If I hate my EDTracker
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…will I like a TrackIR?
I’m assuming not, but does anybody have experience of both and much prefer the latter?
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What is it you hate about the edtracker?
if it’s motion sickness, then I suspect TIR will be the same.
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…if it’s that you can’t get past re-calibrating your neck muscles/movements, then no - you will not like TIR either.
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I have both. And there’s no real difference in motion feeling.
You get more axis with the TIR, but I’d venture having more axis would make one even more uncomfortable if the matter lies in motion sickness.
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What is it you hate about the edtracker?
if it’s motion sickness, then I suspect TIR will be the same.
No haven’t had any motion sickness fortunately. Mostly I don’t like that it demands you keep your head in a certain position (though I suppose that goes with the territory) for instance I can’t lean back in my chair without the view changing.
Also I find - depending on what I’m doing and where I’m looking - I sometimes want it to be sensitive, and other times I want it to be less so, but it doesn’t seem to offer any way of doing that, or at least if it does it’s not sophisticated enough.
I just wondered about TrackIR as it seems 90% of people here use it and think it’s great. I thought maybe it could be better than I imagine it to be.
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…if it’s that you can’t get past re-calibrating your neck muscles/movements, then no - you will not like TIR either.
Thanks - I think I could get used to it, but after several hours if I go back to using a POV hat it just seems so much less hassle.
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I have both. And there’s no real difference in motion feeling.
You get more axis with the TIR, but I’d venture having more axis would make one even more uncomfortable if the matter lies in motion sickness.
I think you’re right, though for me it’s more having to worry how my head is positioned than motion sickness. I actually disabled one of the axes on the EDTracker already, but kind of feel it would be better if I disabled them all!
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No haven’t had any motion sickness fortunately. Mostly I don’t like that it demands you keep your head in a certain position (though I suppose that goes with the territory) for instance I can’t lean back in my chair without the view changing.
Also I find - depending on what I’m doing and where I’m looking - I sometimes want it to be sensitive, and other times I want it to be less so, but it doesn’t seem to offer any way of doing that, or at least if it does it’s not sophisticated enough.
I just wondered about TrackIR as it seems 90% of people here use it and think it’s great. I thought maybe it could be better than I imagine it to be.
TrackIR may, at least partially, address your objections in that the software axes can be adjusted to provide a custom dead zone, as well as varying sensitivity throughout the range. I am not at all familiar with EDTracker.
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For the investment involved you could do much worse than try out FacetrackNoIR using the Delanclip if you already have a webcam, otherwise I’d suggest a used ps3 eyecam from ebay and a little sttip of exposed film serving as an infrared filter.
FTNoIR is also fully customizable with axis shaping, sensitivity and deadzone settings for each supported axis.
Cheers, Uwe
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I think you’re right, though for me it’s more having to worry how my head is positioned than motion sickness. I actually disabled one of the axes on the EDTracker already, but kind of feel it would be better if I disabled them all!
My plan is to use EDTracker in single axis only mode - the vertical axis - once I get my pit and visual system built. The only concern I have for doing my setup is being able to look up through my lift line, and I’ll be limited in how much vertical thow I can get with a projector…so I’ll use EDTracker for that and build a profile specifically for that. Other than that I can’t think of any case where I might actually like one.
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TrackIR may, at least partially, address your objections in that the software axes can be adjusted to provide a custom dead zone, as well as varying sensitivity throughout the range. I am not at all familiar with EDTracker.
You can do the same with the EDTracker.
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TrackIR may, at least partially, address your objections in that the software axes can be adjusted to provide a custom dead zone, as well as varying sensitivity throughout the range. I am not at all familiar with EDTracker.
I tried fiddling with similar settings that EDTracker has, but I think (with the EDTracker at least) they could be more sophisticated. Maybe it could adjust sensitivity and create deadzones on the fly, e.g. if I look to one side and hold my head there, it could temporarily reduce sensitivity and/or create a temporary deadzone at that point.
For the investment involved you could do much worse than try out FacetrackNoIR using the Delanclip if you already have a webcam, otherwise I’d suggest a used ps3 eyecam from ebay and a little sttip of exposed film serving as an infrared filter.
If there’s reason to believe it works better than an EDTracker I could try it. Maybe I want some sort of hypothetical industrial strength tracker.
My plan is to use EDTracker in single axis only mode - the vertical axis - once I get my pit and visual system built. The only concern I have for doing my setup is being able to look up through my lift line, and I’ll be limited in how much vertical thow I can get with a projector…so I’ll use EDTracker for that and build a profile specifically for that. Other than that I can’t think of any case where I might actually like one.
Sounds like an interesting project. Do you currently use a POV hat in preference to a tracking device?
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Sounds like an interesting project. Do you currently use a POV hat in preference to a tracking device?
Yes - I currently use the POV hat (and prefer that for desk flying) and use a shift-key setup to switch the hat between POV and trim…which really screws me up when I get into a situation where I am flying a sim or trainer with a full visual system where the hat is for trim only and I can move my head to look - this is why I am so keyed on effects of muscle memory/training.
I am building a full Viper pit, and what I want to do is build a 270 degree wrapping projection screen - 270 degrees should be sufficient based on how far I can move my head, and how fast the nose of the jet can be brought around in relation to where I can look. And I want my screen to run floor to ceiling…in which case restricting the EDTraker to vertical axis only should provide me more up look through my lift line while maintaining more natural head motion in most cases.
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Yes - I currently use the POV hat (and prefer that for desk flying) and use a shift-key setup to switch the hat between POV and trim…which really screws me up when I get into a situation where I am flying a sim or trainer with a full visual system where the hat is for trim only and I can move my head to look - this is why I am so keyed on effects of muscle memory/training.
I also have shifted trim (and shifted DMS as I use that hat for padlock views). Though I don’t use physical sims, getting rid of the shifted stuff is one reason I’d like head tracking to work out for me.
I am building a full Viper pit, and what I want to do is build a 270 degree wrapping projection screen - 270 degrees should be sufficient based on how far I can move my head, and how fast the nose of the jet can be brought around in relation to where I can look. And I want my screen to run floor to ceiling…in which case restricting the EDTraker to vertical axis only should provide me more up look through my lift line while maintaining more natural head motion in most cases.
That setup sounds ideal - have you ruled out used a hat for up/down?
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That setup sounds ideal - have you ruled out used a hat for up/down?
Yes - I’d like to just use the EDTracker for vertical POV and have my trim hat in play strictly for trim…I want my HOTAS to be as true to life as possible once I have my pit built. One thing I may retain is double-click of my NWS/WPN STEP button to center my trims…“cheating”, but I do like that one, but I may find another more “realistic” button to move it to - like Paddle or Pinky. Kukki over on Viper Pits has just posted a screen setup very close to what I want to build - it isn’t as tall as I’d like mine but he may also know something about the projected FOV that I don’t know…yet. Not sure how he plans to use his EDTracker with his projectors/screen but it sure looks like it’s going to be sweet.
Since I’m using a Warthog stick I generally like to use CMS->down as my shift key. I also use a combination of CMS->down + Pinky to command ejection. “Squeeze the stick”, out you go! I can nix that too once I have an actual ejection handle…which I do…
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One thing I may retain is double-click of my NWS/WPN STEP button to center my trims…“cheating”, but I do like that one,
I noticed the real thing doesn’t have the center option - presumably in real life there’s always something causing the plane to not quite fly straight and level, unlike the sim.
Since I’m using a Warthog stick I generally like to use CMS->down as my shift key.
Not sure I understand - how do you trim if your thumb’s on CMS already?
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I noticed the real thing doesn’t have the center option - presumably in real life there’s always something causing the plane to not quite fly straight and level, unlike the sim.
I presume there is some way to do this in the real jet…perhaps with an FLCS RESET?..I’ll end up doing further research, but unless and until I can find a way it’s really done I’ll “cheat” it my way.
Not sure I understand - how do you trim if your thumb’s on CMS already?
I’ve learned the hard way to keep my thumb off of the CMS switch - I find it far too easy to inadvertently actuate the switch (especially on my Cougar; Ive programmed a slight delay into that one to make it react only to a positive actuation) and waste chaff or flare. What I use to center trim is the red button on the side of the stick - that’s the NWS button. Double-click that with my index finger and I’m trim-centered; double CMS ->down and the hat is trim, CMS -> down for greater than 0.5 sec returns to POV control.
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I presume there is some way to do this in the real jet…perhaps with an FLCS RESET?..I’ll end up doing further research, but unless and until I can find a way it’s really done I’ll “cheat” it my way.
I was thinking that in real life maybe there’s never a benefit to centering it, as you’re never in perfectly stable conditions. Just a hypothesis…
I’ve learned the hard way to keep my thumb off of the CMS switch - I find it far too easy to inadvertently actuate the switch (especially on my Cougar; Ive programmed a slight delay into that one to make it react only to a positive actuation) and waste chaff or flare. What I use to center trim is the red button on the side of the stick - that’s the NWS button. Double-click that with my index finger and I’m trim-centered; double CMS ->down and the hat is trim, CMS -> down for greater than 0.5 sec returns to POV control.
Oh I see - it’s two separate actions, not a press-while-hold thing. Might try that myself.
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I was thinking that in real life maybe there’s never a benefit to centering it, as you’re never in perfectly stable conditions. Just a hypothesis.
Oh, yes - in RL if you should get disoriented (like in the clouds) and you’ve over trimmed or heavy in an axis because you know you’ve done it, of if you think the flight controls are doing something goofy and you want to observe the problem develop to try and sort it out, reset of trim to zero and starting over is very useful.
OTOH, I learned in an college level Human Factors class that most RW training flight sims are designed to be “un-trimable”. Reason being that left to itself a stable airplane will just continue to fly along if you don’t disturb it. An experienced pilot will trim the sim to a stable state and then sit back and let the airplane fly itself…and thus won’t actually learn anything from the simulation. So in a real training situation the idea is to constantly perturb the state and force the trainee to always be flying.
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Nope, no auto reset of trim in the jet. You gotta center the knobs yourself. Pitch and roll are motorised so you could do it with the stick or the knobs, yaw is not motorised so knobs only.