57 replies to this topic

[DeeSaster]

Hya guys,

I searched the forums and found numerous older posts (mostly 2012) about it, but apart from a hint towards Ask The Devs 41 I could not find anything. Also all the topics were in the archives, so no way for me to bump them.

So here I go again and ask if anyone got some newer intel about that or alternatively who would be interested in getting TrackIR supported. I for one would be thrilled!

[Cynide]

Second that... I find the immersion to be incredible In any supported game or sim. Brings a whole new level.

[Sen]

It's an interesting concept, but I suspect the press and hype with the Occulus Rift is gonna stifle if not outright kill trackIR.

Rift has all the same functionality + the screens, and already appears to be compatible with MwO

https://www.youtube....d&v=Tfn6aQaLjcg

I'd be interested to know if there was a way to translate the instruction set across tho. . *MAY* end up being a way to get trackIR to support it???

[CeeKay Boques]

It has Free look, so I don't know why that can't be "always on" just slaved to your Track system... and be done with it... Occulus...maybe in a few years.

[Sen]

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It has Free look, so I don't know why that can't be "always on" just slaved to your Track system... and be done with it... Occulus...maybe in a few years.

Kinda sorta what I was thinking, but I haven't gotten my hands on either to do any testing, so it's all theory. TECHNICALLY, if the software would allow input programming, you'd just have to set up center, tie in the CTRL key to the thing, and calibrate the system (if necessary).

Edited by Sen, 21 November 2013 - 11:04 AM.

[Loc Nar]

Want.So.Badly. The other day in another forum a user asked 'is TrackIR useful with a single monitor?', to which my answer is: 'it's so useful that the question should actually be 'is a single monitor useful without TrackIR?'.

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It's an interesting concept, but I suspect the press and hype with the Occulus Rift is gonna stifle if not outright kill trackIR.

While that may be the case as a commercial product in the long run, we will likely have TrackIR support in MWO long before OR, and many other games heavily rely on it (plus have contract with NaturalPoint) so I don't see this hardware going anywhere anytime soon despite competing tech (castAR!) popping up. OR requires a complete redesign of the HUD and UI elements, where Cryengine already has most of what it needs to enable head tracking in place, and some of that is even already enabled in MWO, just locked into 'freelook' and tied into other functions.

The devs have said they would do it someday too, while on the other hand other than Matthiew Craig's interest in Oculus they don't seem to care about it one bit and the few times they haven't flat out ignored it they have openly scoffed it in ATD in the past so it looks very unlikely they will be early adopters if ever at all. A strong sense of knowing what is actually important for a simulator or to a 'hardcore simhead^TM' is not exactly one of the crimes PGI is guilty of.

For TrackIR they need to un-slave it from the primary x/y input to a secondary input and basically make freetrack work opposite how it does now, leaving view panning always on by default and pushing button locking arms to head movement. From watching Kirrivan's OR vid, it is obvious that in addition to pitch/yaw, roll is also already there to be tapped. It would stand to reason that the translational axes are also there in the engine, but this is just educated guess.

War Thunder on the otherhand has awesome TrackIR support... a younger company than PGI that put out a sim title that went beta around the same time as MWO. Guess what? People like that game a lot more than MWO and unlike PGI, Gaijin understands the 'build it they will come' mentality required for this endeavor to worth anyone's long term condideration.

[Sen]

http://forums.natura...php?f=5&t=10261

Well, they were into it last year if nothing else...

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'd probably pick this up if MwO supported it.

[Loc Nar]

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Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'd probably pick this up if MwO supported it.

I will be thrilled when that day comes. I use it in War Thunder, Condor, and soon Star Citizen. I've had it since 2008 and found very little room for improvement, but what I did do is documented in this album: http://imgur.com/a/gAKKY

I tested between passive (reflectors) and active (IR LED) and found passive to me perfectly adequate unless an un-blinded window was behind me so made a better passive reflector mocap hat than I could with the stock reflector array. The other thing was I wanted the camera up higher and farther back to allow my full ranges of motion I use whereas before it would lose tracking from looking up so I built a mast for it.

If anyone wants to explore this hardware right now in games that support it (War Thunder is f2p, and has great joystick support too. but also allows 'arcade controls' [kbm] if you don't have the gear...) you can do it for free using Freetrack, which piggybacks off TrackIR support in games but is a freeware alternative that can perform almost as well but can be cobbled together for less than $20. Only reason I went with TrackIR was to minimize my 'preflight' sequence, as I already have enough **** to turn on and initialize as is...

[DeeSaster]

Thanks for the support guys!

I play War Thunder and Arma 3 for their great support of TrackIR. It adds a lot to already good games to begin with. In Arma 3 you can see, that TrackIR is basically considered a joystick with a few axis. You can set thes axis to whatever action you want, tho from the start some reasonable defaults are enabled. I can't really imagine, that it is too much work to implement it IF you already have joystick support in your game. There very likely are libraries that Natural Point hands out to developers to broaden the possible client base.

I like TrackIR so much, that I bought AND played Euro Truck Simulator for a few hours. Yes...TrackIR is THAT good!

[DeeSaster]

Loc Nar, on 21 November 2013 - 09:09 PM, said:

I tested between passive (reflectors) and active (IR LED) and found passive to me perfectly adequate unless an un-blinded window was behind me so made a better passive reflector mocap hat than I could with the stock reflector array. The other thing was I wanted the camera up higher and farther back to allow my full ranges of motion I use whereas before it would lose tracking from looking up so I built a mast for it

Interesting! For me both work equally well too, but I dislike having to wear a cap and so stick to the IR LEDs. I wear a headset while gaming anyway (Women Acceptance Factor and all that...), so it boils down to one extra cable next to the headset cable and a few grams of extra weigh added on the headset.

Also, I am hyped and pumped about Occulus Rift as much as the next guy. I remember how much I loved Cybercafes more than a decade ago, where you shot huge blue blocks at 5 fps at the other guys while wearing 5 kg of equipment. 10 minute games for the price of a decent dinner at a fine restaurant. Good times. I hope OR will be able to recreate that. However I cannot imagine wearing that helmet all the time as it basically cuts you out of the real world for good. I enjoy seeing my wife and my cat when I look past the monitors from time to time.

[ball0fire]

trackIR support was one of the lies that got me here way back before founders.... still waiting

and for you guys that dont know how good track IR is, there are plenty of youtube vids showing it.

for me , playing sims (flying and or driving) and arma is awesome with it and i find it hard without it now days

Edited by ball0fire, 22 November 2013 - 07:30 AM.

[BlackArab]

I just clamped the metal Track Clip, down on top of my headset with a single simple elastic band after the Clip-pro broke.
Works like a dream.
Your wife and kids might be laughing at you behind your back though.

Edited by BlackArab, 22 November 2013 - 05:14 AM.

[Urban UK]

Track Ir support for MWO would be awesome, but the rate pgi work I cant see it happening anytime soon

though If you could pay for trackir support with MC then it would probably be in game next week

funnily enough I would probably buy it, lol

[DeeSaster]

Urban UK, on 22 November 2013 - 05:50 AM, said:

though If you could pay for trackir support with MC then it would probably be in game next week

funnily enough I would probably buy it, lol

+1

Does that make us funny or sad guys?

[Loc Nar]

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Does that make us funny or sad guys?

Yes

Edited by Loc Nar, 22 November 2013 - 12:35 PM.

[Sen]

Just out of curiosity are you guys running single monitor or 3 screen eyefinity/surround?

I watched a few of the videos, and it seems like if you turned your head too much with a single screen the FoV may change, but you'd be staring at the wall >.>

it's probably one of those things that it's easier understand once you've experienced it, but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask.

[Loc Nar]

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I watched a few of the videos, and it seems like if you turned your head too much with a single screen the FoV may change, but you'd be staring at the wall >.>

Single screen for me, but it's super easy to calibrate/dial to the exact movement amplification you want in each axis through a user-friendly GUI that you can make/save different profiles for each game. In practice it's very natural and easy to use and in less than 5 minutes the hardware disappears and you are just looking around inside the game as if you were there.

[DeeSaster]

Sen, on 23 November 2013 - 01:34 PM, said:

Just out of curiosity are you guys running single monitor or 3 screen eyefinity/surround?
(...)
it's probably one of those things that it's easier understand once you've experienced it, but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask.

I am running two monitors (actually three if you count the TV set), but I only play on one. The monitors are 27 inchers (the TV is a 37) and I sit pretty close to them, so I guess I could not take it all in, if I was running a triple setup, tho the feeling must be great. Maybe I should give it a shot.

The TrackIR comes supernatural after a few minutes even. You can and should assign buttons to recalibrate and pause input. Also you can set up the ratio of head movement vs view rotation. Imagine it like a gaming mouse. There are occasion when you put your mouse to super fast twitchy mode and then some where you want to aim real slow and put the slider in the opposite direction. You don't think about this anymore either, you just click the buttons depending your situation.


If you are interested in "drawbacks", I can provide only one. For the first few days, I got a sore neck after some hours of playing (played a lot when I got that marvel tech), because I moved my head so much. After a while I sat down and tuned the profile which helped a lot with the issue. Also I guess I developed my muscles at the neck over time, too.

[fez]

So.... do we have TrackIR support yet? I only asked back in 2012...

Edited by fez, 26 February 2014 - 04:15 PM.

[Illuzian Pryde]

Do want badly. My TrackIR is sitting there unused atm and I miss using from Arma, DayZ & Lock On/DCS.