The new Tobii eyetracker 4C is awesome

Connor Caple

Connor Caple
I have a Freetrack I made years ago (IL-2 Sturmovik years ago...) which served me well until Windows 10 made the software a pain to get working.

I saw the new Tobi 4C on Amazon and have disposable income, so - what do people think who've had it a few weeks now and had the holiday period to really get to grips with it?
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 110222

D
Thinking of buying. Anything I should know? My chair has a tendency to gradually go down during a session. (I'm overweight)

Will the chair going down be a problem?
 

xondk

X
Cataclysm72 said:
Just this afternoon i received my tobii eyetracker. It is the new and updated 4C version.

I have tried different trackers before, with IR tracker, EDTracker and other diy solutions even. But as they all work by tracking your head or face things feel real odd to me.

Now the 4C is different that it uses Infrared to follow your eyes and detect what you are actually looking at. It works very well for me.

i have a few 'limitation' with my face and as such i do not like wearing heatsets, glasses or anything else on my head for and extended period. The Tobii device comes as a thin strip that you mount below your monitor. Just hook it up to USB 2.0 and after installing the driver you are ready to go. No hats, clips or reflectors.

Check out their info here, they are better at explaining features than me.

https://tobiigaming.com/games/elite-dangerous/

i believe there is a link to an ObsidianAnt review of the previous 'Eye' edition

ps. I have no affiliation with the product, i merely want to express that i am pleased with my new toy.
Click to expand...
How does it work with glasses?
 

Wasp0

Wasp0
I know it is advertised as working with a single monitor of up to 30", but has anyone tried it with larger monitors? I have a 40" (Ooh Err Missus)... Any Issue? what might the problems be with a larger monitor?

Thank you
 

Cataclysm72

Cataclysm72
Wasp0 said:
I know it is advertised as working with a single monitor of up to 30", but has anyone tried it with larger monitors? I have a 40" (Ooh Err Missus)... Any Issue? what might the problems be with a larger monitor?

Thank you
Click to expand...

I have a triple monitor setup (3x 23") with the toby 4c, it works but stops at the far edges of the monitors at around 70%, i think the angle is too steep to detect my pupil. I'm sitting at 60cm from the tracker so your results might vary. It doesn't bother me because i am looking at my center screen mostly and that works flawlessly.
 

Cataclysm72

Cataclysm72
Maybe for some people interesting, the older tobii tracker used the cpu to perform the calculations and could add up to 10% cpu load. The new 4C has a dedicated tracker chip and uses no more than 2% cpu, according to their specs.
 

Wasp0

Wasp0
Cataclysm72 said:
I have a triple monitor setup (3x 23") with the toby 4c, it works but stops at the far edges of the monitors at around 70%, i think the angle is too steep to detect my pupil. I'm sitting at 60cm from the tracker so your results might vary. It doesn't bother me because i am looking at my center screen mostly and that works flawlessly.
Click to expand...

Thank you my Friend. I have just placed my order for a 4c to take the place of my TrackIR.

How long is the wait for delivery? The website says shipping now?

Thanks again and have some rep
 

Darth Ender

D
I can concur. I use one. it is awesome. Force yourself to use all it's features to get over the learning curve. For those who dont have the means or desire to dive into VR, it's the next best thing.
 

Sylow

Sylow
Un1k0rn said:
Thinking of buying. Anything I should know? My chair has a tendency to gradually go down during a session. (I'm overweight)

Will the chair going down be a problem?
Click to expand...
.
It depends how far you go down. As long as our head and eyes are within the tracking area of the device, there's no big problems to be expected. One important thing to note though: your head should be about mid-height of the screen, give and take a little, don't come to the idea of angling the device a little up or down to fix things.

To understand where i am coming from, i have used an EyeX and now use the 4c, and notice a small difference: for the EyeX the head position and angle did not matter. My monitor doesn't have a flat edge, but a slightly curved one, which results in the device looking a bit more up than it would on a flat edge. The EyeX just noticed my eyes to be in the lower segment of its detection area, but worked 100% fine. (My only real gripe with it was the range, i had to be a bit too close to the monitor to be completely comfortable. )

For the 4c, on the positive the range seems to be a bit higher. The specification on the homepage lists the same range, but practical experience tells me that it actually still works at a few centimeters more, which make all the difference. Now to the small problem with the angle: due to my monitors curved edge and the device pointing a little bit more up than expected, my headlook up (which is very important in combat) is a tiny bit limited. When i reach a certain point of looking up, no matter how far more i move my head up, i am already at the "maximum up" and the camera doesn't move any more.
.
I tested by standing there at my monitor, recentering and then moving the head, and i managed to get a little more up motion than in my usual position. I guess that's not so much your question though, i just want to give you the pointer that if your chair moves down so much, also consider how your head angle to the device changes.
.
xondk said:
How does it work with glasses?
Click to expand...
.
I use glasses. No problems at all, unless your girlfriend just gets a funny streak and attacks you with a water pistol. I can tell that drops on the glasses DO irritate the device, but i don't consider that the default situation. :D
.
 

Sylow

Sylow
And one small addition to my posting above: if you consider getting the 4c and have a time limited offer, go for it now. If you don't have such a specific offer and are not in a hurry, you might want to wait for a few weeks still. While the device is good, the software is not fully mature yet.
.
This seems to be a just like it was with the EyeX, where the software to it also still needed a few cycles at the customer to get fully ready. On the positive, Tobii seems to be very active and ready to fix reported issues, but at least out of my stomach, the next one or two month might still have the "field testing" taste to it.
.
 

CMDR IPL Victim

C
Courosant1 said:
Actually...

I have used trackIR first and found it unconfortable, then I changed to Tobii eyeX a year ago.
And would you know: It was nice, but I instinctively moved my head at the same time as I followed a target. The combination of eye and head tracking is an improvement as it also puts less strain on your eyes - looking at your side panels in your ship only by using your eyes gets especially tiresome at some point. I ended up using my headlock button combos to change to to the side panels instead.

So: Yes, it is a very welcomed addition to the eyetracking :D
Click to expand...

That sounds promising. I own and have used (past tense) the earlier version. The eyestrain associated with using the track IR in game was intense. I stopped use after a few weeks and invested in a Track IR. I find the head tracking far easier to adjust to and more useful to my playstyle. Had it not cost as much to ship the original track IR back to the vendor as I would have received in refund/return (more, actually), I would have returned the unit.

Such is life.

I think, had it been this combination of head AND eye tracking, I may have continued using the Tobii... even with the crazy cludged together tripod stand I had to create to get it to work. My rig is with a 50" HDTV at 2m distance... the Tobii needed to be closer. Worse, I wear glasses, so the optimal range for the Tobii was less than 1m. Any further, and it would not track reliably. The Track IR works fine from atop the TV with the unpowered clip (on a hat) as well as the powered clip pro (on my headset).
 
Last edited:

Cotic

Cotic
I found my enjoyment with the 4C increased considerably once I bound the tracking on/off option (I stuck it on the tilde key).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom