Introduction:
Looking back in the past regarding to my virtual flight experience I can easily say that I tested quite few hardware products such as joysticks & HOTAS devices, basicly all the “ regular ” stuff but I never really had the chance yet to test something that Naturalpoint sent us for a review, their finest head tracking device TrackIR 3 Pro with vector expansion. TrackIR 3 PRO has been around for years and you would be surprised if you would ask someone who is into simming and he replies “ no I dont know what that is ” because that wouldn't be the case, everybody there knows what track IR is and most of them already have one.
Track IR 3 Pro with vector expansion is only a proof for Track IR developers that they have put alot of hard work and effort to make the final product as realistic as possible, they have implemented what's so called “ 6 Degrees of freedom ” or 6DOF as shortcut which means that you can Look left, right, up and down also look at tilted angles, Lean left,right, up and down with the lean movement in and out (zoom). All these movements are not fully suported in all the games but in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 you can actally experience the true power of the Track IR system.
Instalation:
I've been working alot on my computer changing, installing modifying or adjusting hardware/software issues and I can sadly say that I don't recall if I ever installed something that once installed worked imediately without question. That is why I was extremely pleased with the instalation of Track IR. The procedure takes you not more then 2-3 minutes. Adjust the Track IR reciever on your monitor, plug it into your USB input, put the vectoring clip on the cap and insert the installation CD following the installation instructions. Piece of cake! Once I installed it I rebooted my machine just in case but I do believe the track IR works even witout that. Anyways, when you finally load the track IR software all you need to do is activate your product with the serial key you recieved with the box (make sure you're internet connection is enabled) and after that the joy finally begins.
I was so excited with it that believe me on my words, I couldn't be really bothered to adjust it in the settings all I did was, I enabled Lockon Modern Air Combat profile and started the game saying what the heck, I'll work on the adjustment later I just need to test this thing out. Dam was I excited!
Put your head in the game:
I loaded the first mission I could really find in the big bunch of missions I got on my computer and started my first ever Track IR flight! The mission loaded and there, I found myself in the cockpit of one of the most beautiful fighter jet in the world, the notorious Su27 Flanker B. Lucky me my plane was parked on the deck because my views really went crazy...happens when you're not usedto head motion tracking technology obviously but then I focused on my head movements and believe it or not I quite mastered the technique in no more than 2 minutes and that amazed even me. Started the engines and after like a minute and a half when the engines spooled I started taxing to the runway. I still had that to take care to point my eyes exactly where I want them to be virtualy but it really wasn't that hard. Lined up with the centerline on runway 04 awaiting tower to give me the clearance. 2 seconds after the clearance has been given, my head automaticly looked on the bottom left of the cockpit checking if the flaps are extended...looked up towards the sky to double check if my canopy is down...all systems go flight! Rolling! Once I lifted off I again checked the bottom left to see if my gears and flaps are retracting. Seeing the green lights for gears and flaps start to blink and hearing the mechanical noise right under me the jet was again ready for the mission. It didn't pass more then 30 seconds when I got painted by an unknown aircraft. Radar warning reciever was showing the threat on my 9 o'clock...radar signal was pretty strong too meaning the target was not more then 40 kilometers away from me. I turned into him and started closing on him fast. When I got within visual range I started closing up towards my monitor and the track IR imediately started zooming in into my HUD. I could easily see the threat, a tiny black dot on the same altitute dead ahead on my 12 o'clock. He locked me up...I rapidly zoomed out and checked bottom right in my cockpit, the RWR (radar warning receiver). He locked me but I could hear any launch warning tone but the lock tone. Only radar or semi active radar missiles when fired, you can hear them as a constant beeping sound...if it's a IR heat seaking missile on the other hand you wont hear beeping sound only lock. Just of precausion I turned my jet 90 degrees to the right from his flight path and zoomed in with track IR again putting his plane on my 9 o 'clock...I zoomed in and what did I see...a white trail closing me fast! By the firing range I could easily presume that was a Aim 9 M Sidewinder. I started my defensive maneuvering putting the missile on my 3/9 line, puffing flares and at all times keeping the missile in my sights. When the missile was around 2-3 kilometers from me I stared to turn into it and I could see it pass right under me. I double checked turning my head into the passing missile...it went straight. Phew! Ok now let's see where that sucker is...turned my head fast to the left and I could see the bogey passing me head on once I turned into him sharp. It was an F-16 Falcon, very good dogfighting plane. I said to myself, this guy is going down and he will go down under my guns. Switched to helmet mounted sight close air combat radar mode and started maneuvering with him. I could easily see he wants all the angles so I kept my eyes on him pulling hard lag pursuit on him making him bleed speed. When I realise he can hardly keep up with me I pulled a high yo-yo and moved on him from above. On a dive I still used a little bit of lag to position myself well for a good snapshot. He pulled up I pulled with him...I had a great angle on him, pulled hard lead and smacked the guy with few rounds of my 30 mm cannon. When I was shooting I zoomed in hard and all I could see is my HUD and the gun pipper right over that F16. When the pilot ejected I zoomed out, started looking in the centre of the cockpit and turned back home. Double checked my fuel gauge to see if I have enough fuel to return home; realised I had so I switched on my NAV mode and followed vectors to home base. When I was flying home I couldn't put my eyes of the sunset on my left which was beautiful. Another mission succesful!
Looking back at that mission I had this afternoon I can only say I was amazed with the smoothness of track IR system. Actualy in the heat of the battle I forgot all about it, it felt so natural I couldn't believe, everywhere I wanted to put my eyes on to virually they were there instanteniously. Quite Impressive I must say.
Individual thoughts:
Since my virtual squadron is flying Lock On Flaming Cliffs and individualy we do fly other simulations I will state my thoughts on this product regarding the sim we play on regular basis. Regarding to Lock On I couldn't really find any bad side for the track IR...It works flawlessly, head motion sensitivity is very smooth and fluid same goes for zooming in and out. Even though Lock On does not support all 6 axis movements the ones it does support ( yaw, pitch and Z axis) they are more then enough actually. I agree sometimes it is very useful to be actually able to look right over the edge of the instrument panel (if you are below flight path on a landing for example) but I really didn't feel the need for that in Lock On. It is probably because I am used to it since I have been playing that game from day one but thinking at it objectively it really doesn't lack much that option. Maybe in the future development of the game they will enable that but its only for us to speculate that.
I still don't have enough experience with the track IR but I'm guessing my learning curve on it will not be steep at all...as a matter of fact I pretty much got used to it on the first day, all I need to do now is get hours and hours of flying with it and enjoying every second using it. Also for all of you dedicated simmers that thought padlock view is something you really can't fly without properly with the track IR system I don't use padlock anymore (and thats after 7 years of doing so) the reason is, forcing myself to get used to only track IR and secondly putting more realism in the flight sim. Once you start using track IR after few hours of getting used to it the feeling is unbeliveable. You really feel like you are right there inside that cockpit which is only another high five for the Track IR developers.
What also impressed me is the compatibility with the listed games; I really thought I will need to adjust the track IR settings in some in-game software even though I know it was full compatible with the game. I was pleasantly surprised when I loaded a mission in Lock On and track IR was active and operational. So basicly all the adjustments you want to work on are present in the track IR software utility, they are not related with the game but the actual program. Adjust it as you like the most ( sensitivity, smoothness, agressivness on the view changes, dead zones and so on) save it as a profile, load the game and enjoy the changes.
The Track IR software is extremely user friendly and I bet it will not take you more then 2 minutes to adjust every single thing you like even for an average user. Of course all the changes you make you can test them immediately with the head movement screen (fig.3 Heads screen) gauges screen (fig.5 Gauges) or tracking screen (fig.4 tracking). I have found heads screen very useful because it actually displays you how much head movement it takes to change views completely side to side in the game. Tracking screen is very useful for fixing your cap or the track IR in the dead centre so you don't need to hold your head sideways in order to hold the view straight centre lol. In the gauges screen you can actually test the responses for each axis including the dead zones. It may seem alot of things to take care of but in all honesty it really is user friendly to it's maximum.
Conclusion:
To conclude this review I can only say that I was extremely pleased testing this funky piece of hardware and I was quite impressed with the funcionality, user friendly interface (when installing or adjusting profiles) smooth head motion capture and stability within games. There are few drawbacks on it as nobody is perfect eventually. Firstly, if you use default profile due to the high sensitivity of the track IR system if you want to hold your view straight you should freeze up your neck movements and that can cause a neck ache after a while but in the profiles you can freeze up your in game view movement for a long flight for example.Secondly, even though the supported game list is pretty large other games that can't be found on that list won't work with track IR. Lastly, since the vector expansion clip can be mounted on any other cap (tried it myself) and it works quite the same as good (naturalpoint cap has a reflective target in the middle of it so in tandem with the vector expansion clip it does catch the signal easier and smoother then other caps) I would still admit that 20 $ for it is maybe a bit to steep. On the other hand I would suggest you to buy it if you plan getting the track IR system. As a closing word, I desperately tried to find any other bad side of this magnificent piece of hardware but I really couldn't; not only that is unique on the market but also a top notch product and I would strongly advise getting it for all those hardcore simmers like myself.
This product was tested on:
AMD Barton 2.5 Ghz
EpoX Via KT 600 Motherboard
1024 MB DDR Twin Mos Twister RAM
Ati Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT 128 DDR
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Hitachi 120 GB
Thrustmaster Afterburner 2 HOTAS
Support: www.naturalpoint.com
Direct product link: www.naturalpoint.com/trackir
Best regards and many thanks to NaturalPoint.
Special thanks to Mr Jason Williams for giving us the oportunity to review trackir.
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