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Can TrackIR function as a Virtual Realilty?

Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:28 pm
by Poita
People's expectatin of a home VR headset to use with games for 'full' imerssion goes back to the early 90's.
Of coruse VR has been around since before then but that's when it entered most gamers' conciousness.
It's been a long darn wait and nothing seems to be even on the horizon.

One of the big stumbling blocks has been that onboard motion/head tracking hardware makes the headset just too heavy and uncomfortable to use.
There are some really expensive ones but even they are still too bulky for long usage.

I've just checked out some of the TrackIR video's and it seems pretty precise to me, even better than some vr stuff as you can move your head forwards and backwards as well as the other motions.
The hardware seems pretty accurate and all you wear on your head is a dot or two.
So . . . . . if i wore a video/audio only headset and used the Track IR then would that not in effect be a working 'full imersion' Virtual Reality headset???

If the video goggles had stereoscopic screens (each screen got a sperated image) then the imersion would be even more complete.

Question: Is it currently techincally possible to hook up a pair of 3rd party video goggles 'and' TrackIR and run them at the same time?
Would the trackIR be able to do a 1/1 ratio instead of a 180 degrees from a 3 degrees turn so say a 45 degrees head turn to the left can result ina 45 degrees image shift?

The remote hardware for sensing head movement seems to be a big solution step towards getting the full VR that we have all be waiting for.

[ August 14, 2006, 07:17 AM: Message edited by: Poita ]

Re: Can TrackIR function as a Virtual Realilty?

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:22 am
by VincentG
Yes, you can us VR (3d glasses), with the TrackIR. Also the movement ratio us fully adjustable in the TrackIR software.

Re: Can TrackIR function as a Virtual Realilty?

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:19 pm
by Poita
Thanks for the reply.
Could you address my point more specifically please and give me your opinion as to whether this would indeed be in effect a fully functioning VR headset?

Simply put, the essence of a true vr experience lies in head tracking. The goggles would replace all of your vision and wherever yo look you see diferent parts of the game room just as you would see different parts of the real world.

have you tried this and if so could you do a feature about the results. Seems like driving games or Armed Assault would be ideal for this set up.

Re: Can TrackIR function as a Virtual Realilty?

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:02 am
by VincentG
No, I do not have access to 3d (VR) glasses, so I have not tried it. As to setting it to a 1:1 ratio, it can be done in the software, the issue becomes if you turn your head to much away from the TrackIR camera, it can no longer pick up the IR reflectors, so would lose track of it's position in game play.