Freelook with Hotas

ChrisR

C
Hey guys,

Just wondering what you hotas guys do for freelook.

Atm i use keyboard/mouse which i dont find bad and i use freelook like in arma, hold left alt and move the mouse.. This works really well for me but ive ordered an x52 pro and im not sure how freelook is going to work.

Without using track ir, how do you guys use freelook quickly and efficiently.?
 

Watcher

W
ChrisR said:
Hey guys,

Just wondering what you hotas guys do for freelook.

Atm i use keyboard/mouse which i dont find bad and i use freelook like in arma, hold left alt and move the mouse.. This works really well for me but ive ordered an x52 pro and im not sure how freelook is going to work.

Without using track ir, how do you guys use freelook quickly and efficiently.?
Click to expand...

I've mapped one of my x52's many buttons to toggle freelook on and off and mapped one of the several hats to the freelook controls. This works reasonably well for flying about and sightseeing but I've generally found myself too busy to mess with it in combat, the scanner has mostly sufficed.

If you have a camera on your PC you could try using the free TrackNoIR (have I got that right) software - it does face tracking with the camera without using any IR stuff and is meant to work ok, it is also more effectively supported in ED since Gamma. I've not yet had first hand experience of it though.
 

Sallen

Sallen
I have tried FreeTrackNoIR in both Arma 3 and Elite and I can't recommend it. It's too laggy for comfort (more than 250-300 ms). My webcam manages 30 fps and I run both games silky smooth, so I don't think it's a problem of beefiness.
Has anyone tried FreeTrackNoIR and got good results?
 

ChrisR

C
Ive tried using webcams for head tracking in the past with poor results.

I might see if a cheap trackir 4 pops onto ebay.
 

YeOldeMiller

YeOldeMiller
You needn't hope to find a cheap old TrackIR to enjoy headlook in games. I've been using FreeTrack since Beta 2 and I can say there's no going back to playing with camera glued to the windshield for me. Elite is so much more immersive and fun with proper headtracking, no mouselook is going to give you that (and don't even get me started on face tracking). All you need to set up FreeTrack point tracking are an IR clip and any regular webcam with its IR filter removed. I'd ordered those from a guy who makes them for a living for under an equivalent of $50 (incl. shipping and help with configuring) but if I was just a bit more tech savvy or just less lazy I could've put the hardware together myself for even cheaper.
 

OVMorat

OVMorat
I have a switch/hat combo too. Easily done. I'm tempted by trackir but overall I think I'll wait for OR CV1 and see how it works out.
 

ModZero

M
Before I got TrackIR, I used the cursor controller on the Thrustmaster Warthog throttle, a bit like that thing once used on Thinkpad laptops. B/C it's a proper analog joystick, I could have set it to absolute mode. It's very sensitive, but I operated it with my fingertip, so it wasn't an issue.
 

TANDKO

TANDKO
I use POV hat on the X55 joystick for 4 look pozitions(it looks there only when pressed), and mouse nipple on the throttle for free look.
 

OrientalHero

O
I've gone the EDTracker route too...! I think I spent 13 quid total as I already had a soldering iron.
Just so ppl know what it isn't, it's not using Infrared cameras to track your face or three mathematically space IR reflectors (on what look like 3 lollipop sticks!).
It uses a gyroscope and accelerometer to track your head movements but is "limited" to looking up down, left right and roll (ear down to shoulder).
(I believe some IR Trackers allow you to lean forward and back or to the side which for flight sims like IL2 allow you to stick you viewpoint out of the window ...not really needed in Elite!)
I don't use the view button to switch to left or right side view, I just look. I don't press 2 for comms or whatever button for the various screens, I just look.
One disadvantage is that if you walk away from the computer, ie put the headphones down (my EDTracker sits on the top of the band),the view goes all skewy.
Oh and I didn't know that manually changing to comms means you get a list of friends online to text. When you look at Comms, it lights up with current content. Pressing Enter just brings up the entry line.
And there is some drift which requires a reset but you can read about that in the EDTracker website.
 

ChrisR

C
Ive just sent an email about the ed tracker.

I would ideally set the freelook button to toggle, so if i did need to put the headset down it would be ok .
 
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