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SmoothTrack ReviewBy Stuart McGregor /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack1.jpgIntroductionIf you are looking for a head trackingtool to supplement your flying experience in X-Plane 11, thenSmoothTrack by John Goering may just be the thing for you. SmoothTrack uses your mobile phone camera to track your headmovements and requires no other hardware to get you up andrunning. So, if you are looking for a simple and easy to use headtracking system, read on. Purchase, Download, Documentation And InstallationTo use SmoothTrack you will need a mobile phone with a camera, inmy case an iPhone X, the SmoothTrack app which you can download viathe relevant online store, (both IOS and Android platforms supported),and the freeware OpenTrack software which is available via GitHub. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack2.jpgSmoothTrack will run within the native X-Plane environment with nofurther add ons, however in my tests I found the level of smoothnesswas increased when X-Camera was installed. As I mentioned, you don'tneed it, however if you have X-Camera, I believe you will find the appruns better and the end user experience is enhanced somewhat. The app itself costs US$9.99, and as mentioned the OpenTracksoftware is free. According to the information and instructions provided by thedeveloper, the app is designed to run with any game or simulator thatsupports FreeTrack or TrackIR, however my tests here are purely withX-Plane 11.50. Installation of the system is relatively straight forward, andinstructions are provided at the app store, and you can be up andrunning in a few minutes. In saying that, I did have a few teethingproblems at first, however I believe these were more to do with thelimited instructions for X-Plane specifics and my own lack ofunderstanding, rather than anything to do with the app itself. Onething I do want to stress though, was the willingness of John thedeveloper to assist all my queries and questions. He was extremelyhelpful, supportive and quick to respond, even to the simplest andmost basic of questions. Great support and clearly someone whobelieves in his product. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack3.jpgOne basic mistake I made was that I did not click 'Enable TrackIR &TrackHat view tracking in 3D cockpit' in the Graphics menu in X-Planeat first, as this was not specifically mentioned in the installationinstructions. Once I worked that out, all was well. In addition, whenI had X-Camera installed this was no longer required and using theTrackIR function in X-Camera did the same thing. Make sure that youdo not have both switched on though, as you will experience judderingof the screen. The developer has also created a short video on You Tube which isextremely helpful and worth watching before you start: System Performance And OperationMy assessment was using X-Plane 11.50 and several differentaircraft types, including GA, tubeliner and helicopters. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack4.jpgMy current system consists of an Intel i9 9900K 3.6 GHz CPU,GTX2080Ti 11 GB GPU and 64 GB of DDR4 Kingston RAM at its core. I alsorun three 27" curved screens. My system settings are at the high endof the range with objects on max, HDR on, although shadows areswitched off. I also use SkyMaxxPro v4 and Traffic Global and theywere on throughout with a few weather preferences selected. On thisday, the weather was fine with three layers of clouds, a light breeze andgood visibility. Throughout the series of test flights, I observed nonoticeable change to my baseline frame rate as a result of using thisapp. Once the app is set up, it is amazingly simple to initiate.Basically, start your sim, open OpenTrack and then click start on theSmoothTrack app. You will then see a small camera window with yourface and off you go. One thing that really helps is to set a buttonwithin OpenTrack to center your view, as it will drift off from timeto time. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack5.jpgWithin OpenTrack you can also adjust various parameters, most ofwhich I didn't touch, however I did flatten the lines for yaw, pitch,roll, x,y,z in the Mapping properties window. The reason I did thiswas because I found that out of the box, the head movements were justtoo fast for my liking, and by flattening these lines you can slowthings down to suit your own preferences. It took me a little while towork all this out as there were no specific instructions provided,however again, the support from the developer was excellent, as heguided me through what to do. Once I had set things the way I wanted, it was a piece of cake toset up and run on subsequent visits to my sim. I have been a user of TrackIR for many years and found itparticularly good at tracking my head movements, the main downsidebeing all the extras you needed to make it work (hat, hat clip, IRunit). This was my only benchmark to test against as I have not usedother head tracking devices, and over all I was happy with theresults. There were however, one or two occasions that SmoothTracklost its place, but this was infrequent, and my belief was this ismore to do with the position of my phone and the camera rather thananything related to the app. The main issue I found with SmoothTrack,is indeed the positioning of my phone. I have accumulated quiteseveral hardware items, and therefore it took me a little time to finda suitable spot to locate my phone. In addition, due to the limitedspace I have, my yoke occasionally gets in the way of the camera andimpacts on the controls, but again this is nothing to do with the app,and just something to be aware of when you are positioning yourcamera. The app needs line of sight at all times to your head and facefor it to work flawlessly. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack6.jpgWithin the app itself there are also a number of Sensitivity andOffset sliders that allow you to adjust the position of the view in 3dimensions, and these can all be reset using a reset feature which Ifound very helpful when first setting the app up. It is just a case oftrial and error until you get it the way you want it. Again, you canplay around with this as much as you like until you find your ownsweet spot. One point to note is the app works equally well when your phone isin landscape mode as it does in portrait mode, and in landscape modeyou can slide the onscreen menus up and down to suit. One thing to beaware of is that the contact point for moving the menus up and down isin the center of the screen and not at the edges. It took me a whileto work this out... believe it or not! One final feature which I quite liked was the fact you can closethe screen whilst using the app if you do not want to be distracted byyour phone. Nice touch. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack7.jpgIn Flight Look And FeelFor me at least, headtracking tools need to be natural andcomfortable, both in terms of any add-ons you need, but also thevisual strain on your eyes, head and neck, etc. During my various test flights, I found SmoothTrack to be justthat, easy to use and comfortable. If you have not used headtrackingsoftware before it can take a little bit of time to get used to it,but the freedom you have with SmoothTrack I really liked. No extraperipherals to fiddle with, and with a couple of mouse clicks you areup and running. In flight I could move my head and the screen wouldfollow in a natural fluid manner (once I had the speed sorted) and didnot encounter any discomfort or nausea throughout. I could move my head, left, right, up and down effortlessly, and Icould also zoom in and out. All these settings and range of movementscan be adjusted to suit the individual's preferences, and in my case,I preferred more subtle movements rather than big sweeping ones. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack8.jpg /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack9.jpg /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack10.jpgAs I mentioned earlier, I also use X-Camera to enhance my viewingoptions, and SmoothTrack integrated very well with it when inside theaircraft cabin. I could easily sit in the back and look around thecabin, look out the window, etc. One thing to note, SmoothTrack doesnot work for external views, but for me that was no issue, as I havevarious other views in X-Camera when I wish to go outside. Overall, SmoothTrack was responsive and accurate, and equallyimportant, extremely easy to use and comfortable during flight. Final ThoughtsIf you are looking for a headtracking system to supplement yourflight simulator experience in X-Plane 11, SmoothTrack could just bethe thing for you. It is easy to set up and use, and I really like thenon-intrusive nature of the system when in flight. /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack11.jpg /images/reviews/smoothtr/t/SmoothTrack12.jpgThe overall control and response is good in my opinion, whichcoupled with the very helpful and responsive developer, who is keen tosupport users whilst continuing the development of his product, makesthis whole package a serious contender in this market in myopinion. In my own case, for at least the foreseeable future, I willbe ditching 'the hat' ... Hopefully, this review provides some useful user feedback on thisvery promising new addition to the head tracking world, and forfurther information on the app, please see the link below. Stuart McGregor More Info Here
