I don't think I've ever met anyone on track that uses TrackIR so I'm curious how rare us flight simmers are?


FYI http://www.naturalpoint.com

Yes, but not in LFS

Yes, But not currently in LFS. Its... an area for development, could be good tho.

so that's 2/2 who don't use their's in LFS, why not? I find it a bit of a pain sometimes but definately worth it in races for better situational awareness (but I still hit people, doh). For hotlapping or practice I turn it off though.

Nup. I'm a cheapskate

Quote from Burnzoire :

so that's 2/2 who don't use their's in LFS, why not? I find it a bit of a pain sometimes but definately worth it in races for better situational awareness (but I still hit people, doh). For hotlapping or practice I turn it off though.

I voted no. I own one but don't use it in LFS. As LFS is the only 'game' I currently play regularly, the trackIR isn't currently used.

I find that with the trackIR I have less feeling for how the car is moving around. Without actually 'feeling' the car (except for the limited feedback from the wheel) I'm very reliant on visual feedback for when the car is beginning to understeer or oversteer. With the trackIR any slight head movement reduces the ability to pick up on how the car is moving.

The extra situational awareness gained with the trackIR is far outweighed by this reduction in 'feeling' which (for me) resulted in slower lap times and increased risk of not catching slides or over correcting. I also often found the trackIR more tiring and I was more likely to get a headache using it.

The trackIR software does allow for adjusting thresholds and sensitivity, so you can create a profile that only looks left and right with exagerated head movement. In the end though, I've never been bothered to find the best compromise, and just map look left/right to two wheel buttons.

I had one but I returned it. I thought it would add to the realism for giving visual freedom, but it's far from a realistic movement as you move your head and still have to keep your eyes forward to compromise.. since your screen still stands in front of you.

The only way I could see it work if I had VR glasses, so the screen would turn with me. That would be fully natural.

It kinda took away the visual feedback for me too, the car feels loose all of a sudden, you dont clearly see the vision change if the car changes direction, because the vision moves alot already by your head movements.

TrackIR is the sillyest damn invention ever! You turn your head left to look left right!, but your eyeballs are still looking right, right!illepall
Damn stupid if you ask me.

I agree 100% with the two above posts. At first I thought I was missing how it worked, because why in hell would you want to turn your head if the screen is right in front of you??

Maybe with VR googles, until now its a waste of money.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

I agree 100% with the two above posts. At first I thought I was missing how it worked, because why in hell would you want to turn your head if the screen is right in front of you??

Maybe with VR googles, until now its a waste of money.

VR goggles I've never seen em in the shops has anyone? How much are they. Omg vr goggles+headphones+LFS=bye bye real world

Quote from Burnzoire :

so that's 2/2 who don't use their's in LFS, why not?

I find TrackIR implementation in LFS is a bit lacking, since the view keys and the view pitch adjustment do not work anymore. I like to keep a few degrees of downward pitch on the view but with TrackIR enabled this is not possible (unless I'd center TIR with that much down angle but that is not very consistent and difficult to do every time) also as the view keys do not work I no longer can look behind me at all, nor can I take peeks to the left/right as fast.

The device itself is great though, I wouldn't want to play any flight sims without it any more.

Quote from Kegetys :

I find TrackIR implementation in LFS is a bit lacking, since the view keys and the view pitch adjustment do not work anymore. I like to keep a few degrees of downward pitch on the view but with TrackIR enabled this is not possible (unless I'd center TIR with that much down angle but that is not very consistent and difficult to do every time) also as the view keys do not work I no longer can look behind me at all, nor can I take peeks to the left/right as fast.

The device itself is great though, I wouldn't want to play any flight sims without it any more.

Hold on! How are you suposed to look behind you with trackIR? turn your head 180 degrees???illepall

I can't vote because I don't have any kit to NOT use, so it's not a yes/no vote for me.. but on the topic, I'm waiting for VR goggles to come down in price, or to win the lottery. I REALLY want a pair of VR goggles with full tracking ability - left, right, up, down and roll (I don't want to have to keep my head level, heading into a 3G corner).

I'd buy one if it didn't cost two arms, two legs, two testicles and a kidney.

I've used TrackIR all the time i've raced in LFS, and i can't race without it. Also my keys at the wheel are all used for other things. Making TrackIR usefull depends on how good your TrackIR setup is, and one hint is to set fixed y-angle, and have the center area with zero acceleration.

Quote :

VR goggles I've never seen em in the shops

Wasn't there some health risk to do with flashbacks up to 6 months later with VR goggles? Something about the brain not getting all of the momentum physical sensations.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Wasn't there some health risk to do with flashbacks up to 6 months later with VR goggles? Something about the brain not getting all of the momentum physical sensations.

You just need to spend the little extra and get the sick-bags, then it's all fine

Quote from Becky Rose :

Wasn't there some health risk to do with flashbacks up to 6 months later with VR goggles? Something about the brain not getting all of the momentum physical sensations.

The main problem with VR goggles / interfaces is cost.

To get two small displays that are good enough to show your images/etc in good detail and to not ghost or blur with fast motion is costly. Throw in the head tracker, research and design to make sure people don't get motion sickness too easily, keep the weight down, make it comfy, write the software + drivers to go with, etc.

All the products I've seen don't have impressive specs. Couple that to the limited number of games you can properly use them in (you can't do any normal desktop work unless you're a perfect touch-typist) and it's a very expensive niche toy.

A quick search around the net gives prices of $2000 for a used 800x600 model. You could get a 1920x1200 monitor and a new computer to run it for that kind of money.

Quote from CSU1 :

Hold on! How are you suposed to look behind you with trackIR? turn your head 180 degrees???illepall

This video shows how it works quite well.

Here's a video of me flying IL2 with it.

Quote from CSU1 :

TrackIR is the sillyest damn invention ever! You turn your head left to look left right!, but your eyeballs are still looking right, right!illepall
Damn stupid if you ask me.

For games where the importance of the visual feedback isn't so high as in a car race sim, the TrackIR works well. Moving the head, but keeping the eyes on the screen actually comes quite naturally after not too much practice. I was sceptical until I tried it.

Quote from CSU1 :

Hold on! How are you suposed to look behind you with trackIR? turn your head 180 degrees???illepall

The amount the virtual head turns compared to the amount you turn your head in real life is customisable in the TrackIR profile software. You can create deadzones, change the linearity and amount of head movement required. To look behind, you typically only turn your head 30 degrees. You still have to see the computer screen.

Quote from Kleppa :

I've used TrackIR all the time i've raced in LFS, and i can't race without it. Also my keys at the wheel are all used for other things. Making TrackIR usefull depends on how good your TrackIR setup is, and one hint is to set fixed y-angle, and have the center area with zero acceleration.

I suspected some of my problem was finding a better setup for racing. Do you have a good profile for LFS you could post? I'm always willing to give it another try in LFS. I just can't afford to loose the accuracy of the visual feedback of the car's movement that I lost with the trackIR often picking unintentional movement. I used to find the situational awareness great in close battles, but found the benefits were far outweighed by slower lap times and increased risk of spins.

I use my TrackIR 4 in LFS and I wouldn't be without it.

For me, I found the optimum way to use it is to program a button on my wheel to 'enable' and 'disable' it.

When it's disabled, the veiw snaps to the dafault LFS view. When its enabled I turn my head to see what I want then disable it again.

I don't use it for cornering very often, but it's invaluable when there is another car close to you and you want to look in that 'blind spot' to see where they are... You can hear them, but without trackIR, you can't see them.

45 degrees of instant head movement is ok, but it has it's limitations.

It took me a while to set the profile the way I wanted it, but now I can't race without it.

Best add on for LFS for people that own a wheel and don't have the space for a 6-DOF platform.

strictly IMHO of course...

imho natural point should just stop deving trackir (its getting a bit ridiculous like rocky5) and dedicate themselves at making the cheapest widescreen vr googles with headtracking and headphones/mic.
1280x480 or 1600x600 for example.
trackir concept is a joke to me. its execution is well crafted though.

Someone should design a motor that moves the whole LCD display by the inputs in TrackIR

Quote from SamH :

I can't vote because I don't have any kit to NOT use, so it's not a yes/no vote for me..

But the poll asks "Do you use a head tracker such as TrackIR or similar?". If you answer no, then you don't use it

I answered no, simply because anything that "moves the screen" makes me feel less what the car is doing.

i tried to use freelook (use the webcam as a TrackIR), and i couldn't get it... right or natural, because of my small monitor