Track IR or Face Track Noir

[Mad-Mex]

Tired of using buttons to view around me.

Since VR headsets seem a little too much for me, I am thinking of diving into Track IR.

 

Couple of questions:

 

1) How easy are they to use?

2) When using, how much head turn do you need to see outside cockpit?

3) Is there anything out-there superior to others?

 

Thanks !

Edited September 22, 2019 by Mad-Mex

[ricktoberfest]

Tired of using buttons to view around me.

 

Since VR headsets seem a little too much for me, I am thinking of diving into Track IR.

 

 

 

Couple of questions:

 

 

 

1) How easy are they to use?

 

2) When using, how much head turn do you need to see outside cockpit?

 

3) Is there anything out-there superior to others?

 

 

 

Thanks !

 

 

 

Facetracknoir is fine (especially cause it’s essentially free)- I use it and have adjusted to it. If I wasn’t looking into VR then I would go with trackir but for only a little more you can get the oculus rift S, so it’s not worth it to me to get trackir if I’m planning on going VR anytime soon.

[JayBird]

I've had Track IR 5 with Pro Clip for about three years now. I love it and would purchase it over and over again.

 

It's easy to set up, the software allows you to set how much rotation in-game you'd like to see so its totally up to you. There are plenty of profiles out there for you to download and use as a starting point.

 

The only real complaint I have with Track IR is the cable, I wish there was a wireless version, I've seen third party pro clips that are wireless so maybe consider buying one of those instead of the Pro Clip.

[Mad-Mex]

Facetracknoir is fine (especially cause it’s essentially free)- I use it and have adjusted to it. If I wasn’t looking into VR then I would go with trackir but for only a little more you can get the oculus rift S, so it’s not worth it to me to get trackir if I’m planning on going VR anytime soon.

 

Main reson am not looking at Oculus rift is, noggin size, I wear size 8 hats, so unless I find a store nearby which sells them and I can try it on, not an option.

[flavnet]

Track IR is great!Extremely easy to use. With a movement of about 15° of my head I can rotate almost 90° in the cockpit. The "must" is undoubtedly the Rift S (quite expensive and, in my opinion, still impractical for the DCS).

[NineLine]

Tired of using buttons to view around me.

Since VR headsets seem a little too much for me, I am thinking of diving into Track IR.

 

Couple of questions:

 

1) How easy are they to use?

2) When using, how much head turn do you need to see outside cockpit?

3) Is there anything out-there superior to others?

 

Thanks !

 

TrackIR is a game changer if you have never used head tracking, I still use it heavily when not using VR.

 

1) Super easy

2) you can tune it so you can turn your head as much as you want to look all the way behind you

3) TrackIR is the only one supported by ED, but a few other options out there that people use

[Mad-Mex]

Track IR is great!Extremely easy to use. With a movement of about 15° of my head I can rotate almost 90° in the cockpit. The "must" is undoubtedly the Rift S (quite expensive and, in my opinion, still impractical for the DCS).

 

What do you suggest I buy? Is there one better than other?

[Rowan]

1) Pretty easy

2) Up to you

3) Not that I know of, perhaps Tobii Eye but never used it, don't know much about it and not sure if it even works with DCS

[Mad-Mex]

1) Pretty easy

2) Up to you

3) Not that I know of, perhaps Tobii Eye but never used it, don't know much about it and not sure if it even works with DCS

 

Thanks!! think I'll go with this from Amazon,,,TrackIr 5 Optical Head Tracking System Bundle + Track Clip PRO,,, due to reviews and you tube review showing it with DCS F-18 ,,,,

[dburne]

Thanks!! think I'll go with this from Amazon,,,TrackIr 5 Optical Head Tracking System Bundle + Track Clip PRO,,, due to reviews and you tube review showing it with DCS F-18 ,,,,

 

Hard to go wrong with Track IR5. Solid, reliable, and just works every time.

I used mine for several years without a glitch until I got into VR. Also had Track IR4 and Track IR3 prior.

[-0303-]

I can not imagine simming again without head tracking (or VR which I have yet to try).

 

I use the Delanclip + PS3 and OpenTrack software. I never tried Naturalpoint TrackIR 5. I can only say that DelanClip (which is a lot cheaper) works fine for me. I can also say that the metal DelanClip is very durable, used it heavily for 9 months.Some guy compared IR5 and Delanclip. TrackIR and Opentrack/Delanclip/PS Eye

 

A possible difference is that IR5 has two horizontally separated IR sensors (I think) which might make for more redundancy (more margins) wrt how the head is positioned in front of the sensors. I think IR5 also has a higher sampling frequency. The PS3 (my PS3) can do 125 Hz with 320x240 resolution or 75 Hz with 640x480 resolution. I find the 320x240 res works better, higher freq and dots are smaller so they don't bleed into each other as easily. Looked it up, TrackIR5 has 120 Hz frequency at 640x480 resolution.

OpenTrack is freeware and when I researched head tracking and it was suggested that OpenTrack is a better software than IR5. I have a suspicion IR5's software will only work with TrackIR hardware.

 

A useful guide.

A complete guide to set up Head-tracking (Opentrack).

~

 

PS,

If you have a cellphone you can do head tracking for zero cost. I works, but I never got it to work well (it's possible it can be made to work well, but it's a lot of tweaking involved). It's a black and white pattern you put on your head and the cellphones camera sees it. One thing, it takes a shitload of CPU power. It took as much CPU as DCS itself ... (but that was with a very weak PC getting an fps of 12-22).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923596825

also

http://www.skipser.com/p/2/p/android-as-webcam.html

With streaming video from cellphone set up, this steam can chosen in the OpenTrack software.

 

Linked Aruco generator is down. Here is the Aruco I used (printed and put on a farmers hat).

https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/blob/unstable/contrib/aruco/test3.png

Here's another Aruco pattern generator.

http://chev.me/arucogen/

A thread on this at ED Forum

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=176638

Edited September 23, 2019 by -0303-

[Rick50]

can you use Opentrack with TIR 5 hardware then?

[-0303-]

No, according to this thread.

 

Its really about the software, I have Track IR5 but I'm curious if the opentrack software works with the Track IR 5 camera as I would like to try that instead of the track Ir software.

 

The answer is no.

 

Quote from the opentrack creator:

"opentrack only supports directshow cameras, not proprietary camera protocols."

 

Track IR5 uses proprietary camera protocols.

post #3 (of 4) has a critique of IR5.

 

The TrackIR camera is an optical capture device like any consumer camera, it is however distinguished by its monochrome sensor, infrared filter and dedicated image processing chip. The monochrome sensor affords marginally better effective resolution over a color sensor and the infrared filter makes it work as an infrared tracker out of the box. The dedicated image processing chip is its biggest distinguishing feature which removes unnecessary information from video frames before sending them to the computer to make them smaller and more manageable.

 

When TrackIR was first released in 2001, dedicated image processing hardware was important to minimize the burden on the single core CPUs of the time but modern multi-core processors can easily manage full color video alongside even the latest TrackIR game title. As a sign of this, both the Playstation Move and Xbox Kinect optical tracking systems have opted for software image processing instead of expensive dedicated hardware. The TrackIR camera's dedicated processing is a solution for a problem that no longer exists.

 

The Playstation 3 Eye camera is a small fraction of the price of TrackIR 5 and can match its resolution at a lower frame rate (75Hz), or exceed its frame rate (187Hz) at a lower resolution (320x240), has a much wider field of view (75° vs 51.7°) and also functions as a webcam. It well fulfills the role of an optical tracker, being designed for this purpose and used by the Playstation Move platform which has been widely praised for having no optical tracking latency or accuracy problems.

 

The TrackIR camera increasingly serves as Digital Rights Management (DRM) for the TrackIR software, avoiding piracy by being limited to their camera instead of working with any DirectShow compatible camera. NaturalPoint's motion capture software ARENA makes this more explicit, requiring a $99 USB Hardware Key when no OptiTrack camera is available. The TrackIR camera is looking more like an elaborate USB hardware key for the software rather than a necessary piece of specialized hardware.

Another thread comparing the two

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=143035

 

I decided for me that TrackIr isn't worth he considerable higher price. And some say the alternatives are as good.

[noisy_lightning]

I also use Opentrack and a declan clip. A bit of tweaking of the filters for input and output and it's as pretty much as good as TIR in my opinion. As I already owned the PS eye I only needed the clip.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk