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Hi all,

I'v been having all manner of problems getting TrackIR to work reliably in FB Enhanced mode.
The problem started with v2 and have been there with every version since. I get frequent problems when I hit F8 to go into enhanced mode. TrackIR will not go into this mode and furthermore also loses mouse look mode as well leaving me without any view control.

If I quit out of the game then I found that TrackIR is still responding eg. you can see in the software monitor settings that it is tracking my dots but nothing is happening. This problem is very prevelant when I setup TrackIR to load my profile when launching FB. but frequently happens when I enter the game with my FB profile allready selcted. I have uninstalled and re-installed the TrackIR software severall times and also done a manual registry purge of all of the previous Naturalpoint entries left over from older versions but nothing seems to make any difference. I have TrackIR setup so that I hold down a key (F9) mapped to my joystick to whilst I want to look around as I do prefer this to a toggle type setup. I have found that with toggle enabled for the F9 key then the problem I have described occurs much less frequently. As soon as I hold down the key on my joystick which continuosly sends repeated F9s then TrackIR doesn't respond. I would live with toggle if there was a way to not have trackIR boot up in mouselook mode as when this happens the unit immediately starts responding to my head movements, something I only want to happen in-game. I tried setting up a profile which I could use as default with everything turned off and having TrackIR switch to my FB profile and back but the F8 problem prevented this from working.

I'm currently running the final version of 2.1 without 360 degree tracking as I didn't much like the feature.

Atlon XP1600
1GB DDR RAM.
Windows XP + Service Pack 1
5 port internal USB 2 card (NEC chipset).

Just wanted to thank the guys at TrackIR for a superb product which I have been enjoying using for many months now and also their great support.


Any help much appreciated.

Regards and Cheers

Aces

[ April 01, 2003, 07:11 AM: Message edited by: Aces JG123 ]

You can set up the active inactive mode in different ways. If you set it up as a TOGGLE, then 1 keypress (F9) will toggle the trackIR active/inactive.
However if you don't set it up as a toggle then the trackIR will be active as long as F9 is depressed. If you release the F9 key, it will again be inactive (keyactivated mode).

I could be wrong but i think you only have to disable the toggle mode to get the effect you want.

Hi m8,

Thanks for posting. I'm familiar with the operation of Toggle/non-Toggle option.

I have mine setup for non-toggle as, when TrackIR software loads, it defaults every time to Mouse look mode and if Toggle is enabled then TrackIR starts to operate straight away until I press the F9 key to toggle it OFF.

In other words the default state is Toggle ON. If TrackIR would EITHER start up in FB enhanced mode (I don't use mouse look mode for any other software) OR in Mouse look mode with active Toggle OFF then it wouldn't start tracking straight away.

I tried setting up a profile as a sort of "default" with F9 and all other hotkeys dissabled and this works however when I set it up so that my Enhanced profile is loaded (and unloaded) - returning me to the default profile) When FB is loaded/unloaded then F8 Enhanced mode on/off toggle doesn't have any effect even though TrackIR sofware correctly detects the launching/quitting of FB and loads/unloads the correct profile. I think there is some sort of a bug when using this feature.

Hope this is a clearer explaination of my problem.

Thanks again for trying to help

Regards

Aces

Hi Halstead,

Thanks for the reply,

I have a HOTAS Cougar with the latest firmware and drivers. A Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical mouse (on PS2 connection). IOMEGA USB External ZIP disk drive. I've just added an X-KEYS programmable USB keyboard (the problem was there before adding this however).

5 port NEC chipped USB 2 card (no hubs). Windows XP + SP1.

AMD XP1600 CPU, 1GB RAM, SB Audigy 2 sound card with latest drivers, ATI 9700 Pro video card. Abit TG7 RAID motherboard (VIA USB port disabled in BIOS and removed in Windows as caused frame loss with TrackIR).

Hope this helps and much appreciate your assistance. Again, thanks for a great product which has given me many hours of enjoyment not to mention making me "situationally aware"

Regards

Aces JG123.

Aces-
this is indeed odd. Could you tell me about any other hardware plugged into your computer (HOTAS, mouse, etc.)?

Thanks.

It's not exactly clear to me what the problem is. The thing you describe is what happens to me too but i don't see where the problem is. On my system trackIR enhanced mode for some reason doesn't work if i start FB prior to starting the trackIR software.

However it works correctly if i start trackIR software prior to FB. I just start it up, then it defaults to mouselook, then i press F8 once to toggle it to enhanced mode. I check if the dot tracks well then i minimize and can still tell whether or not enhanced mode is on because i can't move the mousecursor on the desktop. Then i hit recentre (F12). Then i start up FB.

Maybe it's a bit of a problem to tell in which mode you are and whether or not the trackIR is active? Maybe the problem is that sometimes it's not transparant to tell if enhanced mode is on or mouse emulation is on once the game is running? In any case your problem is not exactly clear to me.

Can you give a clear discription of what your selections are in the Hotkey section? (Left click, right click etc. etc.)

[ April 03, 2003, 03:35 AM: Message edited by: DNME ]

Hi DNME,

My settings are (from memory as I'm at work)

left click : NOT ENABLED
right click : NOT ENABLED
center : F12
active : F9 and no TOGGLE
Enhanced F8
Precision : F7

Run at Startup : ON
Run Minimised : ON
Minimise to Tray : ON
No Dwell clicking

The problem is that when TrackIR software is loaded and you fire up FB and TrackIR loads my FB profile when I hit the F8 key to go into Enhanced mode and then hold down the F9 key to start looking around TrackIR doesn't function.

I quit FB have a look at the TrackIR software "monitor" window and switch back to mouselook the monitor windows shows track IR tracking my head movements but the cursor doesn't move.

Quitting TrackIR software and re-launching it solves this problem eg. when it loads in mouse look mode everything's fine until I re-load FB and then the problem occurs as described above.
The only work-arounds that I have found which give a reasonably high chance of working are:

1.Use TOGGLE for the F9 key and then switching to enhanced mode (F8) in-game works.

2. Do not use auto load FB game profile in which case the F8 and F9 keys work as I'd like them to most of the time.

However sometimes even with these work-arounds hitting the F8 key will not get into enhanced mode and I have no choice but to quit FB and then quit and reload the TrackIR software and try again. Frustrating when your in a game.

A couple of friends have had exactly the same problems as I have which started with version 2 so I'm not alone. There is something "flakey" about reliably entering enhanced mode which I cannot find a reliable solution for.

At present I'm using mouse look which works just fine (just like it allways has) as I'm not much sold on the advantages of using enhanced mode over my exisiting mouse look profile (I didn't like the 360 version specially when it you often started by having your head snapped round to your six position). I've tried various deadzone settings and have yet to find one that I like.

Another observation is that when pressing F9 the view will not start centered eg. it will change abruptly to another non front facing view. under mouselook I used to have it so that it centered (F12) which doesn't seem to have any effect in enhanced mode.

I still love this product just wish I could start to reliably start to enjoy the "benefits" of enhanced mode.

Regards

Aces.

Hello Aces,

Thx for the info, i'm gonna have to try out what you described to see if i can reproduce it.

Get back to you later

edit:

I just tried it in the following way but i can not reproduce what you wrote:

1. i made sure that trackIR software was not running

2. i setup my Sidewinder profile to make button 4 act as F9 (activation key)

3. i started trackIR software and made a profile to enable key activated mode (F9 as key activator NO toggle) then i recentred and hit F8 to switch to enhanced mode. Still on the desktop

4. started FB. Access the QMB menu with my normal mouse as the mouse cursor can not be moved with trackIR while it is in enhanced mode.

5. once in flight i kept button 4 (= F9 = activation key) pressed and was able to look around freely in enhanced mode. When i looked at right shoulder view and de activated the trackIR. The view would get stuck in right shoulder view, but in the mean time i would turn my head back to forward. Then when i reactivated the trackIR again (keeping F9 pressed) it would automatically return to forward view.

So i guess i really still don't understand the problem

Could you try to do things in the same sequence i described above and see if you get similar results?

You should not have to switch between mouse emulation mode and enhanced mode while in the game. Simply enabling either one before even starting up the game, is best (enhanced mode recommended ofcourse).

What i DO experience is that i can not enter enhanced mode when i start up FB prior to starting up the naturalpoint software. So i make sure i always start up the NP software first, THEN i start up FB.

[ April 04, 2003, 05:56 AM: Message edited by: DNME ]

Hi DNME,

Thanks m8 appreciate your help.

Regards

Aces

bump!

see the edit