TrackIR 5 Head Tracking System – 6DOF USB Optical Motion Tracker for PC Gaming – Natural Head Movement Camera for Flight, Racing & Combat Simulators – Windows Compatible by NaturalPoint

A friend of mine bought one of these and I got to try it out first before I bought mine. I was sold on it immediately. For my purposes, I currently use it for Microsoft Flight Simulator and Warthunder. It's ridiculously easy to set up, just plug it in, download the software, then grab a hat to attach the hat clip and you're good to go. It works seamlessly with the games, all you have to do is open the TrackIR software first before you open the game. I didn't have to change any settings or anything, literally plug and play interface. What I like about this is that you have awareness of your surroundings vs being blind to everything around you in VR. It's a lot more convenient, a lot less intrusive in PC resources, not to mention a fifth of the cost. Wherever you move your head, it follows, and it's VERY accurate and smooth. For those of you that like to fly tail-draggers like I do, this allows you to open the canopy and stick your head out to see past the nose of the aircraft when taxiing. Not to mention be able to look around and find all your switches for startup procedures. 10/10 would definitely recommend.

I fly Microsoft Flight Sim X as a way to keep my head in flying while I cannot afford to exersize my real life certificate. I've been wanting one of these for a while and during the wait, Natural Point put out the new version 5. I finally bought it and, all I can say is "WOW!" Okay, that's not all I can say. When the package arrived, quickly I might add, from GoGamer, I was surprised at the size of the box. It was well over-packed and protected from the rigors of shipping. The actual unit is quite small. Unpacking from the bubble package is easier than the normal bubble packaging, too. I was going to wait for Christmas, put it under the tree, etc. but the kids will just have to understand! Setup is a snap. Installed the software from the website first, then plugged it all up. It just works. I picked one of the default profiles and went flying. It was wonderful to look around the airplane, although I habitually use the hat switch which is now largely useless. I haven't even explored all the settings, profiles, or adjusted anything but the flying is 100% better. I turned my head to look where the runway is! Simple thing, but so, so important for realism. Imagine leaning in forward to see and set the radio, or turn the OBS knob to a precise setting, or craning your neck up to see over the dash better. I'm hoping today to explore the settings some more. I picked a profile that moves actually too well. I need to expand the "dead zone" just a bit so my head movements don't make flying into what my wife calls a puke ride. It isn't of course. The only difficulty I've had so far is trying to assign buttons for "Center" and "Pause" to my Saitek yoke. I haven't figured out how to make it work. But this is due to my not having explored the software yet. The buttons assign in the Track IR software, but when I start the sim, they aren't functioning. I need to RTM. Bottom line: This Track IR should win the Nobel Peace Prize. It is an OUTSTANDING product. Even at the default settings I'm still using, it is a HUGE improvement over using the hatswitch for panning, the + and - buttons for zooming, the shift+enter to raise my head, etc. It's only going to get better for me as I improve my personal profile settings. If you are not sold on it yet, read flight sim forums for reviews. There are YouTube videos you can watch it in action. No one ever says they don't like it. If you're reading this review, you want it anyway. Buy it. You will NOT regret your purchase.

Looking up TrackIR year back, and having used FreeCamNoIR for a while with just a webcam, it was exciting to try out an official TrackIR product. After getting it setup and using it for a while now, here's my takeaway! What You Get: In the package is the TrackIR Camera, a plastic bar made to fit on a baseball cap with the three reflective 'trackers' affixed to it, a small adjustable magnetic mount that you place the TrackIR Camera on and can then place on top of your TV or whatnot, and the usual promotional/instructions paper stuff. Programming: After downloading the drivers and software from TrackIR's website and getting everything plugged in, I gave the software a go. It's a handy tool that lets you preview movement in a 3D sphere and adjust some settings to your liking (turning range/sensitivity). There's profiles you can use or create for more settings, but I haven't done that yet. You might want to look into that first thing, as there's an 'auto-center snap' feature that means when you're looking close to dead-on wherever your center point is, the TrackIR feature won't turn your view until you move far enough outside of the deadzone. The size of the deadzone, for me at least, is small enough that I am at least aware of where my 'center' is at all times, but big enough where it's always a distraction to have my in-game-view suddenly snap whe I don't want it to--or where I have to turn my head further than I normally would, just to 'escape' the deadzone. Take this paragraph for what it's worth in my opinion: software good, but be prepared to look into changing deadzones if that's going to be a distraction for you. However, the head tracking itself is pretty darn good. There's no, or at least, very little latency--your head movement will move your view in real-time, and being able to look around in ARMA or Elite Dangerous is a pretty sweet experience! It is well implemented and functional, and that's definitely a good thing! When it comes to what games are supported, it depends. Obviously, simuation games like ARMA, Flight Simulator X, XPlane, Elite Dangerous etcetera, are going to have built-in support. Getting TrackIR working in those games was as simple as checking a box labeled "Enable TrackIR", and in Elite Dangerous' case TrackIR was working as soon as I started the game. And in ARMA 3, at least, TrackIR movement was interpreted as joystic movement--if that holds true for other games, you could probably use TrackIR inputs for other games as well--but that's just me speculating. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with this. Fun stuff!

I purchased the TrackIR 5 for use with my racing simulation rig to be used in iRacing, Project Cars, and Assetto Corsa. It worked great in the beginning with all three titles after slowing its action and limiting its range of motion. Updates to PC and AC over the last few months (Q1 2017) have rendered it useless or erratic, while it still works like a champ in iRacing. I'm giving it 4 stars because of two reasons: 1. The looking up & down motions do not allow much range before the system become erratic - due to the IR tracker losing sight of one or more of the reflective points on the standard hat-mounted apparatus. I do not have the add-on headset mounted tracker, so I can't speak to its use. 2. There seems to be/have been no innovation, development or upgrades from Natural Point on this product - it's basically been all but static for several YEARS with little in the way of improvement. And with the PC and AC updates seemingly removing it (at least for now) from their equation, I can't justify giving it a 5 star rating. Having said all that, when it does work and has been adjusted for the Sim or game (limiting range and slowing action), it is excellent for driving simulators. I know having a moving point of reference is not for everyone but being a professional driver by trade, my natural tendency is to look through the corners and this makes that practice feel more natural when driving the Sim rig. It adds a little to the realism for me, which makes it worth the price. Even if the price is a little high for a product that seems to have become 'stabilized' by its mfg. I also purchased some 3M Scothlite reflective tape to mount on a racing helmet to achieve the same results and the supplied ball cap visor mount but have found getting the distances between the tape points correct (matching that of the ball cap visor mount's) increasingly challenging. I know I'm stepping outside of the product's stated range of use, and so I can't deduct anything for that. Overall, I recommend this product. It's expensive for what it is but it cut over 1 second off my lap time at a familiar track(s) because I can now look towards upcoming turn apex and exit points, allowing me to be smoother in my Sim driving.

Back in the late 90's and early 00's I flew flight sims heavily. At the time I spent a lot of time and money on HOTAS flight control systems, graphics cards, and other PC hardware. I took several years off, but early this year decided to get back into flight sims. A look at the currently available HOTAS systems shows they haven't changed much at all. Even the Sim of choice amongst many is based on the 1998 Falcon 4.0, so that hadn't changed. What had changed was the introduction of TrackIR. And what a change it is! This small device completely changes the game. This device, when used in a full 6-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) 3D cockpit, makes it a snap to just look around the cockpit and find what you need. Instead of having to use a hat switch on the hotas to pan my view around (which is tricky, especially when maneuvering in a dogfight) I can simply turn my head and have my view pan with it. These movements are natural, so I intuitively know where I'm looking (when not directly at the front of the cockpit). A friend had told me it would change everything for me, and that after I used it I wouldn't be able to imagine flying without one. That obviously set high expectations for me, and I'm happy to report that those expectations were met... and then some. Simply put, this is the greatest piece of hardware - and single greatest advancement - for flight sims (and any sims, for that matter) that I've ever seen. My experience has been that I had to make very few changes to the defaults. That said - you can spend as much time as you want dialing it in to be exactly where you want it. It's got lots of customizable options - none of which I've needed to use. Your experience may vary. A note on it's use: Avoid direct sunlight, and surfaces behind you that reflect IR light. These will interfere with it's operation if you're not using the pro clip. By default, the TrackIR will beam IR at you which are reflected off a metal clip that attaches to the bill of a baseball cap. Three reflectors on the hat clip allow the TrackIR to detect movement which it translates into input for the game. The Pro clip has active IR emitters, and clips onto a headset. This means you don't have to wear a hat, and you don't have to worry about IR reflective surfaces behind you. I've been told it's a better experience, but can't comment as I don't have one.

The TrackIR 5 system gives the user a refined, packaged product. It works as advertised and will not disappoint you. You may regret the purchase only because of its current expense, but you will be getting the best for any driving or flight simulator. Its primary technical advantage is the high framerate and precision of the black-and-white infrared camera, 120 FPS, with limited computer resources consumed. That is why a webcam and some free tracking software are an inferior solution for precise head-tracking; until webcam technology and prices improve, low-end webcams cannot give the same performance. TrackIR can detect changes in the orientation of the tracking clip of hundredths of degrees, and millimeters of spatial movement: less than what a human brain would readily perceive. You may alter the subsequent math and functions of the raw input for use in your program. If you take half an hour to customize and fine-tune the default settings included with TrackIR, you adapt the technology to you, not you to the technology. It's not as though you need to track your head, either. Put it on your foot, or put it on your swivel chair, or put it on your cat if you trust her to help you play. You can pause tracking at any time with a simple hotkey. It is partially because of its actual precision that NaturalPoint has intentionally limited its usefulness outside of the pre-defined supported games and generic "Mouse Emulation" executable which attempts to give basic mouse emulation for programs not officially supported but which will not allow usage of the mouse in non-games. The TrackIR hardware and software are, however, technically capable of full emulation for a desktop mouse or a joystick, but the methods of implementing this present something of a moral dilemma: adapting the TrackIR system into a general-use mouse means that NaturalPoint's much more expensive head-tracking package for the disability market is much less attractive and exclusive (e.g. for someone unable to use an ordinary optical mouse), but so severely limiting the system's function means that casual buyers are restricted from using their purchase to its full potential. So, if someone were to use TrackIR and some programmable input emulation software for the purpose of adapting TrackIR into a device usable in any situation with its full, ultra-precise "6 degrees of freedom", then I suppose that's "hacking" in the hobbyist sense of the word, but it would be an affront to the engineers and investors who put so much work and money into developing TrackIR into the wonderful gaming controller that it is. Yet, TrackIR is capable of so much more if only the tools to do these things were available as part of the proprietary package. TrackIR is to head-tracking as Microsoft Windows is to operating systems: you get a good, polished product that tends to work, but nerds complain on the internet about how closed it is. It's like buying a car and discovering that its maximum speed is governed to never exceed the speed limit, and then one day you open up the hood and see the governor laxly tied on with a "do not remove" sign. You paid for it. What you do is up to you.

Works perfectly, as expected.

Works great with Arma 3 for piloting. Since it is basically a camera combined with an AI algorithm, it does not 100% accurately measure my head’s position, but it does come close and definitely adds a valuable new method of view control to the game. The smoothing feature in the TrackIr software adds some latency but increases accuracy. The software has all of the configuration options I would expect, including full editing control over the amplification curves for all 6 axes. I use the basic metal track clip (not the pro) and easily attached it to the top of my headphones with some zip ties — works fine and software can’t tell the difference. My wife thinks I look like an alien when wearing it, and it makes a satisfying “boing” sound when you flick it with your finger. The metal clip is of a strong and durable material. Only reason for 4 stars is because it is only 95% or so accurate. This is really a limitation of the technology, not the quality of the product. I wouldn’t expect a competing product to be any better. The product is great quality. I think in a few years this will be obsoleted by something better thought. But it IS a game changer and it IS worth the money. Also worth mentioning that I have some weird lights in my kitchen with like xenon or some weird space plasma. Apparently they emit infrared light which screws up the TrackIr (it thinks the light is one of the reflective points on the head clip, causing the output values to go wacky). In the software, you can view the IR camera view and the offending light is in close proximity to my head from the camera’s perspective. If I move such that the light is sufficiently far enough away from the line of sight to my head, then the AI in the software is smart enough to ignore the light and properly track my head. Normal light bulbs don’t get picked up by the camera so shouldn’t be an issue, just these weird xenon bulbs I have, anyways I just turn them off. The camera view in the software makes it easy to debug how well the camera can see you (the 3 points it is tracking show up green and other candidate IR readings that are being ignored show up red). And again, the AI that powers this software is pretty amazing and very 21st century.