TrackIR, am I missing something?

thegoonden

thegoonden

thegoonden

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A mate of mine suggested TrackIR (apparently a doobry that tracks head movements and pans the in-game camera accordingly) might be fun for my racing games. Initially I thought he may be right, but then a rather fundamental question came to me.............

So, I'm thundering down into the parabolica at monza, with Graham Hill in the lotus 49 on my right. I turn my head to look at him to see what he's going to do, and my in-game camera pans round to do the same......all good....except, surely I am now looking out my window and not at the monitor??????

Is it only meant to be used with stereo goggles or something?

Have I missed something here?
 
It would exaggerate your head movement, just dont sneeze or your driver will go out the window.
A big monitor always helps


You can get a shareware version that will work with a webcam I think. Im hoping the bf2 patch upcoming will let this work


 
Hi, you move your head to the right ever so slightly and you will see the screen pan to the right. Just like the real thing in a real car. If you move your head towards your monitor you will see your windscreen move closer too.
You wont have to look over your shoulder your head will always be facing the monitor nat all times.
 
The head-movement is very very small...you can adjust the sensitivity. As the others have said - you will be able to see the monitors at all times.

Search for track IR on YouTube and you will get a good idea of how it works. In fact theres a video floating around that shows it being used in a flight sim, racing game & a 1st person shooter.
 
Whats the cheapest way to get somit like this done, I wouldnt mind trying somit where i can look around in games on the cheap.
 
Ahhh, right....WAS missing something then LOL


Sounds good, will look into freetrack.....bound to have a webcam round here somewhere.


Only problem which comes to mind is that I have a tendancy to get a bit too into my driving and start to tilt my head against G-forces I'm not experiencing heheheh. Still, might be able to set it so that movement makes the camera look to the approaching apex a little.

Ta very much folks.
 
bear in mind that moving the camera while you're driving can be pretty disorientating since you generally need some kind of constant reference as to how far you're turning. And also you can't really do anything else with your head or your view could end up anywhere...

thread on a racing forum:
http://forum.racedepartment.com/gtr-evolution/6749-anyone-using-trackir-race-07-gtr-evo.html
(iirc you can't view more than one page without registering though)

a better (probably) but more expensive solution is 3 monitors :D
 
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Zogger said:
bear in mind that moving the camera while you're driving can be pretty disorientating since you generally need some kind of constant reference as to how far you're turning. And also you can't really do anything else with your head or your view could end up anywhere...
Click to expand...

That's why you use cockpit mode with TrackIR :D
 
I got my Trackir 4 pro delivered last week and am absolutely loving it. It did take a couple of days to get used to however once you do it's hard to see how I did without it now. I thoroughly recommend it. :D

I did seriously consider going down the freetrack route although it just seemed like too much hassle and I opted for the real one in the end due to the support availble and to save myself the headache of actually making my own one.
 
in real life I have peripheral vision, my head movements are mapped 1:1 with the real world, and when I turn my head right I don't have to turn my eyes back to where I started to continue looking right ;)

I'm not speaking with any experience of trackIR, just what I have read in the thread I linked and my experience of looking around with other methods. It may well be perfect once you get used to it
 
Your brain will rapidly learn to cope with it though and once you do you find yourself able to know exactly where the car/aircraft is pointing due to the correlation between head position and what you see on screen.

The biggest mistake people make in trying to use a TrackIR unit is to use deadzones and a non-linear response curve which in my opinion make it very awkward and unnatural to use leading to the issues you mention.
 
Dano said:
Your brain will rapidly learn to cope with it though and once you do you find yourself able to know exactly where the car/aircraft is pointing due to the correlation between head position and what you see on screen.

The biggest mistake people make in trying to use a TrackIR unit is to use deadzones and a non-linear response curve which in my opinion make it very awkward and unnatural to use leading to the issues you mention.
Click to expand...

Indeed...I had a play about with setting some deadzones and changing curves and, like you say, it did make it unnatural.

To the OP... it is an extremely useful tool and one that adds a whole new depth to the immersion of the game. After a few hours use when you're used to it, it does feel very natural to use and requires no thought thereafter. It's certainly not cheap however it's definitely worth it. The very worst that could happen would be that you'd have to sell it (highly unlikely) however if you were to do so then you'd get pretty much all your money back as they are not easy to come by second hand and cheaply and with the imminent release of Black Shark then you couldn't have a better time to sell one on for a VERY good price.
 
Zogger said:
in real life I have peripheral vision, my head movements are mapped 1:1 with the real world, and when I turn my head right I don't have to turn my eyes back to where I started to continue looking right ;)

I'm not speaking with any experience of trackIR, just what I have read in the thread I linked and my experience of looking around with other methods. It may well be perfect once you get used to it
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm good point, I find that the "look to apex" in games option slows me down quite a bit.


Now what you really need is TrackIR/Freetrack.....and a pair of those stereoscopic goggles....that would rock.....but not for me, I have an eye so lazy I basically have no 3d vision at all LOL.
 
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