Why not tie yaw and pitch movements to x and y movements to produce more natural eye positioning?
I don�t claim to be an expert in this area. My only experience with the TrackIR has been in IL-2 and a little in LockOn. I play IL-2 one to three hours a day and use the 6DOF mod. My biggest frustration with these games has always been in how the pilot�s vision is simulated. The TracKIR has certainly done a lot to help matters, but I think the following would be a relatively simple way to greatly enhance the pilot�s eye movement with 6DOF in use.
Yaw and pitch currently only allow view panning from a center point, but in reality, when we turn our head, our eyes move along an arc with a 4 to 5 inch radius centered over our neck. So, when we move our head to the right, for example, our eyes swing to the right about 4 to 5 inches thus producing movement on the x axis. The same holds true when we move our head to look up and down; our eyes move up and down on the y axis. Also, when we turn to look completely behind us, our eyes do not move back to the center, but stay in the extended x position�a horse shoe path not a circle.
As it is now, x and y movement are independent of yaw and pitch. If I want to look over my shoulder I have to first slide my head to the side then turn to look. Additionally, the independent y movement is not very useful because it is difficult to move my real head vertically without tilting forward or backward.
It seems to me that if an option were provided to tie x and y to yaw and pitch, instead of using them independently, the visual effect would be much more natural. This would simply mean that as I rotate my head sideways, the x axis would change accordingly. The same would occur on the y axis was my head moves up and down.