TrackIR for Arma 3, some questions for existing users.

[thewabbit 0]

I use CTRL + ALT + F1 to center TRACK IR. CTRL + ALT + F9 to turn on/off FRAPS.

TrackIR5 while testing new ARMA 3 VAC Profile

TrackIR5 with CH Pro Pedals on the Helo Showcase

[Destry 1]

I don't own TrackIR, but I'm betting it's done like most stuff: Go to the website and download it.

Or are you asking about the joystick? That is done in Arma's controls.

Appreciate the feedback; despite my TrackIR software being up-to-date for my version, it's not working.......!?

I've been able to fly and change input controls, but I am unable to control airspeed, any suggestions ?

[thewabbit 0]

Airspeed is controlled by the z and y motion of the helicopter. Your mouse or joystick should control the up and down pitch of the nose of the helicopter and the keyboard or throttle should control the altitude of the helicopter.

If your Track IR is not working as free look, you need to enable it under the controller button in the controls panel.

[cifordayzserver 119]

Wow, FYI aiming deadzone AND FreeTrack work together...

it acted sort of like described for a second but then seemed to autocorrect and not continue to do it...

I can post a vid if anyone wants.

Literally JUST started using FreeTrack, it cost me 10 bucks in parts and made use of a PS3 Eye camera that was sitting in the closet... didn't take long at all... Will link/post tutorial if requested.

*Edit

for the record I have 3 Screen eyefinity and it is LUDICROUS! I have it almost perfectly tuned where I look at the right monitor and it's full turn around look right, and I look at the left monitor and it's full turn around left... I want more vertical lines though... even fully zoomed out you feel like you're missing height...

Have to say it makes you want to NEVER play in 3rd person... I did this just to check it out w/o spending money, and it turned out to be a real game changer...

I found it very disorienting at first and a bit too twitchy, but the freetrack software is very tunable and a just turned down the sensitivity and turned up the smoothing and it's near perfect now, I think if anything is lacking at this point it would be my video card and monitors keeping up with the looks...

I went to play "normally" after having been experimenting with it since last night late, and ended up not liking playing without it... I will say though my aim/accuracy is suffering for it right now... although now that I found out aiming deadzone is use-able with it, that may change.

I think I've acclimated to it more today too, so I may be as or more accurate now... Will report back.

Edited March 23, 2013 by CiforDayZServer

[upyonder999 1]

All I can say is: TrackIR is fantastic, and if you have the money there's no reason to keep playing without headtracking HOWEVER

With Oculus Rift coming soon (a more elegant solution, arguably), the advantages of spending twice the price and getting a 3D screen which rotates which ever way you look (no need for acceleration) and very responsive headtracking will be far more worth it than TIR.

I play with the SoundBlaster Arena Headset: http://www.ingame.de/files/2010/08/creative-sound-blaster-arena-surround-foto-1.jpg and the clip works fine, even with the thickness of the plastic.

So I'd recommend you wait, if the Oculus Rift is awesome and you have the money, go for that, if you don't have the money I'm sure TIR5 prices will decrease dramatically to stay competitive. It's tough to stay patient, but in this case it's a bit of a necessity.

How do you wear an oculus rift and effectively use a keyboard to play? Especially in a game like Arma which has so many keybindings. I have to look at my keyboard to press the right keys every now and then.

[mr_centipede 31]

How do you wear an oculus rift and effectively use a keyboard to play? Especially in a game like Arma which has so many keybindings. I have to look at my keyboard to press the right keys every now and then.

you use a gaming keypad like Razer nostromo or Logitech G13

[tremanarch 6]

How do you wear an oculus rift and effectively use a keyboard to play? Especially in a game like Arma which has so many keybindings. I have to look at my keyboard to press the right keys every now and then.

and most importantly: you cant play with occulus while being drunk!! no joke, the devs stated that. I would hate it to be forced to stay sober whenever i want to play.. its my free time. i need some alc to get better at aiming too

[frag 0]

Wow, FYI aiming deadzone AND FreeTrack work together...

it acted sort of like described for a second but then seemed to autocorrect and not continue to do it...

I can post a vid if anyone wants.

Literally JUST started using FreeTrack, it cost me 10 bucks in parts and made use of a PS3 Eye camera that was sitting in the closet... didn't take long at all... Will link/post tutorial if requested.

*Edit

for the record I have 3 Screen eyefinity and it is LUDICROUS! I have it almost perfectly tuned where I look at the right monitor and it's full turn around look right, and I look at the left monitor and it's full turn around left... I want more vertical lines though... even fully zoomed out you feel like you're missing height...

Have to say it makes you want to NEVER play in 3rd person... I did this just to check it out w/o spending money, and it turned out to be a real game changer...

I found it very disorienting at first and a bit too twitchy, but the freetrack software is very tunable and a just turned down the sensitivity and turned up the smoothing and it's near perfect now, I think if anything is lacking at this point it would be my video card and monitors keeping up with the looks...

I went to play "normally" after having been experimenting with it since last night late, and ended up not liking playing without it... I will say though my aim/accuracy is suffering for it right now... although now that I found out aiming deadzone is use-able with it, that may change.

I think I've acclimated to it more today too, so I may be as or more accurate now... Will report back.

I always wonder in which resolution those playing with 3 monitors are playing? It should be a FPS killer right?

[machineabuse 11]

Once you go head tracking its hard to go back. I went from ArmA to Hawken the other day and I desperately wanted to be able to look around the 'pit.

I have a feeling that the Rift and TrackIR are going to be good at different things and it's not going to be an either/or deal. That's fine with me; I have TrackIR and I will get a 'Rift when it comes out.

[cifordayzserver 119]

For the OP:

Not sure which update changed it, but now I DO get the drifting with FreeTrack. It doesn't happen EVERY time but it seems if I am stopped, I look around, then return to center, it drifts down or up until I wiggle the mouse or move forward... THEN jiggle my head and re-center... I have not played in the past 3-4 days with it though so Can't confirm when it broke or if it's still broken.

OH and the video I post below is not great by any stretch and I know I'm a crappy keyboard pilot lol. (this was also basically my 2nd or 3rd time trying to fly in 1st person.)

I always wonder in which resolution those playing with 3 monitors are playing? It should be a FPS killer right?

I play in 5760*1080 and record most times...

Recording doesn't really drop FPS, but I NEVER get over 30-40...

But even with one monitor I never get much over 50-60... IMO it's playable some people would not like it...

I don't have super nice monitors either so I don't think I can tell at anything over 20fps anyway... monitor doesn't refresh fast enough...

I've been toying with the idea of getting a super high quality monitor for the middle screen... but then I would def. want another video card to get the FPS up...

i5 3750k not oc'd

8gb 2100mhz ram

SSD maindrive

HD7770 video card

3 Acer Montiors

2 3ft+ maps on the wall

32" TV with support laptop for external maps info etc.

2 servers that aren't running right now lol.

Quick-ish how-to/demonstration of FreeTrack setup

Makes me want a joystick and rudder pedals REAL bad... but I'm too cheap to spend that much loot on rudder pedals... might get a cheap joystick though.

Edited April 7, 2013 by CiforDayZServer

[Bravo_Two_Zeroq 10]

Wow, how do you run that 5760*1080p resolution with a HD7770? Ultra-low settings and hope for 25 fps? Well, if you find it playable that's good for you of course, but I'm quite surprised as the HD7770 was never ment for gaming on 3 Full-HD screens.

[unknown03 2]

When I first got TrackIR, it took a while to get used to it as it was a bit awkward for me. Now if I don't have it enabled I find myself moving my head without response, and manually looking around is awkward.

[Wolfstriked 11]

A tweak that has improved Trackir for me in Arma3 immensely and I only stumbled upon it last night(I have owned trackir since 2010). The issue with Trackir is that you have to look forward with your eyes while you turn your head so most people will tweak it so that they aren't really turning their heads much to be able to keep their eyes on their LCD.Less head movement means you then have to give a huge deadzone and make the outer areas give more movement.This equals a very unrealistic feeling ingame as you turn your head slightly and there is no movement...turn a little more and then it speeds up the movement and you do not feel attached to the view in the game world and instead find your self overlooking where you wanted to look and backtracking.

What I did is go into trackir setup and using the "default" scheme.First I disabled all axis except for yaw and pitch as they are just too disorientating to me.Then there are two green arrows on left side listed as curve up/down.I clicked down arrow 3 times for both yaw and pitch axis.What this did is to reduce the amount of ingame head movement by large amount and in effect makes your in game head match your real head movements to give a much better feel.Give it a try and experiment with reducing the in game head movement by clicking on curve arrows till it feels right to you.Its a bit harder to do a rear view look but feels more real since its hard to actually turn your head around to look behind you in real life.;)This doesn't work as well in flight sims sadly due to you spending a huge amount of time looking behind you and playing with your neck all contorted while trying to look at your screen sucks ass!!

Whats great is where before I tried and tried to get use to Trackir in Arma I now can't live without it in Arma3 and run around with weapon lowered and bring it back up to shoot and it all feels fluent.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Wolfstriked

[machineabuse 11]

To follow on from Woldstriked's recommendations on disabling axis, if you are going to do that I suggest you disable the axis you don't want by removing them from the ArmA 3 options instead of in the TrackIR profile.

The reason being because even if you didn't want to use TrackIR to lean in infantry you will probably want the full 6DOF in aircraft to lean and look around the struts of the cockpit.

[Rodbar 10]

How much lag does Trackir 5 bring into Arma 3 , I have version 4 its broke now but it was not smooth movements in Arma 2 when I tried it , does the new version give smooth movements in Arma 3 or it stutters ?

Thanks

[liquidpinky 11]

How much lag does Trackir 5 bring into Arma 3 , I have version 4 its broke now but it was not smooth movements in Arma 2 when I tried it , does the new version give smooth movements in Arma 3 or it stutters ?

Thanks

It's as smooth as a babies backside.

[EDcase 87]

How much lag does Trackir 5 bring into Arma 3 , I have version 4 its broke now but it was not smooth movements in Arma 2 when I tried it , does the new version give smooth movements in Arma 3 or it stutters ?

Thanks

It will depend on your system specs to some extent and I can't compare to v4 but on an i7 I can say if you turn down smoothing there is no perceptible lag at all.

[KingChubbles 1]

I have yet to notice any lag.

I agree, once your used to it its hard to get away. I was playing battlefront 2 yesterday and while flying I kept looking around the screen trying to move my view.

[sproyd 2]

Well unfortunately my new TrackIR 5 birthday present broke within a week, rather the Track Clip Pro broke. Basically the joins that make the TCP adjustable busted and became loose and wobbly (so a view like a bobble-head doll). I shot it off back to Flight Store (UK) and they sent a replacement very quickly no questions asked.

Have yet to give it a decent go though I liked what little I've played so far. I found that I was approaching situations with more trepidation like I would in real life rather than running in with tunnel vision.

Anyway, props to www.flightstore.co.uk if anyone is considering picking up a TrackIR or any other flight sim peripherals for that matter.