TrackIR Troubleshooting 2022

[dingos8 24]

BLUF: View in Arma 3 shakes wildly while using TrackIR 5, making the controller unusable. Despite trying many fixes, none have worked. What should I try next?
 

Greetings, I've owned my TrackIR 5 since 2014, and happily use it to play Arma 3, and occasionally other games. Head tracking adds to the game immensely, both with awareness and immersion, and the TrackIR 5 has delivered great performance in my opinion. 

Unfortunately, this past month while playing Arma 3, TrackIR has become unusable. Using TrackIR 5.4, with the Pro Clip, the controller tracks and moves properly and shows no background noise in the TrackIR software. In-game with Arma 3, the viewpoint flickers between the in-game focal point I'm looking at and center (0,0). The degree of flicker increases as my focal point diverges from center, from a mild shudder when looking forward close to center, to wild, nauseating, rapid swings, if I look 90 degrees off in any direction.

Warning: Don't watch the following video if flashing lights or flickering images cause you distress. 

I've recorded an example of the behavior I'm experiencing.

You can see my settings and camera test and response at the beginning, then Arma 3, with TrackIR disabled, followed by TrackIR enabled in 3rd and 1st person. As you can see, when my view is near center the jittering is relatively small, and then progressively worse the further I turn my head. 

I have experimented with settings on my GPU, in the TrackIR software, and within Arma 3. I did find a video setting in Arma 3 that made tracking work, but caused other
problems. Under Video Settings->General, the Sampling menu has a range from 50-300%. 

Set Sample to 300%

If I set the value to 300% (3x my native resolution of 1920x1080), tracking works with only an occassional flicker, but frame rate plummets into the teens, motion gets laggy, and everything on-screen takes on a sort of gritty shimmer, so still not really workable. 

System is running an i5 10600KF with a GTX 1060 GPU. Resources are around 25-40% usage on CPU, GPU and RAM.
I am running vanilla Arma 3 (I usually run too many mods, but have them off during troubleshooting), there are no other controllers attached, although I have previously had joysticks and Xbox style controllers on this PC. 

What I have tried so far: 

Spoiler

 

Nvidia Control Panel

• Update GPU driver to current
• Enable/Disable scaling
• Enable/Disable Gsync
• Disable triple buffering
• Enable/Disable Vsync
• Adjust refresh rate (60-144hz)
• Adjust resolution (various 16:9)

TrackIR software

• clean uninstall and reinstall to update USB drivers
• use default profile
• adjust smoothing and speed settings
• confirm no IR noise in background
• confirm camera sees pro clip clearly
• adjust IR brightness

Arma 3

• Created new profile to revert all settings to default
• Run autodetect for graphics settings
• Disabled Vsync
• Adjust Sampling (50-300)
• Video quality (Low-Ultra) in all categories
• Post Processing - Anti-aliasing (Disabled-8x)
   

This isn't an all-inclusive list, I've probably forgotten some early attempts, but I'll happily try any suggestions. 

 

I've tested other games, and have only experienced this in Arma 3. 

I am currently in communications with TrackIR support, I have checked these forums, and elsewhere online without finding any solution yet. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Thanks, 
dingos8

[beno_83au 1362]

The only problem I've ever had with TrackIR when playing Arma (plus a couple other games) has been having too much sunlight behind me reflecting off the blinds and messing with the tracking. Same results as you're having, but unless you've changed your setup's location then this might not help much I'm afraid. 

[Harzach 2505]

14 hours ago, dingos8 said:

• confirm no IR noise in background
• adjust IR brightness

 

RE: noise - what is your light filter threshold setting?

 

RE: IR brightness - this is for illuminating a passive TrackClip, so keep it turned all the way down. Otherwise, you could be illuminating some other reflective surface, "confusing" the camera.

 

Have you tried precision processing mode?

[dingos8 24]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I've made certain that there is no light shining into the camera from behind me. The light filter threshold is set to 253, and IR Brightness to 10 (lowest). The camera view only displays the three green dots of the pro clip. I have tried precision mode as well, with no appreciable improvement.

Since my initial post I've also tested the controller with Arma 2, with the same results. In Arma 2, and 3 it almost seems as though the controller is being overridden, or interrupted; similar to the result you would get if you rapidly tapped the view keys on the numpad. 

[Harzach 2505]

Check your keybinds? Sometimes the axes of other devices can creep in there as alternate binds.