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TrackIR functionality returning to THE GAME is 2.6.2


Gremlich

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Per Ali Brown, Director of Graphics Engineering on the CIG/RSI forums:
There's two parts to this question, when will TrackIR hardware support be re-enable/fixed, and when will the game code implement the necessary camera controls for a solid user experience. The answer to the first question is that we've already done it and it'll work again in 2.6.2 (i.e. extremely soon). Unfortunately I can't answer the second question as it relates to game-code rather than engine-code. There appears to be just one major bug with TrackIR at present which is that when in a ship the camera moves fine, but the helmet and body doesn't move which means your view can end up being blocked by your own helmet. Hopefully this isn't too difficult to fix and I'll try and prod the right people, but can't promise a fix for any particular release.


https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/7575772/#Comment_7575772

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1 hour ago, Skywing said:

Has anyone tried building your own trackIR?


There are some videos on youtube about it, and i'm inclined to make one, just have my doubts if it will work very well.

Id guess if you can get a good sensor / SW to work together... it would be close to just as good

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10 hours ago, Skywing said:

Going to do the sensor like the video, and use a playstation eye as a tracker, may change the support material to be more resistance, cardboard seems to weak

 

use inexpensive sheet plastic stock vice cardboard. you can get varying thicknesses and use superglue (pssst get some debonder as well)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I have both TRACKIR and Tobii eye tracking. I enjoy using the trackIR while the Tobii isn't officially supported with star citizen yet. One thing that is peaking my interest though is on the Tobii website if you type in star citizen as a suggested game to develop you get an email to enroll you into future beta versions of the eye tracker for star citizen. I'm excited to see how the functionality of it will work as the new Tobii 4c distinguishes between eye and head tracking. I'm curious if the game will integrate fully and allow the distinguish as well by having eye aiming for gimbals with head movement for cockpit viewing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Do trackIr function in starcitizen just by plugging in, or is it needed to setup keybinding of any type.

I am almost finished with my homemade track (just waiting for battery holders) but starcitizen does not recognize free track software, so i was wondering if i need to add it to key setup.

 

Using a flashlight to hold batteries will the battery holders don't arrive. Spent less than 20€.

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My Mk2 Track Hat.

Stuff needed:

1: Originally I used Freetrack Software. Note: This is no longer supported and does not work natively with Star Citizen. However the Open track software works just fine. Download the latest version here: https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/releases

2: MS vx1000 webcam, or any webcam with an easily removed IR fliter. Check Freetrack website for compatible cameras. There will be better hardware available since I originally wrote this. Wii controllers for example, or simply better cameras.

3: Old floppy disk from obsolete junk bin. C'mon, everyone has one - an obsolete junk bin that is :).

4: Baseball cap.
Y'know, that old ragged in one at the bottom of the wardrobe that you never quite got around to throwing out and the wife/gf didn't find on her old clothes sweep ("You're not still wearing that old thing are you?") .

5: IRE's (Infra Red Emitters) They are not LED's. Well, semantics maybe, but they MUST be OSRAM SFH485P or equivalent for best results. They are available at http://www.digikey.com. However, that option was no good for me as the postage rate far outstripped the component value. Here in the UK I got mine from http://uk.farnell.com/

Actually I phoned to confirm they had them as they had two conflicting web pages on the subject. One said they had them and the other said they were discontinued. I'm glad I phoned. The very nice lady who answered kindly sent me a sample package free of charge containing 10 of the things. Can't say fairer than that.

6: Power supply.
There are two ways to go here - Battery or mains power adapter. I didn't want the weight and inconvenience of a battery attached to the hat or elsewhere for that matter, so I went the Adapter route with a 300 Milliamp power adapter.

My adapter is switchable between 0, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12volts. Get a decent one. Some of these things have very bad reviews. The one I have seems to be of a good quality but was still only £7.

Note: Test the output on these adapters with a multimeter. Some of them like mine are not too accurate. I first set mine to the required 4.5 volts and the actual output was way over that so I tried the 3.0 volt setting which came out at just under 4.5v. which is fine. Each emitter is 1.5volts which is where the total 4.5 volts comes from.

The best thing about using an adapter is that firstly, you don't have to worry about a battery pack, and secondly you don't have to use resistors making construction a lot simpler.

7: Wire.
My first thought was some wire from an old PSU but I didn't want dirty great thick wire like that in my hat. First it would be uncomfortable, second, it would be hard to solder to a delicate IR emitter leg and third, it would look bloody awful. I found an old IDE ribbon cable in my box of junk. Ideal, it's nice and thin and there's plenty strands to be stripped apart.

8: Soldering iron etc.

Here's how it went:

I already had the latest Freetrack software (now using Opentrack) installed and I managed to locate an old Microsoft VX1000 webcam in my "bits and pieces" box.

The cameras IR filter needs to be removed otherwise the device won't work. There is one small screw holding the camera casing together. I removed that and prised the casing apart quite easily. The lens unscrews from the body and there is a small IR filter placed at the back. This can be gently prised out with a small screwdriver. Obviously I can't comment on other cameras and this is just for the VX1000. So, modify your cameras at your own risk.

This done, I found an old floppy disk and destroyed/dismantled it. I stuck a piece of the floppy disk material on the inside of the front part of the casing to block out ambient light. That's the webcam sorted. I replaced the lens and reassembled the camera. That's the webcam sorted.

Now to build the hat.

Wearing a hat in the house is bad enough, so I didn't want to use wire coat hangers, plastic tubing or any other Heath Robinson contraptions for the three point model making me look like the Borg. I may act like a bit of an idiot sometimes, but I decided to mount the IRE's directly to the hat in an attempt to avoid actually looking like one.

The above statement is purely my opinion and matters not one jot. How you elect to build your device is entirely your prerogative.

For the actual construction and wiring, simply link all the positive emitter legs together, do the same for the negative and then connect to the pos and neg terminals on the jack socket. Done.there are plenty of you tube videos to help on that and you can still obtain the Freetrack manual from the website.

http://www.free-track.net/english/

Now the first one I made sort of worked, erratically. This was the Mk1, in case you were wondering. I made the cardinal error of rushing the construction in my enthusiasm. It is very important to get the dimensions of the model right and enter those dimensions into the freetrack/Opentrack software's model tab.

The crucial thing is that the vertical height from the two front IRE's must not be greater than the horizontal dimension from the two front IRE's to the raised third one. If this is not right you will get some interesting results. So take your time and get the measurements spot on. It will pay dividends later.

I decide to do the MkII hat more accurately and use a measuring device. With the IRE's repositioned and hooked up to a 3.5mm jack socket at the back of the hat, it's time to to test it. The emitters don't fry themselves (neither does yours truly) and it all seems to work just fine. Once everything was tested and working  I secured the IRE's in place with a spot of hot glue.

Here are the model dimensions that worked for me:

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Here's the measuring device. Well, what did you expect? A laser measure? :D

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Here's the source of the wire I used.

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Here's the power supply.

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Here's the Hat MkII

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Not too bad and works great.

Final Note:

Remember that because my power supply happens to switch to 4.5 volts (the same combined voltage of the three IRE's), I didn't need any resistors. However, if you use a more common 6v power supply together with the three OSRAM SFH485P emitters wired in series, you will need to wire in a single 15 ohm resistor between the power supply on the positive side and the first IR Emitter. This will knock the voltage down to 4.5.

After some adjustments in the freetrack software itself it works beautifully. Easily as good as Track IR4. I can't comment on TIR 5 (£150) as I haven't used it but I can't see it being much better if at all.

There you have it. 6Dof from some junk, a cheap webcam and a switchable power supply. Total cost if I recall correctly was somewhere around £12.

Victor's track hat works beautifully. Victor has saved himself around £140 (probably more by now). Victor is pleased.

 

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@Skywing As far as Freetrack is concerned you are right. It does not work in Star Citizen. However, if you use Open Track with your tracking device, all you need to do is start Open track, then launch Star Citizen and fly. It will work without having to set up anything in the Star Citizen controls at all. The link to download Open Track is in my other post above.

Hope that helps.

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@Skywing You're welcome. Glad you got your tracker working with Open Track. It might take a little bit of work to get super smooth but it can be done.

I think the helmet bug affects just about everyone at the moment. That's an issue for CIG to fix I think.

I watched the Tobii video in Gerald Evans' post above and there is no helmet bug there. However, tobii works differently to track IR but I'm not familiar with that device so I can't comment further. It will be good to see how Tobii is implemented in Star Citizen though.

Good luck, Fly safe.

 

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From what i saw we need to disable the X,Y,Z axis.

This problem happens because starcitizen is not ready for "head movement".

You can look around but not move your head forward or to the sides, when you do, your field of view moves but the head stays in the same place and you have an "out of body experience" of sorts.

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