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TrackIR Vector Expansion
By Paul van Dinther (14 December 2004)
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MSFS went from green wireframe to near photo-realistic scenery. The awesome terain displayed underneath your aeroplane is truely stunning. Pity you can't see much of it. I mean, in real aircraft you can really look through the window, lean over to have a better look and pretty much look in any direction you care. The instrument panel and cockpit interior in MSFS has been obscuring most of the view down below. This is no longer true. NaturalPoint, the makers of TrackIR, have created "Vector expansion" a most amazing product that will literally place your head inside the virtual cockpit. This is a big deal and needs to sink in for a moment...
What this means is that your PC and therefore MSFS (or any other game that supports 6 degrees of freedom-6DOF) knows where your head is in relation to the TrackIR sensor. Now imagine this, if MSFS knows where your head is, it can generate a view from that position. So if you move left, so does your virtual cockpit view point. If you look right, so does the view and so on. Lean forward to read some obscure instrument better, stretch your back to see over the glareshield. Lean sideways to look around the strut and down to locate that emergency landing area you need RIGHT NOW.
Over the past weeks I have been priviledged to work with Natural Point's beta testing team to push the software to its limits. It was really difficult to remain focused because of the ongoing wow factor. But 6DOF viewpoint has values well beyond the wow facto as you will see later.
The basic TrackIR system tracks a reflector mounted on your headset or cap and translates the thus obtained X and Y position into a viewing direction. Shifting or rotating your head was seen as the same thing! To be honest I found the TrackIR without the Vector expansion not very usable unless I'd have my shoulders glued to my backrest. But I am sure less excitable cool blooded aviators find the system quite usable in its basic form.
However, this review is about TrackIR's Vector expansion. Existing users of TrackIR3 or TrackIR3 Pro can upgrade to 6DOF by purchasing the Vector Expansion. The entire TrackIR3 Vector system consists of a TrackIR3 USB infrared camera, software, a cap and a special reflector clip that can be fitted to your cap or headset. The clip is a very light piece of spring metal that clamps onto the bill of your cap (picture, right). The cap is of a good size and fits comfortably. The reflector clip lies flush with the surface of the cap and is inconspicuous.
The reflector clip contains three reflectors arranged in such a way that it represents a triangle in space. The TrackIR Vector software knows the size of the triangle and uses advanced triangulation math to calculate the 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DOF). As a result TrackIR Vector will detect left-right, up-down, forward-backward movement and also turn left-right, up-down and tilt left-right. Believe it or not but there is nothing more to detect about your head's position. All this processing of tracking information is done 120 times per second but on my 2 GHz P4 the processor use was only around 0 - 1% so running TrackIR Vector should not be a problem on most modern PC's.
Installing the TrackIR Vector expansion proved easy. Install the software, plug in the sensor and activate Vector. Vector Expansion comes with a product activation code. A hyperlink built into the TrackIR software takes you to a web page where you need to enter the product activation code and TrackIR sensors serial number. In return you receive in your email two license files that needs to be copied into your TrackIR License folder. Twice I managed to not read the instructions and copied those files to the wrong location. I am sure there will be plenty of support calls on that one.
Once activated, the 6DOF will become available. TrackIR comes with several tools (left) that allow you to test, tune and monitor its performance. The "Track" window shows you how well you are placed in front of the sensor. Make sure to adjust the sensor so your reflectors are displayed nicely in the middle. I found there were issues with background sunlight even when the light filter slide was set to maximum.
The same problem occurs if a light bulb is in view of the sensor. In the end closing the curtains to block out direct sunlight was the only way to solve the problem. Next I opened the "Heads" window. A 3D head is shown that follows your every movement thus allowing a first sign of the 6DOF head tracking.
The Natural Point cap normally comes with a built-in reflector on the bill. The TrackIR software manages to ignore this obsolete reflector most of the time but at the extreme angles it gets confused, resulting in erratic views. I suggest you put some tape over the built-in reflector as it enhances the reliability.
We pilots look around a lot. That is our main reason for being in the cockpit. But how do you look over your shoulder to see where you are turning when your monitor is smack in front of you? Natural Point solved this problem quite elegantly. They scale your head movement. In TrackIR you can define for each of the 6 axis a scaling profile.
This works remarkably well. The collection of scaling curves together with a few other parameters are stored in profiles. Several profiles are provided and can be assigned to any of the games supported by TrackIR Vector. You can define dead center and progressively increase the scaling as you turn your head. Thanks to scaling you can look at the right edge of the monitor and have the "game head" look over the right wing.
Now let's get into the cockpit and scare some birds. I started FS2004 and took a day flight in a trusty Cessna 172. Switched to "virtual cockpit" and promptly I was staring at where my feet would have been. A press on the F12 key centered the position and viewpoint and...my mouth fell open. Suddenly the virtual cockpit came to life. The slight movement of my head changed the view ever so slightly and assured my brain that the world before me is real. The cockpit had become alive.
The TrackIR Vector is incredibly smooth and allows for accurate absolute view control. Initially I felt I was commanding the view with my head but after several sessions the scaled head motion became quite natural. I have found flying circuits in MSFS always boring due to the lack of a decent view. This is a huge step closer to realism. Lining up with the runway when turning final is awesome. It is life like. I'd look left at the runway, estimate my closing rate and roll into the turn while maintaining a view on the runway. I now had the chance to ease off my bank angle thus achieving a perfect line-up on final. Never before did I have the chance to do this on any PC simulator. In fact even the big airline simulators failed to give a wide enough field of view to get the initial roll-in point correct. Overall situation awareness improved a lot too.
Now it was time for an old tail dragger. If you ever tried to taxi one of these things you probably would have gone for a "spot plane" view as it is hard to see were you are going with a big fat engine in front of you. Not so with TrackIR Vector. Simply do what real tail dragger pilots do, lean out to the side. TrackIR Vector knows where your head is at all times so you can lean forward and stretch to peer over the glareshield or sideways to look past the engine. This comes really handy when coming in for a landing. I need to note here that no calibration was required after the initial one. The head tracking is absolute.
Of course this review would not be complete without flying some big iron. The aircraft of choice is the Boeing 737. I took a default flight from London to Paris. It is just so much more fun to take the time and go through the procedures. The ability to look around just makes every step of the way more real. Even taxiing was fun because I could look to were I was going. Boeing 737's have their comms panel on a pedestal between the two pilots on the floor. With TrackIR Vector you can simply look down and interact with the radio controls. Same deal with the throttle quadrant. I really want to see fully interactive FMC's in the virtual cockpit so I can lean into them and program the flight just like I did in the real thing. In fact, I got so carried away with my virtual cockpit that I was totally pre-occupied with the autopilot. Buggered up something, failed to adhere to the rule "FLY THE AIRCRAFT FIRST" and crashed. It was all so real that I found myself with sweat in my palms and shaken after the crash.
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A critical note on the control interactions though. In MSFS we twiddle dials using the mouse. But in real life my fingers don't go anywhere when I turn my head. I like my mouse to maintain its position relative to the virtual cockpit in the same way. With TrackIR Vector the view is dynamic all of the time and thus you need to keep your head really still if you want to tune your CDI to the inbound radial of the VOR.
6DOF head tracking is obviously great stuff for Microsoft Flight simulator but be aware that you buy a very versatile 6DOF head tracker that can be applied elsewhere. A long list of game titles is already supplied on the Natural Point web site. Can you imagine flying combat missions in a sim like Pacific Fighters with bogeys all around? Not to mention first person shooters. Leaning around the corner to shoot will mean just that! A new virtual world has just opened. Forget about that graphics card upgrade, buy a TrackIR Vector first. I promise, you won't regret it. This baby delivers.
Pictures fall hopelessly short in conveying the immersive feel of TrackIR Vector.
eDimensional has made available several videos
here.
TrackIR with the Vector expansion can be found
here.
Paul van Dinther
