I must admit that when I first heard of the Track IR head tracking technology a few years ago I was skeptical. In fact, you could say that I was one of those people that called it a gimmick. But, after watching E3, and seeing the Natal, I began to wonder what a device like that could do for?core? Yeah, it could allow you to wave your arms around and make a elephant silhouette with an attractive Asian girl but what can it do to make my halo or grid better? After E3 I began searching for games to help tide me over until the fall. One of the games I found was ARMA 2 and, after watching dyslexia?s videos about it, I also was re-introduced to the Track IR tech. Since I was already curious from the Natal demo it didn?t take me long to pull the trigger on the Natural Point TrackIR 5. If you are not familiar with device this is what is said about it on the website:?Hyper accurate, fully adjustable, and only three square inches in size?TrackIR 5 is the one piece of kit that discriminating gamers crave. Take advantage of our 6 DOF head tracking technology, which links your actual movement in three-dimensional space to your in-game view! Your increased situational awareness will make you the most feared competitor around. In dogfights, you'll be impossible to shake. In white-knuckle races, you'll be impossible to pass. In tactical combat, you'll be impossible to flank.? ![]() ![]() All hyperbole and marketing speak aside here are the Track IR 5 specs:? Raw Sensor Resolution: 640 x 480? Reporting Resolution: 96,000 x 72,000? Field of View: 51.7°? Resolution/Horizontal Degree: 1850 subpixels/degree? Sample Rate: 120 fps? Size (without base): 2' x 1.5' x 0.57'? Weight: 1.8 oz? Response Time: 9 ms? Connection: USB? Cable Length: 6 ft Features:? Support for over 100 games/sims? 10x TrackIR 4 resolution (video)? Wider field of view than TrackIR 4? Hyper fast 120 fps sample rate? ![]() IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is a historically based game. It is the next generation of the legendary Sturmovik series of WWII flight-sim games. Featuring a wide FOV and 6DoF tracking technology, the TrackIR adds depth to the PC gaming experience and pulls you further into the game. 6 DOF vector technology? Improved ambient light filtering? Detachable magnetic base. This review will be covering the use of TrackIR 5 in a flight, racing and FPS environment. The games used to test the device are ARMA 2, Grid and Half Life 2: Insurgency. Test Rig: Intel E8400 C2D @ 3.6ghz Asus P5N-D Mobo 4 gigs OCZ Reaper Ram Nvidia GTX 275OC Windows Vista 32 22? Samsung TOC monitor Other peripherals: Saitek X52 flight stick and throttle Xbox 360 game controller for windows About the reviewer: I find, that in most reviews, you know nothing about the reviewers tastes. (If you don?t care to know skip this part) I grew up playing flying and racing sims. Some of my first games were X-Wing, Janes combat series, Need For Speed 1 and 2, Rainbow Six, etc. It wasn?t until the N64 generation that I branched out to play more platformers and action games (although I did play the original marios). As of today, I mostly play RPGs since the sim genre has really died. I still try to pick up at least one (if there is one) flight sim each year though. I also prefer the Battlefield or ARMA style of combat to the COD or Halo style but play all of those games. Up until I bought the Track IR-5 racing games had become dead to me. TrackIR 5 setup: Setting up the TrackIR-5 was surprisingly easy. You just adjust the base to attach to your monitor and then attach the track IR to the base using the magnet. Since I am using the optional 3-led head piece thing (I attached it to my Logitech g35 headset?see dyslexia?s youtube videos?) I had to plug the TrackIR?s usb into the head peaces usb dongle. No big deal but could confuse some people. The nice thing about this method is it only takes up one usb port. The not nice thing is that you have another wire running from your head to the back of the PC. But wait, let me back up second. It is important, like with many devices, to download and install the correct drivers first, which is as painless process as any with the TrackIR. After doing this I plugged in the usb and fired up the program (on a side not DO NOT plug the Track IR into a usb hub as it will have poor performance). The software program itself may look a little daunting at first but if you have any experience with calibrating, well, anything, then you will be fine. It is set up like a lot of 3d imaging programs with the calibration sliders on the left and a 3d display on the right. The first thing I did was calibrate the TrackIR 5 to work with the smallest head movement possible, that still allowed smooth movement. I don?t know the actual degrees off hand but I think I was moving my head 5 degrees to get 90 degrees from the camera in any direction. This was MUCH MUCH less than what dyslexia used in his ARMA 2 videos. I never had to look out of the corner of my eye while moving my head (something I think turns off a lot of people). Lastly I would like to note that, at first, you can get frustrated with the software because it won?t center correctly. Of course, once my noob moment was over and, I realized that F12 auto-centered the camera, everything worked great. In fact, if I ever felt the camera was off while playing the game I could hit F12 and be assured that it was centered on my current sitting position (seems very lenient anyways). I also tested the TrackIR by sitting in multiple positions. Of course the tech worked much better if I had a good posture but it was still usable if I slouched or leaned to one side (you DO have to re-calibrate the center (F12) if you change the way you are seated drastically). The games: ARMA 2 What can I say? The game was designed with TrackIR in mind and it works flawlessly. I have to say that the Track IR doesn?t really immerse you into the game as much as it gives you an extra level of control over it. Think of it as adding a second mouse or third joystick (for you 360 gamers) to use at your leisure. Also some people are wary of this tech because they don?t want to hurt their neck by moving their head around a lot. I can put this to rest by saying in ARMA 2 (and most other games) it would be silly to keep your head on a constant swivel. You would never be able to shoot accurately with your weapon. Thus you use the free look sparingly. I usually used it to survey my surroundings while running or while hiding. By turning just the head of your character you do not make much motion. Therefore you are harder to spot by the enemy. (If you don?t already realize or know this the TackIR just moves the view point of your character. The mouse still does the aiming.) But, unlike the free look, the lean function was amazingly useful to me and I used it constantly. Basically the lean works by you literally leaning your shoulders. The track IR uses the pitch and yaw of your head for free look and the x,y and z axis location for other stuff. Naturally leaning is done by lateral motion (x axis) and zooming is done with the z axis (moving closer or farther away). I found the zoom function in ARMA 2 annoying so I turned it off and elected to use mouse zoom instead. I also needed to turn the sensitivity way up on the x axis to get to the point where only a little lateral motion of my shoulders would cause the game to lean. Once set up it was bloody brilliant though. This allowed me to map other functions to my q and e keys and just made the game that much more fun. I honestly don?t see why lean isn?t used in more games. The flight in ARMA 2 isn?t exactly what I would call sim caliber but it gets the point across and once again the TrackIR performs flawlessly. Literally, this little camera thingy is everything I have ever wanted for flight sims. Tired of how clunky hat switches are? Tired of having your view locked forward? Tired of not being able to land well with helicopters? The answer to all of these is BUY A TRACKIR. It works, I promise. Grid I few years back I gave up on racing games. They began to really become a bore what with copied mechanics, races that lasted too long and low excitement (wow I just described NASCAR? But now, after plugging in that little IR sensor, I can say I am going back to the grid! Who knew that what caused me to lose interest in racing games was not being able to view the road like I could in my own car. Now with the TrackIR I am looking into turns, checking my freaking mirrors and fishtailing like a champ (for those that don?t fishtail you NEVER keep your eyes locked forward while fishtailing). If the Track IR 5 ever comes close to immersing me into a game this is where it did it. Grids cockpit view came alive the minute I loaded the game up. I noticed details I had never before and, once again, I WAS CHECKING MY MIRRORS. Sorry, I don?t know why that one little thing amazed me so much but it did. I?ll try to refrain from the caps from here on out. There isn?t much else to say about the TrackIR for Grid other than I will never play another racing game that doesn?t support head tracking in some way. To me that would be akin to playing gears of war with a NES controller. Half Life 2: Insurgency Half Life 2: Insurgency is a new mod that brings a COD like multiplayer experience to the source engine. It?s a fun game with a lot more gameplay options than any COD so far (has a lean, etc.) I was excited to try the TrackIR 5 with a more arcade like shooter (especially since Halo CE PC doesn?t have a lean mod grrrrrr) but unfortunately the games implementation of the TrackIR isn?t quite ready yet. You basically have to jump through hoops to get the free look to work only find out that they screwed up the leaning. Instead of using the x axis like ARMA 2 they used head roll (think about laying your head on your shoulder) which is very awkward. On top of that the gun doesn?t even follow the lean (only the camera) so yeah it?s pretty much worthless. I have to say here that this is not Natural Point or the Track IR?s fault. It is up to the game developer to properly incorporate the TrackIR tech into their game. Which brings me to my next point. Natural Point Developers: I?d just like to say that the Natural Point devs might be some of the most hands on and best devs I have ever witnessed. A dev posts in almost every thread on their forums and is usually the first or second post in help threads. Pretty much every time a customer wants a game added to the enhanced TrackIR list a dev will either post that it?s on the way (Jumpgate Evolution), that the game dev won?t allow it (looking at you Bethesda) or it?s being looked into. If the game is totally new the dev well say he is going to contact the game?s devs and usually gets back with some kind of response. This is first class customer support and really made me feel like spending the money on the Track IR was well justified. Conclusion: (There is a separate conclusion for Xbox 360 gamers below) In conclusion I would say that the Track IR 5 is definitely worth the money you spend on it. I would even go as far as to say that it is a must have for sim gamers. The extra level of control that the Track IR allows is just far superior to anything a joystick hat switch can do. It also takes a lot of the frustration out of gaming and, if set up right, is pretty natural to use. I will say though that I don?t view the TrackIR as much of an immersion tool. But, even though I never felt more immersed in a game while using the TrackIR I was blown away by the level of control I had over the game. It just felt right. Like I said before using the TrackIR 5 is like having a second mouse or third joystick, the possibilities are endless. Two Thumbs Up For Xbox 360 gamers: With the Natal tech coming out in a little over a year I hope this review gave you an idea of what core gamers can look forward too. I must say that the limitations of the Track IR (having to re-center your view if you change positions, only tracking by led, and having to wear a sensor) will not be a part of the natal. It will be a completely unobtrusive way to have even more control over games. I can already see Halo: Reach using the lean feature and the next Rainbow six using the free look and lean. I can?t wait for more racing games and flights sims on the 360 that will take advantage of the Natal as well. I promise you it won?t be some casual game kid?s toy. There are countless ways in which the Natal can enrich your gaming experience, without you getting off the couch or losing the controller. Click to expand.Well not necessarily. Natural Point Devs are very active in getting gaming developers to put in support of the trackIR. Pretty much any big name dev out there is on their list. They are currently talking to blizzard, Sony, BioWare, NetDevil, UbiSoft, Black Prophesy devs and a few others about their up coming releases. Not to mention that they will look into any game you mention pretty much. Codemasters supported TrackIR with Grid and Dirt so I can imagine they will continue to support the trackir with future racing titles. Also there are 3rd party programs that can allow the TrackIR to be used as a joystick or mouse in ANY program, even windows. So with some clever homebrew you can use this in LoTRO or WoW right now. Click to expand.There are two 3rd party apps that allow you to use the trackIR in different ways. One lets you use it as a joystick and the other as a mouse. I have heard that people use the trackIR for free look in RPG games that support such a feature (using the mouse emulation). Also TrackIR can be used as the mouse in windows. I have not tried the 3rd party apps but it has been stated that quadriplegics and hand/arm amputees use the track IR as a mouse in MMORPGs, RTS and adventure games. (as well as windows) As for other non-sim games (I assume you mean arcade shooters like cod) the free look would not be very useful but the lean would work amazingly. Damnit, I couldn't resit it anymore. It's an easily affordable tech toy that I haven't played with yet, need it. I got the track ir 5/pro-clip bundle for $167, ntb. I'm actually really looking forward to using it with Oblivion, it seems you can make it work pretty well with it, also looking forward to using it for lean as the poster above me said. And for funsies I think I will install some kind of voice recognition software and program mouse clicks to it so I can navigate my computer with my head. Am I missing something or does the mouse emulation not really remember the position of your head? Like the mouse itself doesn't center where I am looking, so the center location keeps being some new random spot on my screen, makes it pretty difficult to control in windows, not like I really really use that besides for fun, but it's also annoying trying to use it as a camera in say, Prototype because I constantly have to reposition myself. I hope I'm just doing something wrong or there is a better way to do it, because otherwise it'd work pretty good for Prototype, I was having fun using it when it was working properly.
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