Can anyone provide details/options on what the best head tracking devices may be? I'm not looking into VR yet. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Thank you
Hardware & Technical Head Tracking Options
- Thread starter whammo11224
- Start date
In order of price TrackIR, Tobii 4C, Tobii EyeX, EDTracker, Delan Clip, Track hat
They all do a stellar job, really it comes down to whether you feel TrackIR is worth the additional £120+ over things like the EDTracker, Delan Clip and Track Hat.
I got the Tobii 4C (with a significant discount) and really like it because it's completely leads-free, I like that it also works in games that are not just flight/space sims. It's not for everyone though and it's not exactly cheap at full price.
They all do a stellar job, really it comes down to whether you feel TrackIR is worth the additional £120+ over things like the EDTracker, Delan Clip and Track Hat.
I got the Tobii 4C (with a significant discount) and really like it because it's completely leads-free, I like that it also works in games that are not just flight/space sims. It's not for everyone though and it's not exactly cheap at full price.
Thank you, but which one is the easiest to use? I've looked at a few videos and there seems to be a lot of programming involved.
Thanks again.
INaeem
Elite Greeter
Tobii Eye Tracker 4C with Ghost Recon Wildlands, Next Generation PC Gaming Eye + Head Tracking, USB2.0 *SCAN Exclusive* Take care and Elite!
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I use EDTracker and love it.
Plug it in to USB, Open up EDTrackerPro UI, press reset and then auto bias and I'm good to go. You may need to configure how much uppy/downy lefty/righty movement it makes per your head movement but that's a one off.
For the price it's brilliant. Ok you have another wire coming from your headset but they are bringing out a wireless option soonish.
Plug it in to USB, Open up EDTrackerPro UI, press reset and then auto bias and I'm good to go. You may need to configure how much uppy/downy lefty/righty movement it makes per your head movement but that's a one off.
For the price it's brilliant. Ok you have another wire coming from your headset but they are bringing out a wireless option soonish.
1. I have EDTracker but I don't use it very much because of difficulty in mounting it - I don't like wearing a headset for long periods and the EDTracker box can't be mounted on it's side (edge) on a visor for example. The other disadvantage is the USB connection lead.
2. I mainly use TrackIR - I use the clip on a visor and it works fine so no leads to bother with. However sometimes it goes a bit wonky (occasional spasming jump to side or above) and also has a restricted range of movement, particularly downwards. Using the trackclip pro overcomes those difficulties but that means having a usb connection lead and it is not so easy to mount without using a headset.
In summary, from the stuff I use, if you are one of those people who wears a headset whilst gaming then go for the EDTracker, it really is very effective and much cheaper than the TrackIR.
P.S. Almost forgot - if you use a wireless headset then you can't use EDTracker I believe as it interfered with the magnetometers - unless that has been fixed, so check before buying.
2. I mainly use TrackIR - I use the clip on a visor and it works fine so no leads to bother with. However sometimes it goes a bit wonky (occasional spasming jump to side or above) and also has a restricted range of movement, particularly downwards. Using the trackclip pro overcomes those difficulties but that means having a usb connection lead and it is not so easy to mount without using a headset.
In summary, from the stuff I use, if you are one of those people who wears a headset whilst gaming then go for the EDTracker, it really is very effective and much cheaper than the TrackIR.
P.S. Almost forgot - if you use a wireless headset then you can't use EDTracker I believe as it interfered with the magnetometers - unless that has been fixed, so check before buying.
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Dopes anyone have a comparison they can make between the latest Tobii eye trackers and the TrackIR? I don't expect the Tobii to perform quite as well, but as someone with 3 cables already running off my headset I'd prefer not to add another (even if that means using one of the battery-powered printed clips I guess).
I have both, and I can somewhat tell you that in MY PERSONAL OPINION, TrackIR "wins" over Tobii 4C.
Generally, TrackIR is mounted on top of the monitor, and the Tobii is mounted below (at the lower edge of the monitor). Hence, TrackIR is looking DOWN at you and the Tobii is looking UP at you. Hence, respectively, TrackIR has a slight problem with the "down" pitch, and the Tobii with the "Up" pitch. TrackIR loses track of the dots when you look too far down, and Tobii loses track of your eyes when you look up. Hence, it is important for you to set the sensitivity of the down or up of the Y axis accordingly.
TrackIR is able to separate the Y axis into the down and up portion, hence you can actually have different sensitivity for it. You may wanna make "down" more sensitive so that when you look down you move your head less to get the screen to move. Tobii however, is harder to configure... it's on a logarithmic scale and you can only tweak it so much, and it applies to the entire axis... so if you make looking up "sensitive" so that it doesn't lose track of your eyes, down will be very sensitive too. For Tobii EyeX maybe it's not that critical since the user probably won't be moving his/her head much, more on the eyes. For the Tobii 4C, which I have, I have practically almost deadzoned the eye tracking and rely almost solely on Head Tracking (since I come from a TrackIR background).
As for performance was, TrackIR occasionally requires "recentering" (for me anyway). I do shift in my seat when I play games, and the way I sit will change over time... so sometimes I need to recenter it or else the cockpit view starts to skew as my position changed. Tobii 4C doesn't, but I could if I wanted to. There is a hotkey to recenter the view that you can program. Somehow, Tobii automatically knows I am "looking ahead" no matter how slouchy I sit after some time gaming, so its tracking is consistent.
As for verdict - TrackIR is still "better' in my opinion. It supports more games, having been in the industry for a long time. Being mounted on top of the monitor offers advantages that would cripple the Tobii, eg STEERING WHEELS for racing games. If your steering wheel is clamped to the table and your monitor is not on a raised platform, the Tobii sensors would be blocked by anything in the way, even something as small as you putting your hand up to rub your nose will momentarily cause the Tobii to lose track (remember, it's looking UP at you). Most of the time if you're looking straight ahead when you rub your nose (or to push your spectacles back up on the bridge of your nose), the loss of tracking is not noticeable. But if you're in the middle of turning your view on screen and you do it, the screen will judder for a split second when the Tobii loses track and gets it back again after you rubbed your nose.
So back to Steering Wheels / Driving Wheels... they'd be blocking the line of sight from the Tobii if they are clamped to the table and even if it's partially blocking the Tobii, the track will be lost.
Hence, my opinion that TrackIR is still the better option if you have the cash to spend.
I can't speak for TrackIR but I really like being wires-free with the Tobii 4C.
Performance is really good, head tracking works very well for how I position my monitor. The eye-tracking takes a bit of getting used to, you tend to get a bit of eye-strain from trying to not move your eyes. I ended up using a binding to center/lock head tracking so I could take a break whenever.
Just an oversight on my part....
It is worth pointing out that TrackIR provides the six degrees of freedom in head movement - so your eyepoint can move as well as just the view-angle moving. I find this incredibly useful in flight sims and I know people use it a lot in driving sims (I don't do them) - how useful you find it in E D is up to you, the head-movement simulated by E D itself probably masks it a lot. I know EDTracker doesn't do this (it only has the 3 axes) but I don't know about the others.
Have a look at this for a clearer explanation of it than I could give:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom
It is worth pointing out that TrackIR provides the six degrees of freedom in head movement - so your eyepoint can move as well as just the view-angle moving. I find this incredibly useful in flight sims and I know people use it a lot in driving sims (I don't do them) - how useful you find it in E D is up to you, the head-movement simulated by E D itself probably masks it a lot. I know EDTracker doesn't do this (it only has the 3 axes) but I don't know about the others.
Have a look at this for a clearer explanation of it than I could give:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom
Thanks!
So sorry to necro this a little but it didn't seem worth making another thread.
I've gone and bought one of those Delan Clip thingies for about £45 as the TrackIR 5 is £160 new. I figured it was worth the gamble given the reviews and how cheap it was (if it's naff I'll just suck it up and buy the TrackIR). A question for anyone else using a non-TrackIR solution though: Allegedly using FaceTrackNoIR with the 3-point tracking plugin (somewhat ironically making it back into an IR tracking bit of software) is the recommended software by Delan, and it's encouraged to buy the latest version for ~$3 directly from the chap that wrote it.
I paid for it about 4 days ago now but haven't had a download link, so I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience buying from here: http://facetracknoir.nl/
I've gone and bought one of those Delan Clip thingies for about £45 as the TrackIR 5 is £160 new. I figured it was worth the gamble given the reviews and how cheap it was (if it's naff I'll just suck it up and buy the TrackIR). A question for anyone else using a non-TrackIR solution though: Allegedly using FaceTrackNoIR with the 3-point tracking plugin (somewhat ironically making it back into an IR tracking bit of software) is the recommended software by Delan, and it's encouraged to buy the latest version for ~$3 directly from the chap that wrote it.
I paid for it about 4 days ago now but haven't had a download link, so I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience buying from here: http://facetracknoir.nl/
I have EDtracker and the Tobii eyetracker.
I hate using the eyetracker. To me it feels unnatural to move my in-game head by moving my eyes. I hate the device with a vengeance.
I just bought EDtracker a few days ago and it is a revelation.
Using it becomes second nature almost immediately.
EDtracker feels natural, because you move your in-game head by moving your actual head.
I love this tool. It transforms the ED experience.
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I'm using TrackIR, which works very well with both the passive hat reflector and the weirdly expensive active part (it's just three LEDs on a piece of plastic and most definitely stupidly overpriced for that), it's just rather sensitive to sunlight in the camera's field of view.
Hi, I used FTNOIR for a long time and it works well, but it's obsolete: just switch to OpenTrack, it's far superior - it was born as a fork of the originally free FTNOIR and never stopped growing - and offers many, many improvements in all areas.
Moreover, with the last releases configuration became a lot simpler and you substantially are no longer required to completely understand how the different settings work and what effect each has.
I am using a DIY setup with it, a really cheap MS VX-800 webcam modded to remove IR filter and a wireless 3-led clip and with the right calibration and simple curves the result has nothing to envy to TrackIR 5 (yes, I tried it, a friend of mine has it).
The only big advantage of the TrackIR 5 is the wide device FOV and extremely high FPS rate, that allows for a far more stable and precise tracking out-of-the-box.
Sorry you already spent your money (fortunately not big one), but go with OpenTrack and you will not be disappointed.
Just my few cents.
i first bought a TrackIR 5 at the start of this year but afther a mere 2-3 days i returned it to the
seller as i found its tracking to be horrible, the camera in Elite used to go haywire about every 20 minutes.
I then stumbled quite by accident on Tobii EyeX and bought a 4C and i have to say best buy ever, the guys
from Tobii are very skilled and supportive.
And they have a channel on Discord where u can talk 1 on 1 with 1 of the devs or personel of Tobii in case of need.
i first bought a TrackIR 5 at the start of this year but afther a mere 2-3 days i returned it to the
seller as i found its tracking to be horrible, the camera in Elite used to go haywire about every 20 minutes.
I then stumbled quite by accident on Tobii EyeX and bought a 4C and i have to say best buy ever, the guys
from Tobii are very skilled and supportive.
And they have a channel on Discord where u can talk 1 on 1 with 1 of the devs or personel of Tobii in case of need.
I use TrackIR 5 with Pro clip and I love it ... Only had one hick up with it when somehow the setting for my camera got turned upside down. I called the company and a young fella named Michael remotely accessed my computer and found the problem in about 3 minutes. I'm not the smartest person when it comes to stuff like this, but I like it. I've used it in a number of flight sims and now here.
Chief
Chief
I'm a TrackIr5 user as well...for about two years now and like most of those that have used it...I LOVE it! Started off with it in flight sims and now in ED. Didn't pay much attention to the software at first , because it worked so well 'out of the box' - after updates with Windows and grfx cards and ED I began to tinker with it and have a better understanding of how it all works...ish! But - I waffle on, it's awesome, love it and although I have tried a Delan Clip ....(nightmare in my opinion) with face Track noir - trackir5 is pure quality and well worth the cash. I use the Vector clip and although o have the pro clip I've not heeded to use it yet due to the Vector being more than capable!