by nzav8tor » Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:32 am
The LED clip isn't much better than the hat but it at least it doesn't give you hat hair and it is more stable. Sometimes the hat thingy can fly off at a critical moment!
You can set trackIR up in a way that works for you. For instance my right eye is a bit weaker than the left so I have it setup so that when I turn my head right the range of motion on the screen is more allowing my left eye to have share of the peripheral vision. This appears as an asymmetrical curve on the setup screen.
When you first sit down and get the hat/headset with cip on, get into a comfy position and hit F12 to sync your position to the middle position of the track IR range.
With trackIR setup screen open you should see the three view of your virtual melon. When you hit F12 it essentially puts you in the middle. If you are a bit far away from the sensor then you may need to adjust things to get your head close to the middle of the crosshairs. This means that you will get the best range of motion before the sensor is out of sight of the reflector.
Now you may find when you are in the cockpit that your view is not balanced well enough between instrument panel and outside view. In this case I tilt my head slightly to where I want it to be biased then hit F12 to re sync the centre position. Then when I move my head to its central position the view is now biased off centre to give me a better view. This is easy to demonstrate than explain!
Imagine you are looking forward but your head position is too low, you cant see over the instrument panel. Crouch down in your seat so your view so now mostly panel, hit F12 and then sit up normally. Your view position will have shifted higher as you are now sitting higher than what it thinks is your central position.
Ok, so the next thing is to setup the sensitivity of the motion compared to your head travel. Of course you don't want it to be 1 to 1 as to look out the side window you'll be looking 90 degrees from the screen and you a) you won't be looking at the screen anymore and b) the sensor won't be able to see the reflector.
So the range of motion on the screen is of a higher ratio than your actual head movement. This can be setup up by dragging the points up to create your curve. This is showing how much range of motion will be translated for how much head offset angle. If you have a very narrow and steep band, the view will move alot relative to small head movements. This is handy for dogfighting when you want to be able to snap your view to your 6 o'clock etc but it makes it very difficult for clicking switches in the virtual cockpit as its difficult to keep your head precisely still. The default range of motion is probably a hit slow for my liking.
There are also hot keys to slow the motion down. F9 will temporarily pause track IR which is great when you want to have a good look at something on the panel or you get a bit of sunlight interference. Now I can't remember exactly but I think F11 turns on smooth motion which slows the view right down. Check the hot keys settings to confirm.
Basically the key is to experiment and tweak the sensitivity to what feels right for you. It can take some time and may be different in different aircraft too. You can save profiles for this purpose.
As Ian said the key is to keep your head movements precise and smooth. Personally I don't use it in heavy aircraft, the angles you need to see the overhead panel etc are to annoying and trying to keep steady enough to click switches etc is just frustrating. The normal space bar mouse view is much easier and faster. But for flying an approach, the trackIR view is very intuitive.
Hope this helps!