Hi everybody
I'm a Track IR user for allmost one year allready and I'm still pleased with it.
The only thing to change would be absolute positionning.
If it were possible to track head movements (I mean not rotations but head up/down for/back left/right) that would make TrackIR the ultimate device for me.
Imagine you could duck in the cockpit to not loose a bandit behind one of these large struts,
or raise your head while approaching the runway to see what's going on etc. etc.
Have a nice day,
Schallmoser
Enhancement suggestion
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Agree, It would be great to have zoom control or zone key map ability for distance to light source. One could control the zoom levels by moving closer to the unit than.
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Wow, what a cool idea! I have thought about what it would take to shift head movement inside the cockpit via programming methods (I'm not a programmer BTW). I never thought about whether or not Track IR could be used for something like that.
Those visual restrictions caused by the struts (especially in a 109) are a pain to deal with. I've seen somebody comment at SimHQ that they thought they were modelled too thick. But if this could be done, what a breakthrough in added realism that would be!
Those visual restrictions caused by the struts (especially in a 109) are a pain to deal with. I've seen somebody comment at SimHQ that they thought they were modelled too thick. But if this could be done, what a breakthrough in added realism that would be!
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Guys:
This IS a great idea. We have a prototype of a 6DOF system that will allow for this type of motion. It will be released some time down the road in a product for sure.
The thing we need is direct support in the games. This plug in will allow for us to control the pilot's POV directly, both moving it and rotating it.
Our new Developers Kit Specification allows for this level of control. I am not so sure that IL-2 will work for this as I have heard that the whole cockpit isn't actually rendered, so if you moved the POV you would see non-rendered parts of the cockpit that weren't previously visable.
I would love to get a game with this level of support to show a demo of what it can do for your SA and just general immersion factor.
Thanks for adding this suggestion.
This IS a great idea. We have a prototype of a 6DOF system that will allow for this type of motion. It will be released some time down the road in a product for sure.
The thing we need is direct support in the games. This plug in will allow for us to control the pilot's POV directly, both moving it and rotating it.
Our new Developers Kit Specification allows for this level of control. I am not so sure that IL-2 will work for this as I have heard that the whole cockpit isn't actually rendered, so if you moved the POV you would see non-rendered parts of the cockpit that weren't previously visable.
I would love to get a game with this level of support to show a demo of what it can do for your SA and just general immersion factor.
Thanks for adding this suggestion.
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Well in the game BOB from ROWAN they have a lean left and right command. That's so you can roll the canopy back and lean out to see where you are going on the ground when the nose is in the way.
A command set like that except L/R/Forward would be easier for Oleg to program then 6DOF.
In a real aircraft you're belted in pretty good, so movement is limited to a neck craning shoulder roll when your flying.
So if you could get those L/R/Forward commands and have mouse view from them, you would be set to just about the real set of views.
Has to how hard it is to do I'll leave that up to Oleg.
If you have keyboard commands to do it then non-TIR users will also have it...Important for Oleg because of play balance issues.
And perhaps some .DLL/Software support from Jim and team so that a head gesture will send the keystoke for the lean commands, and hold it till gesture is done again to release it.
Since the keymapping is already in the software that should not be to bad to include in the trackware.
I'll point this thread out to Oleg when I write him this morning.
A command set like that except L/R/Forward would be easier for Oleg to program then 6DOF.
In a real aircraft you're belted in pretty good, so movement is limited to a neck craning shoulder roll when your flying.
So if you could get those L/R/Forward commands and have mouse view from them, you would be set to just about the real set of views.
Has to how hard it is to do I'll leave that up to Oleg.
If you have keyboard commands to do it then non-TIR users will also have it...Important for Oleg because of play balance issues.
And perhaps some .DLL/Software support from Jim and team so that a head gesture will send the keystoke for the lean commands, and hold it till gesture is done again to release it.
Since the keymapping is already in the software that should not be to bad to include in the trackware.
I'll point this thread out to Oleg when I write him this morning.
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BPO6_GoldenWing
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 5:00 am
- Location: Orlando, Florida
Re: Enhancement suggestion
This possibility just blows me away!
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Bhodi:
I think that we could do up an interface where you can send keystrokes for some view changes, like L/F and Forward and then mouse view from those positions.
I have seen in some track files that were sent to us that you can already zoom in on the gauges in IL-2, can you also move your POV from side to side? If so, then we can give it a try.
The only issue is that the current unit can't tell when you are translating and when you are rotating. We would want the rotation to control "mouse view" and translation to control "keymapping".
I am working on some headset concepts to ammend this. We have talked about them in the past, over email, but things always seem to get too busy to finish the design.
I think that we could do up an interface where you can send keystrokes for some view changes, like L/F and Forward and then mouse view from those positions.
I have seen in some track files that were sent to us that you can already zoom in on the gauges in IL-2, can you also move your POV from side to side? If so, then we can give it a try.
The only issue is that the current unit can't tell when you are translating and when you are rotating. We would want the rotation to control "mouse view" and translation to control "keymapping".
I am working on some headset concepts to ammend this. We have talked about them in the past, over email, but things always seem to get too busy to finish the design.
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Schallmoser
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 5:00 am
- Location: France
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Hi Jim,
Great to read that you'r going the "right" way!!!
I would suggest that you directly contact Oleg Maddox for this issue. He listens a lot to great ideas and if there is somebody who can do it, its Oleg!
He said that he wanted to make the special DLL for TrackIR for the next patch, so maybe he could bring out a patch for the new device, too.
Ive got a question concerning this future device:
Since I'm allready a TrackIR owner, would I need to purchase a whole new unit or could I upgrade or by just a part of it?
Do you have any idea how much that would cost?
Thanks for you attention and keep up the good work
best regards,
Schallmoser
Great to read that you'r going the "right" way!!!
I would suggest that you directly contact Oleg Maddox for this issue. He listens a lot to great ideas and if there is somebody who can do it, its Oleg!
He said that he wanted to make the special DLL for TrackIR for the next patch, so maybe he could bring out a patch for the new device, too.
Ive got a question concerning this future device:
Since I'm allready a TrackIR owner, would I need to purchase a whole new unit or could I upgrade or by just a part of it?
Do you have any idea how much that would cost?
Thanks for you attention and keep up the good work
best regards,
Schallmoser
Re: Enhancement suggestion
HI,
I am doing a little project for Oleg so I am in contact with him fairly often.
I pointed this thread out to him. However he is in F/B Bug smashing phase and has 0 time to post.
Jim the L/R/Forward commands are not in IL-2 at the moment.
However I'll bring these idea's up with Oleg in my next e-mail.
If the TIR unit can see the command gesture then switch to translation and send a keystroke make signal of L/R/or F and return to rotation for new POV, for mouse tracking.
Then do the command gesture and send the break signal and return to rotation for normal POV, that would be optimal in practice.
However if that won't work people can just map a hat to L/R/F and use mouse/TIR like normal in the new POV's....a elegant solution to a nasty programming problem if I do say so.
That way it is not real 6DOF implementation, which is needs a new Naturalpoint project for the 6DOF unit and a new unit for users to buy, Plus a big load for programers like Oleg to support.
Not that I would not love a real 6DOF unit and sim.
This way we can use our current units and it takes lots less time for Oleg to support.
Intresting ideas, I'll have to devote a little more time to this thought process and see if I can find any problems.
I am doing a little project for Oleg so I am in contact with him fairly often.
I pointed this thread out to him. However he is in F/B Bug smashing phase and has 0 time to post.
Jim the L/R/Forward commands are not in IL-2 at the moment.
However I'll bring these idea's up with Oleg in my next e-mail.
If the TIR unit can see the command gesture then switch to translation and send a keystroke make signal of L/R/or F and return to rotation for new POV, for mouse tracking.
Then do the command gesture and send the break signal and return to rotation for normal POV, that would be optimal in practice.
However if that won't work people can just map a hat to L/R/F and use mouse/TIR like normal in the new POV's....a elegant solution to a nasty programming problem if I do say so.
That way it is not real 6DOF implementation, which is needs a new Naturalpoint project for the 6DOF unit and a new unit for users to buy, Plus a big load for programers like Oleg to support.
Not that I would not love a real 6DOF unit and sim.
This way we can use our current units and it takes lots less time for Oleg to support.
Intresting ideas, I'll have to devote a little more time to this thought process and see if I can find any problems.
Re: Enhancement suggestion
Hello:
The full 6DOF unit will be a new product, we have to support my engineering habit somehow, right?
The way we designed the DLL interface the burden is on the developer to implement all 6 DOF, meaning that if they do then all our new hardware will work with the games with built in support. So, we may only have 2-3DOF right now, but the game can request all 6DOF and when we can deliver it we will, thus nothing should be obsolete.
BTW, we should stop calling it a DLL, that was what we did for FS2002. This custom interface should be called a Remote Interface. We also have a SDK for people wishing to write their own programs using our hardware. Now we can keep them all straight!
[ October 22, 2002, 11:05 PM: Message edited by: Jim Richardson ]
The full 6DOF unit will be a new product, we have to support my engineering habit somehow, right?
The way we designed the DLL interface the burden is on the developer to implement all 6 DOF, meaning that if they do then all our new hardware will work with the games with built in support. So, we may only have 2-3DOF right now, but the game can request all 6DOF and when we can deliver it we will, thus nothing should be obsolete.
BTW, we should stop calling it a DLL, that was what we did for FS2002. This custom interface should be called a Remote Interface. We also have a SDK for people wishing to write their own programs using our hardware. Now we can keep them all straight!
[ October 22, 2002, 11:05 PM: Message edited by: Jim Richardson ]