The discussion started in the Flight Sim thread but it seems like this is a topic that deserves its own thread.
I bought the Smoothtrack app on the Play Store and set it up with Opentrack. Once I had done the relevant port forwarding I managed to get the phone to communicate with Opentrack. Now to get it working in Assetto Corsa Competizione.
Apparently ACC does not support TrackIR but because the Unreal engine supports VR it can work. I found a config file that someone had set up, so loaded it in Opentrack and tested it out and…
It worked really well! A bit sensitive so maybe some tweaking would be in order but I couldn’t believe how well it tracked my head movements. So here I was looking into apexes, checking my side mirrors etc. I’ll include a video of how it works once I record one. Since my phone is used for the tracking I’ll need to borrow my wife’s phone to take the video.
The only issue now is to find a way to securely mount my phone.
Here’s the Opentrack settings file for ACC that I used (attached to the first post). You just need to convert the .xml to .ini by changing the extension and placing it in the configs directory.
Following on from these posts over on the MS Flight Sim topic:
I played a bit with the iOS Head Tracker app (cost ~R21 to release full version) and got it working pretty easily in MS Flight Sim, Dirt Rally 2.0 and Assetto Corsa without having to change anything. Struggled a little to get it recognized and then working well in F1 2020 though. The view was completely off and very sensitive in that one, so I’ll probably have to create an entirely separate profile just for F1 2020.
Grabbed a clip or two from Flight Sim and D Rally:
Was a bit weird flying in External camera view with the head tracking working, and found later that it also works when in Showcase view, which made taking a screenshot a bit tricky…
Very nice! What profiles did you use for Dirt and AC?
Also in Opentrack you can bind a hotkey for zero input i.e. it stops the head tracking until you press it again, which could be helpful when in the exterior view or photomode
Used the same profile I had set for Flight Sim - copied the ones in the setup video. They both could probably be tweaked a little to improve them - I just wanted to check if it would work.
So what’s the status of these “free” head tracking apps? I’m investigating either TrackIR or Tobii Eye Tracking for sim use, but if the options forgoing dedicated bespoke hardware work well enough, I might skip that expense and rather spend more on a super ultrawide monitor.
I’m quite over the discomfort, motion sickness and constant readjustment of using the Quest 2. Besides, my sim rig is now positioned in a place away from my gaming PC, so I’ll use my gaming laptop (which is still quite decent) for sim purposes. To gain the benefit of better positional awareness in flight, racing and space sims, head and/or eye tracking is a must for me.
I haven’t used mine in ages. But the free software just worked, last time I plugged in a spare phone as webcam. Provided you have something to turn your phone into a webcam.
Ironically, I started to notice I was tensing my neck muscles to make sure I wasn’t moving, else my point of reference during a turn would move, which threw out my judgement for corner apex.
I have a pretty decent (1080p, wide angle) webcam. So I guess that can work? Which software gave the best experience? I tried reading up on various online forums and opinions were wildly different.
I was going to post a message about my experience using the app and what the biggest problem was for me, but looky here, I did that already in the original post
Never really did get around to getting something to mount the phone.
