Thinking of buying a TrackIR.

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Tricky
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:11 am

Thinking of buying a TrackIR.

Post by Tricky »

I've been observing TrackIR for a long time and I am interested in it as a concept. I am confident the TrackIR 5 does its job well, but I am a little disheartened by the lack of news on any kind of new hardware updates, whereas I hear news items from the Occulus Rift corner appear almost on a monthly basis. I realize these are VERY different machines and I am acutely aware of the technical shortcomings of the OR. It's the main reason I'm here actually, I just can't bring myself to accept the OR it as a complete end-product. I won't be fooled into buying it.

Regarding TrackIR, I just have trouble believing a that a seven year old (correct me if I'm wrong) piece of hardware cannot be further updated in some ways, or ISN'T on the brink of seeing some kind of major hardware update. To be made lighter, or more responsive, or whatever. Surely there are still things that can be done. But after googling a bit and browsing the Natural Point site, it becomes clear quite quickly that there aren't any guarantees of the sort. It just doesn't do anything in the way of building consumer trust? It seems almost dead, that can't be right.

I happen to be a consumer that is already fairly well informed on the technicalities of both the TrackIR and the OR. I happen to already greatly favor the TrackIR , but I imagine most gamers would take once glance at it and proceed to preorder an OR. There is a serious gap in PR - is that really an okay thing?

Uh, so anyway. I guess I still need a bit convincing. Or some TrackIR development news, either one will do. I'm no fool, I realize the latter is a bit too much to ask for, so I might settle for a friendly hug and some soothing words that everything is going to be okay. ;)
Seth Steiling
Posts: 1365
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:29 am
Location: Corvallis, Oregon

Re: Thinking of buying a TrackIR.

Post by Seth Steiling »

Hi Tricky,

I'm really sorry for this very delayed response. I'm sure that it didn't help convince you that TrackIR is alive and well. :-) Somehow a couple of your posts just slipped through the cracks on our end.

The good news is that TrackIR is indeed alive and well!

You're not going to see the kind of visible movement out of our hardware development that you do on the Rift, simply because we're on our 5th generation of hardware while the Rift's initial public offering is still under active development—including significant additions in functionality from one version to the next.

Another factor to note is that we actually did experiment with a much shorter gap between versions in the past (TrackIR 3 and 4, if I'm remembering correctly), and many of our users expressed frustration at that pacing (about 18 months between product launches). The lesson for us is that different customers want to see different development cycles. Since we can't appeal to everyone, we instead have attempted to structure our development cycles around available technologies/components, and the opportunities they can provide to offer a new or improved experience.

As far as where the product is headed—you are in a safe place to purchase a TrackIR 5 right now. We are brainstorming on some new concepts, but they are far enough out that you're not going to purchase a device only to have it become outdated shortly after.

Hope this helps!
Marketing Manager
TrackIR | OptiTrack
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