I thought I'd start a thread about this alternative to TrackIR or FreeTrack.
Its big advantage is that no headgear or leds or spots are needed, it works by face-mapping using a standard webcam.
The software can be downloaded from http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm. Its relaxed donationware, if you continue to use it you should donate...

I'm using the PS3 Eye camera, which needs third-party drivers installed (Sony don't support PCs...) and can work at up to 100 fps but at a cost in cpu load.
The disadvantage of FaceTrackNoir is that face mapping does load up the cpu, though on a Core 2 Duo E8400 it's not a problem (yet).

FS2004 - start with something simple I thought...
Hah!
In fact all the files needed are there, but the docs REALLY need a step-by-step guide.

For FS2004 you have to copy the FSUIPC.DLL file from "ClientFiles/FS2002 and FS2004" in the FTN install to Modules in your FS2004 install.
Then run FTN, follow the manual instructions AND use File->Open to select the FS2004.ini file.
This will set the response curves appropriately to give a good starting point.
The absolute defauls are very difficult to work with (guess how I know...).
Then run FS2004 ... and it just works!
And I can now use the hat for trim.
Very favourable results with a light plane in a relaxed civ sim

ROF
Wont run off-line without patching, don't have time...grrrrrr.

DCS:A-10C
Works, but kills throttle and due to VERY slow GUI in A-10C decided to try something else. Mistake - should have persevered!

FF5
Doesn't work at all - this is strange as FF5 was one of the early supported sims. There is a LONG thread at the FF5 forum, probably the answer is in there.

F4AF
Works OK - throttle needed reassignment, bit of jitter, needs tuning, couldn't find anybody to shoot at.

BoB:WoV
Works but axes all wrong - hard to work out what is happening to be able to fix it.

IL-2
Works OK - would have been good but couldn't find good mission to try and couldn't get wretched bomb to jettison and hit wretched treetops trying to dodge wtretched 109 shooting at ME.

And now it was WAY past bedtime!
I think most of the problems would have been encountered with TrackIR also, and are from matching the sim to the tracking software (or just from me trying to do too much in too short a time or forgetting how to drive a sim I haven't touched in months)
Worth persevering with, more research needed.

Also works for driving sims and for Arma 2...

Cheers,
Keith

Thanks for the interesting info Keith!

Rise of Flight works quite well, using the config from the ROF forum. It's possible to dogfight using just FTN and the magic arrow, would be difficult JUST using FTN
IL-2 works, but falls apart dogfighting - more work needed on the config!
Free Falcon 5 works well for flying around, having found and modified ffviper.cfg:
g_n6DOFTIR was set to 1, I changed it to 0 but have seen advice to set it to 2

Tonight Blackshark, TDU and Dirt maybe

Cheers,
Keith

Time is money.

The time you waste trying to get FTNIR to work well (which is unlikely in my experience), far outweighs the money to buy a TrackIR unit. After you're finished tinkering around with FTNIR, you'll be blown away by how easy TrackIR is to set up and by how razor sharp accurate it is.

Its not the money, its the wearing of the dorky gear.

FNR hasn't been much of a problem, its largely resurrecting sims I havent played in a while and getting them to work with ANY tracking system.
Major FNR problem now is the gearing of head movement, not sure that TIR would be much better?

In case anyone's still interested....
IL-2
working a lot better, within the limits of IL-2
Condor
Works well, straight out of the box with no tinkering
DCS:A-10C
Works well, having spent the time patching the sim to replace the VERY slow GUI with the original beta GUI. Not a FNR problem.
Full 6-DOF with no problems.

Cheers,
Keith

Thanks Keith! I definitely need to look into this.

I've been put off buying TrackIR since I don't want to put things on my head either.

I'll read the link later, but is there a 'best' camera for this?

Black Shark
Works very well once I'd fought through the russian reactivation screens!
Black Shark is much higher-geared than other sims, needing much less head movement. Hover-taxying around buildings much easier.
Must try with Longbow...

Mike, I use the PS3 Eye, which is about 22gbp from Amazon. It's generally considered one of the best for FTN.
On experience so far, I'd recommend FTN for anything but dog-fighting Sims, where I'm still undecided.
I think Bob:WoV has the option to suspend tracking when padlock is engaged, used that way I think it would be fine. Don't think IL-2 has it, hopefully CoD will.

Cheers,
Keith

I have it running in FS9, sort of. It does work. Just has to be calibrated perfect I would imagine. Your typical person is never going to jump through all those hoops to get it working though.

Well, I'm now the proud owner of a second hand PS3 Eye camera so I'll be trying it out after work.

It had better work with EF2000 running in DosBox though....

I wish.
Still got EF2000 v1 in the original box I bought it in. Though the manual had started to fall apart before I got it home.
I had a look around and found some interesting posts by ..... mikew.
Looks like your on point for that one
Hope the camera wasn't sold by a disillusioned FTNr
Cheers,
Keith

This is impressive!

I haven't tried EF2000 yet, but TAW shows great promise. I just need to tweak it a bit before trying some dogfighting.

Also got it working in FF5, although I hardly play it.
I couldn't enable TrackIR in Black Shark, and couldn't be bothered searching through the pdfs to find out how to do it.

I've never been able to get into the air with ROF. By the time it's updated itself, I've lost interest.

Anyway, I'm going to be concentrating on TAW in the short term. This is cool!

I picked up my PS3 Eye today. The driver installation was piss easy, but I don't know how to setup FaceTrackNoIR. Care to help? What game protocol should I choose?

I got it working but it's not easy.

Gonna tell me how?
Forget fine-tuning the axis sensitivities. I don't even know how to set up FaceTrackNoIR and BS so that BS will know to use the input from FTNIR.

I downloaded the program. Then Googled for a driver to let the little Sony cam work on Windows. Got all that done and it would kick out an error like in the KNOWN ISSUES in the FAQ.

http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/manual/knownissues.htm

Got the faceAPI Headtracking Demo from SeeingMachines. Installed that. That fixed the issue of the app not starting. Then when the app finally would start, found the pulldown in the program for FS2004. And it worked.

I didn't have the error you mentioned. The program starts fine and it tracks my face perfectly.
I see you've got it working with FS2004, which is not what I'm interested in. I need to know how to get it working with TrackIR-supported games, like BS, A-10C, FC2, ArmA, etc etc...

You need to patch NewInput.dll in the BS stable\bin folder using the TrackIRFixer program from here
then select fake TrackIR as the protocol in FTN
Have posted my BS ini file below...note I'm not saying this is perfect, but it works for me and has fired me up on BS again..
Cheers
Keith
Blackshark.ini
[Tracking]
Smooth=9
invertYaw=false
invertPitch=true
invertRoll=false
invertX=true
invertY=true
invertZ=false
useEWMA=true
redYaw=57
redPitch=56
redRoll=56
redX=56
redY=57
redZ=58

[GameProtocol]
Selection=4

[Curves]
Yaw_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@ \0\0\0\0\0\0)
Yaw_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@4\0\0\0\0\0\0@D\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Yaw_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@T\x80\0\0\0\0\0@5\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Yaw_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@Z\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Pitch_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@ \0\0\0\0\0\0)
Pitch_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@5\0\0\0\0\0\0@D\x80\0\0\0\0\0)
Pitch_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@S\xc0\0\0\0\0\0@6\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Pitch_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@Z@\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Roll_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\x14\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Roll_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@1\0\0\0\0\0\0@1\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Roll_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@:\0\0\0\0\0\0@@\x80\0\0\0\0\0)
Roll_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@c\xe0\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)
X_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\x14\0\0\0\0\0\0)
X_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@F\x80\0\0\0\0\0@:\0\0\0\0\0\0)
X_point3="@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@G\0\0\0\0\0\0@=\0\0\0\0\0\0)"
X_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@f\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Y_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\x14\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Y_point2="@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@H\0\0\0\0\0\0@;\0\0\0\0\0\0)"
Y_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@G\x80\0\0\0\0\0@<\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Y_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@f\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Z_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\x14\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Z_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@1\0\0\0\0\0\0@1\0\0\0\0\0\0)
Z_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@:\0\0\0\0\0\0@@\x80\0\0\0\0\0)
Z_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@P\0\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

[KB_Shortcuts]
Keycode_Center=200
Shift_Center=false
Ctrl_Center=true
Alt_Center=false
Keycode_StartStop=0
Shift_StartStop=false
Ctrl_StartStop=false
Alt_StartStop=false
Keycode_Inhibit=0
Shift_Inhibit=false
Ctrl_Inhibit=false
Alt_Inhibit=false
Inhibit_Pitch=false
Inhibit_Yaw=false
Inhibit_Roll=false
Inhibit_X=false
Inhibit_Y=false
Inhibit_Z=false

Yeah, after getting it to work, I have noticed severe sensitivity issues.
I have made some adjustments to the default profile, but it's far from perfect, so I will try yours tomorrow.
Thank you for providing it.

Keithb77, why is the Y axis inverted in your profile?
BTW, this whole thing doesn't work too good. The camera is shaking, sometimes wildly turns on its own, and is just uncomfortable to use.
I will look for some IR LEDS and try to build my own FreeTrack clip or hat.

Its inverted to get the right affect? I think....
Odd - Blackshark works well for me - it is more sensitive than other sims, the only one in which I have had to reduce the sensitivity (by reducing the horizontal axis on the graphs).
If we have the same hardware and software, should behave the same? I have the original 10 rouble russian BS, can't even remember if I patched it.
I have a 24inch screen, sit about a metre away (for sims) with the camera 10cm in front of the screen, zoomed in (to the red button).

Still FreeTrack was always my fallback too - let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Keith

I have a 22" screen, and the camera is 2cm in front of the screen. The screen is 1 meter from the back of my chair. My camera is not zoomed in, though.

Any method how to get the VX-1000 to work. It is recognized in the Facetrack, but it shows no yellow lined face in the small video screen. I had no problems in the seeing-machine software.

Some say that you need to install FaceAPI for it to work, but for me it worked out of the box.
Try to increase your camera's Exposure and Gain for a brighter image.

As I wrote down; I used the software from seeing machines, which is faceAPI.

Sometimes I have a similar problem, in which case I increase the camera's zoom. It's a matter of distance from the camera, and also the brightness of the video stream. Give it some more gain and place the camera closer to your face. Maybe it would help.

I did some adjustments in microsoft software to tune in the right focus, my face is bright in faceAPI, but no show up of my ugly face in facetracknoIR. Did lot of checking and un-checking and all the combinations but nothing is happen.

If you consider headphones to be dorky gear, then I'm guilty as charged

Seriously though, I hear ya about the dorky headgear thing. If I didn't always wear 5.1 surround headphones, I'd be apprehensive about wearing some kind of baseball cap or whatever as well.

The BIG problem I had with FTNIR is that I like to game in a dimly lit room ... which the camera and FTNIR doesn’t like AT ALL!

TrackIR with my TrackClip Pro on the other hand is the complete opposite. Total darkness would actually probably be the best scenario.



TrackIR is so good that I don't even understand the question.

Noticed on forums that facetrackNOIR is working without problems on AMD, but several Intel users have problems, similar like I have. So Intel users have to wait for software that is bug free.

What is your problem?

As I read it, when you press start in the FaceTrackNoir program, you don't get an image on the left? or you do get an image but no yellow tracking lines?

If we are going to talk in generalralities, I agree.

Most of the AMD being used are Phenom processors that has the horepower to handle it.
Most of the Intel users having problems are not running Quad Cores, and the Dual cores don't have the horsepower to handle FaceTrackNoIr. But then they would even have a hard time running TrackIR.

Very true...not a problem for me ATM as I need light to read a myriad of Black Shark documents, but will be.


Well Black Shark is so reactive that it can be tricky to click buttons, whereas other sims are much less reactive, even with tweaked response curves and its difficult to get full view movement.
I would expect TIR to have a similar range of responses, but is presumably easier to tweak succesfully.


Well my dual-core E8400 runs FNR with 20% cpu load, which is significant but not a huge issue.
I understood TIR to use much less CPU???

Cheers,
Keith

I do not get the image, but the name of the camera is showing up in the software, on the other hand FaceAPI is running great. Starting this software and I recieve an error!! My rig is a i5-2500k so it is fast.
For more detail see my posting on http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=7689.new;topicseen#new

I have ordered a TrackClip Pro for use with FreeTrack. I hope it's better than FaceTrackNoIR.

KeithB77, are you running IL-2:1946 clean or modded, so you can play with 6DoF?

Just saying I got my TrackClip Pro and it's amazingly better than FaceTrackNoIR.
It's a lot more precise, stable, and the FreeTrack software gives you more customization than FTIR.
If you've already invested $30 in buying a PS Eye, invest an additional $30 and enjoy proper headtracking.

BTW, I didn't mod my PS Eye at all. However, right now I do not have a film convering it, so due to light sensitivity, I can only use it in complete darkness, but that is easily fixed by use of an exposed film.

Order a TrackClip Pro. It's worth it.

Would let you know my webcam problems are solved, it is simple the new chip-sets like Sandy bridge can not run it, but the new 1.6 update which is in beta, will fix this. No FaceAPI software from seeing machines is needed now.
So if you can not wait, put a small donation, read below this page at: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/information_links/download.htm
and you will receive the solution on all your "waterfall", "FaceAPI" and "Intel IPP thing" problems

whoever said about a dimly lit room, i'm the same way. My regular webcam thta i tried this with didn't work for squat in a dark room. The ps3 eye works fine.

That said, is there a way to set the res of the ps3 cam down? i set it in the options of the pse eye test program down to 320x240 but it doesn't stay there. the gain/exposure settings seem to stay. Was thinking setting the res down would maybe lower the CPU use a bit. Or does facetrack automatically use a lower resolution? The other webcam i tried didn't get squat for FPS but the cpu use was at 5%. The ps3 cam gets a good frame rate but the cpu use is 15%. Seems a tad high?

I recall the webcams having an IR filter, which Freetrack modders remove, so the IR image is received by the sensor. It won work (well) as a webcam any more though.

I tried removing hte IR on the webcam i was using, didn't really do much. Honestly after trying a regular webcam and the PS3 eye, i would say to anyone that wants this type of setup to not even bother with a webcam and just get a PS3 eye. The difference is night and day. The ps3 eye is markedly more accurate and responsive. the only problem i see is that the ps3 eye uses WAY more cpu power.

hi guys there's a lot of stuff on here at the moment but can someone do a dummies guide to this bit of kit
I have installed all software successfully
I have logitec 120 web cam installed successfully
I can see the wired frame of my face
I have Black Shark running successfully


how do I tell BS that I want to use FTNir
as I said dummies guide please

regards
V

best place to look is here:

http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/compatibility/games.htm

Tells you if you have to do anything special. For black shark it says you should use faketrackir as the tracker and you need to download and run trackirfixer.

Which you can get here:

http://naturalpointofview.blogspot.com/p/trackirfixer.html

Just follow the directions for installing that and then black shark should work. Been wanting to play black shark myself lately but i can't remember what email address i used to register and buy it.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php?lang=en&end_pos=148&scr=
try this

that file is .rar file ? http://naturalpointofview.blogspot.com/p/trackirfixer.html
v

Yeah, you can download winrar here to extract

http://www.win-rar.com/website/index.php?id=predownload&L=0

Go 7zip for extracting and compressing. It's small, clean and powerful.

And FREE.