help choosing tracking hardware

[6./ZG26_Custard]

4 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

which VR set did you go for?

I've got two sets, I have the reverb G2 and Quest 2. The quest is great value for money but comes with the downside of having a Facebook account. It's great to have a wireless VR headset though. The reverb is visually better but wired. It's not so much of a problem for me though because they're only used VR for flight sims. 

[HeerRitter]

6 minutes ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

I've got two sets, I have the reverb G2 and Quest 2. The quest is great value for money but comes with the downside of having a Facebook account. It's great to have a wireless VR headset though. The reverb is visually better but wired. It's not so much of a problem for me though because they're only used VR for flight sims. 

 

I was just looking at the quest 2 £299 for 128gb that doesn't seem to bad, I was expecting it to be a bit more, although those other 2 i mentioned were around £1000 but I'm guessing there more for the professional market for designers ect, I already have a fb acc but i don't use it much these days, I read that the Oculus tries to collect data on you for third parties, and you have to go through a load of questions when setting up, did you start getting a ton of spam emails after you got urs?

 

(Edit)

Yeah I just took a look at the Reverb G2 you mentioned again there around the £600 mark that's just not justifiable for me for what i'd be using for..

Edited January 7, 2022 by HeerRitter

[6./ZG26_Custard]

16 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

I was just looking at the quest 2 £299

It's great value for money. Admittedly it doesn't have all the Bells and whistlesvof more expensive VR headsets but it's perfectly adequate. 

[[CPT]Crunch]

55 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

@BOO I'm having some issues with zoom, the way the IR module is angled down is causing an issue where if i lean in to zoom in i also look up, how did you set urs up? The only way I can see with one of those goosenecks is it coming up in front of the screen by a good 10" with the arm of the gooseneck as well that's a lot of screen being obscured!

 

I'm not gonna lie I'm already weighing up the cost of VR  now vs trying to position this Track IR somehow or repositioning my Tv (not really an option)

 

Hopefully this thread will be of some use to someone in the future who is also thinking of getting either VR or Track IR with a 40+ screen ?

You know you can mount it behind you and reverse the reflector on top of your headset.  Just use it in reverse mode, many people do this.  That was one of the design features.

[HeerRitter]

4 hours ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

You know you can mount it behind you and reverse the reflector on top of your headset.  Just use it in reverse mode, many people do this.  That was one of the design features.

 

That sounds a lot like something we'd say to the lads on site there first day labouring lol, a bit like sending them in the store to buy plastic nails and a rubber hammer so we don't disturb the clients when we start work lol

 

I don't think your winding me up ?

 

I think in theory I think that'd work, although the only problem I see with that is my office chair is high backed I guess I could fit to the back of the chair with the gooseneck i just bought thanks to @BOO suggestion ?

 

I'll give it a try, anyone know if there's a maximum distance from the IR unit you can be?

[[CPT]Crunch]

Nope, not winding you up, I was on NP's original beta testing team, trackIR 1, some of us actually set it up this way, they made the feature of reversal in the software after reviewing this with us.  There were no flat screen monitors back than and the mounting solution was quite different on the unit itself.

[HeerRitter]

4 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

It's great value for money. Admittedly it doesn't have all the Bells and whistlesvof more expensive VR headsets but it's perfectly adequate. 

 

Bells and whistles, I don't know much about VR tbh but it seems to come with a pair of hand controllers, what else is there?

 

I only own maybe 2 games that are even VR compatible, DCS & IL2, except Skyrim but apparently you've got to buy a whole new copy of the game just for VR so I'll pass on that considering they just released a Paid anniversary edition which literally added next to nothing you couldn't already get free on Nexus. 

Just now, [CPT]Crunch said:

Nope, not winding you up, I was on NP's original beta testing team, trackIR 1, some of us actually set it up this way, they made the feature of reversal in the software after reviewing this with us.  There were no flat screen monitors back than and the mounting solution was quite different on the unit itself.

 

Does it work well if mounted on the back of a chair? being that a chair will not be completely stationery, or would it be best fitted on the wall behind me? Is there a limit to how far it can be from the reflectors?

[6./ZG26_Custard]

25 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

I only own maybe 2 games that are even VR compatible,

The Quest 2 would be a great entry level headset for you, particularly from the price point.

[BOO]

6 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

@BOO I'm having some issues with zoom, the way the IR module is angled down is causing an issue where if i lean in to zoom in i also look up, how did you set urs up? The only way I can see with one of those goosenecks is it coming up in front of the screen by a good 10" with the arm of the gooseneck as well that's a lot of screen being obscured!

 

I'm not gonna lie I'm already weighing up the cost of VR  now vs trying to position this Track IR somehow or repositioning my Tv (not really an option)

 

Hopefully this thread will be of some use to someone in the future who is also thinking of getting either VR or Track IR with a 40+ screen ?

 

My screen is slighlty below eye level. I have the TIR camera set up to the left, about an arms length from my body and at about 9 oclcock. I use a Delan clip on the left of my headset. For your set up, I would imagine the camera needs to be placed below the screen and either angled slightly down or set dead ahead. There is absolutley no need for it to be any higher and into the screen space that I can see. The track hat reflector may limit you. The Delan clip (or similar) can be angled on the heaset to take into account the angle off plain your head is going when moving forward. 

 

I also dont use huge valley sized curves carefully set my deadzones so they dont bump but are stable around dead centre. 

[[CPT]Crunch]

5 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

 

Does it work well if mounted on the back of a chair? being that a chair will not be completely stationery, or would it be best fitted on the wall behind me? Is there a limit to how far it can be from the reflectors?

Haven't used a trakIR in over 10 years, last one was like a series III, but you do need to keep the unit itself stable, wall mount will work.  There's enough flexibility in the software you could go some distance.  Best to play around with it and figure it out what it can do for you, they're very reliable.  Warning, they don't like bright windows or naked light bulbs, any bright light source will cause havoc with your tracking. 

[fergal69]

16 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

which VR set did you go for? I've just been having a look as my Track IR arrived today and it's proving a little difficult due to the height of my screen above my head, aprox 13"+

The 3 VR sets I've seen are the Occulus Rift 2 (affordable) , HTC Vive ( definitely not affordable lol ) and the Valve Index VR (again from what I see not very affordable, but nice)

 

Whats that VR?

 

 

Ali Express is a website that sells pratcally anything you can hink off, including head tracking devices.

 

as an example of a seller;

For TrackIR5/TrackNP5 Head Tracking System For Flight And Racing Game For ArmA DCS DiRT F1 Euro Truck Flight Simulator GTR GTR2|Board Games| - AliExpress

 

[HeerRitter]

13 hours ago, BOO said:

The track hat reflector may limit you.

 

I think ur right about the reflectors i think as my screen is offset to the left (maybe not that visible in the picture above) a delan clip or similar would probably allow me to set the ir sensor up on the left of my screen at eye level i might just bite the bullet on this one and buy one of those as well after all even the Track Ir5/Gooseneck and a DelanClip is gonna come in under the price of VR.. Not by much though ?

19 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

I have the reverb G2 and Quest 2.

 

I watched  some YouTube vids on the reverb this morning and the guy had much higher system than me and said he could run his VR at 50% anymore caused his system to over tax, I'm wondering with mine being a relatively old card and cpu if VR would be a waste of money until i can update to the 30 series (when things start to calm down) 

13 hours ago, BOO said:

The Delan clip (or similar) can be angled on the heaset to take into account the angle off plain your head is going when moving forward. 

 

https://www.trackhat.org/product-page/trackhat-clip I've been looking at this it's basically the Delanclip (wired) but with a plastic case rather than bare metal and wire.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

34 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

I'm wondering with mine being a relatively old card and cpu if VR would be a waste of money until i can update to the 30 series (when things start to calm down) 

you will need a fairly good setup to run VR 

 

These are the "minimum specs"

Oculus Quest 2 System Requirements (Minimum)

CPU: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater

RAM: 8 GB

OS: Windows 10

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon 400 Series or better

PIXEL SHADER: 5.1

VERTEX SHADER: 5.1

DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 3 GB

[AEthelraedUnraed]

15 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

I only own maybe 2 games that are even VR compatible, DCS & IL2, except Skyrim but apparently you've got to buy a whole new copy of the game just for VR so I'll pass on that considering they just released a Paid anniversary edition which literally added next to nothing you couldn't already get free on Nexus.

Skyrim uses a paid, separate VR version, indeed. I got the anniversary version for free though; strange that you had to pay for it.

 

25 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

I watched  some YouTube vids on the reverb this morning and the guy had much higher system than me and said he could run his VR at 50% anymore caused his system to over tax, I'm wondering with mine being a relatively old card and cpu if VR would be a waste of money until i can update to the 30 series (when things start to calm down)

Yeah upgrading a GPU is not really to be recommended right now.

 

I've got an RTX 2060 (laptop version) and IL2 is perfectly playable on my Quest 2. I do have to have all settings on medium-low whereas without VR I can run it almost maxed-out, but the added immersion of VR more than compensates for the lack of eye candy. All in all, I should say that if your current card is at least more or less as good as an RTX 2060 mobile, VR is worth it.

 

20 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

I already have a fb acc but i don't use it much these days, I read that the Oculus tries to collect data on you for third parties, and you have to go through a load of questions when setting up, did you start getting a ton of spam emails after you got urs?

When I first set up my Quest 2, I had to link it to my FB account, which took a couple of minutes, but nothing too bad. It's possible that I may have had to fill in some questions, but they were not many or strange enough that I remember. I never received a single spam e-mail, although of course they may have been intercepted by my spam filter . Like you, I really don't use my FB account anymore; perhaps it's more intrusive if you actively use Facebook.

 

Regarding data collection; it's common knowledge that Facebooks tries to collect all data from everyone. That said, the EULA explicitly states that none of the camera data is shared, and overall it seems to be a decent enough EULA. Of course, I live in the EU so we've got pretty strict privacy regulations (GDPR); I think the UK's got a similar law after Brexit but I'm not sure.

[HeerRitter]

1 hour ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

you will need a fairly good setup to run VR 

 

These are the "minimum specs"

Oculus Quest 2 System Requirements (Minimum)

CPU: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater

RAM: 8 GB

OS: Windows 10

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon 400 Series or better

PIXEL SHADER: 5.1

VERTEX SHADER: 5.1

DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 3 GB

 

I've got better specs than those you've listed as the Minimum recommended (as you can see under my posts) but I'd want to meet at the very least the recommended specs and then some for anything that's gonna be setting me back the kinda of pennies VR will, especially when I really want to upgrade my system to a 3070/80 series, which I wish I'd done when I'd seen a couple of 3070's on EBuyer back in June I think last year, and for a reasonable £570. If I'd known then how mad the prices where gonna go (£2000 for a 3080) I'd of grabbed one instead of trying to wait to get the founders card just because I liked the look of it!

 

I think as far as VR goes I don't think it'll balance out for me cost vs practicality right now I have to draw a line for my self somewhere, if not me then who lol

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Skyrim uses a paid, separate VR version, indeed. I got the anniversary version for free though; strange that you had to pay for it.

 

 

I didn't pay for the anniversary edition i got the free anniversary update which inc some stuff from the creation kit, but there's an actual paid anniversary edition or is that the same but for ppl that don't already own the game? I'll admit I got the dl but it's been some time since I've been back to Whiterun

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I do have to have all settings on medium-low whereas without VR I can run it almost maxed-out, but the added immersion of VR more than compensates for the lack of eye candy. All in all, I should say that if your current card is at least more or less as good as an RTX 2060 mobile, VR is worth it.

 

My card is the GTX 1080 (my full specs are under all my posts in the Signature box) I don't think it would be a great card for VR maybe like you said on low settings but I just bought a 42" 4k 120hz gaming tv it don't seem to smart to then pay £300 to play on the lowest settings lol, although i won't lie possible motion sickness aside i do like the idea of being fully immersed inside the game

6 hours ago, fergal69 said:

 

Ali Express is a website that sells pratcally anything you can hink off, including head tracking devices.

 

as an example of a seller;

For TrackIR5/TrackNP5 Head Tracking System For Flight And Racing Game For ArmA DCS DiRT F1 Euro Truck Flight Simulator GTR GTR2|Board Games| - AliExpress

 

 

ffs i just paid £130 for that exact one ??

@fergal69 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001682593883.html? well i just found this on there exactly what i was looking for and for a lot cheaper than i was seeing it so thank you ?

[BOO]

22 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

If I'd known then how mad the prices where gonna go (£2000 for a 3080) I'd of grabbed one instead of trying to wait to get the founders card just because I liked the look of it!

 

You can get an FE in the UK for MRSP relatively easly if you are smart and quick about it. I picked up my 3080 first try for £649 last month.  Scan are Nvidia's UK partner retailer. Stock arrives every month usually in the first half of the month. The last lot landed 2 days ago.  There are a good few part tracker groups too. I used the FE part alert group on Telegram (goodle FE part alert), ensured I had a fully set up account with Scan (including stored details of the card I intended to use to pay) and made sure I had things like passwords stored on my phone so I could get through the transaction as quickly as possible as soon as the notification pinged.  

[HeerRitter]

16 hours ago, BOO said:

I picked up my 3080 first try for £649 last month. 

 

Seriously? every time i look there's nothing at all everything's greyed out..

 

16 hours ago, BOO said:

goodle FE part alert

 

So it seems this is a good way of getting maybe a chance a long with something called "Hot Stock" i hadn't heard of any of these (i think I'd just lost heart and was waiting for things to normalise) I usually just watch things like Jays2Cents on YouTube and hope for some good news regarding card availability, so thanks for that.

16 hours ago, BOO said:

(including stored details of the card I intended to use to pay) and made sure I had things like passwords stored on my phone so I could get through the transaction as quickly as possible as soon as the notification pinged. 

 

I use to build gaming rigs privately back circa 2015 so I'm good to go with most.. They were the good ol days lol ?

[BOO]

10 minutes ago, HeerRitter said:

 

Seriously? every time i look there's nothing at all everything's greyed out..

 

You just need to be in a position to act when the notification drops. I ordered immediately (completed within 2-3 minute of the notifications). They sell do sell out fast but not so fast your cant snag one if you are ready. The 3070s and 3070Ti and 3080Ti will likely be the the most demanded cards.

 

This time around the FE suited me fine. I wont be overclocking it and I dont really need a percentile performance gain over stock as I only got it to run DCS.....in flat screen......at 1080P!  It means I can run DCS with high settings now pretty reliably and use the high cost ones like SSAA, SSLR and SSAO in all the main maps. 

 

I dunno if an 3080FE will run VR for IL2 well but there a lots of useful VR threads on the forum to beeter guess.  It seems marginal for DCS (everything is marginal in DCS) but I think IL2 is less demanding currently. 

 

What you were considerig VR wise?  I went  "huh?" when you said  TIR, Delan Clip and Gooseneck was almost as costly as VR. Full cost they would come in at under £200. Last time I looked a good (its a relative term) snorkel was starting nearer to a grand.

[HeerRitter]

On 1/9/2022 at 10:39 AM, BOO said:

What you were considerig VR wise?  I went  "huh?" when you said  TIR, Delan Clip and Gooseneck was almost as costly as VR. Full cost they would come in at under £200. Last time I looked a good (its a relative term) snorkel was starting nearer to a grand.

 a grand lol i don't have even close to enough time to game to warrant a 1k vr set, i mentioned in a couple posts above i looked at a couple that were around the £600 mark and wouldn't justify that not for my system, maybe one day when a lot more games are using vr and I've got the specs on my pc that i want.. The entry level vr sets were what i would of looked at like oculus rift 2 which if i looked around could get for between £260-£300 

 

But for now I'm ok with sticking with Track IR5 it does the job and IL 2 is not my only expense I have several aquascapes and a large Amazon nature scape, which takes a big chunk of my play money.

Edited January 10, 2022 by HeerRitter

[BOO]

22 hours ago, HeerRitter said:

 a grand lol i don't have even close to enough time to game to warrant a 1k vr set, i mentioned in a couple posts above i looked at a couple that were around the £600 mark and wouldn't justify that not for my system, maybe one day when a lot more games are using vr and I've got the specs on my pc that i want.. The entry level vr sets were what i would of looked at like oculus rift 2 which if i looked around could get for between £260-£300 

 

But for now I'm ok with sticking with Track IR5 it does the job and IL 2 is not my only expense I have several aquascapes and a large Amazon nature scape, which takes a big chunk of my play money.

 

Wise choices!