TrackIR
From VaafWiki
Contents |
What it does
The basic TrackIR allows you to rotate your head up/down/left/right in a supported game by rotating your head in real life. It works by using an infrared camera to track reflective dots that you place on a cap or infrared LEDs on a Trackclip. This allows you to do away with the need for using the keyboard/hat switch to pan about the cockpit. When setting up the TrackIR you can set the gain (amongst other things) of the various axes so that you only have to move your head a small amount to obtain a large change on screen.
Sim/Game Support
The TrackIR is supported by many modern racing sims, flight sims and first person shooters. NaturalPoint maintain a list of supported titles. It also supports a mouse emulation mode for those games that do not support it natively.
Vector expansion
The vector expansion (VE) enables you to move your head up/down in/out left/right as well as rotating it. Not all sims support all 6DOF (six degrees of freedom). The vector expansion comes with a "trackhat" and a clip on attachment that provides curved reflective surfaces in 3 places on your head to allow the TrackIR to work out the movement of your head.
Improving the reflective dot system
Even if a sim does not support VE the use of the 3D clip improves tracking significantly. If you have an older TrackIR that doesn't support VE or you don't wish to purchase it then you can still significantly improve tracking by making your own "trackhat". you can make a large improvement in tracking by placing a small styrofoam ball (or even a ball of blutack) on the peak of a cap and then attaching one of the large reflective stickers over the rounded surface (you'll need to cut a slit in the sticker to make it fit without creases). The curved reflective surface works at larger angles than just sticking the reflective dot to a hat directly.
Alternatively, cut a slit in a ping pong ball so that you can mount it on the brim of your cap, then cover the ball in 3M Reflective Tape (available from Bunnings/Mitre 10 etc). This way no matter how far you turn your head, the sensor will be able to see a reflection from the ball. You look like a complete nancy wearing it, but it's super smooth :)
Positioning the sensor
I find that the best place for me is 15cm above the monitor and 15cm back from the front. To get this position I use a cheapie camera tripod ($8AU from a market). This was my first mockup (and it used blutack to secure the TrackIR sensor). I've since made the arrangement more permanent by threading the sensor with a 1/4"-20 tap so that the tripod screws straight into it. I'm not sure if I'd recommend this approach as the plastic that the TrackIR is made of is very brittle.
New sims and TrackIR2
Now for the bad news. Naturalpoint seems to have a policy of not supporting their older hardware. The latest trackIR software no longer supports the TIR2 - unfortunately the software needs to be updated to support new sims. So, if you want TIR support for a sim like Flightsim X then you'll need a TIR3 or TIR4. I expect that when the TIR5 comes out they'll drop the TIR3 as well.
If the TIR system was just a HID driver (with some sort of optional helper app) this would not be neccessary. Any game would just have to support "joystick" analog axes for view rotation/translation and have centre/off controls and only an OS change would obsolete stuff.
TrackClip Pro
The TrackClip Pro is an accessory for the TrackIR. For the TrackIR4 (only) it provides 6DOF. The TrackClip Pro is a replacement for the hat clip and consists of three infrared LEDs in a mounting that is attached to "over the head" type headphones, being mounted on the left side of your head. It cannot be mounted on the right side of the head. The connection to the headphones is via an adjustable clamp that can cope with different thicknesses of headphones up to "1/4 inch wide and up to 1/2 inch thick" according to the Natural Point website (check suitablity with your headphones before purchase). The LEDs are powered by a USB cable, this 1.6 metre (5.5 feet) cable has a passthrough USB connector allowing it to share a USB port on your PC with another USB device. So you can plug both your TrackIR and TrackClip Pro into one USB port. The USB cable simply provides power, it does not add the TrackClip Pro as a device to your computer.
Once installed in the TrackIR software you need to specify you are using the TrackClip Pro by editting the profile and selecting the TrackClip Pro.
The advantages of the Trackclip Pro include:
- better tracking with fewer dropouts particularly rotations of the head
- it feels more responsive and appears more accurate
- better centring than the hat clip and less need to manually recentre
- you don't have to wear a hat
- may eliminate issues interference from other IR sources experienced with the hat clip
The disadvantages of the TrackClip Pro include:
- cable management of the USB cable from the clip to your PC
- you have to wear headphones or something else to attach them to
- you will have to check your headphones are suitable (not too thick or wide) for the mount on the TrackClip Pro
- it won't work with "behind the head" headphones
- you may need to move the TrackIR further to the left so it can better see the left side of your head
The TrackClip Pro comes in three colours - black, white and red. It has received good reviews and appears to have no manufacturing or reliability faults. It does not cope with rough treatment however and there have been a least two VAAF members that have had their TrackClips break.
Suggestions:
- the later editions of the TrackIR software seem to provide better support for the TrackClip Pro, so update to the latest version from the Natural Point website.
- if you are considering purchasing the TrackClip Pro, Google "TrackClip Pro" and the name and/or model number of your headphones to see if your headphones are known to be suitable for the TrackIR Pro.
Alternatives to the TrackIR
- FreeTrack is a DIY community project for a infrared tracking solution using web cams and infrared LEDs
- Cam2Pan is a commercial product that uses web cams for tracking
- VRinsight Hat Track is a new commercial product very simular (or blatent ripoff) to the TrackIR
