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I am finally making the jump to a head tracking system. I went on line to do some research on it and am completely floored by what I have learned so far. The simplicity that is involved in the design and production of head tracking gear is crazy.

There are all kinds of instructional videos, and pages (http://www.maximumpc.com/how-to-build-your-own-ir-head-tracker/) on how to actually make a system at home out of old pens and LED lights, with free software that you can download. I could probably do this as I built my own rudder pedals out of an old Saitek joystick and some sheet medal and it works every bit as well as a $200 setup. There are even guys making them out of web cams, and plastic clips they buy in bulk and just selling em on Ebay for 30 dollars. I had no idea that they were this simple.

I am kind of opting for Trackir. There are a few others that are less expensive. "Cymouse", and "Natural Point" look kind of promising.

I am guessing that the complexity or quality of head tracking probably comes from the software. I suppose that the free download ("Free Track" seems to be the one that people use the most) have compatibility issues, are not as versatile, or are more problematic than the better stuff.

I can get the Cymouse for half of the cost of Trackir and it seems to have been around a while and has pretty good reviews.

I would like to know what people who fly use the most and what their experiences have been with whatever they're using. Have any of you ever used the Cymouse? If not, what do you use for head tracking and how well does it work for you? I have already sunk a S&^%t ton of money into flight simming and don't want to spend a ton more at this point. DCS pretty much has had an open invitation to my bank account as it is. But I want something that works well.

 

Thanks folks

 

OH.......sorry guys if this isn't posted in it's proper place. Wasn't really sure. Move it if it's not where it should be.


Edited by Zimmerdylan
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I am kind of opting for Trackir. There are a few others that are less expensive. "Cymouse", and "Natural Point" look kind of promising.

 

FYI, Natural Point makes TrackIR, so I think you got a bit confused somewhere.

 

As far as what works best...

 

TrackIR is the only 'works out of the box' system available. It works very well and, IMHO, is worth every penny.

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I think TrackIR vs. OpenTrack/FTNoIR/Freetrack is really a question of money vs. time. If you want to pay $130 US or so, open a box, plug something in, and have it work, go with TrackIR 100%. If money's tight and you have DIY skills, you can build a tracked object for cheap and use a PS3Eye webcam + IR-pass filter with OpenTrack for probably about 30% of that (assuming you already have some basic electronics tools). It's a bit fiddly to get right, but I've used variants for 4-5 years and had good luck.

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Or FTNoIR has a face tracker that requires no lens filters or tracked objects. It's a little finicky but can't argue with free.

 

Well you can if it doesn't work ;)

 

I tried that before the other options and it never worked for me. I was told the lighting needs to be right, so if I'd been able to arrange some way of better illuminating my face it might have improved (although wearing glasses is apparently an issue with it as well) but I gave up and moved onto the PS3 Eye/LED option.

 

I think there's an option in OpenTrack (might be in FTNoIR as well) to have it track a printed marker stuck to a hat which might work reasonably well but I haven't tried that one.

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I have had a lot of success with FreeTrack and FaceTrackNOIR. I don't have any money to waste on systems like TrackIR so the open source way is the way for me.

 

The latest and best though would be OpenTrack with a gyroscope android device\phone. Hi-fidelity tracking, no LEDS, plugnplay and go.

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I have had a lot of success with FreeTrack and FaceTrackNOIR. I don't have any money to waste on systems like TrackIR so the open source way is the way for me.

 

The latest and best though would be OpenTrack with a gyroscope android device\phone. Hi-fidelity tracking, no LEDS, plugnplay and go.

 

 

I looked into both Free Track and TrackNoir. I actually loaded Free Track on to my computer and it did not work at all. I looked at the latest update to it and it was back in 2008 or something like that. It does not work on my Windows 10 system at all. There is a statement on their web site saying that they'll be updating it but it was also posted a while ago. I already have all of the hardware assembled. It didn't take but a few minutes to put it together thanks to my 5 year old son's toy box. He's got all kinds of LED stuff in there that already has the battery pack made up and everything. I found a 3 LED toy that works perfectly with no modification whatsoever other than removing the electronic stuff from the toy. But it doesn't matter because the software won't even open on my computer.

The Track Noir seemed like it was a lot of effort just to get it up and going. You had to download the initial software and then download and install updates, fixes, and a new thing to deal with Windows10. And.....both had some legal issues with the TrackIR makers with software compatibility. So I just sort of figure that it's much easier just to fork over the $$ and get TrackIR.

I was up on Ebay looking and found that IR4 is much less money than IR5. But when I went to the site looking at the drivers, I noticed that the updates applied to both 4, and 5 so I will probably just go with TrackIR 4.

I'm not a career simmer. I do this to relax and thus far, my relaxation fixation has cost me a lot of money. :joystick:

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Another solution worth considering in my opinion is EDTracker. I wrote a small article here about my experience with it: http://www.ch-hangar.com/hardware/edtracker-test/

 

Ignore my comments about DCS because apparently it does work now though I've not tried it myself. Also that article was done about a year ago, since then they have revised and refined the hardware to add an internal magnetometer to stop any axis drift which does away with the need for a reset button as seen on my older device. I'm thinking of buying a pre-assembled 'Pro' model from them but may wait as they mention a wireless version in the works too. I liked using the EDTracker because in my Obutto pit I never found a sweet spot for the TrackIR so quite often it would flip out of range. Check out their web-site: http://www.edtracker.org.uk/

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I have had a lot of success with FreeTrack and FaceTrackNOIR. I don't have any money to waste on systems like TrackIR so the open source way is the way for me.

 

The latest and best though would be OpenTrack with a gyroscope android device\phone. Hi-fidelity tracking, no LEDS, plugnplay and go.

 

 

Yeah!!!! So I finally got the FreeTrack to actually work. It does everything that it is suppose to do but there are a few issues however. I can pull the program up, make whatever adjustments need to be made, and get it working ok but as soon as I open any other program, the window completely disappears as though the program has closed. When I click on the icon to open it back up, it says that the program is already running, but there is no way to shut it down or pull it up to use it. That's my first issue.

Second problem is a common issue. I have to ad a file to the DCS bin files but I'm not exactly sure what file that needs to be added. I believe that it is Headtracker.dll. I have not made it that far yet because I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the program on the desktop.

A good thing is that it runs very nicely when I'm working with it.

I am still most certainly going to purchase Trackir but this thing has got me obsessing over how and if it works. I just want to get it up and going to see if I can. I am very computer literate but I never get into the guts of it to where I change registry or move dll files around.:music_whistling:

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Another solution worth considering in my opinion is EDTracker. I wrote a small article here about my experience with it: http://www.ch-hangar.com/hardware/edtracker-test/

 

Ignore my comments about DCS because apparently it does work now though I've not tried it myself.

 

I'm using the current version of Edtracker and it works nicely with DCS. It presents as a joystick device so a column for it appears in DCS' control page but I'm using it with Opentrack to allow me to set curves, etc and that makes a TrackIR column appear as well, so I just unmap the Edtracker column. No need to drop any files in the DCS folder to make it work :)

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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Yeah!!!! So I finally got the FreeTrack to actually work. It does everything that it is suppose to do but there are a few issues however. I can pull the program up, make whatever adjustments need to be made, and get it working ok but as soon as I open any other program, the window completely disappears as though the program has closed. When I click on the icon to open it back up, it says that the program is already running, but there is no way to shut it down or pull it up to use it. That's my first issue.

Second problem is a common issue. I have to ad a file to the DCS bin files but I'm not exactly sure what file that needs to be added. I believe that it is Headtracker.dll. I have not made it that far yet because I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the program on the desktop.

A good thing is that it runs very nicely when I'm working with it.

I am still most certainly going to purchase Trackir but this thing has got me obsessing over how and if it works. I just want to get it up and going to see if I can. I am very computer literate but I never get into the guts of it to where I change registry or move dll files around.:music_whistling:

The program isn't closing. It is just minimizing. If you click the up arrow in the right of your task bar it will show currently running apps. FreeTrack will be a red or green circle depending on if it is currently tracking or not. If you click the circle it will open the window again.

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The Headtracker.dll file needs to be added to the bin folder. Just copy & paste it and you should be good. At least that works for me with FaceTrackNoIR.. but it is using FreeTrack 2.0 protocol so i'm guessing that should do it.

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I have been messing with this thing non stop since last night and have had only moderate success with it. It stutters and shutters all over the place no matter what I set it to. It works but then it doesn't. It picks up glare off of everything in the room.

Since I put the headtracker.dll file into DCS, it won't shut down properly. Keeps giving me the old "DCS has stopped working" deal.

Even got the BSOD at some point.

I'm kind of thinking that it's not really all that compatible with Windows10. Not worth the effort at this point. I'll just go out and get Trackir this week.

Thx for all the great input guys!!! I'm glad that people are using the free software with good results.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone been running FreeTrack in Windows10??


Edited by Zimmerdylan
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Hey mate, Just got track ir4.

Picked it for 150$ on eBay, absolutely amazing can I say!

I would really recommend any of the track ir systems. The newest is track ir5, as I didnt have the money I decided to go with trackir4. I downloaded a profile of the web and configured it to what I wanted. Works perfect with the A10C, Hawk and Mig21bis so far.

Would 100% recommend!

 

Regards, MrChickies

Pulling 12G's Daily

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I use Opentrack 2.3rc18 on win 10, homemade 3 point cap. A bit of axis adjust and Bob's your uncle..

Anything with a Rotary Wing is fun and challenging.

Use SRS radio.

Saitek X55 Modding

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