Head Tracking

[John Wells]

Has anyone used the head tracking, is it any good and should I go and purchase an eye toy?

 

[Stew2000]

Once it's setup perfectly it works really well. just only in arcade mode though.
Not worth buying it just for GT5. if you do want it you should get EyePet too.
Sounds like a good christmas present.

 

[Bob_Raptor]

I have used it, not extensively though, I think I used it for about an hour in total. It's more of a gimmic than anything else IN MY OPINION. AND it only works in arcade mode.

But it can work well if you tweak the settings a bit.

Hope this helps.


Sorry, post above me got in just before me, but yea, like Stew2000 said....

 

[John Wells]

Can you not use it for in side the cars to so you can turn the drivers head and see whos on the inside of you?

 

[Stew2000]

That's kinda the point of it. it only works in cockpit view.
you can (to an extent) look around up, down, left, right.
and it also pans too. so you can try and look over the bonnet.

 

[Stew2000]

Here's a quick vid I just made. Mine could do with a bit of tweaking but you'll get the idea of what it does...

 

[John Wells]

Thanks very much, it would have been better if you could have used it in gt life. If it doesn't inhance the game I might not bother cheers.

John

 

[Ibonibo]

it also works in practice drift, don't know for the other practice events.

But it is a gimmick, and me it takes my concentration away. But it's also an habit question.
Still fun though

 

[Zychon]

In its current state it is a bit of a gimmick. I really hope they work on this, though. If you play race, combat flight sims, or ArmaII on your computer and you have a TrackIR, you know how great it is not just for immersion, but for situational awareness. Particularly for stuff like looking into a turn.

What this feature needs (beyond to be implemented in the rest of the game), is a sensitivity curve and the ability to assign deadzones. You should only have to move your head a little to see out of the driver or passenger side window some, and with that increased sensitivity, the deadzones would keep your POV from constantly drifting when you were trying to look forward.

I thought it would be weird as hell turning my head to look around but keeping my eyes forward to see the screen. It's amazing how your mind instantly adapts to it though. I won't fly a combat sim without one, and there are a lot of racing titles for the PC that go through the trouble of supporting this feature, because if done right, it really does make a difference.

TrackIR 5
Freetrack

Youtube - TrackIR Dogfight

Youtube - TrackIR 5 and ArmaII


Check this guy out!

 

[John Wells]

Yes I could do with one in Il 2 for PS3, that would be cool when your in full cockpit view.

 

[Destinkeys]

You remember the story of the American space program spending millions to develop a pen that wrote in zero-G, and the Soviets just taking pencils?💡

This seems very much the same thing. We have ALL got used to using the cross cursor to look sideways for years now. Trouble is, it JUMPS (and looks a bit far). It would have been MUCH easier to simply animate the 'side-look' capability so it mimics a head turn, and a pretty simple 'press and release' gives you a mild head turn and 'press and hold' give you a full turn of the head.

But NOOOooooo....!

Sony/PD got to foist this half baked apology for a feature on us, chew up the CPU, and only work in ONE mode, ONE view...

What I'd give for a pencil, right now....

 

[Nissan_Z32_90]

Well, we "Americans" had to write in space with class! Just downright stupid they wasted so many people's hard working tax dollars for that.

 

[INSTG8R]

In its current state it is a bit of a gimmick. I really hope they work on this, though. If you play race, combat flight sims, or ArmaII on your computer and you have a TrackIR, you know how great it is not just for immersion, but for situational awareness. Particularly for stuff like looking into a turn.

What this feature needs (beyond to be implemented in the rest of the game), is a sensitivity curve and the ability to assign deadzones. You should only have to move your head a little to see out of the driver or passenger side window some, and with that increased sensitivity, the deadzones would keep your POV from constantly drifting when you were trying to look forward.

I thought it would be weird as hell turning my head to look around but keeping my eyes forward to see the screen. It's amazing how your mind instantly adapts to it though. I won't fly a combat sim without one, and there are a lot of racing titles for the PC that go through the trouble of supporting this feature, because if done right, it really does make a difference.

Yep I really can't Sim without be it driving or flying(TrackIR 4 with Trackclip).

I play with a G25/Playseat Evo combo and for that reason I was tempted to buy an Eyecam for my PS3 but I haven't even been in Arcade Mode and as has been stated and from what I have read it is not really that effective.

Shame really...

 

[freedomweasel]

You remember the story of the American space program spending millions to develop a pen that wrote in zero-G, and the Soviets just taking pencils?💡

This seems very much the same thing. We have ALL got used to using the cross cursor to look sideways for years now. Trouble is, it JUMPS (and looks a bit far). It would have been MUCH easier to simply animate the 'side-look' capability so it mimics a head turn, and a pretty simple 'press and release' gives you a mild head turn and 'press and hold' give you a full turn of the head.

But NOOOooooo....!

Sony/PD got to foist this half baked apology for a feature on us, chew up the CPU, and only work in ONE mode, ONE view...

What I'd give for a pencil, right now....

I have free look set to the right thumbstick, and I think if you press up on the stick, then turn it left/right you get a better look around rather than just a snap left or right.

 

[sweetjones]

I set the left/right view to my thumbstick. The eyecam just seems so useless. Headtracking is useless unless it has 6DOF capabilities. Thats why I wish TrackIR was compatible with the PS3.

 

[cleanme]

How far away are your cameras in order to work? Does it auto enable?

 

[Demolisher_1]

It's pretty cool. I got it to work best in low light. When it worked the best for me I didn;t notice any jumpiness in it at all... the motion was very smooth.

 

[the Interceptor]

I bought a PSeye for this, and I must say I don't think this is a useful feature right now. I love the idea as such, and I can accept that it is only available in few driving modes due to a memory issue right now. My gripes have a different reason:

Lighting
The room I play in is actually lit quite well, I don't play in absolute darkness. The lights I have illuminate my face only partial though. This makes head tracking work okay in one direction, but almost not at all in the other. This obviously is a fixable issue, but since it is already quite bright in my room, I don't want to use another lamp for this. I have used the big lights for demonstration purposes, and it does improve movement tracking severely. This level of light however is not suitable for playing.

Lag
There is a distinct lag of 0.5 to 1 second between me moving my head and the game altering the view accordingly. It doesn't sound like much, but when I'm aiming for that apex and try to look into it, I need to look into it now. The lag might be something I can adapt to over time, but it is very hard because I would need to turn my head into the next corner while keeping my eyes on the straight. Basically, I need to pre-adapt to compensate the lag, which makes this feature not helpful, but distracting.

Losing the "overview"
So this is where it gets tricky. Since the game can not simulate any forces on my body, I need other measures to detect the behavior of my car when I'm on the edge. My main source of information is the view out of the car. When I notice that the direction of movement doesn't seem to be correct, I initiate countersteering to keep my car on track. This however only works when the view remains straight ahead. And since head tracking changes exactly that, I lose almost all of my feeling for what the car does.
This effect is amplified significantly by the aforementioned lag, because the view does not follow my head directly, so my brain can hardly, if at all, compensate for the more or less randomly and unsuspectedly changing view. If the movement would be instant, I might be able to adapt to this with enough experience, but as it is now, I can't.

Verdict
In its current state, this is not more than a gimmick for me which is nice to try, but nothing useful. I could imagine that they will improve this feature when they make it available throughout the game with a patch, but as it is right now, it's hardly worth the effort.