 4K monitors + TrackIR is better, but I would have to disagree.

 

TrackIR is great. You turn your head a little bit, and the virtual head moves to change the view. But the fact of the matter is, your eyes are still facing the monitor. This is subtle nuance, but to your brain, it really makes all the difference.

 

So, to summarize, TrackIR is great for immersion, but nowhere near as good as rift. Of course, Rift's current resolution limitation makes it less desirable.

 

hsb

 

Yeah, I guess I will have to fall in line and go for TrackIR.

 

It's really amazing how technology has evolved...Geez...I still remember playing

"Coleco Vision"....The game I had was called "Venture" and I freaking Loved it.

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Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the "Red Baron". He scored the most officially accepted kills in World War I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.

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Yeah, I guess I will have to fall in line and go for TrackIR.

 

It's really amazing how technology has evolved...Geez...I still remember playing

"Coleco Vision"....The game I had was called "Venture" and I freaking Loved it.

 

If/when you get it, you wont understand how you ever flew without it.

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If/when you get it, you wont understand how you ever flew without it.

 

Ok. I give......so I need pedals and the TrackIR......

But after that I am set right???

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Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the "Red Baron". He scored the most officially accepted kills in World War I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.

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Ok. I give......so I need pedals and the TrackIR......

But after that I am set right???

 

Well... you might need a joystick as well I think :D

 

But seirously... headtracking is really useful, I'm using it for only like a month but never starting my sim without it again. ;)


Edited by GeorgeLKMT
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Yeah, I guess I will have to fall in line and go for TrackIR.

 

It's really amazing how technology has evolved...Geez...I still remember playing

"Coleco Vision"....The game I had was called "Venture" and I freaking Loved it.

 

 

I played Coleco Vision football game. Those red lines as linebackers. Loved that game....You're right, we've come a long way!

 

The first Falcon...and F15... nothing more than stick/frame drawn planes. Amazing.

 

hsb

hsb

HW Spec in Spoiler

---

 

i7-10700K Direct-To-Die/OC'ed to 5.1GHz, MSI Z490 MB, 32GB DDR4 3200MHz, EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3, NVMe+SSD, Win 10 x64 Pro, MFG, Warthog, TM MFDs, Komodo Huey set, Rverbe G1

 

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Ok. I give......so I need pedals and the TrackIR......

But after that I am set right???

 

 

There are also free alternatives if you are cost worried.

 

Software wise are:

 

Freetrack http://www.free-track.net/english/

FceTrackNoIR http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/

Open Track http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/

 

Hardware wise you need a good Web camera... moded if possible... PS3 Eye is one of the best and a IR LED clip in case you are not using facetracknoir native facetracking (for performance reasons)

 

I recommend delanclip for hardware acquisition... you get a moded PS3Eye camera and the clip at a very decent price and jumpstart the manual labor you need to do yourself otherwise

 

http://www.delanengineering.com/

 

I should add that tweaking the 3 softwares to work perfectly is a bit of work by it self. The results are at least on equal with TIR stuff, however if you can't manage to make it work flawlessly you will hate yourself for not buying the TIR where at least you can curse someone on the phone or mail :D . I say this from first and second hand experience. I can't make FTNOIR and Opentrack work like my freetrack works. I also have friends that simply gave up on freetrack and bought TIR because they couldn't manage either to build the tracker or to setup the software.


Edited by zaelu

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Personally I tried freetrack, facetrack etc, went out and bought a relatively good webcam, stripped out the IR filter, built a tracking cap with LED's, and spent what felt like hours in the software, and it was just a royal pain in the a**.

 

Yes the TrackIR is significantly more expensive, but the results (for me at least) were infinitely better. I'd struggle to achieve 25+ fps with the webcam alternatives, if I was lucky in good light. With TIR it's 100fps guaranteed, every time.

 

No I don't work for Natural Point, but I'd pay the premium in a heartbeat to save the effort I went through last time.

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^ Indeed. New TiR is a bit on expensive side (overpriced for amount of electronics in the device, If You ask me, but that's the monopoly for ya), however, if budget is tight, finding a second hand unit is a good alternative. TiR4s and 5s pop up on Ebay every now and then, "buy and sell" sections of discussion forums for simmers are also worth visiting. It all depends on how patient/impatient You are to get one.

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I use FTNOIR with a 3 point model with 940nm LED's, 3 resistors, a 3.7v Li-on battery, and a PS3 Eye camera. Removal of the IR filter was easy but it shifted the focal length of the camera to about less than 5 inches away. This made tracking anything impossible. The solution was to remove the lens assembly from the camera again and very carefully sand the base portion that mounts to the CCD imager. That corrected the focal length and the setup works flawlessly now. It less than $40 in parts. Is it worth the time and effort to go the DIY route? I can only speak for myself and the answer is yes. TrackIR is a wonderful "turn-key" solution but IMO it's appreciable performance benefit from my DIY setup does not justify the price tag.

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Ok. I give......so I need pedals and the TrackIR......

But after that I am set right???

 

Only if you have a wife to stop you... :music_whistling: Bigger, better, shinier, it just never seems to stop or be enough! Look into some of the high end pits... it's chilling what can be spent. Welcome to a brand new world :thumbup:

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Ok. I give......so I need pedals and the TrackIR......

But after that I am set right???

 

If you give a mouse a cookie...

 

There will always be another thing you want. Always. I just need the joystick. I just need the pedals. I just need the track IR. I just need 2 more monitors. Now that I've got 2 more monitors, I need a bigger computer.

 

Now you've got all the stuff, and theres a problem! You say to yourself, "Where do I put it? I need a dedicated chair for this."

 

Now you're building yourself a flight sim chair. Since you're building a chair, you might as well build some armrests to go with it, so you have a place to put switches, and since you've got switches, you may as well build an instrument panel as well.

 

This is about the time when your significant other leaves you as your project has consumed an entire room of your domicile. You realize you've got a full blown sim pit on your hands. Since you've got that, you might as well mount the whole platform on some simvibe transducers, and replace the monitors with some curved projection screens.

 

 

Seriously though? A joystick with a throttle, some pedals, and a trackIR is a perfect place to start. There is nothing else that you really need. Only stuff you will want.

Practice makes perfect.

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Well... you might need a joystick as well I think :D

 

But seirously... headtracking is really useful, I'm using it for only like a month but never starting my sim without it again. ;)

 

Yeah, the first thing i did was instead of buying a couch, I bought the HOTAS combo.....

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the "Red Baron". He scored the most officially accepted kills in World War I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.

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