I have one and buy it was best step in my MSFS history. I´m enjoying it very much. Totally new experience. You can make your own settings to avoid it. Use dead zone for small head movement ignore.
You don’t move your head much to look 90 degrees left or right since your head movements translate to greater in sin camera movements. Can you hold your focus on the text in this message and slowly shake your head like you’re saying no to someone? That’s about all you have to do.
Neck strain was never an issue. I set my viewpoint where I’m at a relaxed position and have the cockpit visibility I want, and then forget about it.
I do my downwind to final as one big curving turn now. I can just keep my eyes on the numbers naturally, or do a quick glance back at my airspeed and altitude and back to where I was in the turn. This would have been a major pain in the ■■■ previously.
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Head-tracking is a combination of three main factors, pragmatically:
- Screen size;
- Distance from the viewer (which in combination with 1. equates to usable field of view;
- Calibration curves
I don’t think it’s very realistic to just plug stuff in and use a single stock set of response presets and have things feel comfortable and natural. It will take some setup with the tracking software initially, and then inside a few of your favorite planes to dial in completely. And even then, it can be useful to have a couple different response curve profiles calibrated and saved for different kinds of planes.
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One thing that I can say for certiain is that I thought a lot about buying the real TrackIR or even the Tobii Eye Tracker 5. Having watched a lot of YouTube reviews though I decided against burning that amount of money. Instead, I finally used an USB cable with SmoothTrack + iPhone + OpenTrack and I won’t go back. I’ve got rid of the lag that I had when using the iPhone wirelessly. I do own and use the biggest and best FritzBox wifi router available (a German thing) but there was this anoying lag. Now, I see an instant response and I guess it’s the best I can get. Yes, the one disadvantage is you can’t turn out lights in your room when doing a night flight with SmoothTrack. Others than that, not having to wear anything or spent a lot of money and live with certain limitations is priceless.
TL;DR: Buy SmoothTrack for iPhone or Android, use a USB cable with OpenTrack and be done with it. You won’t get anything better.
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Never had eye strain because of track IR. If anything it was neck/body strain, trying to keep still. That was until I “discovered” pausing. I have it paused 99% of the time. Only unpause when I want to move the view. Pause / unpause it mapped to a button on my joystick/yoke.
I basically use it during startup when you have to look around the cabin, when taxiing and in the pattern when determining when to turn. Apart from that I have a static view that shows everything important.
No… I don’t use it on final. Nothing worse than the view moving at that point.
Fundamental setup is such that by the time your gaze reaches the side of the monitor, you should be looking back at your tail feathers. The system does not require ever turning your head past the edge of your screen, so no neck twisting at all if properly setup.
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The concept is fairly simply.
Move your head a little and your viewpoint changes.
But it’s not a 1:1 relationship. Once you dial in the curves of the profile to suit you then the viewpoint moves at a rate and within a range that you find comfortable and which won’t cause neck pain or eye strain.
For me it was an absolute game changer and I wish that more genres supported head tracking. (Are there any FPS titles which support it? That would be awesome)
I don’t find I really ever need to pause in order to focus on instruments but it’s a handy tip
I have a couple of different profiles for different titles. The main differences are sensitivity. (Higher sensitivity and more extreme movement for classic dogfight air combat and a more “sedate” less sensitive profile for cockpit heavy airliners for example)
Headtracking is not going to give you the complete freedom and immersion that VR does.
But it’s a good compromise, it’s mature tech and it works very well indeed for simulation.
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In practice it doesn’t really work like that. You set it up so a small amount of movement of your head equals a large amount of movement of the camera left or right, up or down. Its very customisable and you can tune it how you want.
I’m a new convert to Track IR. I only got set up with it a couple of months back. Its the one bit of hardware investment I’d made right at the start when I got the sim. I really can’t imagine not using it now. It really is that much of a game changer for me.
It is a slight faff to get set up and it does take a bit of getting used to but once you’ve got it working well you won’t look back. Its also not hugely expensive. I got one of the cheaper versions from Amazon and it works just fine.
Loooooong time ago the RNLAF had a pilot nicked Barnie ( I guess he was named after the Flintstones)
Every time he pulled the stick to the max, he cursed the hell out of the fighterjet…
It helped him to stay awake…despite the potential ear damage for his wing mates… 
I have been using Trackir for years. Never felt eye or neck strain at all. It just feels natural. I do think something has changed since the issue recently where trackir didn’t work for a bit as I’m now finding it a little more difficult to operate switches and dials as the focus doesn’t seem to be centred as accurately as before.
You’re missing out, my friend. I did that for years, then finally broke down and spent a half hour calibrating it. The difference is hard to believe.
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How do you know you won’t find anything better if you haven’t tried anything else?
Sounds like I’m missing out on better functionality.
What improvements did you experience after calibrating it?
I don’t know what to say to convince you really, except I’ve been using TrackIR since 2012 and I wouldn’t even think of using a flight sim without it.
I’ve never had any issues at all with eyesore or neck pain even though I’m not in my prime anymore (57yo), and I’ve been using corrective lenses ever since I was a child.
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I love it and would not use flight simulator without it. I think it is a must have for me.
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I can turn around more than 180 degrees in either direction, in other words I can look behind me in either direction. You can also use the acceleration to look up and down. Makes it so much better.
Agree 100%. I would literally stop simming without it.
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100% agree!
like the others said… all the possible disadvantages for the human-health can be reduced / eliminated with a correct setup of TrackIR ( each axis can widely configured in speed, movent, angle, … ). Also strange angles for your eyes you can nearly eliminate. For longer sessions or situations where you just not want the head-tracking exist the pause function.
Of course, sitting 4h… 8h… 12h , like some of forum users post here, in front of PC in full action without a break, nothing will help to safe your healthy.
Fo me is flying without any kind of head-tracking not possible. May in the big airplainers it is different situation and may users can in that big monsters be whole time in TrackIR pause, but I fly Helicopters and little airplanes and I want/ need to look around. Also sims like DCS , in which you must quickly look around, are not realy possible without head-tracking.
PS:: I forgot… I assume you will more hate eye-tracking… I tried it an no… the I tried to configure the eye-tracker for head-tracking only, but this never worked so good as it TrackIR do. So… Tobii is going back into the package…
My exact experience too, I was a bit stubborn/lazy and just left it on the smooth curve. Upgraded my monitor and decided to finally dial TIR in properly for the new proportions. What a difference!