TIR4 and TrackClip Pro user here. Yeah I have that sunny day problem too(No ED from 6-8pm). "Thankfully" living on the southwestern coast of Norway those days are far and few between.
Anyone Using Track IR?
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TIR4 and TrackClip Pro user here. Yeah I have that sunny day problem too(No ED from 6-8pm). "Thankfully" living on the southwestern coast of Norway those days are far and few between.
TrackIR 4 user here. Easily one of the most important pieces of hardware you'll ever buy for a flight/space sim. Being able to visually track your targets is an absolute must in a dogfight, and this helps a great deal. It also frees up the POV hat on my HOTAS, and I've found that having the extra buttons assigned to things like chaff, ECM, and heat sinks make life a lot easier in a fight.
As it's been said, the immersion level goes up exponentially when you're able to look around the cockpit and take it all in. That's one of my absolute favorite things about ED. Being able to look up into the station as my ship is being brought to the surface always gives me goosebumps. I definitely recommend getting one if you have the means to.
As it's been said, the immersion level goes up exponentially when you're able to look around the cockpit and take it all in. That's one of my absolute favorite things about ED. Being able to look up into the station as my ship is being brought to the surface always gives me goosebumps. I definitely recommend getting one if you have the means to.
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As others have said, it works flawlessly in ED and I would not want to consider playing without it. It adds so much to the emmersion factor. I wear just the standard clip-on with a ball cap as I want to be completely wireless and it allows me to switch between a headset or speakers easily. It does seem a bit expensive for what you get but it's a polished product for a limited market so I don't consider it excessively priced.
Make it! get a cheap webcam with manual exposure control (required). Open it up, and remove the IR filter from the lense. Replace it with an IR pass filter (you can use old photorgraph film or a piece of the disk of a floppy disc). Reassemble the camera. Get 3 x IR leds, 3 x 330 or 220 ohm resistors an usb cable and a cap. Using soldering iron, solder each resistor to each diode. Make a structure for the cap (I used pen tubes and a glue pistol). Wire all the diode/resistors in parallel and connect them to the usb (find online which cable is positive and which negative). Download facetracknoir, configure it, and enjoy a 10 buck track ir!. There are more detailed instructions on how to do it online, but is really easy and cheap. I made mine using a genius EYE 312 old cam and I would say it works 8/10. Not bad and very cheap.
Thanks for all of the imput, Looks like I'll drop the $150 and see if I like using the standard cap reflector before spending another $40 on the headphone clip. I do have wires anyway...
I will warn you though that you can't be rough with it. I put mine away in it's original box every time I finish with it but the track clip is still held together with super glue and tape. I kind of prefer using the hat clip for wireless reasons which is made of metal and a bit tougher.
I have used Track IR for years, and wouldn't fly or race without it. Great investment.
Love Track IR. It really is worth it. There is a good post on the use of Track IR as well as some profiles available for download. I briefly looked through the replies and didn't see anyone link it so I thought I would. The profile from the thread really helps.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16826
Edit: The post is old and talks about the Alpha but still works just fine.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16826
Edit: The post is old and talks about the Alpha but still works just fine.
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I have TrackIR too and I have realised two things. First is, its really cool and great for immersion. Second is, you absolutely do not need it, it won't make you better at say combat than someone who actually knows how the radar works. In fact it's been of most use to me when landing at outposts, where finding the pad can be a bit tricky.
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Using a DelanClip here. £35 with the camera included, and works just as well as TrackIR. Save yourself some cash!
http://www.delanengineering.com/shop/
http://www.delanengineering.com/shop/
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Just got my TrackIR yesterday ... OMG, it's a game changer!
To any headtracker fence sitters out there (and I've been toying with the idea of getting mine for months) - get one, they add more immersion to the game than I could have possibly imagined.
Couple of quick tips from what I've learned so far.
First, use the training scenarios for your first few goes. I nearly stacked my Asp the first time I tried to land. It takes a little getting used to. Not much mind you, it's surprisingly intuitive (especially the thing of keeping your eyes focused on the screen even tho' you're turning your head, I barely noticed I was doing that).
Next, take note of the key that's mapped (within the TrackIR interface, not within the ED keybindings) to Pause (a toggle that turns head tracking off). It's really useful to be able to hit this during things like docking or when using the station menus. Actually, better than a key, what I've now done is used the joystick button that I previously had as my headtrack toggle.
Also, despite really liking the idea of it tracking the roll, X, Y and Z axes, in practice (as a lot of people have already said) it's probably better to uncheck these options.
Lastly, and I've only just discovered this so not much time to play with it yet, in the TrackIR interface where you have the different profiles like one-one/smooth/fast/slow/etc, you need to hit the little apply button to apply that profile to the selected axis. The one thing I'd been struggling with was how "twitchy" it was when generally just trying to look forwards. By applying something like the Smooth profile, I'm hoping it will dampen the motion in the central deadzone area.
To any headtracker fence sitters out there (and I've been toying with the idea of getting mine for months) - get one, they add more immersion to the game than I could have possibly imagined.
Couple of quick tips from what I've learned so far.
First, use the training scenarios for your first few goes. I nearly stacked my Asp the first time I tried to land. It takes a little getting used to. Not much mind you, it's surprisingly intuitive (especially the thing of keeping your eyes focused on the screen even tho' you're turning your head, I barely noticed I was doing that).
Next, take note of the key that's mapped (within the TrackIR interface, not within the ED keybindings) to Pause (a toggle that turns head tracking off). It's really useful to be able to hit this during things like docking or when using the station menus. Actually, better than a key, what I've now done is used the joystick button that I previously had as my headtrack toggle.
Also, despite really liking the idea of it tracking the roll, X, Y and Z axes, in practice (as a lot of people have already said) it's probably better to uncheck these options.
Lastly, and I've only just discovered this so not much time to play with it yet, in the TrackIR interface where you have the different profiles like one-one/smooth/fast/slow/etc, you need to hit the little apply button to apply that profile to the selected axis. The one thing I'd been struggling with was how "twitchy" it was when generally just trying to look forwards. By applying something like the Smooth profile, I'm hoping it will dampen the motion in the central deadzone area.
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For the cost I simply can't recommend it when you can get the EDTracker for a fraction of the price, especially if you use it for ED alone where you aren't likely to miss the translation movement.
I have mapped the translation to the rotation using open track and my EDTracker so for example when I look down I lean forward in the game too, which makes my camera look down out of the Lakon cockpit with a much better view
I have mapped the translation to the rotation using open track and my EDTracker so for example when I look down I lean forward in the game too, which makes my camera look down out of the Lakon cockpit with a much better view
Have a play with the 'curves' Alec! You can generate a happy medium to your liking by making making the curve ignore small movements. You can do this on any axis individually. Makes a huge difference to the twitchyness!
Sure, I'm more advocating head tracking in general than the TrackIR 5 which IS an expensive bit of kit. Personally I had some "birthday money" and decided to treat myself but to be honest, if the cheaper systems work just as well then that's great. I would say that if your only reason to pay the extra is to get the lateral motion tracking (leaning left and right, in and out, etc) then it's probably not worth it as you may well find yourself turning these off anyway.
Incidentally, has Elite completely nerfed the z axis? I had high hopes for being able to lean in to the screen in order to take a closer look at the radar but it hardly seems to work at all?
TrackIR was more than I was prepared to pay, but EDTracker (http://edtracker.org.uk/) is a great investment for just £40.
It works perfectly, and has improved the ED experience enormously.
It works perfectly, and has improved the ED experience enormously.
Next on my todo list
P.S. is there any in-game binding to toggle head tracking on and off? (I experimented a bit but couldn't get any of the obvious ones to work). As I said, I'm using the TrackIR software to capture a joystick button for Pause but in practice the way this appears to work is that it turns off the TrackIR and then, a second or so later, Elite spots this has happend and centers the view. I'd prefer something more instantaneous.
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