A review of several “free” head-tracking alternatives to use with Flight

thanks. I’ll have a go at it later after work :slight_smile:

Edit: Sorry but it doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t recognise my webcam (PS3 cam)

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Same here. Fails to detect standard webcam.

Hmm, that’s pretty odd, it seems to detect standard usb cameras both on my PC and Laptop. I’m not sure about the PS3 Eye camera since I haven’t tested the app on that. If you and @Sonicviz could DM me the logs, I could better diagnose the problem. You can find the logs file by clicking the button next to the GitHub button in the application.

Just tried this today and it works perfectly. By far the best experience I had with face tracking using webcams, and I’ve tried all of them… everything. :slight_smile: Very low CPU usage, very smooth and precise, doesn’t drift off center, not jumpy. Really well done. Thanks a lot.

I uninstalled it, so don’t have the log.

I’m using a standard Logitech C920 Pro.
The only thing I can think that might cause issues with your device parsing is I also use XVid.

Is there a later release?
Site says Last Updated - 11 May, 2023 but release is
v0.0.2Latest
on Apr 5

which is the one I had a no detection issue with.

I’ve just tried StableView on my gaming laptop using its integrated webcam and it works perfectly - better than the other apps I have tried to date; it’s smooth, gentle on the CPU and doesn’t cause any unwanted camera jumps. Thank you for sharing it with the community!

I happily used TrackIR for many years, but once I switched to VR (initially Reverb G2, now Pimax Crystal) there is no way back.
For small airplane VFR flying, on a scale 1-10 for me:

  • 1 - one big screen, no tracking device
  • 2 - triple screens, no tracking device
  • 3 - one big screen, tracking device
  • 4 - triple screens, tracking device
  • 7 - VR (the improvement is massive: freedom of movement, field of view, stereoscopy),
  • 10 - real world (when it comes to visuals, it’s great to fly for real, but you are typically limited to your local area and availability of the plane, free time, time of day and year and weather).

Of course VR requires strong H/W (like Reverb G2 + at least 3080), so it’s much more expensive versus head tracking.

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I agree once you fly VR with a suitable setup, it’s hard to be as content in 2D. However, unlike most of you folks, all my “stuff” is on one end of a very large (dining room-sized) kitchen table in a large alcove. My VR headset and wire are stored under the table. So lots of times, when I just want to fool around, it’s quicker and easier to do so in 2D. I also have an Xbox Series X under my end of the kitchen table, and for some reason, rather than find another USB port on my PC to plug my Hotas stick into, I like flying the F-18 around Hawaii on the Xbox with the Hotas stick in 2D.

Just to prove you don’t need a powerful setup to enjoy digital entertainment, I’ve spent most of the last two years on a Nintendo Switch catching up on Breath of the Wild and now Tears of the Kingdom. I doubt it would ever happen, but if someday Nintendo would ever have a port of one of these games to a PC in VR (with help from Microsoft?) or come up with a Switch powerful enough to support such an open-world game in VR, it would be totally awesome.

Perhaps the reason I got sucked away from MSFS is the surprise and unexpected happenings and serendipities in some of these games vs. the detailed mechanics of flying and the constant changes in MSFS that require constant adjustment (do I have the best NVIDIA driver now?). Perhaps flying missions with MSFS add-ons would be the antidote to the allure of Zelda. But I haven’t tried going into rehab yet! :joy:

Has anyone been able to use Opentrack with the Citation Longitude? I get it to work with other planes, but when I use the Longitude, it’s position is so far back in the plane, that I can’t see the cockpit. There is not enough adjustment in the output section to move it into the cockpit. Any suggestions?

Try translate forward alt + arrow up before u start opentrack

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Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn’t work.