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[Fahzgoolin]

So I just recently bought a racing wheel and I don't have the money to invest in either VR, UltraWide monitor, or a 3 monitor set up. I really love the look of head tracking because it would allow you to get the advantages of looking into a corner during a race or look around your cockpit in a flight game. Seems like an amazing cheap alternative to VR with obvious setbacks.

Does anyone here have experience with it and would you recommend it for PC gaming?

 

[Skyzard]

For games where you have a cockpit it's fantastic. Adds a lot of immersion, and very useful for games like Elite Dangerous.
I actually prefer it to VR, I never really bothered using DK2 for these games as with the resolution you can't see all that far, and I'd be playing for a few hours so I found it more comfortable to use headtracking. I bought the IR emitter and attached it to a headset and used an eyetoy setup with some free software. Took a bit of fiddling to get the curves right and if you have strong sunlight coming in it can affect tracking but otherwise was great.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

For games where you have a cockpit it's fantastic. Adds a lot of immersion, and very useful for games like Elite Dangerous.
I actually prefer it to VR, I never really bothered using DK2 for these games as with the resolution you can't see all that far, and I'd be playing for a few hours so I found it more comfortable to use headtracking. I bought the IR emitter and attached it to a headset and used an eyetoy setup with some free software. Took a bit of fiddling to get the curves right and if you have strong sunlight coming in it can affect tracking but otherwise was great.

Wow that's awesome...So you made your own home made head tracking?

 

[dave_m123]

Thinking about getting this soon its supposed to be quite sturdy plus cheap

http://www.trackhat.org/

 

[Felix Lighter]

I used TrackIR for Elite for hundreds of hours before I got my VR headset. It's a game changer for a game like Elite Dangerous. It works great, only direct sunlight in my experience has caused any issues with the tracking and being able to follow targets in combat makes the game feel much better.

 

[Orgun]

Been using TrackIR for years, it really frustrates me when I can't use it in most FPS' now heh. I've logged probably over a thousand hours in the ARMA series using it.

A really old video (2009) but here's a good video on TrackIR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wXx3vMy_AQ

 

[RadioactiveLobster]

I refuse to play Elite: Dangerous or ArmA III without my Track IR. There is no going back after using it IMO.

I find myself turning my head in other games before I realize that they don't support it.

If you play a lot of games that support it, it's is very worth it IMO.

 

[Skyzard]

Wow that's awesome...So you made your own home made head tracking?

I bought the official trackIR headset mount from ebay (not the whole bundle for the tracker) but people do make their own with LEDs or something.

I went to a CEX store and bought a whole bunch of cheap (£2) preowned PS eyetoys as I remember there was an issue with one of the models and you have to get a certain one (that allows you to remove the infrared filter). I'd have to dig it out but I want to say 003 or something like that is the one to get, might need some googling.

Then I just got one of those old crappy 3d glasses (the white paper ones with red and blue filters on the eyes), folded it up so both the eye filters lined up and I placed that over the eyetoy lens to block out unnecessary light.

I think the program I used was freetrack.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

Have any of you had problems with durability or it breaking? That's the main negative I have seen on some reviews.

 

[Business]

Had one 15 years ago for combat flight sims. Never got really used to it and ended up going back to the hat switch on the HOTAS.

 

[EdReedFan20]

I've never tried TrackIR, and I assume this is nowhere near as high fidelity, but I've been greatly impressed by the responsiveness of PlayStation Camera's (the PS4 camera) head tracking in War Thunder. I don't know if I should praise the camera or the game more. I can't wait for the PSVR support for the game. Is there anyone here who's done both TrackIR and PlayStation Camera's head tracking?

 

[E-flux]

Wow that's awesome...So you made your own home made head tracking?

it's not that hard, you can buy a playstation eye for around 10 euros and just remove the lens and you have your self an IR camera, at that point it's just a matter of getting a few IR leds and then the free software.

 

[Jackpot]

Have TrackIR prices gone down now that VR has subsumed a lot of their market?

 

[Krappadizzle]

I have it. Works very well in Arma 2/3 and Elite Dangerous. It actually helped a ton in Arma 3 in flying the helicopters.

Track IR in Elite Dangerous with and X52 HOTAS was a lot of fun. If you can find one for a fair price, I'd say go for it.

Though I haven't touched it since I've gotten VR.

 

[The Lamonster]

I'd be more into this if I didn't have to wear something on my head.

 

[| Praxis |]

I would like to get one as well since I sold my Vive recently and miss being able to look around (I don't miss the resolution of it though). The one big thing VR has advantage over is the sense of scale, you just won't get that with TrackIR, but you also won't be able to play stuff like Arma for years at least in VR with acceptable image quality.

Another alternative is EDtracker, because it's gyroscope based you can use it in the dark, which is how I like to play games and it's much, much cheaper than even TrackIR, especially if you dig out the trusty soldering iron and make it yourself.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

I'd be more into this if I didn't have to wear something on my head.

If you are wearing a headset you can just clip it to that. Most PC gamers are using a headset.

 

[RadioactiveLobster]

Have any of you had problems with durability or it breaking? That's the main negative I have seen on some reviews.

I've had it for years and the only issue I've had was a broken Track Clip Pro and that wasn't necessarily the fault of the device.

I had it attached to my headset and my dog got caught in the cord of my headset, it fell off the desk and cracked. I managed to fix it for a while with hot glue but it wasn't perfect (the way it broke, it wouldn't clip securely anymore.

I was out of warranty but I emailed the manufacturer and they gave me a $15 coupon and I bought a new Track Clip Pro from them.

That was about 2 years ago and I've not had any issues since.

Only minor thing I have to deal with is depending on time of day, I may have to hang a bed sheet over a window to block the Sun since the IR camera picks it up and messes with tracking.