Newcomer - TrackIR advice

Hello everyone,

First of all, forgive me if I didn't post this thread in the good section... If that is the case, please feel free to say so and I will gladly ask it in the appropriate forum section.

So, I am brand new to sims (and I sure like to ramble), but a friend convinced me to give it a go. As I'm currently studying in aerospace engineering, I thought that DCS A-10C Warthog could entertain me for a while. And boy, I can say without a doubt that this game has not disappointed at all. All avionics systems are absolutely astounding! And the flight model, sounds and cockpit interior are quite impressive.

But enough about myself. I bought a T-flight X HOTAS flight stick, began to play and I'm able to takeoff (with a huge-*ss pre-flight checklist next to me, but still, I'll get the hang of it) and fly it. I'm an avid learner! I'm still not really familiar with the weapons systems, but I plan to study them in depth this summer. One thing that occured to me was the Cockpit view. When I started flying and manoeuvring, I immediately felt that something was off. A minor annoyance at first, I now find that the looking around you, being aware of your surroundings is a MUST in this game. So I looked up on the internet and found this thing called TrackIR, mostly used by sims fan in Arma2 and lots of DCS and Il-2 fans.

I did a bit of research, and some people suggested me that I buy TrackIR5 with the Pro thing and the cap and everything. For around 170 bucks, which is a lot of money and a pretty big deal for a student like me. Some of my friends suggested I buy the TrackIR 4 or 3... but I'm kind of at a loss here. I don't know which TrackIR iteration suits me best. I want something relatively cheap yet responsive and efficient. But I know that things just don't work out that way most of the time.

So I am asking the community for advice about making an informed decision with feedback from experienced people like you.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english, it's not my main language.

Welcome, Charly!

TrackIR is considered by many to be essential kit for flight simming, a conclusion you appear to have arrived at naturally. Yes, TIR5 with the Proclip is the ideal setup, but many folks still use older iterations with no problems.

There are also a couple of free solutions, like Freetrack or FaceTrackNoir. I have no experience with either, but perhaps someone else here has something to add on that.

Happy flying!

A head tracking device Like TIR or a pseudo software device using Freetrack or FacetrackNoIR will change your experience of flight sims immeasurably.

TIR gets my vote, but others have had great success with freetrack. Either way go for one of them - you won't believe the difference it makes.

Nate

The TrackIR with the ProClip is going to give you better accuracy. Frame rate / resolution is where it's at. Whenever a new TIR comes out I usually give away the old one to a friend. That said, anyone know when a 6 might arrive?

I disagree with this, particularly given the OP prefers to be price conscious. I'm a 100% satisfied user of TrackIR 4, and I'd never dream of paying $1xx over again for the marginal improvements present in version 5. If you have the spend and want it, no problem with that, but OP will be extremely satisfied with a v4 if he chooses to go that round (particular if he's never used head-tracking).

Additionally, I own both the track clip pro LED headset and the standard reflecting hat clip, and having tried both, I prefer the cheap hat clip hands down. No contest. For me, the headset LED unit is annoying. I find no apparent improvements in precision or accuracy, and am constantly annoyed by having another wire dangling from my head. This is even more important to me now that I have a wireless headset- that wire is so damn annoying. Also, I notice more masking issues with the LED unit than I do with the reflecting hat clip.

tl;dr: In my opinion the TrackIR 4 is a great piece of kit and you do not need the LED unit to enjoy the head tracking experience. For me, I actually prefer not using it. If you want to control your budget, I say go get a TrackIR 4 used off ebay and you will love it.

I have owned two pro-clips and both broke on the same spot. They are exremely poorly designed and I would not recommend them.

Since you are short on money I would go track ir 4. I've used mine for several years and have no desire to upgrade.

If you have a webcam, and want to be careful with your money (totally understandable as a student), definitely check out FaceTrackNOIR.

It is free software, so the only thing that might cost money is a webcam if you don't already have one. If you would have to first purchase a webcam, I might suggest that you try finding someone that has one that you can borrow, and test it out. Would be a bit of a shame to purchase a webcam and then decide you still want to shell out for a TrackIR.

Also, welcome to both the simulator and the forum. You've entered a kickass hobby. :)

EDIT: And no worries about the forum section thing. I moved the thread to the appropriate section for you. :) Again, welcome!

Thank you all for the intel, much MUCH appreciated!

I had already read about some TrackIR5 users complaining about the proclip breaking easily... Would you seriously recommend it? I tend to be careful with my stuff but if it's just utter flimsy cr@p, I wouldn't want to be spending extra bucks for something that won't last a month. I kind of want to make a good investment, but not too much.

For instance, I bought the HOTAS T-flight X (by Thrustmaster) stick because it was 50 bucks instead of the 500 $ HOTAS Warthog stick, which looked amazing but bloody expensive as well. I can't make up my mind about the TrackIR yet. Lots of people say that there is a WORLD of difference between v4 and v5, while other people say there's not much of a difference... I don't know who to believe, there... TIR4 is around 100, TIR5 around 160+. It's a substantial difference, but I like to keep in mind that I'll probably spend YEARS with the same IR device. So I better pick one that will suit my needs.

Can't make up my mind yet... ugh!

Edit: Oh and thank you for being so courteous, EtherealN! Such a polite and helpful community is such a rare treat on the internet nowadays.

Edited Edit: Oh, I'll definitely check that FaceTrackNOIR right away! I play on a laptop which has an integrated webcam.

I would definitely recommend trying facetracknoir. I played around with it for a month or so and it did a decent job. Its free so its worth a try. I had some issues with it...probably operator error...but I could never get my head position right. No matter on where I had the camera or where my head was it would line up right. My head would be centered in the facetracknoir interface but in game it was way off causing issues where the hud wouldn't align properly. So I would only see portions of the hud. After trial and lots of error I disabled all the tracking other than what would change the view as the hat switch would. So I had up/down/left/right with my head rotation which was good enough for me. It was a little jumpy with my 30fps cam but not really anything to complain about. For a free program it did the job I wanted it to.

Seems I forgot to paste in the FaceTrackNOIR link. I had dug it up but never pasted it... doh! :P

Here you go: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm

I tried FreetracknoIR but for some reason it had some kind of incompatibility with my integrated webcam... The Freetrack appears to have a similar issue as well...

I did check some TrackIR4 videos on youtube and compared with TIR5 videos. I've noticed a considerable difference: camera movement seems much smoother. I think I might go for the TrackIR5, but without the Proclip as lots of people talk about it being abnormally flimsy and breaking for no apparent reason, AAAANNNNNND..... being unable to get a refund (awch). Is the Proclip really such a gamechanger?

Do note that in-game behaviour can also depend a lot on configuration. Both TrackIR4 and TrackIR5 have a "smoothing" mode that can be activated (and configured to your preference) which will smooth out any jerkiness. So it is possible that the TR4 videos you've seen were of people using it without Smoothing mode active.

I use the TR4 Pro myself, very happy with it. I don't use the TrackClipPro though, just the regular one that clips on a cap. Works fairly well, but it may or may not be your cup of tea to wear a cap while playing (some headsets can make that very uncomfortable). So can't say how much of an improvement there is on the experience with the TrackClip. What I will saqy though is that with the cap you are likely to be more sensitive to how far from the unit you are - and with you playing on a laptop that might end up a bit too close based on pure geometry. (Though there is of course nothing stopping you from placing the TR unit somewhere other than on the top of your laptop screen.)

That's good to know.

I don't have any fancy headsets... I use these good ol' earplugs; they've never let me down so far. As for the cap, I don't really mind wearing one inside... I'm not that picky when it comes to wearing hats inside :)

Don't be afraid to try freetrack also, if you need any help setting it up just send me a PM.

Well, final verdict: I bought the TIR5 with the cap, without the Proclip. I wasn't ready to take the risk with the flimsy Proclip and I couldn't give a hoot about having to wear a cap. As for TrackIR5 vs 4, well I chose V5 because I "felt" it was somewhat better. In fact, the reason is that while the V4 was less expensive, the shipping cost is about 25 bucks... ouch! So I just thought: "Well, if I'm about to spend a crapload of money once in a year, I might go all-in while I'm at it." Thank you all for your precious advice, I hope I made the right choice.

I hope I won't be disappointed.

Expect to spend a couple days getting used to it, but once that is done you'll soon wonder how anyone ever flies without one of those. :)

I spent almost a decade (from release of the first version) playing IL-2 religiously with mouse in my left hand for view, and never really felt I was inconvenienced or lost anything from it. But after I finally buckled and got my TrackIR (what sold me was that doing 6DoF view with mouselook is pretty much impossible) I wouldn't ever consider going back.

As EtheralN said : Be prepared to give your Brain some time to build up some new nerve pathways/synapses in your cortex ;). This has nothing to do witch your intelect - it's in some way more a biochemical learning process.

Some people will learn it in about a half hour - some must sleep it over...

So please don't be disappointed if you have first great difficulties in using this tool effective - it needs some patience and time, and forcing it will be counter-productive.

Getting a little dizzy and disorientated at first is absolute normal - it will soon become a second nature for you - so don't put it aside because of this (some folks did- and never touched it again...) -so make some pauses between your "learning sessions".

Please have a look at this video to understand how to fine tune it once you get used to the Head-Tracker (doing this tuning at the very first time will make you go insane! - you have been warned !!!:)):

And please also read the manual that comes with it!!!

I saw so many postings about issues that could be easily solved when the posters would have read the manual beforehand - instead of hammering their questions into the keyboard !!

Will do. Thanks again for all the precious information!

Ive been with TIR since v2, and have had and used every combination. In order of preference I would recomend the following

1 .TIR5 + PRO CLIP

2. TIR4 + PRO CLIP

3. TIR5 + Vector hat clip

4. TIR4 + Vector hat clip.

For me the difference between the first pair (1&2) and the second (3&4) IS SIGNIFICANT.. Since i got tir5 and pro clip, my tir has never missed a beat!

Yes the clip is weak, but it can be reinforced at the point it breaks, before it breaks (though i did it after it broke). Check out this post for how to do it.