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Important Note

While Track IR 4 Pro works with a lot of games, it does NOT work with MSTS due to the way MSTS controls its views. It DOES work with Trainz, Ship Simulator, 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin', and Microsoft Flight Simulator (including FSX). A full list of compatible games can be found on the Natural Point web site at http://www.naturalpoint.com.

Side note: In actual fact you can get it working with MSTS after-a-fashion, but with just limited right and left views in MSTS it isn't as effective as in other titles.

What is it?

TrackIR 4 Pro is a head tracking system! You get a small device about 1 inch square that fits on top of your monitor like a web cam, and a small bracket that fits on to any baseball cap (a special TrackIR one is supplied free of charge for the first ten orders, a saving of £9.95 based on what some other UK sites charge for it). The clip has three reflective strips on it and the device on your monitor watches them to see how they move, translating that in to an interpretation of what it thinks your head is doing.

This movement is then translated in to instructions for the game you're using so your in-game view changes as you move your head around!

If I move my head, I can't see the screen anymore...

TrackIR magnifies the amount it moves the game viewpoint - so if you move your head slightly to the left you see a much bigger move on the screen, you can quite easily switch your viewpoint to 180 degrees (i.e. behind you) and still be able to see the screen, though at that range it is getting a little uncomfortable for extended periods! :)

So what does this mean for my game?

This is what happened to me when I started playing with the device after I bought one to try it out. I was flying over Western Florida following my vacation to Port Charlotte (just south of Sarasota/Tampa etc, it's where Hurricane Charley landed a couple of years back). Flying Northbound I was following I-75 and keeping an eye on Route-41 to my west, looking to fly over the bay, so I would have been around Punta Gorda.

A moment of lost concentration and suddenly I can't see the road in front of me anymore - traditionally this is easily solved by flipping to an outside view to find it again, but that's hardly realistic is it? No, with Track IR all I had to do was lift myself up in my seat a bit and literally look over the cowl and sure enough there it was just a little below me. That's it, I literally got slightly up out of my seat and leaned forwards a bit and it was instantly reflected in exactly the same effect on-screen.

Another key time for its use with Flight Sim would be approach to landing or doing a circuit, it's always advisable to keep the runway visible at all times so that you don't suddenly find yourself expending time trying to re-locate it again and lose the pattern. With the Tracking system you can move your head freely around permitting you to concentrate on what you're doing and momentarily just look to your left to find the airfield and make sure it's where you expect. It's also good for nodding down to check your gauges. To be honest, since I started using TrackIR with FSX I have found it quite unnatural to fly FSX without it!

To take another example, you're driving a truck in 18 Wheels, how much more natural would it be to simply move your view by moving your head and let your steering wheel or joystick worry about where the truck is going? The number of times i've tried to move my viewpoint using the 'hat' on the stick and accidentally ended up ploughing in to a car or the median I can't even remember... No such problems with TrackIR.

What can it do?

TrackIR itself can cope with all six degrees of freedom (or 6DOF as it's sometimes referred to). This means:

Pitch - dipping your head forwards and raising it backwards.
Yaw - Turning your head left and right
Roll - Rolling your head left and right on to its side
Y - Raising and lowering your head
X - Sliding your head left and right
Z - Sliding your head towards and away from the screen

Most games however only support a subset of those. Many will support the first two, some will support all but YAW. Flight Sim is one of the few that supports all 6 Degrees.

There are some real examples and videos on the TrackIR site of this thing in action, a complete list of compatible games, drivers, upgrades etc.

Conclusion

I bought one myself because I was intrigured by the idea and it was an instant hit for me. We've just imported TEN of the devices to see whether people here think the same, if they do then we'll bring more in and if not, well, we won't :)

If anyone wants to chat about the device drop me a line, or if you pop along to Brighton Model World we'll be demonstrating FSX, Ship Sim and 18 Wheels along side Train Simulator - and the TrackIR will be demonstrated.

Head Tracking systems traditionally cost thousands using various intricate technologies on a complex headset that you wore. Because TrackIR makes use of simple optical analysis via a device that is essentially just a very basic webcam, the power is in the software and the hardware is thus extremely small, hence the relatively low cost.

I thoroughly recommend it!

We're not the only place you can buy them from in the UK but I think that with this deal we're one of the cheapest. Please note that the free TrackIR Baseball Cap is a limited offer with these ten devices, whether it is repeated in the future has not yet been decided; however, any baseball cap will work fine, the bracket is a very simple metal framework that will fit on just about any baseball cap.

Matt.

UKTrainSim