'Winder

We (those of us that are interested in ArmA 2, head tracking, and top-tier sims), do need these kinds of posts, because they clarify misconceptions and misrepresentations by some (granted, not all) FT users that confuse reasonable people with red-herring arguments. If your intention was just to communicate the fact that there is a FreeTrack SDK available to game devs, you shouldn't write things like, "they dont rely on NPs software," which communicates something much larger and much less truthful. I agree with you that it's not fair to assume that just having an SDK will solve FreeTrack's problems. You need to get it in the game! And that takes time, and often someone "knocking on doors" on a relatively full time basis. Plus, what are prospective devs supposed to do when evauating the technology? "So, uh, Marek, I'd like you to consider putting FreeTrack in your new title." "Ah, OK, that sounds interesting. How can I test it out in our game?" "Well, first you'll need to put our API in. You can get it from our SDK, here. Then, you're going to need to get a Wii Remote. If your PC doesn't have the right bluetooth stack, you're going to need to buy BlueSoleil. Next, build an attachement to connect your Wii Remote to your monitor. I used some wire hangers and paperclips, but feel free to use whatever you like..." "Um, let me stop you there. I don't have time to cook up some contraption. Get back to me when you have ready made kit for me to check out." Homebrew enthusiasts have to accept the fact that one inherent obstacle to popularizing this kind of setup with professional game developers is simply that you don't have much organizational structure and support, and hardware-dependent software with no actual hardware isn't very compelling. Oh, and by the way, don't assume that I haven't tried FreeTrack. I'm not talking out of my backside here. I've tried FT 2.2 with a Wii Remote, PS3 Eyetoy, and a high-end Logitech webcam. They all suffer either from a lack of resolution, low framerate, or poor image processing. But, that's not what this thread is about. ;)

"It" was TrackIR. FreeTrack wasn't "implemented" in ArmA 1, like it's never "implemented" in any game. It hacked into the game, like with almost every other "FreeTrack Supported" game, through the TrackIR API. First, do you know what part of NaturalPoint's "monopolist behavior" involves, which you could be helping to support? Establishing relationships with game developers, convincing them to integrate the technology, and giving them technical support on said integration. Because, you know, they're a real company with actual responsibilities, accountability to their product, and so on. Those efforts take time and money. The result is that some game devs do integrate head tracking. Do you think that BIS just came up with this newfangled idea on their own? Like essentially every game that TrackIR and FreeTrack users enjoy head tracking in, NaturalPoint proposed the integration and supported it with their own time and resources (taking nothing away from BIS and others that "got" the concept and ran with it). As far as the "compatibility" list--it's rather misleading, as the vast majority of the titles are really only compatible with TrackIR. FreeTrack and it's community just happens to piggyback on this compatibility. Oh, Quarrion. You're so poetic. "Head Tracking Cartel." Clever. I can't wait for the sequel to Blood Diamond, exposing how the powerful NaturalPoint Cartel uses all of it's dirty blood money from TrackIR sales to entertain rich, fat Americans at the expense of the indigenous Africans that harvest them. Buuuuut... you're wrong. The new interface isn't "broken." You just can't access it unless you pay for it by purchasing a TrackIR. How unreasonable. As I mentioned in the other post you made about this... any reasonable person would expect that this was a mistake. What do they possibly have to gain from deceiving us about such a small detail? And would they really expect to "get away" with it? Please. Good thing that Battlefield supports FreeTrack, huh? Not to mention TrackIR. Just remember that all the while that you're "wishing all the bad to NP," they're still investing their own time and money to get head tracking in games. Something that FreeTrack's developers do not do. TrackIR users aren't jealous of your low resolution, high-latency, bluetooth homebrews. Just like we wouldn't be jealous if you cooked up your own homebrew keyboard out of Legos and some copper wiring you stole out of an abandoned warehouse. We defend the idea that it's good for a small company that provides a device uniquely helpful to our niche gaming interests to be supported instead of demonized and ripped off by a bunch of whiners. Oh, and the "ridiculous overloaded price" of a TrackIR 4 is now $99. Not terribly more than a high-end webcam, and it's manufactured in the US instead of an Indonesian sweat shop. Hahahahahahahahahaha.... ahhhhhhh. Hah. If FreeTrack doesn't rely on NaturalPoint's API, how do you explain this ("spoilered" to save space): Let me know if I've tabulated these incorrectly. If you take the time to count it up, there are a grand total of 4 titles that FreeTrack accesses through means other than either the TrackIR API or a NaturalPoint view mod. Three of them are versions of Flight Simulator, and the other is Black Shark. The only one that had FreeTrack somewhat in mind was Black Shark. Microsoft just uses an aggregated peripheral API for all third party input devices. FreeTrack uses it like TrackIR and any number of joysticks, rudder pedals, etc. It's not like this can be attributed to the FreeTrack devs though. Why do you think that is? I wonder if it has anything to do with which API has been promoted over the course of many years with time, money, etc? The idea that FreeTrack isn't overwhelmingly buoyed by hacking into the TrackIR API is so laughable. See my response to ndepal. How long has ArmA 2 been in development? How long have a couple of FreeTrack users been lobbying for integration of the FT SDK? How long ago do you think NaturalPoint supplied BIS with the TrackIR SDK? Just because BIS doesn't have the time (or, likely, desire) to integrate a new API in response to your forum posts--a couple of weeks before the game is released--doesn't mean there are nefarious goings on in the background between BIS and NP. If you followed all of the Black Shark drama, several things became pretty clear. NaturalPoint encrypted their data stream to prevent FreeTrack users or anyone else from hijacking their API without permission. Somehow, FreeTrack users (namely Quarrion, it would seem) got a hold of a hacked up .dll that bypassed the encrypted TrackIR .dll. It seems likely that it was a modified beta .dll, which means that it could have been supplied by a BS beta tester. NP and ED seemed to have some discussions behind the scene, and as a result, ED released their own 3 DOF head tracking interface--apparently with NP's approval. But, the "fix" (hacked .dll) still works, so most FreeTrack users that don't mind hacking Black Shark a bit have 6 DOF. Beyond that (and even including some of that), it's speculation.

Maybe to cable news networks or political entities trying to justify military action, "terrorist" and "freedom fighter" are that interchangable, but not in reality. People that blow up bus stations and dance clubs are never "freedom fighters," because their actions never serve to liberate their people. But, I agree with part of your sentiment. Just because a resistence is of the "grassroots" variety doesn't mean they are terrorists. King George probably would have accused the American colonists of being terrorists, if the word was part of their socio-political vernacular at the time, but I'd bet that most present-day Americans wouldn't agree with that sentiment. Similarly, countries like Honduras had their democratically elected governments toppled by the CIA under Eisenhower, in no small part because of the lobbying of the United Fruit Company. Of course, the public justification was the "Communist threat." The principle of muddling characterizations of opponents for political capital or to assuage public skepticism is nothing new. Having said all of that... to the OP... :confused: Liiiitle bit strange.

If you have your zoom mapped to your right mouse button in ArmA 2, you can map the same button to "pause" in the TrackIR software. Just make sure that Trap and Toggle aren't checked, and it should pause while you zoom, and unpause when you stop zooming. Haven't tried this personally, but it should work??

I think Crytek is a perfect fit for someone coming from OFDR. What's CM's apparent strategy for "building" on OFP? "Oooh, look at the pretty graphics! I'm gunna shoot meh that red barrel. Mmmmmm.... fiiii-iiire." IMO, the main thing that people point to when discussing Crytek's work is how it (game, engine, Cevat's Italian shoes, etc.) "looks." Which... I mean, it's cool. But, I found Crysis to be pretty boring. A very sexy version of Halo, more or less. So, yeah. A good place for someone from Dragon Rising to land.

Holy cripes, man. You're crazy! That's more than I wrote in my worst term of college, which was filled with Poli-Sci classes and featured the most sadistic professer I've ever met! Can't wait. :)

I would love Y to be integrated into the infantry model, so you could subtlely move up and down from any stance. But, I think the main problem is related to animating the skeleton. If they don't have the animations for this kind of movement already created, the world view model would tear, which would look very crappy. :) Still, with some time, it definitely *can* be animated. I mean, it's programming. With enough time, you can do pretty much anything.

I saw those posts earlier today, and I think they were intended to be ironic. :) In addition to the foolishness of these decisions by CM from a tactical/gameplay standpoint, with TrackIR in particular, it's not like it's a foreign concept to them. Several recent CM titles have had TrackIR support integrated... a couple of them after the community badgered them about it for long periods of time. Myself, as well as many others, have communicated our desire for this tech to be integrated into their game. This has been happening for months, if not years. And now, this is the response? I'll probably still check it out, for curiousity's sake--and the hope that maybe they'll reverse course in a post-release patch. But, it no longer excites me like it used to. I was a little hesitent about ArmA 2 at first, just because I love single player campaigns as well as online muliplayer/coop, and ArmA didn't treat me too well in the former dept. After reading tons of reports on A2 and OFDR, my allegiance is clarifying. ArmA 2, FTW!