I've started using my old TrackIR 3 (without Vector Expansion) recently after several years of disuse. Now, don't get me wrong—I learned how to use TrackIR and used it very effectively for years. I scored rather high on the charts of a full switch server for weeks before I quit. So, although some "re-learning" might be necessary, it isn't that I don't know how to use it.

The problem I'm having now is that I can't get my curve set up properly no matter what I do. I've fiddled with it for hours. No matter what I try (including some pretty crazy curves just out of desperation), I have at least one of the following two problems, and often both: either the sensitivity is too low and I have to strain my eyes to see the monitor out of the corner of my eye socket when checking my six, or else the sensitivity is too high and even the slightest motion of my hand on the joystick sends my virtual head spinning. (Newton and his pesky Third Law!) There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

Again, I realize that I'm rusty, but I feel quite certain that it was never this bad, even when I used TrackIR for the first time. I don't think I've moved my monitor since I last used my TrackIR, although the size of the dot has changed (I'm out of the stickers and using a piece of reflective material from another source); it's larger than it should be. I don't think that should cause this problem, though. I do know that I'm too close to the TrackIR; sitting in my chair in my normal position, I can reach out and touch my TrackIR on top of my monitor without moving my head or my torso. But like I said, I think it's always been this way. The only change I can think of is the size of the "sticker."

Any ideas? Can anyone help me out?

Hhmm, weird. It sounds like you did the expected thing, setting up a deadzone and then some acceleration?

Yeah, I tried that. The problem seems to be that the different "points" are added, rather than being a considered percentages of the whole. So if you start out low and end up high, your overall range is lower than if you started out high and ended up high. It isn't like a joystick curve, where as long as the beginning value is 0 and the end value is 100 you get minimum and maximum deflection in the same spots. If my entire TrackIR curve consists of points with very high values, then I don't have to look out of the corner of my eye at the monitor. But if the middle points have low values (so I don't have Shake-O-Vision), then even if the rest of the points have very high values, I still have to look at the monitor out of the corner of my eye.

Which version of the IR software are you using?

Looking at the Tracking screen, is the IR point centered in the camera view itself?

Are you seeing three light dots in the software?

Version 4.1 build 37. Yes, it's (approximately) centered.



No, just one. This is TrackIR 3.

AS you move your head, does the single point shift, or blink, green/red?

No, it stays green.

Hi Josh,

I hope you can get trackir working again. I have trackir 5 so I don't know if my profile will work for you.

Vincent will a 5 profile work in 3?

Just in case it doesn't work I've put screenshots on the curves I use for rise of flight.
Profiles go in C:\Program Files (x86)\NaturalPoint\TrackIR5\profiles

You can get my profile here: Taipans ROF Trackir5 Profile

Good luck!

NOTE: You may not like my Z axis, it is very sensitive to make it easy on my neck for zoom. I did that because I am using Vanders trick to map zoom to Z axis for more immersion instead of using buttons.
NOTE: X axis deadzone is so that you stay on the gunsight when your head comes back to center. Y axis deadzone is very big because when you zoom in with your head it does move DOWN somewhat which can come off your gunsight, and besides I hardly care about shifting head position up and down, it's left and right that's important along with yaw and pitch to follow targets.

To map zoom to trackir, check this post: Vanders Trackir Zoom

Nope as the IR 5 profile, won't have support for the older software, or additional axes, as the Ir3, w/o vector is only 2 DOF

Is the IR point on the brim of a hat, or on the glasses/forehead?

Thanks for the post, Taipan. Next time I wrestle with it I'll try to replicate your curves.

Vincent, it's effectively on the brim of a hat. It's actually on the end of a rigid paper tube that's, uh, taped to a paper band that goes around my head. It looks quite silly, but it is well-taped and it's about as rigid as my old rig, which was a visor with a piece of one-gallon plastic jug securely taped to the brim and the reflective sticker on the plastic. Wobble is not the problem. The paper tube is exactly the length of my old visor. Both my old rig and this new one have all of the reflective surface facing the TrackIR unit.

can you post a screen shot ofthe camera view?

What do you mean by "camera view"? Is that the Tracking window?

High Echo!

I was using TIR 1 for several years in Il2. I built a special "transmission" device in order to amplify my head movement.

You need a little paper or styrofoam ball.
A wooden stick like the ones you use in oder to stick peaces of meat on them for shashlik.
Some peace of reflecting cloth f.g. from a emergency west or plenty of the reflecting stickers which come with the Tir.
The cork plug of a whine bottle.

Cover the ball with the reflecting material, stick it on the wooden stick, tape the cork plug on the top of your headset, stick the wooden stick to the cork plug on the top of your headset.

The ball is better recognized by the TIR device than a single flat sticker at different angles. By the length of the stick a small head movement becomes a larger movement of the reflecting ball and the reflector is closer to the TIR than your head.

I works great for me.

Good luck

P.S. As far as I remember you could adjust the dotsize in the former versions of the TIR software. Sometimes when my TIR device started to act jerky I cured it by un and replugging the USB connector.

Thanks for the suggestion, Brummer.

The other thing to consider if you can find a good price is trackir 5 with track clip pro.

I've never had any other version, but comparing the LED track clip pro to the standard reflector dots - I find the LED clip gives me much finer control and NO issues, compared to using dots that occasionally can be out of view or jump.

First time I installed it with DCS black shark, started using the helmet mounted gunsight and wow it was awesome Now I've kind of gotten used to having it but I still feel amazed at the immersion once I'm "jacked in" to my sim. Headphones/mic on, HOTAS, pedals, and a fan blowing on me lol.

There are limits to what you can do with a Tir3. I used to have a Tir2 and spent hours tweaking the curve to make sure it would not move too slow, too fast, too jerky.

The first step should be to watch your "head view" in the camera in full screen to make sure the Tir camera sees your dot through all ranges of motion and there are no other light sources that can confuse the program. You may also make the "dot" bigger to make it easier for the program.

You can also try different pre made curves to see which works best, although you will probably have to tweak them to your taste. I had also mapped the various commands to my stick (i.e. turn off/on, center, precision mode) when I needed to reset.

The best suggestion, as someone else mentioned is to upgrade. I now have a Tir4 and with the latest software, it works flawlessly, smoothly, naturally w. no adjustments required.

Yep, I've already done this. Also have tried many different curves, spending hours fiddling.



Well, I know that TrackIR 3 worked for me before, so I'm not altogether opposed to getting a TrackIR 4 or 5. But, since TrackIR 3 doesn't work for me now, I'm very hesitant to buy a TrackIR 4 or 5. If 3 doesn't work for me now, then how can I know that 4 or 5 would? It isn't that the 3 is broken. It's that my ergonomic situation has changed slightly. How can I know that upgrading would help that enough to make it effective again? If such a slight change renders the 3 unusable ...
(And besides all that, I don't have the money to upgrade right now.)