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Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:27 am
by Dannysaysnoo
Recently, I've realized I've been playing so much of ArmA, that these TIR/Freetrack things sound rather enticing!

But I hear TIR is expensive! :<

But I hear Freetrack is cheap! :>

But how accurate is it? Or easy to set up? Does anyone here use either, or even both? Please stake my curiosity!

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:51 am
by fer
Dannysaysnoo wrote:But I hear TIR is expensive! :<
TrackIR 5 + Track Clip Pro for GBP 125.99 (inc. VAT) from these folks. I've bought a Track IR 5 and two Track Clip Pros from them, and the customer service was solid. I've had my set-up for years, and can honestly say that it's more than provided value for money. If you write off the costs over 12 months, and assuming you play in at least a weekly session of ArmA 2, you'll be spending more per hour of gaming on the beer evaporating next to your monitor.* ;)

* Assumes cost written off over 12 months and participation in at least 4 sessions per month, each session being at least 3 hours in duration, and consumption of premium quality beer at the rate of one bottle per hour. Please note, the Party does not condone excessive drinking or piloting helicopters under the influence of alcohol. Please enjoy alcohol responsibly.

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:42 pm
by zitron
I just setup my freetrack, it took an afternoon to get it working properly with arma and DCS. It works really well now. I have never used a trackIR, but with my 75fps 640x480 PS3 eye (£20) and some IR LEDs I can't see how trackIR can possibly be better, especially for the price difference.

So my conclusion is FreeTrack can work very well once you get it working, but it can be fiddly. It's a no brainer for me because electronics is a bit of a hobby, and also I don't feel good paying money to NaturalPoint because of their past and current dodgy business practices (shutting down threads discussing FreeTrack saying it's "pirated software"? I mean come on...).

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 1:07 pm
by Black Mamba
fer wrote:you'll be spending more per hour of gaming on the beer evaporating next to your monitor.
That's where you've been misinformed, comrade Secretary. Beer does not evaporate. Ever.

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:27 pm
by Kefirz
Black Mamba wrote:
fer wrote:you'll be spending more per hour of gaming on the beer evaporating next to your monitor.
That's where you've been misinformed, comrade Secretary. Beer does not evaporate. Ever.
Surely you mean beer has no time to evaporate.

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 3:26 pm
by harakka
Freetrack works well if you have patience to build the point model to correct measurements, have a good webcam for the purpose and take time to fiddle with the settings to your liking. TrackIR is noubt a good investment if your time is valuable, since it removes the need to build things and fiddle with them.

If you have a webcam around and you want to know whether it can perform adequately without modding, slap a piece of exposed film on the lens to block visible light, install Freetrack, shine an IR led (remote control or something) at the camera and push the camera's exposure time down until you get 30fps out of the camera. If the camera can still see the LED, you have a winner. If you can't get 30fps you won't have a very smooth ride with it.

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:35 pm
by Macaco
I'll skip the instructions for freetrack as those are all available many times over on the freetrack website. It's really just a matter of cost, as you are paying 150 for a webcam and a software package. It's been optimized for tracking in some ways: wide field of view, high fps, visible light filter, etc. But it is essentially just a webcam and software. There is nothing special in the track clip that you can't build yourself.

I made my own because I like tinkering with things and I didn't have the money to justify spending so much on something I could do myself for so little. You will probably see a slight bump in performance with the TrackIR just due to the webcam being so optimized for tracking, but using my freetrack I couldn't see that being worth 125£. Maybe someday when I have an excess of money I will get one, but for now freetrack is all I need.

Should be noted though that a TrackIR clip will work with a normal webcam, so if you are just intimidated at the thought of making your own led model, you can buy the clip for much cheaper than the full package and use that with any old webcam.

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:11 am
by Black Mamba
Zitron, since the Ps3Eye seems to be a real good chice, did you have to go and remove the IR filter on it, or does it still work okay with it?
Also, which drivers did you use?

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:43 am
by zitron
Black Mamba wrote:Zitron, since the Ps3Eye seems to be a real good chice, did you have to go and remove the IR filter on it, or does it still work okay with it?
Also, which drivers did you use?
No I didn't bother with the IR filter, just put a piece of exposed film in front to block visible light. I'm using this driver: http://codelaboratories.com/products/eye/driver/

Re: Freetrack! How good/bad is it?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 5:59 pm
by Dannysaysnoo
Wow. I made a conversation happen! All replies are much appreciated, but I hate tinkering with drivers and sub-drivers and such. In a few week's time, when I get my new headset and sound card, TIR will be on the tables. :D