TrackIR and Jane's F/A-18

[John Nunez]

I have been unable to get TrackIR working adequately with Jane's F18 (my favourite sim).

There is a mouseview feature in the sim, although you have to hold down the right mouse button to activate it. Interestingly, it works fine with both my regular mouse and my Cougar mouse - but with the TIR, although I get movement it is too "stuttery" to be useful.

Anyway, I've been round all the forums, and have been unable to find anyone who has had TIR working with JF18. Well, today I was playing around with some software that lets you view the sampling rate of your mouse (yeah, it's Sunday, too much time on my hands). Now, with my mouse and cougar, the rate never goes over around 60Hz, but with the TIR, it was ocassionally hitting 900Hz and averaging around 300Hz. So, I'm thinking that the problem is that the TIR is sending data at too high a rate for JF18 to cope with. If this were the case, is there any way to place a cap on the data rate from the TIR? Does this make any sense, or am I adding 2 + 2 and getting 5? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, or indeed, to hear from anyone who's managed to get JF18 + TIR working.

Notwithstanding the above, I'll take this opportunity to congratulate you on what is a fantastic product. With FS2000 and IL2 it is outstanding (unfortunately for me I don't play those all that often). JF18 would be perfect with TIR, there's got to be some way get them to work together!

[Nodak01]

I'll second that, Janes F-18 was made for trackIR, but no luck here either. I'm hoping it's not going to be a long wait, need that awsume carrier ops in the trackIR collection.

[Jim]

Hello:

I can offer two suggestions. First, we will have the ability to "lock down" the right mouse button in the new software. Second, make sure that you have FPS Mode checked, or the Mouse Override Delay set to zero, that can cause the stuttering you are experiencing.

Not sure about the 300Hz update rate. I believe that we only update the cursor position at 60Hz, but I could be wrong about that. We use a special mouse driver to emulate a standard mouse, so the reporting program may not read our refresh rate properly.

[John Nunez]

Hi Jim,

Well, Jim, you have just become my new super hero!!! I turned on the FPS mouseview, and it works - flawlessly. To be honest, I read your reply at work and thought - well, yeah, stock response, probably won't work, but, give it a try; very impressed that I got a reply at all though. So, anyway, here I am, I try your suggestion, and...

IT WORKS!
IT WORKS!
IT WORKS!

THANK YOU. Add one more more-than-satisfied-and-will-return-again customer to your books.

I could go on and on, but I got some flyin' to do!

[Nodak01]

Big time thanks Jim, works excellent, just added her back on the active list. It would have been a crime excluding this sim!

[Hotdognz]

Ha ha Hippo I guess your new around here

You will find that Jim & Halstead will reply to any promblems that they can help with as soon as they get time, the support for there product is awsome from both the developers and the community.

[Jim]

Hello:

I am glad to hear that my suggestion fixed the problem. It brings up an issue that we have been thinking about for some time, the Mouse Override Delay option. What this does is allow for your regular mouse to take control away from the trackIR if you move it and then give control back to the trackIR after a user defined amount of time. It is very usefull in the smart-NAV software, but I am wondering if we should change the software to default to a delay of zero, which makes them both fight for control at the same time, fine for games I think. Ideas on this would be helpful as 2.0 is right around the corner.

[John Nunez]

Hi Jim,

Thanks again for the response. Does selecting FPS Mouseview do anything more that setting the mouse override delay option to zero? I was just about to post stating that I had not changed the mouse override delay, just selcected FPSMV, when I noticed it had this effect. (Not much point to this question, I know, I'm just interested.)

Anyway, following your explanation, it all starts to make perfect sense. The thing is, I have spent hours trying different things to get this working, trawling through various forums. I had just thought that it was not going to be possible. Maybe I should've just posted here first, huh?

But I digress...

My thoughts on this are:

1. Yes the mouse delay should probably default to zero - so long as it doesn't do more harm than good, and stop lots of other games working properly. I think it is safe to assume that most TrackIR users are using it for games.

2. FPS Mouseview should perhaps be called just Mouseview (or something to that effect) - since the tendency is to associate that button with First Person Shooters (well, it's what I did, anyway), and just assume it has no place in flight sims.

3. An entry in the Troubleshooting section of the manual suggesting the use of Mouse Override delay (for dopes like me who assume too much and dont read the manual properly - quote from p. 15: "FPS Mouseview mode should always be used for ... games that use a mouse for view control") for this type of problem.

Now, to go back to F18 - I am just so impressed at how well TrackIR works (better than IL-2, in my opinion). I have set up a button on my Cougar which when I click it holds down the RMB, then the next time I click it, releases it. Another button to go back to front view, and another to activate / deactivate the TIR. Using these buttons the view system works remarkably well. When I deactivate the RMB I have control of the mouse and use my head to point the mouse cursor at the cockpit switch I want and LMB click with another switch on my Cougar. I have found that setting the sensitivity at x=34, y=30 (using X2) and smoothness at 120 gives me good results.

TrackIR rocks!

P.S. Hotdognz - TrackIR "support is awesome" - you won't get any argument from me on that one!

[Hotdognz]

Hippo glad to hear your enjoying your Track IR and in Janes F18 which is a awsome sim in its own right, im annoyed now though as I sold my version befor moveing to the UK for 2 years so Ill have to hunt down a copy for my use here now it works with Track IR (I intend to own every sim that does and just spent 5 weeks hunting down EAW here in the UK so i can use Track IR in that).

Another sim that works great with Track Ir and you may have or can pick up cheap now is Micropose Gunship, its just awsome to fly in the game for the feeling of flight that Track Ir gives you, its another game that requires the LMB to be held down while panning with the Track Ir unit but as you have a cougar then this will be easy for you to set up while we wait for the version 2.0 Track Ir softwear to arrive, so if you liked helos give Gunship a try as also the 3rd party patches make it much less arcady than its release.

[John Nunez]

I did actually have Gunship lying around; so in view of your recommendation I though I'd chuck it on the hard disc and check it out. Very impressive as you say. It's a game I never really got into, but it does look like it could be a lot of fun with the Track IR. Unfortunately, my simming time is pretty limited (real life just keeps getting in the way) and I 'm concentrated on F18 at the moment.

Damn - too many sims, not enough time.