Support for Tobii Eye Tracking.

[Caxa]

Hello Dear Developers. I want to submit to your court a proposal to include Tobii Eye Tracker in supported devices. Recently I have been the owner of this device, and have already managed to appreciate the freedom from clips, caps and wires. Unfortunately your wonderful game does not support Tobii Eye Tracker. I would like to ask you to assist in my request. Perhaps other owners of Tobii Eye Tracker will join my request. Thank you in advance.

 

Sincerely, Alexander.

[TheOracle77]

I strongly second Alexander's request. Use Tobii Eye Tracker in MSFS20 and DCS. X Plane 11 support was added only yesterday. But reckon IL2 would be my number one sim if support was added. Please add support.

 

Cian

[Pipic12]

Same, would like to see devs respond to this. Just ordered Tobii Eye Tracker, mainly for MSFS & IL2 but realized IL2 is no longer officially supported.

[BMA_FlyingShark]

I just found out about Tobii Eye Tracker thanks to this topic and I now want it too.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Dexadrinne]

Yeah ill upvote on this too. 1.6.4 and vjoy didnt work for me at all. So i would love to see support for this.

[Akatsuki]

Agree, would be nice to have support for this device.

[Padinn]

Same, it would be nice.

[mos1718]

Please add support, I bought the Tobii because on their site it said BOS was supported (had been supported) 

 

Thanks 

[JG7_X-Man]

I second this motion!

"We don't have to look like dorks if we want to use head tracking tech anymore!"

I bought Tobii for Star Citizen and love the eye tracking option it has.

 

BoX Developers, I am not spending any more money on your products until Tobii Eye Tracker is supported.

[TheOracle77]

Exactly. I'm also waiting for Tobii Eye Tracker support before I purchase any further modules. Any feedback from developers? Do you plan to support it or not? If so, when?

[Caxa]

One of the players suggested using the FaceTrackNoIR program.

But I would like to have support for this device in the simulator.

 

Sincerely, Alexander.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Caxa

[Caxa]

To be honest, after trying this program, I was satisfied. I have always liked the flexibility of setting up the axes in FreeTreck.

 

Sincerely, Alexander.

[amadeusdemarzi]

For those interested, I’ve been using Tobii Eye Tracker 5 with OpenTrack using FaceTrackNoIR as a bridge, and in conjunction with the Hamilton Filter, I’ve had probably the most stable experience (much better than with the Tobii Game Hub).

 

I’ve written up a tutorial on how to do it here: 

https://gist.github.com/amadeus/09b32e4d45f815f6d46686d367c4b6ee

 

[TheOracle77]

Amaduesdemarzi

 

Many thanks for that. I had tried FaceTrackNoIR before but couldn't get it to work. I followed your guide and success. I need to tweak the curves but it seems promising. How you figured all that out, I don't know. Thanks again.

 

It does seem to suggest though that native integration should be fairly straightforward, no?

 

 

[amadeusdemarzi]

Hey glad my tutorial helped someone out!

 

So, with regards to native integration, I’d probably still prefer to use this method because I find the Hamilton filter such an improvement over the default smoothing systems built into Tobii, I kinda can’t live without it ?

[TheOracle77]

Amaduesdemarzi

 

I just wanted to follow up on my last post because with some tweaking of curves, I've had fantastic results with FacetrackNoIR and Opentrack. It's far superior to using Tobii Gamehub. I now see what you mean regarding the stability advantage. It has transformed MSFS and IL2 but particularly DCS where I can now look at panels without the view constantly drifting. The Tobii 5 is a good product but to be honest, I had been disappointed and regretted not getting a Track IR.  The software and the ability to refine your requirements lets it down. I'd recommend anyone who feels the same to follow Amadeusdemarzi's guide and spend some time tweaking the curves. It transforms the experience.

 

Regards again

 

[Raptorattacker]

I just won a Tobii 5!! First time I tink I've ever won anything!! I'll put these tips to good use when I finally get it and see how I go with it. I fancy a change from TrackHat ie NO headset. Sounds interesting and I'm sure that IL-2/Tobii will implement some support for it so everyone can have a good experience. Looking at all the reviews and such it kinda looks like it could be a winner (lke ME)!!

 

[amadeusdemarzi]

9 hours ago, TheOracle77 said:

It has transformed MSFS and IL2 but particularly DCS where I can now look at panels without the view constantly drifting.

I need to update the tutorial, but I’ve learned a bit more over the last couple weeks - I found that setting smoothing to 5 or so, in FaceTrackNoIR makes a huge difference in DCS. It removes a small amount of stutter. IL2 already has built in camera smoothing, so it’s not necessary.

[JG7_X-Man]

@amadeusdemarzi Thankyou! We are back in business! I don't have to look like a dork anymore with playing IL-2 Great Battles!

Now I just need to understand how to get panning more smooth like TrackIR did. Any suggestions are helpful!

Edited November 5, 2022 by JG7_X-Man

[TheKinkySkink]

This needs to happen soon! I've been holding off getting battle or Normandy since my tobbii eye tracker 5 stopped cooperating. There are many pilots on the tobbii discord struggling with this and need support from the il2 devs!

[Raptorattacker]

I'll second that, for sure!! ?

Edited November 2, 2022 by Raptorattacker

[Raptorattacker]

Any chance of support for the Tobii EyeTracker's native software? The only way to do it right now is with FaceTrackNoir AND Opentrack and you don't get the eyetracking option in that, good as it is.
It would be fantastic to have the option to give all of us who can't afford VR and the like(s) to actually use our Head/EyeTrackers and be able to see around us WITHOUT having to don some sort of headgear to enable tracking?

 

Thanks in advance

Rap

Edited November 3, 2022 by Raptorattacker

[Padinn]

I'd love native support to be added as well.

[JG7_X-Man]

@Raptorattacker Long time no see dude! Great to see you are doing well!

This would be a great thing for IL-2 Great Battles to natively support Tobii Eye Tracker 5. That said, IL-2 does support an older version of Tobii Experience. Unfortunately, if you use this older version of the software - you loose the ability to use it with other games like DCS and Star Citizen.

 

Reason is Tobii discontinued the use of vJoy in their newer version of software as their hook process. I don't see this being a huge priority for the developers - hopefully I am wrong.

[Raptorattacker]

5 hours ago, JG7_X-Man said:

@Raptorattacker Long time no see dude! Great to see you are doing well!

This would be a great thing for IL-2 Great Battles to natively support Tobii Eye Tracker 5. That said, IL-2 does support an older version of Tobii Experience. Unfortunately, if you use this older version of the software - you loose the ability to use it with other games like DCS and Star Citizen.

 

Reason is Tobii discontinued the use of vJoy in their newer version of software as their hook process. I don't see this being a huge priority for the developers - hopefully I am wrong.

Ahhh, so how does that work then? I'm not bothered about not being able to use the eyetracker on any other games because I don't DO any other games!
Run the methodology by me?

Rap

[Captain_India]

On 10/4/2022 at 2:12 AM, amadeusdemarzi said:

I need to update the tutorial, but I’ve learned a bit more over the last couple weeks - I found that setting smoothing to 5 or so, in FaceTrackNoIR makes a huge difference in DCS. It removes a small amount of stutter. IL2 already has built in camera smoothing, so it’s not necessary.

 

On 10/12/2022 at 6:25 PM, JG7_X-Man said:

@amadeusdemarzi Thankyou! We are back in business! I don't have to look like a dork anymore with playing IL-2 Great Battles!

Now I just need to understand how to get panning more smooth like TrackIR did. Any suggestions are helpful!

 

I have been using a reverb G2 as my headtracking solution and it has been great but... There are just some days I can't be bothered to put the headset on and that's what stops me from flying.

 

Been looking for another head tracker to use on days like this... With the workarounds posted in this thread (and GitHub post linked above), would you recommend getting the Tobii 5 over TrackIR? I'd also be using this on MSFS & Elite Dangerous

With the holidays coming up, my fiancée is asking me what I want haha

[Captain_India]

@Raptorattacker

How good is Tobii at headtracking via Facenotrackir & Opentrack? I only fly IL2, MSFS, and Elite Dangerous... Tobii would be an awesome VR substitute when I can't be bothered to put the headset on... TrackIR is also an option but my room tends to get rather bright. 

[54th_Dutch]

Yes please add support

[Raptorattacker]

@Captain_India Well, using the FaceTrackNoir/Opentrack CAN be good but it needs quite a bit of tuning to your own preferences. I haven't quite sorted mine yet and so keep returning to my TrackHat/Opentrack method until I get it sorted. I must say though that using this method, eyetracking is disabled and it only tracks the head.

If your room is bright then you're obviously gonna suffer to some degree if you're using TrackIR or anu other type of IR tracking. I don't know quite how successful Tobii is at dealing with these things as my room is quite unpolluted by bright lights.

[amadeusdemarzi]

It's hard for me to say whether you should or shouldn't get Tobii. On one hand, I do find it works pretty well, it is under active development and will get better over time. By default it doesn't work with IL2, so that's kind of a pain in the ass. The tutorial I posted, imo, is probably the most stable you can get it right now. It's not perfect -- there's a valid case to be made that TrackIR is just more accurate in general, and their TrueView settings are quite good.

 

I personally just can't stand wearing anything on my head when I play, so I appreciate that aspect of it. It will take time and effort to get the Tobii configured properly to your liking (to be fair, TrackIR also takes time to configure, but it's a bit more mature there as a product).

 

I actually go between using Tobii and my iPhone for head tracking (FWIW -- using an iPhone with OpenTrack works really damn well, they actually have really good head tracking tech in the recent iPhones, probably better than Tobii, funily enough).

 

Because I've spent some time in the Tobii Discord though, one of their devs reached out to me over DMs, and I've been chatting with them a bit about the future of Tobii, and what I think they should focus on for simulation games, and while I won't say much about the details of those conversations, I do think the future there looks pretty bright and I do think they understand what players like us really need out of a product like this and are working actively to improve there. It's just a question of how long, and may be worth waiting until more of that stuff gets solved.

[Raptorattacker]

Absolute NICE one. I'm sure that the progress will be forthcoming, as you say. As they also say, "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs", so evryone sit tight and let's see what happens...

[Boomerang]

This may help, found via the Tobii website, Link: https://gaming.tobii.com/games/il-2-sturmovik-battle-stalingrad/

It informs: Please note that this game, (IL-2 Sturmovik), uses vJoy which is no longer supported in Game Hub 2.3.1 or later.

For the last working version download Tobii Game Hub 1.6.4, https://files.update.tech.tobii.com/GameHub/TobiiGameHub.1.6.4-Setup.exe Unfortunately due to underlying issues with vJoy, Tobii cannot guarantee working functionality.

[Padinn]

I still have trouble getting it to work properly using open track and facetrack. It really doesn't track pitch well unless I use the alt+f1 view, but I can't use that view on expert settings which means it may impact mp. If you can help let me know!

[BornToBattle]

The end result is the devs need to address the issue of native support for the Eye Tracker 5. Other titles have. Tobii states on their website it does but this needs to be removed as native support for it does not exist. MSFS could teach them a thing or two on how this should be implemented as it is straight forward and works WITHOUT tons of third party work-arounds.

 

Track IR is outdated in my book as when comparing apples to apples with native support for each, having to wear a hat and wires and clips in order for the transmitter to pick up signals rather than the simplicity of the Tobii system is like comparing VHS to streaming tech.

Edited November 27, 2022 by BornToBattle

[BornToBattle]

I posted this as well in the earlier thread from August. MSFS handles this beautifully in their sim and is natively supported. Having a full 6 DOF supported in an easy to understand point and click fashion would bridge the gap a bit between pancake mode and VR (though nothing comes close to the VR experience I must say) but for some who wear glasses and don’t have the money to shell out for prescription VR lenses this fits the bill as a compromise. Many other titles have native support, why not IL2 without the need to have third party software configurations to address?

Edited November 27, 2022 by BornToBattle

[Raptorattacker]

On 11/16/2022 at 2:16 PM, Boomerang said:

This may help, found via the Tobii website, Link: https://gaming.tobii.com/games/il-2-sturmovik-battle-stalingrad/

It informs: Please note that this game, (IL-2 Sturmovik), uses vJoy which is no longer supported in Game Hub 2.3.1 or later.

For the last working version download Tobii Game Hub 1.6.4, https://files.update.tech.tobii.com/GameHub/TobiiGameHub.1.6.4-Setup.exe Unfortunately due to underlying issues with vJoy, Tobii cannot guarantee working functionality.

Have you tried this? If so could you give us some pointers?

[=NOSIG=Ask]

I run tobii eyetracker with FaceTrackNoIR for testing my missions and it work just as well as trackir if not better. See in action here and link is in the description. Not intended as shameless self-promotion so if admin don't like it just remove the link to youtube. Link is in description too but posting here as well 

 

FaceTrackNoIR: https://www.facetracknoir.nl/home/default.htm

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by [NOSIG]Ask

[Raptorattacker]

10 hours ago, [NOSIG]Ask said:

I run tobii eyetracker with FaceTrackNoIR for testing my missions and it work just as well as trackir if not better. See in action here and link is in the description. Not intended as shameless self-promotion so if admin don't like it just remove the link to youtube. Link is in description too but posting here as well

Very good. D'you mind sharing your settings with the rest of us then?

[Raptorattacker]

@[NOSIG]Ask Do you mind sharing with us how you get FaceTrackNoIR to work with IL-2 please?

Is it with OpenTrack as well or what?

Edited December 6, 2022 by Raptorattacker

[=NOSIG=Ask]

Sorry for not getting back. I looked at how I did it and as far as I remember it was pretty straightforward. Lots of mumbo jumbo in the beginning but here is the video I think I was using. The video is a bit old and says there is no tobii5 support but there was when I set it up, so my settings for FTNIR are in the image below

 

If not already set, make sure FreeTrack is emulating TrackIR