Hardware & Technical tobii Eye Tracker Not my best ever experience

Kaela · Mar 3, 2016

My partner, a fellow commander bought for me an Eye Tracker by Tobii. The Steel Series box arrived today and installing the hardware bar onto the bottom of the monitor was dead easy. I did that at 13:00 today and it is now 22:30 and I am nowhere near able to use the thing.

Please accept that I have spent a lot of time today looking at TOBII related forums and Elite Dangerouse Forums trying to find answers.

My PC is not a bad one, i7, two nVidia GTX 960 Cards in SLI mode and running windows 10.

The first major problem is the 'service' for tobii, only appears to be working and to make fully work, I need to Ctrl-Alt-Del, find the services tab, find tobii and stop it, wait for it to stop, then restart it again. The 'tobii' software then confirms Eye Tracker is running and at the bottom of my screen, I see two white dots reminding me that the software is running.
Second step is running the Steel Series software called Infinite Screen, something I have now learned to call Infinite Scream as half the time, Infinite Screen reports Eye Tracker is not working and throws a fail message and then quits. Trick now is to restart windows. Repeat step 1 above and get Eye Tracker running again. If Infinite Screen recognises Eye Tracker it may start, else you are in a loop that allows only for the restarting all over again.

If you get Infinite Screen and Eye tracker running, setting up EliteDangerous Horizons is the next step. Fortunately, another commander has posted a YouTube movie and in the notes, tells you how to set up ED. Only, it doesnt, as when you come to select Up/Down/Left and Right, the drivers for the synthetic joystic are not there. The driver is known as 'VJoy'. So after a very long afternoon, I as a fairly tech savvy player, have been unable to repeatedly get the Toibii Eye Tracker Software to work, or the Steel Series Infinite Screen or even get Elite Dangerous to play using the eye tracker. I did as an aside, try running GTA V using the Eye Tracker software and it absolutely killed my FPS in GTA V, as when I stopped the eye Tracker software, GTA V ran normally with about 80 odd FPS, (I was also getting 80 odd fps in ED in the station while trying to set it up).
My partner found on the web a method to define in Steel Series Infinite Screen how to set up ED path, however, my directory layout seemed remakably different and I could seemingly only navigate to EliteDangerous64.exe, not Elite Dangerous Horizons (Not found) [Is elite Dangerous 64 actually elite dangerous Horizons? But, They do say not to point it at the launcher, so I pointed it to elite dangerous64.exe]

SO, Day 1 with tobii Eye Tracker has been exceptionally frustrating and a promise of a lot of work to come. If you are thinking of making the same purchase, please do your homework first.

As my partner says, it aint plug and play...

bitstorm · Mar 3, 2016

It has problems with ASMedia USB ports.

The lastest drivers (1.1.1.379) use freetrack instead of VJoy, maybe try that?

Here's an extract from my C:\Users\....\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings\Custom.0.8.binds file you could maybe try setting vjoy manually?

Code:

<HeadLookPitchAxisRaw>
    <Binding Device="vJoy" Key="Joy_YAxis" DeviceIndex="0" />
    <Inverted Value="0" />
    <Deadzone Value="0.0" />
  </HeadLookPitchAxisRaw>

.....

  <HeadLookYawAxis>
    <Binding Device="vJoy" Key="Joy_XAxis" DeviceIndex="0" />
    <Inverted Value="0" />
    <Deadzone Value="0.0" />
  </HeadLookYawAxis>

Kaela · Mar 3, 2016

Thanks for the reply bitstorm(deadly), is the issue with tobii Eye Tracker, or the Steel Series Infinite Screen? I have not used FreeTrack as I am trying to get the vJoy to work somehow. The vHJoy application is in the Steel Series Folder where one would expect to find it and the infinite screen software does not report a vJoy issue... (I have done a reset all on vJoy hoping that may unlock but no change...

I have a text file that tells me I have to copy my bindings file to an admin folder, sadly I don't have one. I have an SSD for my C drive so I installed Elite on a second larger hard drive and I think the pathing may be an issue, I don't know. When I was trying to set up my preferences in ED, I reached the point where I was being asked to set up the UpDownLeftRight... However, as I said, there was no option for vJoy, and looking up and down did not trigger ther setting. Hence there vJoy never appears in the binding profile.

bitstorm · Mar 3, 2016

Well the Infinite Screen software is by Tobii, you can grab very latest version here : https://files.update.tech.tobii.com/InfiniteScreen/releasenotes.html Steelseries is probably just repackaged and maybe a few versions behind.

I have no idea if your issue is with the software or the hardware. As I say check if you have ASMedia USB ports, apparently the Tobii and other stuff doesn;t work correctly with them.

I have a laptop and I found the cable was pretty bad, kept disconnecting, it does not connect to the tobii end too well, so maybe check this is seated properly.

Unfortunately you can;t just try another usb cable since it uses a usb 3 cable.

With binding the headlook in controls, oddly I just redefined one to see how to reset it. I change up/down to standard joystick left/right but nothing changed, it all still works fie in the game! (see image)

This makes me think you don't actually have to set anything. And to be honest I don't remember having to configure anything in ED, it all just seemed to work. (although I had to reinstall a few times to get it all working which was a bit of a pita)

Initial reinstalls aside, I seem to remember it really being as simple as this : http://www.tobii.com/xperience/support/tutorials/get-started-with-infinitescreen/

Kaela · Mar 4, 2016

Thank you for your help here bitstorm(Deadly). If anyone if following this thread they will see we are having the same issues as they probably are, so the links and the screenies are most welcome. My cable is fine, I do not hear the USB Dropped warning from Win10 and USB32 cables seems fine. I may be wrong, but I don't think so. Most times, the tobii (trade,mark is all lowercase) starts with windows, sometimes it seems to miss the startup process.

There is no continuity with Infinite Screen software, my faults are as follows.

1) Infinite Screen software starts and see's tobii EyeTracker, reports no faults, but simply does nothing, I mean it contributes nothing usefull and may as well not be there.
2) It starts, and warns me that tobii EyeTracker is not on or EyeTracker engine is not running or the eye tracker cannot be found. (for each condition, I can see eyeTracker running as a service, and on screen I can see that it is connected just fine).
or
3) Infinite Screen fails to start, throws an error message saying that it cannot find tobii eye tracker software and I need to re-install Eye Tracker, again, I can see the eyeTracker running as a service and on screen, I can see the eye tracker is connected. Those are the three ways Infinite Screen fails (includiung not reporting a failure, but simply not doing anything).

I have nothing to suggest the fault is the cable.

I find, restarting the computer (to restart win 10) most times seems to get tobii Eyetracker running properly, and even sometimes, gets Infinite Screen running. It is a pita if I had gotten as far as trying to set up ED, as restarting the PC kinda sets ED back quite a bit.
I agree with you it is essential to get the latest versions of Tobii and Steel Series and Infinite Screen as the initial packages may be 'not yet updated', but remember, the software comes with NO software, just a paper printed line suggesting you download the software from http://Steelseries.com/sentry/start.
One thing I have noticed, if you lose the eyetracker screen, such as ED opening Full Screen, then communication with EyeTracker can be lost without the steel series infinite screen software alerting you. Not sure how or why this happens, but it does.(sometimes)

I really do not think the issue lies with Elite Dangerous, and here is why. When I have tobii actually running as expected, and the infinite screen is not reporting any issues, if I look at a spot on my ED screen (Right now I am in a hanger) and press the rightmost control keyboard button, I see the shimmy circle as tobii reacts to my eyeballs looking at that part of the screen, and if I pause, then that section of the ED Screen wakes up in a magnified window as though I was looking at a web page button wanting a click. I could see the grey open box of a ship outside the station, but when I focused on it with the eye tracker, the opened box with a close up view showed the grey broken box, but the updating did not happen, so the grey box that had been slowly moving following the ship outside the station, was not updated in the close up view. I think the magnified view is simply a snapshot of the screen I was looking at. So had that been another ship and I had been trying to target it, for example, it simply would not have been there when I expected it to.

A word of worldy caution, I know it is hard to beleive, but our internet is riddled with people wanting to be 'one up' on anyone else, so I find many posts with users telling me that the system works great, its terrific fun, simple and it works out of the box, I have to ignore these people, they are the same guys that spend all day favouriting anything anyone else has rubbished, and the same guys who seem to rubbish anything someone has praised, so when I come here to our forum, I greatly respect comments that are constructive, to the point and like your posts, contain accurate working links. Beware of posts that randomly praise something without adding anything so suggest otherwise...

My task today, and this hurts, I will uninstall tobii, steel series infinte scream from my C:/ drive and then uninstall Elite Dangerous from my D:/ Games drive and reinstall them 'all' on my tiny SSD C:/ drive. My SSD is not the most perfect to work with my motherboard, but for most things, it is fast and seems to wortk on Win10 quite well. (Win 10 boot is a matter of a minute or less).
Reinstalling Elite Dangerous is the slowest part and I can get something else done around the house, maybe get five minutes with my Partner, also an ED Commander making her way to Elite Status quite impressivly.
Will advise.

bitstorm · Mar 4, 2016

Sure you know but here is a big EyeX thread. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=220228

Mine is all ok (Win 8.1), but I do seem to remember in that thread some folk saying they had to install as admin to get it working. (maybe on Win10)

The symptoms you describe make me think this could be your issue.

Though I thought this was fixed in 1.1. https://files.update.tech.tobii.com/InfiniteScreen/releasenotes.html

My honest opinion of the EyeX is that it's a really impressive bit of kit when it's working. It has its faults though, I think fundamentally it's mostly because eye tracking is not how humans work, we move both eyes and head simultaneously, and when you move your eyes the world simply does not move around you as it does with the EyeX.

It's almost like comparing a running treadmill to real running, sure it's really close and as close as you're likely gonna get but can never be perfect because fundamentally the machine is doing the moving instead of you.

With the EyeX the software needs work but the EyeX guys seem to be on it, ie recent switch to Freetrack to solve some issues, I think folk buying in just have to accept there'll be tweaks and changes as the EyeX improves. And I do want the devs to continuously improve it so I'm fine with this.

But as I say above when it's doing its thing well it really is very cool.

Kaela · Mar 4, 2016

The eye tracker software kind of works, in as mnuch as the Gaze Bubble follows my gaze around the screen. This means the bar is working and tracking my eyes. However, when the steel series software tries to connect it beleives the engine is not running and fails to start. If you trouble shoot from this link http://www.tobii.com/xperience/support/troubleshoot-guides/tobii-eyex-not-working/ you will see that the basic setup is not exactly rocket science. More My pc motherboard does not have the ASMedia USB 3.0 controller.

if you check out tobii help screen on this link http://www.tobii.com/xperience/supp...nite-screen-extension--troubleshooting-guide/ you get the following steps:-

Make sure that your EyeX is connected and working properly. The easiest way to test this is to open the EyeX panel and click Gaze Trace. You should now see a “bubble” where you’re looking.
Make sure you have the latest version of ISE (Infinite Screen Extension). You can download it from here: https://files.update.tech.tobii.com/InfiniteScreen/download.html
If the installation gets stuck on the vJoy installer – please refer to the follow thread: http://www.tobii.com/xperience/support/infinite-screen-extension-troubleshooting-steps-for-vjoy/
If ISE is already running then right click the ISE systray icon and select “Quit”.
Run ISE as administrator (if your logged in as a normal user then right click on the ISE desktop short cut a select “Run as administrator”). We’re currently working on removing this requirement.
If ISE fails to start:

[*=1]If the error message reads “Unable to connect to the EyeX engine. Please make sure that Tobii EyeX Engine is running and that the eye tracker is connected.” then return to step 1.
[*=1]If the error message reads “Could not initialize Infinite Screen Extension …” then go please refer to this thread: [link coming soon!]

In ISE, click on the game tab of interest and follow the instructions.
Launch game.

You will see that when you progress to step six, it sends you back to step one, a point at which we have already confirmed the eye tracker is connected and working. You can tell this is true as the Gaze Bubble follows your eyes around the screen. More, I have no issues with vJoy, it installs and seems to operate ok, however, Vjoy feeder (demo), configure vjoy and monitor vJoy dont actually do anything until the Infinite Screen software is up and running, which of course it does not because the tobii software fails to connect to the Eye Tracker, while at the same time, it is connected to the eye tracker and moving the gaze buibble around.

I don't think it is related to Elite Dangerous as I have spent time today re-installing ED into the small SSD C:/ drive I have.

vernonator · Mar 4, 2016

bitstorm said:
My honest opinion of the EyeX is that it's a really impressive bit of kit when it's working. It has its faults though, I think fundamentally it's mostly because eye tracking is not how humans work, we move both eyes and head simultaneously, and when you move your eyes the world simply does not move around you as it does with the EyeX.

I think you are doing prosepctive users a dis-service with this line. If you move your head to track a target Tobii works just fine, because your eyes are moving too - have had mine for a few weeks and once you adjust (just a bit) its great. I can lock my eyes on a target (by moving my eyes OR head) and just focus on it as I maneuver and it stays centered in my screen.

bitstorm · Mar 4, 2016

vernonator said:
I think you are doing prosepctive users a dis-service with this line. If you move your head to track a target Tobii works just fine, because your eyes are moving too - have had mine for a few weeks and once you adjust (just a bit) its great. I can lock my eyes on a target (by moving my eyes OR head) and just focus on it as I maneuver and it stays centered in my screen.

The point is in real life when I move my head or eyes the world does not move around me, the world is static. While with an eyetracker the world has to move because you have a limited viewport.

This is similar but just not the same.

Just as a running machine offers you a limited "view" of the road which results in compromises having to be made.

Not sure I'm doing anyone a disservice, the above is how it is, I'm not a Tobii employee or anything.