ED Blue Peter Head Tracker

jhondidfool

J
I've built my own headtracker and used it for a while...
Then I bought TrackIR 5.
Works 10 times better. Not just the HW is much better, the SW is perfect and lets you adjust very easily. It took me months to get half-used to the choppy headtracking of the DIY (I used a high-res, high fps camera and a homemade headphones clip); once I plugged in TrackIR I felt as if I had always played like that. The difference is substantial and totally worth it. Granted, I've only played E:D with TrackIR, but I don't really intend on using my homemade system unless somehow TIR breaks.
There is a reason the thingy costs the money it costs, both HW and SW are top notch.
 

n0ahg

N
jhondidfool said:
I've built my own headtracker and used it for a while...
Then I bought TrackIR 5.
Works 10 times better. Not just the HW is much better, the SW is perfect and lets you adjust very easily. It took me months to get half-used to the choppy headtracking of the DIY (I used a high-res, high fps camera and a homemade headphones clip); once I plugged in TrackIR I felt as if I had always played like that. The difference is substantial and totally worth it. Granted, I've only played E:D with TrackIR, but I don't really intend on using my homemade system unless somehow TIR breaks.
There is a reason the thingy costs the money it costs, both HW and SW are top notch.
Click to expand...

They are top notch on price (expensive), no innovation, patent encumbered, NDA where you can't support alternatives inclyding standard HID VR (we've heard nothing from Frontier since they implemented support!)

I'd happily pay £1000 (and could afford) to support open source 'half arsed' than support a patent hour!
 
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Amos

A
I finnaly got my 3p cap working quite nice still some tweaking needs doing to it, I bouht a ps3 eye camera from game for £1.99 tried it with facetracknoIR but the vjoy problem as previous comments screws with the main menu.

I did manage to get a quick look around using the vjoy but it pulls to the left and that was with face recognition, I have tried freetrack because it has a few more options that facetracknoIR, so I tried to use mouse look that did not work, I tried to assign keys to look around in ED alpha 1.1 and the same in freetrack no joy, I then installed ppjoy and assigned a joystick, I can now control my ship with my head haha, not really what we are looking for but hey its getting there.

On a side note ppjoy hat switch is down but can be calibrated and then itis ok in the menu, that is how I got to control my ship with my head haha, If the game would allow mouse look or to assign keys to look left right or assign the ppjoy to look axis then it might work.
 

mahoon

mahoon
Stoo said:
So.... has anyone worked out how to get FreeTrack working with ED yet?

I'm really wanting to get head tracking working with it :)
Click to expand...


I got Freetrack 2.2 working no bother. I built myself a three point cap set up and after some playing around had it working. I don't use it though because I find I'm constantly re-centering. I can look up, down, at a side panel then back to the front but the front never seems to be where I started from. Perhaps some more playing around will help.

I tried in vain to get FreeTrack 2.1.2 working at all...
 

Amos

A
mahoon said:
I got Freetrack 2.2 working no bother. I built myself a three point cap set up and after some playing around had it working. I don't use it though because I find I'm constantly re-centering. I can look up, down, at a side panel then back to the front but the front never seems to be where I started from. Perhaps some more playing around will help.

I tried in vain to get FreeTrack 2.1.2 working at all...
Click to expand...


how did you get it working what settings did you use?
 

mahoon

mahoon
Amos said:
how did you get it working what settings did you use?
Click to expand...

I'll try to cover what I can:
cam tab on FreeTrack
USB 2.0 camera. (cheap £10 advent cam from Currys)
Threshold level set almost as far left as poss.
camera setting set to really high contrast, really low exposure (-13), no low light compensation, no white auto balance.

profile
create a new one, press save at least twice whenever you make a change. Under advanced sub-tab, check checkboxes for 'view relative translation' - dunno if they're important or even needed...

output
important bit here is check the mouse checkbox - this way when you press start and the mouse pointer moves you can see it's working. Don't click on absolute though - I couldn't get control of the mouse back and had to kill the process (more than once) in task manager...

curves - still playing with these, hoping a large rotation amount and small translation amount means big head movement for small mouse movements. Not sure i've got these anywhere near correct

controls
set yourself a center button, but don't set it to toggle

global
still experimenting here = yaw sensitivity to 1.0, pitch 0.5, roll 0.2
X= 0.1, Y=0.1, Z=0.2 smoothing all set at 100

model
3 point cap, model position set to default, played around with model dimensions(mm), not sure it affected much...

hit Start and if the skull responds to your head movements - great. Your mouse should be moving in response to head movements too at this point.

fire up ED from launcher and if you're making the in-game mouse pointer move then you're laughing. Pick a scenario - waste cannisters prolly best - cut engine power, select mouse-look (you should have it toggle on/off mapped to a key in ED's options) and look around.

At least this is how it's working for me.
 

Amos

A
well thanks for all the settings you posted I tried them all, still not getting anything, closest I can get is to move the ship with my head, I cant even assign any keys to look around either they just do not work.

Will keep trying though
 

mahoon

mahoon
Moving the ship? Sounds like you've not turned on head look? Under Options on ED there's are setting for headlook. Set it Accumulate, then click on 'look up & down axis' and push the mouse forward (or pull back if you prefer). You'll set the look up and down axis to mouse Y axis. Click 'look left & right axis' and move mouse left or right. This will assign the mouse X axis to left-right. A bit higher up the options there's 'Toggle Headlook' select this and assign a keyboard button. Ensure the box at the end is coloured in with the word toggle written across it.

In game you should now be able to press whatever button you chose for headlook and move the mouse to look around. If you've done all this and got freetrack to move the mouse as outlined in the post earlier, you should be able to start freetrack, start ED, hit your headlook button and look around using your head.

Apologies if you've tried all this and I ain't got nothing new...
 
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