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TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 8:33 am
by Bob422
I am a high level quadriplegic and have been using a TrackIR for many years to play first person shooter games. I was using version 3.13 on my old pc under windows XP and it worked in every game perfectly. Now I have a new PC running Windows 7 64-bit and I'm forced to use 4.1.038 final. It seems to be a step backwards from 3.13 as mouse emulation is a seperate application, more difficult to setup, and doesn't work in every game I play or on the desktop and regular applications like 3.13 did.

I purchased the Serios Sam HD pack this weekend on Steam. I can get the TrackIR to work in the original first and second enounter games but not the HD versions of either one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:50 pm
by Bob422
Since my hardware is actually a SmartNav 3, I tried the latest SmartNav software and it works, well almost. The movement is much smoother than with the TrackIR 4.1.038 software and I can be very accurate when aiming in FPS games. The only, and I mean only problem with the SmartNav software is there is no option for Auto Panning. I tried increasing the speed to make turning around easier, but then it's too fast to be accurate. I made a post in the SmartNav support section of the forum asking if Auto Panning could possibly be added in a future version, but there has been no response yet. I really miss the functionality of the TIR 3.13 software with it's great mouse emulation.

I'm feeling stuck now because I can no longer play FPS games at the level I could before. I am currently researching other head tracking options from other companies but hoping that the SmartNav team would at least respond with a yes, no or maybe so I would know for sure it was time to move on or stick with Natural Point.

Thank you,
Bob

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 1:51 pm
by NaturalPoint - Mike
Hello Bob -

What exactly do you mean by auto panning, and how do you envision that it would work while using the device as a head mouse as well?

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 5:27 pm
by Bob422
Hi Mike,

Auto panning is when you move the tracking dot close to the left or right edge of the camera view and it continues to send a look right or look left command to the game until you bring the tracking dot back towards center. It has been a part of the TrackIR software from the beginning but was very poorly done in version 4.1.038. There are some basic adjustments, but nothing I try seems to get it to work as well as it did in 3.13. With 3.13 I could have it set so as I looked a little more to the left or right, my view in a FPS game would slowly continue to circle in that direction until I was looking in the direction I wanted to go, then I could just move towards center to stay in that area of view. If I looked even further left or right it would turn fast. I could control how fast my view would spin left or right by how far I moved my head. If I wanted to, I could just look far enough to the left or right and my in game view would continuously spin around forever until I looked back towards center.

I realize most users of the TrackIR would never use it to aim in a FPS game, but I did, and was pretty good with it. That ended when I was forced to use version 4.x in Windows 7 64-bit. Mouse emulation was added as a seperate application to work in conjunction with the TIR main program, but is so much more limited than when it was actually in the main program like it was in 3.x.

The TrackIR 4 and 5 software focuses mainly on 6 DOF and has left basic single dot tracking for 2 axis in the past. And that's fine, I understand what most of your users are using it for. That's why I grabbed a SmartNav 3 a few years back. I was hoping it could do what my TrackIR 3 did, but at the time the SmartNav software didn't work at all in my fps games. So I went back to using 3.13 of the TrackIR software and that was fine in Windows XP. Now that I have to use Windows 7 64-bit, I had to try to make the TIR 4.x software work the way 3.13 did. Fact is, it's mouse emulation is terrible in comparison to 3.13. It is choppy when it does work but is also very picky about what games it will work in. 3.13 worked everywhere, on the desktop, any application, any game. And it worked very well. Out of desperation I installed the latest SmartNav software about a week ago. It reminds me of my good old trusty TIR 3.13 software. It works everywhere and is silky smooth. The only problem is there is no option for the auto panning I described. So when I play a fps game, it takes a lot of swinging my head left and right just to turn around 180 degrees in game. If it just had an option to use it in a custom profile like what was in TIR 3.13 and could pan at different speeds depending on how far I look left/right, I would be back in the game.

I realize the TrackIR series is going in a direction that can't help me, but the SmartNav could very well if enough people with disabilities spoke up and asked for it. I surely hope so anyway. I also hope I was able to explain what auto panning was, and how bad I miss it.

Regards,
Bob

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 5:47 pm
by NaturalPoint - Mike
I can see that being offered as a selectable option in SmartNav, however there are a few obstacles that would need to be overcome. Nothing says we can't look into the feasability of this. I'll put the request in and we can see if it's doable.

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 8:44 am
by Bob422
Thank you so much Mike. Just the idea that it will be looked into means a great deal to me. If it can be done, that would be fantastic. If not, at least an attempt was made which still means alot.

Thanks again,
Bob

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:33 pm
by NaturalPoint - Mike
To let you know, we have two variants of this on our list of requested features for the next SmartNav development cycle. That's not a guarantee that it will be in there, but it does mean that it will be brought to the table when we discuss features.

Re: TrackIR not responding in Serious Sam HD

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:15 am
by Bob422
That is still great news and gives me a glimmer of hope.

Thank,
Bob