Total immersion

[tagada]

I have been owning a TrackIr 3 pro and using it with much satisfaction for a week now with FS2004, IL2 and X-Plane. It enhances the immersion to an almost real level, and I would not sim without it anymore. To synthetise the main reason for this statement: I can now rely more on visual clues while manoeuvering (e.g. look in the turn etc.) rather than unrealistically only check the instruments to figure out the attitude of the plane.

I have however been faced with teh same minor problems which were mentioned in threads in this and other forums, namely:

1) unintentionally changing the head/body attitude for other reasons than changing point of view with TrackIr while flying

2) losing orientation and coordination and not being able to go back to the desired point of view by head movement.

Such situation often occur in the worst moments possible (on the six of a bandit, in the middle of a manoeuvre, etc.)

Here are some simple tricks I have applied with some success to alleviate these issues:

1) Lock your twisting/reclining chair and get a relaxed but steady sitting attitude. In addition to settling your attitude and head position a bit, it also adds realism: the seat in the cockpit usually isn't twisting/reclining either, and you would be strapped to it by the safety belt/harness!

2) Map the commands you use most to your joystick/yoke/game controller. Looking down to your keyboard is a main cause of inopportune change of head position.

3) Map a button of your joystick/yoke/game controller to the "center" command of the TrackIr (if necessary use the controller's proprietary profiler/manager). You will then be able to:

a) recenter at will keeping the head facing the monitor (as opposed as looking down while trying to figure out where the F12 key is on the keyboard). Recentering is best done while orienting the head towards a fixed point on the monitor, for instance the TrackIr if it is placed on top of it.

b) keep a forward point of view by keeping the button depressed.

4) Map a button of your joystick/yoke/game controller to the "enable" command of the TrackIr. You will then be able to toggle the TrackIr on and off directly with the joystick.

[Wayne]

tagada,

Thank you for your post, I am sure our users will find this interesting.