66 replies to this topic

[Mechteric]

Kiblams, on 12 February 2015 - 10:49 AM, said:

I have a very small curve to slow it down at the centre and the other guys here have hit the nail on the head when they say the issue is that the HUD moves too, which makesit hard to centre on the tiny reticle.

Oh I see what you mean, to have them make the HUD stay still when you look around. Makes sense to me!

[Alistair Winter]

Really sorry to hear about your daughter. I don't have words to express my sympathy.

Thanks again for what you're doing here. Looking forward to hearing more from you on these forums, hopefully.

[Senor Cataclysmo]

I don't care about any potential game play benefits, but it sounds hella immersive.

[Kiblams]

Alistair Winter, on 12 February 2015 - 11:13 AM, said:

Really sorry to hear about your daughter. I don't have words to express my sympathy.

Thanks again for what you're doing here. Looking forward to hearing more from you on these forums, hopefully.

Thanks very much mate, not sure if playing mundane and repetative video games is a normal way, or even a healthy way to deal with loss, bit it makes it hurt less for me.

Senor Cataclysmo, on 12 February 2015 - 11:49 AM, said:

I don't care about any potential game play benefits, but it sounds hella immersive.

And immersive it definitely is!

[Suko]

Kiblams, on 12 February 2015 - 06:28 AM, said:

Hey guys,

I have been playing a lot of Elite Dangerous and pretty much everyone and their dog over there is using Headtracking of some form, and yet it seems retty rare for MWO.

I have made a video that you can watch over here:

http://youtu.be/fbPLbC6ukS4

What does everyone think? its easy to set up and can be cheap as chips if you go for something like the EDTracker to do it.

Here's a few things I am curious about as a new convert to the ways of headtracking in sim/vehicle games:

Do you consider being able to torso twist without losing sight of your enemy as cheating? And it does also allow a much wider angle where you can spot enemies and friendlies alike.

Is it too much to keep ontop of? we already have heat management, legs, torso etc. to keep an eye on.

As it could take some getting used to at first can you see comp users taking them up as they have more time to master using it to their advantage?

Do you think it is more useful in Assault mechs? I found that the usefullness of this is much higher in mechs whose torso twist speeds are much lower.

If it becomes more common would it affect the meta by making more mechs viable? There are mechs such as the Atlas where this simply isn't an advantage at all.

TL:DR? Do you use Headtracking in MWO and do you think it is a powerful tool for winning battles?

Cheers for reading, looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I desperately want Oculus Support (since that's what I have access to), but the Track IR stuff is awesome. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to buy the $150 setup to get in on the action. I really, REALLY want to though. The ability to check my sides while keeping my guns pointed down range or looking up for a UAV without having to move my whole mech would be a huge benefit.

[Mercules]

I use a Track-IR in MWO. What I find is that if I load into MWO without it I don't notice... until I do, then I REALLY notice I don't have it on.

What it does is give you free look about your cockpit. For most mechs that means you can glance to the side. In fact you can lean forward and your perspective get's closer to the cockpit glass so I have been able to use it to glance up and see UAVs almost directly overhead or look down through certain mechs cockpits to aim at mechs significantly below me. One of the better uses I have found for it is for torso twisting damage. On something like my Centurions which have a shield arm I can actually turn that arm to a mech, glance out the side by turning my head, and charge them while snapping over to fire from time to time without ever loosing sight of the enemy.

One flaw I have found. The Advanced Zoom will totally screw up your aim if you don't center your view properly so you have to hold your head very still while aiming in that mode or you will miss and not by a tiny bit, but by a mile.

[Kiblams]

Mercules, on 12 February 2015 - 12:55 PM, said:

I use a Track-IR in MWO. What I find is that if I load into MWO without it I don't notice... until I do, then I REALLY notice I don't have it on.

What it does is give you free look about your cockpit. For most mechs that means you can glance to the side. In fact you can lean forward and your perspective get's closer to the cockpit glass so I have been able to use it to glance up and see UAVs almost directly overhead or look down through certain mechs cockpits to aim at mechs significantly below me. One of the better uses I have found for it is for torso twisting damage. On something like my Centurions which have a shield arm I can actually turn that arm to a mech, glance out the side by turning my head, and charge them while snapping over to fire from time to time without ever loosing sight of the enemy.

One flaw I have found. The Advanced Zoom will totally screw up your aim if you don't center your view properly so you have to hold your head very still while aiming in that mode or you will miss and not by a tiny bit, but by a mile.

Great response! And a balanced one too!

The EDTracker doesn't have the translation that trackIR does, so I can't get the leaning forwards that you can.

Do you find that the HUD (map etc) following the free look distracts you from the targeting reticle? Or does that stop bothering you after a while?

[Flapdrol]

Tried the edtracker, pretty cool, messes with my aim though, I toggle it off when the battle starts.

[August55]

MWO is great with TrackIR. It's a bit intense at first but it becomes natural eventually. I could post a video demonstrating it soon.


Edit: In the meantime, here's some observations I've made with using it over the past few weeks of owning it.

-Your head is now Free look. However, your arm actuators are not connected. You get some kind of "Free aim" instead. It's actually somewhat useful if you don't feel like torso twisting.

-Unlike games like Elite Dangerous, where the whole hud is static, only the crosshair is static. it takes some time getting used to.

Here's an image with both in action. My head is facing towards the left while I have "freeaim" pointing further towards the left.

http://imgur.com/8KptpZ2

Fun fact: A shiny object, such as a can of beer, can trigger the TrackIR.

Edited by August55, 12 February 2015 - 05:41 PM.

[StraferX]

Fishbulb333, on 12 February 2015 - 10:00 AM, said:

Seems pretty cool, but would probably take a lot of getting used to, also having a fixed screen but moving your head around could get a bit disorientating..

Is the basic £5 DIY pcb kit enough to get this working? I've got a soldering iron etc, and probably suitable housing/cables knocking around. Or would you recommend going for the prebuilt (+ magnetometer?) ones?

Doubt it'd give any advantages over the ctrl + mouselook method, but seems worth a try, especially for a fiver.

ps - is it weird that I think this would work better as a foot tracker than a head tracker?

I built my own set up for under $10 using some resistors and led's bought on e bay and then a old phone case and toilet supply lines..lol and it works fantastic in flight sims and other games and ok in MWO I need to play with it again and get some tweeks set up. The software is freetrack and facetracknoir.



and the prototype



basically I used some old telephone wire, 3 leds and 3 360 ohm HD resistors. I used the set up calculator on http://www.free-track.net/english/ to figure the proper resistor size.

[OznerpaG]

August55, on 12 February 2015 - 04:43 PM, said:

MWO is great with TrackIR. It's a bit intense at first but it becomes natural eventually. I could post a video demonstrating it soon.


Edit: In the meantime, here's some observations I've made with using it over the past few weeks of owning it.

-Your head is now Free look. However, your arm actuators are not connected. You get some kind of "Free aim" instead. It's actually somewhat useful if you don't feel like torso twisting.

-Unlike games like Elite Dangerous, where the whole hud is static, only the crosshair is static. it takes some time getting used to.

Here's an image with both in action. My head is facing towards the left while I have "freeaim" pointing further towards the left.

http://imgur.com/8KptpZ2

Fun fact: A shiny object, such as a can of beer, can trigger the TrackIR.

that pic is a good demonstration of how hard it can be to use - you can barely see the crosshair in the snow so it's hard to keep track of it when you move your head around

not saying you can't get used to it, but when i tried it out it looked like a lot more work than it'd be worth

[Kiblams]

August55, on 12 February 2015 - 04:43 PM, said:

Fun fact: A shiny object, such as a can of beer, can trigger the TrackIR.

That's very interesting, do you think of would do the same with a necklace? It's not a concern for.me as the EDTracker uses gyros rather than IR light and a camera.

StraferX, on 12 February 2015 - 05:51 PM, said:

basically I used some old telephone wire, 3 leds and 3 360 ohm HD resistors. I used the set up calculator on http://www.free-track.net/english/ to figure the proper resistor size.

Wow that's a lot of work! I thought soldering the PCBs together to make an EDTracker was too much effort, I was clearly wrong

JagdFlanker, on 12 February 2015 - 08:14 PM, said:

not saying you can't get used to it, but when i tried it out it looked like a lot more work than it'd be worth

Yeah I think if Piranha are serious about making this game ready for the oculus rift, they need to remove some HUD elements from freelook like the weapon status indicators in the centre of the screen and the map etc. And that will benefit those of us using other head tracking too!

Edited by Kiblams, 13 February 2015 - 02:36 AM.

[August55]

Kiblams, on 13 February 2015 - 02:35 AM, said:

That's very interesting, do you think of would do the same with a necklace?

Possibly. Note that it requires a 3 "reflection" pattern, much like the tracking clip and the trackclip pro. The beer can was raised pretty high for the TrackIR to notice it.

[TexAce]

Headtracking with an Oculus Rift would be perfect for this game.

but you guys get one thing totally wrong: you are not supposed to use it to aim your reticule for gods sake. You are using it as an other option for the ALT button, where you can move your head to look around in your mech and out of the windows. The aiming is still done with the mouse.

The day this works flawlessly in MWO is the day I probably will quit work.

[Kiblams]

TexAss, on 13 February 2015 - 03:41 AM, said:

but you guys get one thing totally wrong: you are not supposed to use it to aim your reticule for gods sake.

Who said that? I don't recall even reading a post where that is sugested...

[mike29tw]

I can think of lots of ways to integrate head tracking into the game if we get to completely customize the control scheme.

For example, using head tracking to control torso movement while retain the ability to fine-aim with mouse is something I'd like to try out. Kinda mimic your body movement and project it onto your mech.

Edited by mike29tw, 13 February 2015 - 03:53 AM.

[Flapdrol]

mike29tw, on 13 February 2015 - 03:52 AM, said:

I can think of lots of ways to integrate head tracking into the game if we get to completely customize the control scheme.

For example, using head tracking to control torso movement while retain the ability to fine-aim with mouse is something I'd like to try out. Kinda mimic your body movement and project it onto your mech.

You can actually do that, edtracker poses as a joystick. But having to aim the torso weapons with your head might not be that easy.

TexAss, on 13 February 2015 - 03:41 AM, said:

Headtracking with an Oculus Rift would be perfect for this game.

but you guys get one thing totally wrong: you are not supposed to use it to aim your reticule for gods sake. You are using it as an other option for the ALT button, where you can move your head to look around in your mech and out of the windows. The aiming is still done with the mouse.

The day this works flawlessly in MWO is the day I probably will quit work.

The headtracking is freelook, problem is the reticule is very small and not very visible with movement, and the giant thing that's normally around the reticule with the 6 weapongroups moves with the headtracking, so you can no longer use it to gauge where you are aiming.

Edited by Flapdrol, 13 February 2015 - 04:00 AM.

[Kiblams]

Flapdrol, on 13 February 2015 - 03:57 AM, said:

You can actually do that, edtracker poses as a joystick. But having to aim the torso weapons with your head might not be that easy.

Yeah I tried that for fun... Its bloody aweful!

[Ursh]

I'm looking forward to the day when I can aim with my eyes. I see people, I can outmaneuver them to set up good shots, but my hand/eye coordination isn't that great with mouse, resulting in poor shots and missed opportunities.

[Kiblams]

Ursh, on 13 February 2015 - 04:02 AM, said:

I'm looking forward to the day when I can aim with my eyes. I see people, I can outmaneuver them to set up good shots, but my hand/eye coordination isn't that great with mouse, resulting in poor shots and missed opportunities.

You can now! Simply glue an EDTracker to each eye...oh wait...