Track Hat

[Lee Enfield]

Is there any fine folks out there that have any experience of Track Hat head tracker ? Any set up advice, tips on set up etc. I have been trying to get this thing working with no luck. When I test it out all I get is minimal head movement in the cockpit. I've followed all the installation steps with Track Hat Open Track and CL Eye Test and everything looks fine on the eye test and open track screen. I've contacted the company but am waiting a few days for each reply and to be honest that system is not going to work in any hurry. The last reply said it may be a problem with the game/sim ? I would really appreciate any help regarding this to see if I can fix it or else I'm just going to have ask for a refund from them. Cheers in advance.

[ItsBillyFrazier]

Trackhat works fine. I assume you followed all the instructions correctly provided by trackhat, so hopefully some of the below may help.

1. When you open trackhat application, go to options, then Camera tab, make sure under "Status" you have this message " 640x480 @ 75FPS 3 OK! " (This determines that track hat is picking up your sensors correctly.)

2. Looking at the monitoring window (You should have 3 green crosses and one red). There should be no other crosses on this black screen, (Otherwise some other light source is messing up tracking). You need to use trackhat away from strong sources of natural light or have a strong
artificial light in view of the Tracking camera. This will mess up the tracking sensors.

3. If the above is ok, then you perhaps need to adjust your mapping to suit how sensitive your head movements translate into the game. This is a preference thing, so my setting may not be suited to you for example. Go to mapping and adjust the curves to your liking. This can take a bit of messing around until you get used to how each mapping tab works, but you will be mostly concerned with Yaw and Pitch for now. When you have these working reasonably well you can tweak Roll, X,Y,Z mappings later.

4. Trackhat requires tweaking in mappings to get it working the way you wish. This is done by trial and error. Open il-2 and trackhat mappings. Sit on the runway in the aeroplane and adjust mappings on the ground. More difficult when trying to fly and adjust mappings correctly.

Trackhat works great when setup correctly. I watched some YouTube videos and read some articles and after lots of fiddling with mappings, i finally found settings that work for me.
I use it for flight and car racing sims. Each game tends to require different mappings, so it is wise to make profiles for each game (Pretty straight forward after you have done it once).

Hopefully some of the above will help. If not, i suggest watching YouTube videos or researching some more on internet.


This guide explains much of the main principles but uses a slightly older version of Opentrack but much of it is relevant:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/34403-a-complete-guide-to-set-up-head-tracking-opentrack/

Good luck,be patient and don't be afraid to experiment so you can get settings that work best for you.

[ItsBillyFrazier]

Here is a snap shot of the screens I was talking about:

https://imgur.com/a/ohjert6

[Lee Enfield]

Originally posted by Tannhäuser:

Trackhat works fine. I assume you followed all the instructions correctly provided by trackhat, so hopefully some of the below may help.


Good luck,be patient and don't be afraid to experiment so you can get settings that work best for you.

Dear Sir, I'd just like to thank you for this comprehensive reply, it must have taken you some time and effort, so I am indebted to you. You gave a great explanation of why I may be having trouble and I have followed parts of your advice about the initial set up and tested out a few things, especially the mapping feature you pointed out. I've managed to make a huge difference to the range of head movement just from adjusting the mapping of pitch,roll and yaw, it's still a bit rough but I'll keep tweaking things till I'm happy with the motion. Also I'm using the Track Hat open track system which differs slightly from the open track set up, so I may also try that at some point and follow BlackHellHounds great tutorial (I had read this before, but as it dealt with opentrack rather than track hats system I kind of half dismissed it) anyway I'll install and run opentrack sometime and see if there's any major difference. Thank you again, you have restored my faith and given me the will to stay patient with it with promising results and to try and try again until it's spot on. It is very very much appreciated my friend, you are a true gent

[ItsBillyFrazier]

No problem, I remember being frustrated when i started and i had nobody to help and nearly gave up too. Glad you are getting there, stick with it as il-2 and Trackhat are great when you get the hang of it. Just keep playing around with your mappings. I'll post the rest of my settings if they seem to help, but like i said, use my settings only as a guide until you find settings which work for you.

Sorry i incorrectly said Opentrack earlier, I use Freetrack 2.0 enhanced.

Try these settings and play around until you find what works for you, good luck!

And if you ever think you can pay it forward and help another, then please do!

https://imgur.com/a/YFrV2t8

[Lee Enfield]

Originally posted by Tannhäuser:

No problem, I remember being frustrated when i started and i had nobody to help and nearly gave up too. Glad you are getting there, stick with it as il-2 and Trackhat are great when you get the hang of it. Just keep playing around with your mappings. I'll post the rest of my settings if they seem to help, but like i said, use my settings only as a guide until you find settings which work for you.

Sorry i incorrectly said Opentrack earlier, I use Freetrack 2.0 enhanced.

Try these settings and play around until you find what works for you, good luck!

And if you ever think you can pay it forward and help another, then please do!

https://imgur.com/a/YFrV2t8

I honestly can't thank you enough for all the help you have provided, it's made a huge difference. I've copied the settings you provided for future reference but also tested them out by setting mine up similar and it looks great so far, I may need to make a few fine tweaks, but running the game just now, everything worked as expected. It will take some getting used to, almost like being on a ship on a rough sea and breaking from the habit of using certain controls after 500+ hours without a head tracker, but I'm sure once I get used to it there will be no looking back (only with the headtracker) Thanks again my friend and I certainly will return the goodwill if the circumstance arises. I'm looking forward to letting James at Track Hat know that with your help it's been resolved too and pass on any info he may feel will help any future customers. Cheers my man