I originally wrote this app just for myself to work with OpenTrack. After realizing it worked way better than I expected and posting it to reddit’s /r/flightsim a few weeks ago, they begged me to turn it into a full app, so I did.
It uses your smartphone’s AR capabilities to detect your head pose and then passes it on to OpenTrack which emulates the TrackIR protocol. The app currently has a 5.0 average on the iOS App Store (link), and it hit the Play Store (link) in public beta today. Customers have been extremely positive so far.
It really transforms the FS experience for me - it’s not quite VR but it’s nearly there.
Would love to hear your thoughts and can also answer any questions you have.
I have setup Opentrack for UDP and Freetrack2.0 enhanced. Hit start and get no video; no moving octopus. My iphone is sending the tracking to my ip address and port No luck. I do see default for Trackir in the controls.Can you give me some advice please?
It may have worked very briefly as I pushed away from the desk and my cockpit/instrument panel zoomed out.
Don’t know how I did it, but is working for me now. Looks nice but their will be a learning curve as well as getting a charger/stand for the iphone. Next, you will need to focus on how to keep the phone energy efficient so that it can charge and stay cool.
Downloaded iOS version, and tested OK… Will need to tweak a bit though to get the curves how I like it, add some deadzones etc. Was pretty impressed out of the box
Some questions…
Big battery usage on iPhone X, so will try with the phone plugged in on the weekend. Will it work in landscape mode? That way I can rest it in my little desktop stand and keep it charged.
Is the asymetric curve editor in OpenTrack mean different curves for left/right?
Is there an easy way to re-centre when you get out of whack? The button on the screen doesn’t seem to do anything, but that could be user error (ID10T error)
Are there any FS2020 .ini files floating around as a start point for OpenTrack that you know of?
Thanks for making this, saved me heaps on a TrackIR setup
EDIT:Found the reddit and am reading now, as well the OP’s website and the suggested default.ini for FS2020 as starting point
Could you do a short tutorial or give some instructions on how to make all this work for people new to head tracking equipment. I looked into a TrackIR but too spendy. And I have no experience with this stuff.
I know you need an iPhone and Opentrack, but where to download and how to install/setup/operate? Any help would be appreciated.
I saw your post and bought the Android version of the app… it’s brilliant! Thank you so much – it has completely changed the experience for me. I have a joystick with hat-switch, but being able to just look at instruments, glance out the windows to see where the runway is – even sit up in my seat to see over the nose of the aircraft – makes things so much more intuitive. It has made FS a properly useful tool.
I’d been waiting for VR to work with Oculus, but this is a good alternative.
I got it all working and gives serious motion sickness! Can’t manage to keep everything smooth when taking off. Very sensitive to any head movement for me. Amazing software though.
OneFang, what Epaga4711 says – once you’ve done the Mapping thing, you’ll find it a lot better. You can basically have no movement for the first few degrees / cm of movement, then starting gradually, then becoming much more pronounced, like this:
Thanks, I’ll try that curve too. I am also having trouble getting it to be stable, and the constant movement on the screen is not working for me. Not making me sick but not realistic to me.
I have disabled “roll” as well to try and minimise the constant movement. What’s your Pitch curve look like?
Yaw, S-curve as shown. This is the one that’s most important IMO and deserves the most experimentation to get right for you.
Pitch, unchanged, i.e. straight line
Roll, very gentle S-curve – tend not to roll my head much
This gives you the freedom to move your head around a bit without anything happening, but then it kicks in if you make a determined movement, for example, if you want to sit up and look over the cowling or really lean forward to peer closely at an instrument.
Yep, altering the curves takes some time but then it works great. Smooth without any issues. Only problem is that when you scratch your nose the camera of the phone gets distracted for a moment
Thanks again, I’ll be trying this out a bit later.
The app and the tracking clearly work really well, but tweaking for each user I think is required, so having the ability edit the response curves is great.
