I'm a noob simmer. It has been almost 1 year since I first flew F4F-4 Wildcat in IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946. It all started with Johnny Lee's Wii remote head tracking Youtube video clip. It was like something I never imagined, expected to see only in some futuristic movies, and I was totally amazed that this whole thing can be achieved with one single Wii remote controller and couple of LEDs. I mean it was like a electronic hand drill for a caveman! So I just had to do everything I can do to find out how to make this thing actually works with videogames. Eventually, I saw another video clip that demonstrates 6 degree of freedom head tracking technology in a flight simulator game, later I found out that it was IL-2 Sturmovik, and realized Freetrack is behind all of this. You would know what happened next. I went straight to Newegg, ordered a Bluetooth dongle and bought IL-2 Sturmovik:1946 at Steam (Actually, I regret it. I should have bought a hard copy of this wonderful game), and went to local electronic shop to buy some IR LEDs. Since then I'm so happy with Freetrack.
This is my case and might be a boring story for you guys. Sorry for that.
My point is that Freetrack is a plus for game companies. It never ever can be a minus for them. I bought IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 because I wanted to experience head tracking, and it led me to buy MS FSX, DCS:Black Shark, Rise of Flight, Saitek X52 joystick, and half year subscription of PC Pilot magazine. This series of events would have never happened if there was not Freetrack. I mean who would pay 150+ dollars only for head tracking device when they first start their new simmer experience? Freetrack is almost risk-free since you don't really have to pay much money when you first start which means it can easily drag new people to relatively hard to enter sim world. You see my case. I am so fascinated at this new world and happy to spend my hard earned money.
Now you may wonder why the heck this guy is talking all this thing on ArmA II forum. I saw another Youtube video clip. And yes, it was ArmA II. A first person shooter with 6DOF? OMG it is another new world. I started to do another research and as you all guessed, I ended up with the fact that BI turned down Freetrack users. Without Freetrack support, ArmA II is just another military FPS for me (No offence. I know it's got great editors, awesome graphics, and great simulation factors. This is totally my case). Nowadays, it seems like everyone plays FPS which means there are tons of FPS games out there. It's become a hard competition. At this moment, ArmA II is like the only one FPS that support head tracking(OFP? uh.. okay.. but you know what I'm talking about). If people watch the video, I believe they ALL want to get this new technology. They WILL buy ArmA II. BI have to use Freetrack as a marketing. Just supporting Freetrack will surely boost the sales of their games. After all, people are always interested in something new, especially it is risk-free, means no need to spend 150+ dollars initially.
I just wanted some information about Freetrack availability in DCS:BS and now I ended up here and write this damn long 'replay'. I have read all the previous replies in this thread and they are all convincing and informative. I now know why Freetrack does not appeal much to BI and other game companies thanks to Rocket. Maybe they don't want to add anymore functions right now, but we still have to keep saying our demands for upcoming games as someone above already said. I think that's the whole point of this debate. I just hope BI read my miserable replay and think a little bit about Freetrack with a different angle. Thank you for reading and sorry for my poor English.
