I tip my hat to TIR5...and not entirely in a good way

[Bahger]

I was setting up TIR with Black Shark last night and was distressed to find that, while tilting my head downwards the tracking would "tumble", i.e. lose track and then flit all over the place. The worst aspect of this is that recenter does not fix it; I had to take off the track cap and get the non-pro 6DOF attachment out of the camera's FOV for the view to reset properly.

The workaround was to recenter the tracking constantly in-game with my head tilted down somewhat. My guess is, with the center set high, the camera loses track when a downward head-tilt is attempted.

Previous versions of TIR (I've had 2 and 3) have not been quite so fussy. This is like walking on eggshells just to keep the device from losing track and becoming wildly disorientated, which has a very negative affect on gameplay especially if a recenter command does not fix it. It really seems that, once you lose track, it stays lost until all connection between camera and tracker is ended then re-established. I know you have to train yourself to move smoothly and to keep your head within the camera's FOV but the tolerances seem unusually narrow. Can anyone advise re what I might do within the settings (which, even after years of using TIR I do not fully understand) to address this issue and make my profile for BS a bit more tolerant? Thanks.

[Seth Steiling]

Hi Bahger,

It sounds like the TrackIR camera, your TrackClip, or both are positioned improperly. The first step is to look at the Camera View in the TrackIR software. The three dots from the TrackClip should be in the center, both vertically and horizontally. They should be green, and there shouldn't be any other dots. If the three dots are not in the center, adjust the camera's position to correct this.

Once this is corrected, check to see if the problem is fixed. If it's not, or if the dots were centered in the first place, try tilting your hat/visor up a bit. It's common for users to wear their hat or visor tilted too low, which will cause the reflective markers on the Clip to become less visible to the camera. The resulting behavior sounds like what you're experiencing.

If neither of these steps address this problem, you can try increasing the speed on the pitch axis. If you're using the Default Profile, the best way to do this is to first create a copy of the profile. Name it whatever you'd like. Then, go into the Motion Adjustment section, select the Pitch axis, and then move the entire curve up a step or two with the green up arrow.

[Bahger]

Very helpful, Seth, many thanks. Come to think of it, you've been helpful to me here since I bought my first TIR about six years ago!

In camera view there were three green dots and one red one, which moved around with my head movement so I ruled out ambient light sources. The room was very dark. I reckon the camera might have been picking up my glasses or even the silver brim of the cap. Or, more likely, something above the brim.

Last night's session was better. I have had to retrain myself not to whip my head around but to make all head movements deliberate and slowish. If I need to pay close attention to a cockpit guage, it is better to use the sim's native zoom rather than risk moving my head of of the camera's FOV by leaning way forward. TIR Pause plus in-game mousewheel zoom is a more stable way to get close on the cockpit's moving map when necessary. And regular recentering with my head/cap tilted upwards leads to more stability in all ranges of motion (particularly downwards)than recentering while "head's down", which is obviously at the lower limit of the camera's FOV.

I still have to get the tracker out of the camera's FOV entirely when the tracker tumbles out, as tracking loss results in wildly disorientated views that can only be corrected by reintroducing the tracker after removing it from the FOV, and then recentering. It's a pain but it's becoming less frequent. I just roll by head way back and then forward again; I must look like an idiot. It would be great if wildly aberrant effects of loss of track could be corrected merely by recentering, don't you think?

Thanks for the helping hand. It's useful to know that experimenting with the pitch axis might be productive, too. I'm using the default profile but in "smoothing" mode. As I say, what seemed to be a crisis has now assumed the status of a mere pain in the butt. Hopefully I can reduce it even futher.

[Seth Steiling]

I'm glad that things seem somewhat improved, but really, TrackIR 5 shouldn't have any of these problems when operating and configured properly. Can you send me a screen shot of the Camera View with the three green dots and the one red? Try to capture the screen when your head is comfortably positioned where you typically have it in-game.

While we don't necessarily recommend whipping your head around too much, you shouldn't need to have your head movements be as deliberate and slow as you're describing. TrackIR 5 can track very precisely, so I think this is still a camera position issue. But, if there's a red dot in the tracking, there's also likely another light source or reflection getting in the way.

Actions like looking at your gauges or fully exploring your virtual environment--without jitter, lag, or aberrant tracking--is part of why we recommend TrackIR 5 to users. So, I'd like to get this addressed for you so you can fully enjoy the capabilities of the new technology.

Did you try positioning your hat/visor so the brim pointed up a bit higher (and then recentering)?

[Bahger]

Well, thanks again, Seth, I'd like to use TIR 5 to its full potential so I'm grateful for the opportunity to debug a little with you. I will send you a screenshot if the red dot reappears; it's mysterious, I have long accepted that I cannot use TIR during daylight hours -- my home office in Los Angeles is simply flooded with light -- but at night I can eliminate all ambient light and have used it in flight and racing sims for many years. As you say, it is probably a camera position issue. Maybe I'm sitting too low? At any rate, the camera's FOV feels a little too narrow and unforgiving and I'm having to adapt. I'd love to widen the margins of toleration here. I will set the cap pointed higher this evening.

Thanks again.

[pj_3]

Thanks for the advice in this post, guys. I was having some severe "issues" with the 5 software, and was continually going back to 4, which was already pretty good. 5 "feels" better - far more sensitive, but with greater stability and much wider range of adjustment. The "overshoot" that 4 had is gone in 5, and now I know how to fix the "look down" PITA issue. I used to fix this by tilting my head back, centering, and then looking down. Now it`s not necessary, and the twitchiness is gone.. Many Thanks,

pj

[Bahger]

Well, I made a remarkable and somewhat ironic discovery this evening. The source of the tracking interference, the thing that had made my TIR5 so strangely precarious in its tracking and caused regular anomalies, the red object you can see in the screen shot below, was the silver fabric tab in the center of the peak of my five year-old NaturalPoint TrackIR cap!!

I was baffled by the regular shape/placement of this object in the camera view, so I put my hand over the center of the cap's peak and the object vanished. I got a strip of paper, folded it, and jammed it under the TIR clip, covering the offending area. I fired up TIR5 and the impact was astonishing. Not only do I no longer lose track so often, but there are no more "tumbling" events in which, until I corrected it as described in previous posts here, corrupted the tracking totally, rendering roll as yaw and causing huge anomalies. The difference was so night-and-day that I had to get out of TIR and start it again just to be sure. I can now move my head almost as fast as I like and the whole system is as robust as it has been for me in the past, no more walking on eggshells with my finger constantly poised over the recenter button.

You have probably discontinued the black NaturalPoint cap with the incriminating silver fabric tab on the center of the peak a long time ago but, if not, I suggest you do so now! Ironic, huh?

[Seth Steiling]

Glad both of you were able to address your tracking problems. The old style TrackHat interference isn't that uncommon for those that have upgraded from older units, but I didn't even think about it!

[soldano]

Well, my camera view shows now two red dots which I couldnt identify, as there is nothing reflective behind me.-
Now I noticed that the ofending objects are my eyeglasses.-
Strangely, TIR4 didnt detect them, so it seems TIR5 is more sensitive.-

[Seth Steiling]

[quote=soldano]Well, my camera view shows now two red dots which I couldnt identify, as there is nothing reflective behind me.-
Now I noticed that the ofending objects are my eyeglasses.-
Strangely, TIR4 didnt detect them, so it seems TIR5 is more sensitive.- [/quote]
It's true that TIR 5 is much more sensitive than 4. This could be factoring into the issue. I'd recommend playing with the light filtering settings. If you can increase the filter to a setting that will reject the reflection from your glasses but still pick up on the TrackClip, that should fix this problem.

You can find the light filter threshold under the Camera tab.