TrackIR advice...

[PaulH]

Hey guys, been thinking of getting TrackIR 5(I think thats the latest), I currently have a single 24" 120hz Monitor. Been watching various videos & reading reviews but wanted to ask for some first hand experience.

Is it good to use for Sim racing with one monitor?
I would hopefully use the set that clips to headphones, does it clip on reliably?
Is it simple to set up?
Any advice appreciated......

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Hey Paul

I have been using TIR for years, but never in sim racing, I find it dilutes the visual information from the car to the you, the "driver" because too many axis are moving around potentially........just my opinion.

For flight sims or FPS its awesome tho, I also am using it nicely in space combat now Elite is around, perfecto

If you get trackClipPro it clips very easy and quick to your headset, be aware if you have a wireless headset you will now have a wired headset as there is an extra cable, people have modded a re-chargable battery pack to them easily enough tho.

The software and setup is pretty easy to setup and understand as well.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I haven't tried the real deal (TrackiR), but I made myself a cap with IR LEDs, use FacetrackNoIR (using freetrack protocol) and a Playstation Eye camera, a cheap DIY solution that works very well!
But, I don't use it much in sims, it feels awesome at first, being able to look around the cockpit, look to the right and left, check your mirrors etc, but like Mark said I find it harder to notice the small nuances happening onscreen, so it's hard to know if you are starting to slide around the corner or if its just your head turning.
I know some simracers use and LOVE it, so it mght be down to either personal preference or finding that sweet spot in setting it up, probably both.
I've been thinking about reinstalling it again to give it another go (had to uninstall the program cos i couldnt bind look right/left in AC while it was installed), see if I find some good threads on the iRacing forums about setting it up correctly and spend some time trying to dial it in proper.

 

[stefaandk]

Assuming you have access to the iracing forum there's this recent thread:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3260961.page

Although the debate there is about its usefulness in triples I would say the points remain valid and even more so on a single screen where using a trackir is probably the only way to get some compensation for the lack of peripheral vision.

The too many axis moving around problem is easily solved though through configuring the TrackIR.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

"The too many axis moving around problem is easily solved though through configuring the TrackIR."

Not without making the system feel unnatural to use, as soon as you do that you negate the best thing about trackIR, Large deadzones and/or tiny acceleration curves near the centre only mask the fact its not really suited to sim racing where you rely heavily on visual hints at what the car is doing. IMO

Occulus Rift on the other hand works perfectly and does not mess with your senses despite being able look around

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Bring on the Rift! (Or even better a competing product of equal or better quality that does not feed money to the evil that is Facebook! )

 

[Pär Öqvist]

You don´t have to run 6DOF if you feel the risk for being disoriented. It´s just something to get used to honestly. I kind of create my own G-forces and with trackIR you can´t but smile when the G-forces at Donington make your body lean to the left looks so realistic.

Deadzones is nothing I particularly like which is why the camera based solutions like freetrack don´t appeal at all but there is a difference between deadzones and latencys. webcameras is always delayed even when out of an eventual deadzone area.

But anyway the software is great you can dial it in perfectly the way you want it on all axis and different curves. Plug and play yes but you are not getting the most out of it just sticking to default profiles.

I find trackIR more useful for flight simulations but it´s nice for racing also. Particularly Euro Truck Simulator 2 just isn´t the same game without TrackIR. There you have time sightseeing, looking at instruments whereas in simracing it all must be right in front of your eyes or you won´t have time monitoring it anyway.

Unless you are saving up for a RIFT it´s not to expensive to mess with. But then I have a constant worry that the RIFT will not be high res or have to poor image quality for my taste. But hope the deal with Samsung mean they will get access to some crazy 4K OLED panel or two

I had the original cap based reflex initially but since I am using headphones the clip on was kind of a necessity. I think it works well. Sure at this point the arms does fall off in it´s joints at times but it still holds up.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I find trackIR more useful for flight simulations but it´s nice for racing also. Particularly Euro Truck Simulator 2 just isn´t the same game without TrackIR.

+1, and ETC is so much better with TIR, because your not sliding around you can actually make proper use of of the visual aspect better despite it still being a driving game, again, just IMO

 

[Pär Öqvist]

What do ETC stand for?

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

My wild guess would be that he meant ETS, Euro Truck Simulator.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

YUP

Sorry

 

[stefaandk]

"Not without making the system feel unnatural to use, as soon as you do that you negate the best thing about trackIR."

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one there Mark but that's perfectly fine, there is no right or wrong in this debate, it's all a matter of preference.

Even I admit that when I started using my TrackIR for racing for the first time I absolutely did not like it at all, of course I had it set to how I was using it on FSX or Arma and that definitely does not work with racing. But once I dialed it in to the point where it just gave me the extra flexibility and as I mentioned on the iracing thread the ability to safely get back on track after an incident by being able to look around you checking for traffic I totally got so used to it that now I don't want to be without it.

I guess it doesn't help the OP as there is purchasing decision involved here, maybe one point of advise is that today I use a TrackIR v5 on Arma 3 but I use my v4 on my racing rig. The extra resolution of the v5 is beneficial in something like Arma but how I use it in racing a v4 certainly is perfectly fine so you may be able to get that one cheap or second hand.
I don't use the led clip in racing either, I use the reflector one which I cabled tied to my headset, looks kinda silly walking around like that but works fine.

If you do end up using one, do yourself a favour and take the time to both set it up to something that feels natural to you and give yourself time to get used to it as probably your first reaction will be one of "this is more annoying than useful" and hopefully it will become a sensation of this is awesome over time.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

How much of a difference do you feel with your TrackIR 5 vs TrackIR V4? Mine is getting a bit worn after the years so not sure how much time it has left

 

[stefaandk]

I got tired of having to move the trackir between my racing rig and desktop all the time so I got the v5 for that reason as I play a lot of Arma 3, used to play a lot of FSX and I'll probably get into prepar3d now we finally have a new flightsim but I digress.
So having 2 units made my life easier plain and simple and the v5 was the current unit at the time of purchase.

It's definitely smoother looking around in something like Arma then the v4 was, would I have upgraded my v4 if I didn't have to move the unit between my systems? Knowing what I know now yes I would still for Arma, if I only would be using the trackir for racing and had a functioning v4 already probably not.

But as I mentioned previously the way I use the trackIR is very different in racing then in other titles and the precision smoothness is not as critical as when on a mission in Arma where situational awareness and immersion is much enhanced by precise movements.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Thanks well will see. Wonder how good it would cooperate with the Rift. I suspect there will be more latency on the Rift still. I am going to sit in my cockpit so I am not going to do 360 manoeveurs anyway.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I cant say the lag was massively terrible on the first Occulus Dev Kit, it was certainly not bad enough for me to post anything negative about it at least, i'm confident they will supply a good end result, very excited to see how that progresses.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I think a TIR or proven similar is a no brainer purchase, you will have tons of enjoyment from it until the full retail Occulus becomes available, it works in many genres as we have all shared above, and the best thing is you can at least try it in simracing and see if it works for you or not

 

[PaulH]

Thanks for the input guys, I have Arma 3 & Elite Dangerous so probably would get good use from the TIR, especially looks good for Elite D

 

[Boby Kim]

I love my TIR Can't fly or race without it anymore. I must admit that it truly shines when i fly the Warthog constantly looking out of missile smoke trails. Yeah yeah...imagine how that would be with the Rift but so far im not impressed by what i saw. If and only if the Rift gives me the exact sharp detail i have right now i wil give it a try and not before i have set a bucket next to me .