******* WARNING - LONG POST *********
TL;DR - TrackIR is better.
I have owned a TrackIR since the late 90s, a TrackIR 3. Played many games with it, including ED.
Recently I decided to try out the Tobii 4C eye tracker, after seeing numerous positive reactions around the forums and the internet in general. Below is my opinion and perhaps a "review" from an owner who owns BOTH and still uses BOTH, but each for different kinds of games, after having the Tobii for about a month or so.
Tobii 4C eye tracker
1. Primarily using your eyes to track (advertised). It is actually a camera (yes, cuz it is able to unlock Win10 with your face, one of the "features" within the application settings). So in essence I guess it would work kinda like FaceTrackNoIR.
2. Mounted low on your monitor - not that great because things IN THE WAY would block line of sight... such as steering wheels for driving games. Thus, the Tobii would not track.
3. Finicky - bringing up your hand to wipe your nose, rub your chin etc, would cause Tobii to lose track.. this makes me wonder whether it really ONLY tracks the eyes, or your whole face.
4. No need to wear reflective dots on your cap or headsets - this is the best "plus" side I can think of.
5. The 4C can track HEAD movements in addition.
6. Axis Configuration is poor - 1 graph for ALL axis. If you have a crink in your neck and wanted to move LESS to the left and you configure the graph for higher sensitivity, ALL axis are the same sensitivity.
7. "Looking up" is a problem with Tobii. Look too far up, Tobii loses track. This is compounded by the fact that I am a veteran TrackIR user and I tend to move my head UP when I look up, causing Tobii to lose track. Perhaps for a person who has never used any tracking device before tries the Tobii, the results might be better cuz he'll most likely be using only his eyes and not his head to look up.
Personally I configured the Tobii to deadzone eye tracking for ED and just do HEAD tracking ONLY. Cuz I'm used to head tracking, and eye tracking causes the screen to jitter whenever I look at gauges like fuel, scanner, etc. I believe Tobii hopes that you would use eye-tracking in addition to head-tracking, cuz when only using head-tracking by itself, there is a very minimal (but noticeable to me) lag after I turned my head and when the screen moves. But when on eye-tracking the screen moves instantly. This minimal lag is similar to the time when FD tried to "smooth" out head tracking in one of the patches, and then the whole forum exploded cuz everyone on TrackIR noticed the lag immediately
TrackIR
1. Need to wear reflective dots for TrackIR to track. Either a cap or headset.
2. VERY VERY PRECISE. Meaning.... if I turned my head left and held it at that position, the screen would just stay at that position. It does not "waver". Eg I look left to the left menu, the menu stays up. Under the Tobii, sometimes it wavers and I lose the menu before I "look left again" to bring it up.
3. 6 DOF (very important to some people, but not for me) - Tobii only has 3 - X, Y and roll.
4. Mounted on top of montor, unlikely to be obstructed by any gaming peripherals (another plus over the Tobii).
5. Configuration is great - TrackIR uses SEPARATE AXIS GRAPHS for each axis (BIG PLUS). You can turn less to the left and more to the right to move the screen if you wanted to.
6. Game support - TrackIR has a long history and it supports numerous sim and sim-like games. Tobii needs kludges like "vjoy" (*shudder*) for some modern games like ETS2. For me, vjoy doesn't play nice with me so I hate it.
7. Because I tend to slouch in my chair as I game, I need to re-center TrackIR occasionally as I slouch lower and lower and more to the side Tobii remains on-track for "center" without requiring recentering.
Conclusion
I had bought the Tobii 4C hoping it'd replace my ageing TrackIR, and not having to wear reflective dots was a plus (I thought). I realised only too late that TrackIR is still "better"....but the Tobii does have its uses. When I wanna play ED "casually", I just fire up the Tobii. If I know I'm gonna engage in combat (eg gonna bounty hunt in a RES), I'll go back to TrackIR.
Also, Tobii does have some gimmicks for other games like The Division, Ghost Recon etc, so yeah pretty interesting.
So, if you have USD 150 to spend and don't know which to get - get the TrackIR.
EDIT - thanks for the "helpful" posts pointing me to how to configure Tobii. I am not asking for help. I am just writing my opinions AFTER using Tobii and configuring it in a myriad of ways during this 1 month or so of having it. I am not "having a problem" making it work. It works. Just not as well as TrackIR.
TL;DR - TrackIR is better.
I have owned a TrackIR since the late 90s, a TrackIR 3. Played many games with it, including ED.
Recently I decided to try out the Tobii 4C eye tracker, after seeing numerous positive reactions around the forums and the internet in general. Below is my opinion and perhaps a "review" from an owner who owns BOTH and still uses BOTH, but each for different kinds of games, after having the Tobii for about a month or so.
Tobii 4C eye tracker
1. Primarily using your eyes to track (advertised). It is actually a camera (yes, cuz it is able to unlock Win10 with your face, one of the "features" within the application settings). So in essence I guess it would work kinda like FaceTrackNoIR.
2. Mounted low on your monitor - not that great because things IN THE WAY would block line of sight... such as steering wheels for driving games. Thus, the Tobii would not track.
3. Finicky - bringing up your hand to wipe your nose, rub your chin etc, would cause Tobii to lose track.. this makes me wonder whether it really ONLY tracks the eyes, or your whole face.
4. No need to wear reflective dots on your cap or headsets - this is the best "plus" side I can think of.
5. The 4C can track HEAD movements in addition.
6. Axis Configuration is poor - 1 graph for ALL axis. If you have a crink in your neck and wanted to move LESS to the left and you configure the graph for higher sensitivity, ALL axis are the same sensitivity.
7. "Looking up" is a problem with Tobii. Look too far up, Tobii loses track. This is compounded by the fact that I am a veteran TrackIR user and I tend to move my head UP when I look up, causing Tobii to lose track. Perhaps for a person who has never used any tracking device before tries the Tobii, the results might be better cuz he'll most likely be using only his eyes and not his head to look up.
Personally I configured the Tobii to deadzone eye tracking for ED and just do HEAD tracking ONLY. Cuz I'm used to head tracking, and eye tracking causes the screen to jitter whenever I look at gauges like fuel, scanner, etc. I believe Tobii hopes that you would use eye-tracking in addition to head-tracking, cuz when only using head-tracking by itself, there is a very minimal (but noticeable to me) lag after I turned my head and when the screen moves. But when on eye-tracking the screen moves instantly. This minimal lag is similar to the time when FD tried to "smooth" out head tracking in one of the patches, and then the whole forum exploded cuz everyone on TrackIR noticed the lag immediately
TrackIR
1. Need to wear reflective dots for TrackIR to track. Either a cap or headset.
2. VERY VERY PRECISE. Meaning.... if I turned my head left and held it at that position, the screen would just stay at that position. It does not "waver". Eg I look left to the left menu, the menu stays up. Under the Tobii, sometimes it wavers and I lose the menu before I "look left again" to bring it up.
3. 6 DOF (very important to some people, but not for me) - Tobii only has 3 - X, Y and roll.
4. Mounted on top of montor, unlikely to be obstructed by any gaming peripherals (another plus over the Tobii).
5. Configuration is great - TrackIR uses SEPARATE AXIS GRAPHS for each axis (BIG PLUS). You can turn less to the left and more to the right to move the screen if you wanted to.
6. Game support - TrackIR has a long history and it supports numerous sim and sim-like games. Tobii needs kludges like "vjoy" (*shudder*) for some modern games like ETS2. For me, vjoy doesn't play nice with me so I hate it.
7. Because I tend to slouch in my chair as I game, I need to re-center TrackIR occasionally as I slouch lower and lower and more to the side
Tobii remains on-track for "center" without requiring recentering.Conclusion
I had bought the Tobii 4C hoping it'd replace my ageing TrackIR, and not having to wear reflective dots was a plus (I thought). I realised only too late that TrackIR is still "better"....but the Tobii does have its uses. When I wanna play ED "casually", I just fire up the Tobii. If I know I'm gonna engage in combat (eg gonna bounty hunt in a RES), I'll go back to TrackIR.
Also, Tobii does have some gimmicks for other games like The Division, Ghost Recon etc, so yeah pretty interesting.
So, if you have USD 150 to spend and don't know which to get - get the TrackIR.
EDIT - thanks for the "helpful" posts pointing me to how to configure Tobii. I am not asking for help. I am just writing my opinions AFTER using Tobii and configuring it in a myriad of ways during this 1 month or so of having it. I am not "having a problem" making it work. It works. Just not as well as TrackIR.
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