Head / eye tracking. Tobii, Trackir, or something else? Which is best.

[TheChugginRhino]

Recently been looking into tracking devices, and quite unsure which do you (the community) prefer. Looking for opinions, preference, et cetera.

Only things I look at are game functionality and features comparatively to pricing, as these are quite pricey.

[Asigion]

TrackIr 5 is excellent in all games which support it.

[Slayer [PT]]

I have track Ir 5 and I'm very happy with it

[Reese]

I have a basic headtracker, less than $35USD. Works well once you figure out distance and FOV settings.

I don't have experience with other headtracking devices, apart from this PS3 Eye camera and 3 IR LED clip that attaches to my headset.

[Agima]

I have a Tobii 4c and love it. Both head AND eye tracking feel so much more natural than head tracking only!

[Lazarus {FATE}]

I have the TrackIR 5 and the Tobii 4c and while the eye tracking is great in some games it's not really needed in ATS and it's limited in the distance from your monitor and size of your screen or multi monitor setup.

TrackIR has better multimonitor use and the distance you can sit from the sensor is longer. My 32 inch screen is about borderline for the 4C but my 3 screen setup used TrackIR and 3 27 inch 1440p was fine.

Things are getting better with the 4C but I find my TrackIr superior in ATS.
That being said I play exclusively in VR now so things might be different.

I love my 4C in Vermintide 2 though.

[ravenlord69]

I have track IR and Tobii 4c i like the Tibii much better but both are very good. Comes down to personal preference

[FateOfNorns]

I also have a Tobii 4C and Track IR 5 and wanted to like the Tobii, but ended up going back to using the Track IR (after trying with ATS,/ETS2 and X:4). I found the Tobii to be somewhat inaccurate and less smooth compared to the Track IR head movement. One problem I found with the Tobii (specifically related to trucking) was the fact that you can't seem to configure it to have different tracking sensitivities, and accelerations based on which way you are looking, which for a driving game I feel is important since you aren't sitting in the centre of the vehicle.

For example, in ATS/ETS2 I have my Track IR graph set up so that I can turn my head left up to about 40 degrees at close to a 1:1 ratio so it feels natural to look out the window when merging and checking my left mirror, then beyond 40 significant acceleration kicks in so I don't have to turn my head much further to look 180 degrees towards the back of the truck. Looking right however, I set the graph so it maintains close to a 1:1 all the way up to about 60 degrees where it changes to a much lower ratio so the camera is effectively stopped from continuing beyond looking out the right window. This sort of customisation is not possible with the Tobii software at the moment; If I accelerated looking left beyond 40 degrees, then the same applied for looking right, and when checking traffic on the right I would forever be looking at the bed and if felt completely unnatural. If I tried to correct that by lowering the acceleration then looking out the left window became awkward. Ultimately with the Track IR I was able to customise it to feel much more natural.

For games that don't support head tracking, but do have Tobii features, it is a neat product. I have been using it in theHunter CotW and find the eye tracking to be useful and immersive, I do however keep the head tracking off.

Probably I'm just more used to using the Track IR since I've had it for much more than a year and the Tobii for only a few months and everyone would obviously have their own preferences when it comes to something like this. I suppose it depends on exactly what games you plan to use the tracking with and if you felt you could take advantage of Tobii features in certain games where the Track IR is not supported. Personally from an ATS/ETS2 perspective however, I would recommend the Track IR over the Tobii.

[Agima]

You do need to have a decent framerate more than 60 at least) to have a smooth experience with Tobii. Otherwise it feel like it's lagging a bit.

However, there are MANY sensitivity settings to help as much as possible with that. For instance, while my head tracking is very sensitive, to recreate my own head movement, my eye tracking sensitivy settings are more subtle, just enough to be able to look at my truck's mirror without having to turn my head (or at least not by very much). Like I said, just for the, it feels very natural, just like real life when you are driving. You do move your eyes at the same time of your head while looking left and right.

All in all, either be by in-game sensitivity settings or via the tobii software, anyone have to take some time to properly configure the multiple sensitivity settings in order to get a better experience. Skip that step and you'll likely have a bad, non-representative experience of what Tobii can do.

[C-GMAL]

DelanClip. 1/3 the price of TrackIR and built like a tank, not flimsy like TrackIR.

[TheChugginRhino]

Originally posted by B.J. McKay:

DelanClip. 1/3 the price of TrackIR and built like a tank, not flimsy like TrackIR.

Curious what model DC you are using, and camera. I gave them a look, definitely looks like good one to go with as a starter. Thinking of giving it a go @ £40, not bad honestly.

[FateOfNorns]

@Agima

I agree, the settings do take a while to tweak for either device, Tobii has put out a good video on youtube which shows examples of all the different settings in game which I found helpful when setting up mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq3dFRM_Og0

Some good examples of other peoples settings are on the SCS forums https://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=281692 which are nice starting points.

Keep in mind that Shift+Numlock is a shortcut directly into the in-game eye tracking settings which saves a lot of time when tweaking to your preference.

[ravenlord69]

Originally posted by FateOfNorns:

@Agima

I agree, the settings do take a while to tweak for either device, Tobii has put out a good video on youtube which shows examples of all the different settings in game which I found helpful when setting up mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq3dFRM_Og0

THis was the video i used to set mine up on both ets2 and ats .

[RyanBurnsRed]

I have both and have to say that I really like the reliability and responsiveness of the TrackIR. Downside is that you need to wear something on your head, either a cap or headset to use it.

The Tobii 4C costs the same as TrackIR but takes out the need to have anything on your head and adds in eye tracking. So it's a 2 in 1 kind of deal for the same price. Unfortunately it's not meant for really fast and responsive movements in my experience.

TrackIR is good for stuff like DCS, IL-2, and Elite Dangerous where you need fast and reliable camera movement.

Tobii 4C is good for games like this or other casual stuff where you just need to check something like your mirrors or anything on the UI.

Whichever you choose will be good enough for this game, just be careful with the 4C if you wear glasses. It works, but it's not great.

[CeeJay726]

VR. Nothing beats the feeling of actually being inside the truck.

[Sandhill]

Originally posted by TheChugginRhino:

Originally posted by B.J. McKay:

DelanClip. 1/3 the price of TrackIR and built like a tank, not flimsy like TrackIR.

I have been using my TrackIR for seven years and it has never skipped a beat, still good as new. I use the basic Track Clip which mounts to a hat and it is pretty indestructible. The Track Clip Pro is pretty universally considered a piece of junk and a waste of money.
TrackIr remains the industry standard and I have never for a moment regretted purchasing mine...