The poor mans sim pit

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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby Bass » Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:13 pm

Yes, one word comes in mind 8-) 8-)
"Just try to be YOU"!............ Kurt 

System. GA-X58A-UD3R, i7-950QC, Corsair XMS3 18GB 2000, GTX 780 tf 3GB, Corsair CMPSU-850, 24 BenQ 120, TM Hotas cougar, win7 pro.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:57 pm

PART 1

A while back I started to wonder about flight sims again. It had been a very long time since I last tried one. I didn’t know if I would even like it, because the original flight sim left me Soooooo uninterested. Green blocks, blue blocks, gray blocks.

I wanted to see buildings, roads, mountains, cars, clouds in the sky, girls in… etcetera. But this is what I saw back then.
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So, for FSX, my sim pit started out small.
Image

However minimalism CAN be carried a bit too far. A flight sim probably CAN be used with just a mouse and a keyboard. But there were 3 problems with that; 1) I wanted to throw the stupid sim in the trash, 2) I wasn’t crazy, and 3) I thought that I MIGHT like it better if I at least had a joystick.

Unfortunately, joysticks can get more than a little expensive. I wanted the cheapest one that had, at least, a few buttons on it so I wouldn’t have to use the keyboard all that much.

The choice between the very cheapest joystick and the Logitech Attack 3 Joystick was very little so I went with that. If FSX didn't work out the Attack 3 would be money down the drain, because I don't play any games that need one. But I took the chance.

One of the things that I like about this joystick is that it lets you assign any key of your choosing to act as a shift key so that it almost doubles the number is keys that you can send to your flight sim..


ITEM – 1 joystick
Image
Last edited by OldAirmail on Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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. . . . . .Any time, any plane, any weather.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:59 pm

PART 2

So I wanted a yoke. It took about 3 or 4 months for me to decide which one to get. There’s a lot to consider when you start looking. And then too, you have to wait for a sale.

For anyone who can afford a MEGA sim pit it’s less complicated. But for most married people it’s a little more complicated. What’s the wife, or significant other, going to say. After all, you could better spend the money on THEM!

If you have to consider how to explain the purchase to the other half, there are only 2 choices for a yoke; the Saitek yoke ($127 with throttle quadrant included), or Ch Products yoke ($200 with the throttle quadrant built in. Plus built in rudder pedals). If the included Saitek throttle quadrant had a USB connector I might have bought the Saitek yoke set.

At the current prices it’s fairly simple: get the Saitek yoke/throttle quadrant if you don’t think that you’ll need the $92 Saitek rudder pedals. But when I bought mine they were both about $120-130. I went with the CH yoke because it had the throttle/prop/mixture controls on top AND the rudder control built into the yoke. One less thing to buy.

ITEM – Yoke, throttle/prop/mixture, rudder control, elevator & rudder trim.
Image

If you do decide to get the Saitek or CH throttle quadrant, or even a regular rudder peddle set, the levers and rudder paddle can be reassigned for whatever you want. The 2 gray switches on the right are momentary switches. I have them set to Engine 1 (up) and Engine 2 (down). The second switch is Engine 3 (up) and Engine 4 (down). The pitch and rudder trim wheels on the front of the base yoke assembly works better than the one on the Saitek multipanel (which doesn't have a rudder trim anyway).


Over all, I like it a lot. The one problem commonly reported is that the shaft binds/sticks when you push/pull it. I tried several types of oil on the shaft but it didn’t really help. Not even Teflon oil helped. TIP And then I remembered white lithium grease. THAT worked perfectly. Put a very thin coating on the front and back of the shaft. After its worked its way into the shaft bushings you can wipe it off. Lasts about a year. A small tube (about $3) of lithium grease will probably last you a lifetime.


At this point a prudent person is done. You have EVERYTHING (yoke, rudder, throttle quadrant, elevator & rudder trim wheels, and a joystick) that is needed to fly any plane.

Except for the fact that there is no one solution that pleases averybody, me included.
Last edited by OldAirmail on Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:32 am, edited 3 times in total.
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. . . . . .Any time, any plane, any weather.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Prepar3d V4
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:41 pm

PART 3

Flight instrument panel

What's wrong with these pictures of Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panels?

Image . Image . Image

Spot price check - #123.30 EACH

Picture #1 - $493.20
Picture #2 - $739.80
Picture #3 - $1,233.00



And that is only for the Instrument Panels!


Don't get me wrong, I like the Pro Flight Instrument Panels a lot. Just not $493.20 to $1,233.00 a lot.


This makes a lot more sense to me:

Image

Spot price check on 16 to 18 inch monitors - $100 AND LESS!

Believe me it really is a MUCH better having the flight instruments on a separate screen. Imagine driving a car and having to look around for your instruments while making a turn or going up/down a hill.


I use two 9 inch USB screens because I wanted one to be a touchscreen monitor. At the time one 16-18 inch touchscreen monitor was more that $700. Prices are dropping fast now. And with Windows 8, which binefitts from a touchscreen, I expect that they'll drop even faster.

The two small monitors suit my setup perfectly but as of today I can no longer recommend them. You can get a 17 inch touch screen monitor from Amazon for less than $300.
Last edited by OldAirmail on Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Get the most out of your controls - SPAD.neXt

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. . . . . .Any time, any plane, any weather.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Prepar3d V4
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby Jetranger » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:00 am

Well don't know that anybodys interested, but, heres my poor mans sim !

it ain't much, really, but,, its kinda like being in the real thing !  :o

Cost : 0 - Zip, Nilz , notta a thing !  :o

Ahh my Fathers 1965 Cessna 172 

Jetranger

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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:23 pm

PART 4

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Graphics Card

I know absolutely nothing about the “Triple Head to Go” monitor setup. End of story. If someone is already discussing them, send me a tip.

What I do have, is a Radion 6870 card with Eyefinity. This is a recent upgrade from a Radion 5670. The Eyefinity cards will run 3 monitors directly as well as my 3 small USB monitors. This setup gets about FPS 40-65. SMOTHLY. Oh yeah, no special power requirements. AND it’ll work on a 400Watt PSU.

And that’s with most of the FSX settings near max.

The video card update was a mistake. The Radion 5670 with 1GB of DDR5 can be bought NEW for less than $70 on Amazon. The 5670 ran all 6 of my monitors MORE than adequately, AND I got almost the same FPS as I do with the newer ASUS Radeon HD 6870 card which cost me $160 at the time.

My mistake. Now I know. Now you know.

Now if someone wants to tell me how “their” card gets a 1,000+ FPS, I’ll say “That’s GREAT!” BUT (and there is always a “But”) how many FPS are there in a movie? How high do the FPS get before the human eye can’t tell the difference any more.

I want lots of details at a low cost. Why should I spend a $1,000 or more for something that I CAN NOT SEE? Keep your bragging rights. That’s GREAT!
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Mar 23, 2013 6:42 pm

PART 5

Extra Keys


Sorry about all of the pictures, but to understand your options, you need to see your options.

When I started about a year and a half ago I thought that it was insane that I had to memorize so many keyboard commands. The Joystick I had was fairly programmable. Using one joystick key as a SHIFT key let me program it with about 21 - 24 commands. But there was a whole lot more that were needed for most of what I flew.

Another problem was that my desktop space is limited. I didn’t want to have to reach over the yoke to slide the keyboard out from under the panels so I could hit a key every now and again. It really does spoil the elusion that you’re using aircraft buttons and switches to fly.

Keyboards are VERY cheap, so I looked into creating one like Roger Dodger likes to promote.

But more often than not people get something like this:

Image . Image
Image

Done CAREFULLY I'm sure that it can look very good. And because you can get keyboards so cheaply, you can have different keyboards for different types of aircraft. I've even seen old keyboards piled in a box for 99 cents each.



Another choice would be the key strips/pads from X-Keys. This would be my first choice if price weren’t a consideration. But even the button strips are $100, and I wanted 2 of them.

Image . Image

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What I did choose, back then, was the Logitech G13 Programmable Gameboard.

Image . Image

If you want a lot of key options without taking up a lot of space this is a very good choice. Aside from being very easy to program, you can also set the keypad lights to one of 4 different colors. Lets say RED for fighters, BLUE for sea planes, ORANGE for jets, and GREEN for general aviation. To be specific – you can make the 4 different keypad assignments AND have them change to one of the 4 colors. So if ALL of the keys are orange, you know that you’re in jet plane mode. I only used it for my flight sim, but it has a lot more capabilities.

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GPS KEYBOARD

Back then I wanted a GPS keyboard. And after finding a free program called HIDMacros, I started to think about options.

Numeric keypads!!!

Making the GPS keypad - Find a cheap keypad. Beg, borrow, or steal a Brother P-Touch. They come in multiple colors, so buy at least 2 more colors. Make your labels.

There are 2 problems with the P-Touch labels. They don't stick very well to smooth plastic, and the "printing" wears off with a lot of use. What I did was to print out a label and peel off the backing. Next I placed a strip of double sides Scotch tape on the underside of the P-Touch tape. The next to last step is to place a strip of regular clear (not frosted/invisible) tape over that to protect the "printing".

When you have the label trimmed with scissors to fit the face of the key, put the label on the tip of a small knife for positioning over the key. Place one edge at an angle on the key to correctly align it before pressing it down.

This is what I ended up with:

Image . Image . Image

A word about HIDMacros. Using a numeric keypad has it's problems; trying to use BOTH your keyboard keypad AND a separate numeric keypad may not work out all that well. It's a computer HID limitation relating to the [NUM LOCK] key, not an HIDMacros problem. Using all of the other keys on your keyboard is not a problem.

On the other hand you can use 5, 6, 7, or more keyboards or keypads and HIDMacros will keep them sorted. Without HIDMacros EACH KEYBORD will send the same key press as all of the other keyboards. Press “A” on any keyboard and the computer records an “A”. HIDMacros makes them send a different command depending on which keyboard you press the letter “A” on.

With HIDMacros, you can even leave all of the other keyboards plugged in without a problem, HIDMacros detects which key is pressed on which keyboard. Even when you aren’t using HIDMacros to send commands, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Type in a text field and you get text.

Instead of letting HIDMacros assign them alphanumeric names, make sure that YOU assign a descriptive name to each HID device. Trust me, you WANT to do that.

One more thing – you can assign multiple commands to one key press. :D

And last - The programmer hasn’t worked on it for a while, so when you download it, burn it to a disk just to be safe.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:45 am

Speaking of extra keys, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Well, too large of a good thing, anyway.

No matter what you do (in so far as hitting keys, buttons, or switches), now and then you do have to type info into your flight sim or look up an airport.

Whether or not your desktop is a dedicated sim pit you'll soon run out of desk space. But if it is a dedicated sim pit, all the worse - you really don't want a regular keyboard in sight except for when you absolutely must enter an airport destination. My desktop isn't dedicated to a flight sim, but I don't have the room (or desire) to leave it in plain sight all of the time. Pulling it out of it's hiding place to type with one hand as I hold it with the other is a pain in the ....

A better solution was needed. Enter the IOGEAR GKB601B Multi-Link Bluetooth Mini Keyboard. At $30 new or $22.50 used it's worked out perfectly.

The keyboard is about 9" by 4.25". Some reviews will complain the it's to small to type on - BULL DINKY. The whole point of small keyboards like this is that THEY ARE SMALL! THEY ARE NOT MENT FOR TOUCH TYPESTS! Twits!

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There are 2 features that make this particular keyboard stand out. The first is that it will pair with as many as 6 devices and easily switch between them. I can switch between my 7" tablet and my computer by holding down the FN key and pressing only one other key.

The other GREAT feature is that it'll fit on top of the Saitek TPM. :D

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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:22 pm

Getting more out of your Saitek Radio Panel
. . . . . . . . . . . . .(Like concentric GPS knobs for....)

Many of you have seen my very short YouTube video of me controlling the standard FSX GPS using the Saitek concentric knobs on the Radio Panel.

Before I start, watch the video. Understand that it was done without ANY programming (it’s mostly “click” & “select”). Also, you do not need a separate monitor. You can do it on your main screen.

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(In case someone didn't notice - it takes 3 presses of the ACT/STBY button to accept the location, confirm the selection, & set (activate) the location.)

Lets start off with a hard fact: You need a fully licensed version of FSUIPC. Just because some people have a product (usually some kind of FSX hardware) which came with a version of FSUIPC, they think that they have the full version of FSUIPC. No you don't. So go to the website and buy a copy. It's exceptionally useful.

The other thing that's needed is SPAD (Saitek Panels Advanced Driver). SPAD is free. This gives you much better control over the Saitek panels and eliminates the problems that Saitek built into its drivers.

To use it you need to UNINSTALL ALL SAITEK DRIVERS! Another way to put it is UNINSTALL ALL SAITEK DRIVERS!

If you have any Saitek flight instrument panels you need to find the Saitek driver that ONLY controls the flight instruments panels. DO NOT USE THE SAITEK UNIVERSAL DRIVERS!

Sorry about all of that, but Saitek cripples some otherwise good hardware with some REALLY bad drivers. (Breath in, hold it, breath out. Breath in, hold it, breath out. I'm ok now. I feel much better.)

So. After you install FSUIPC & SPAD you can have some fun. Or not. It depends on how deep you want to get into the software.

For the most part SPAD is a "click on the settings & options that you want" type of thing. You don't even need to save your changes, they're saved when you exit the program. The instructions are very simple, and you only need to read the part about the panels that you have.

FSUIPC is a bit more complicated, but there are a lot of areas where you can just click on the choices that you want. Don't ask me for a lot of help though, FSUIPC can become complicated, especially if you want to really get the most out of it.


BEGIN!

When you use SPAD for the Radio Panel you have options that you don't have with the Saitek driver.

For instance - When the knob on the left side is set to the DME setting, the display only shows information. AND the knobs on the right have absolutely no function in this setup. But you can give them a function. :D

Although these panels aren't directly programmable you can use SPAD to send fictitious joystick button presses to FSUIPC. FSUIPC then sends commands to FSX.

What all this means is that you can assign one of the two knobs on the right side of the Radio panel (when the knob on the left is set to DME) to operate the knobs on the Garmin GPS. *** All other knob settings are unaffected ***.

The functions you want to set are "GPS_group_knob inc" & "GPS_group_knob dec" for the outer knob. "GPS_page_knob inc" & "GPS_page_knob dec" for the inner knob. Set the speed of knob rotation (how fast the number/letters move up or down) to about halfway (50). This keeps you from having to spin the dial a lot (The ability to speed up the “turn” of the knobs is something that you only get with SPAD).

The ACT/STBY button to the right of the knobs is also not used on the Radio Panel when set to DME. That button is now set to replicate hitting the onscreen GPS "Enter" button. So now you can turn the 2 concentric knobs to set your destination, and hit the ACT/STBY button 3 times to activate your "Direct To" setting in FSX. BTW - the knobs will do more after you make these settings, but I'll let you discover just what else they can do.


Here are a few screen shots to make it clearer.

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(The "Joy#" and the "Btn#" can be any number that you want to use.)


You can use this to control ANY actionable FSX controls/knobs, EVEN if you can't see them. Get creative, and good luck!
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:08 pm

One more thing.

* FSX expects a button press (pulse) of about 1/4 second. So if you flip a switch or press a button, a one 1/4 second pulse is generated that FSX interprets however it's been programmed to. This is also how the rotary knobs (switches) work too. Each turn is a click. Each click is a 1/4 second pulse.

What is interesting is that SPAD lets you use the Saitek Radio panel buttons in an interesting way. It can differentiate between a short or long press, thereby giving a single button the ability to be programmed for 2 different functions.

The long press of the ACT/STBY key can be programmed while the left hand switch is in the Com1, Com2, Nav1, Nav2 , or the ADF position. The "short" click will be unaffected (unless YOU choose differently).

This sounds more complicated than it is.
Image
You need to have FSUIPC and SPAD open. When you click "Send button to Flight Sim", the virtual joystick (you can have up to 64 virtual joysticks) and virtual button (you enter the number that you want the button to be, 0 to 31) is sent to FSUIPC. You then tell FSUIPC what you want it to do when it receives that button from that joystick.

The Multi Panel buttons have the same "long click" capabilities. If you want you could make a "long click" on the HDG button lower the landing gear, or turn on the landing lights. Why you would want to is a different matter. The point is that the "long click" doubles the capabilities of some buttons, and can be used for any FSX command.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:29 pm

ERROR: Your hard drive is screwed.
. . . .Do you wish to reformat?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . [YES]


A posting by Jetranger reminded me of something that no one wants to even think about. So they end up doing nothing about it.


BACKUPS

Do you want to keep flying, or do you want to just p!$$ and moan about the flight sim/computer getting corrupted?

First off, the complaints-
Backups are expensive, you need to buy a large external hard drive (or if you're a real old fart, a tape drive).
You need to buy special software.
Backups are hard to do.
You don't have the time to do it.

It goes on and on. People just don't want to make a backup. But why spend a lot of time, money, and effort getting your flight sim perfect, and then NOT make a backup?


I've mentioned here and there that I don't actually buy a new computer, I just replace older/slower parts in the same case. Voilà! A new computer.

One of the things that you collect when you do it that way are spare hard drives. In my case, it's 2 or 3 old hard drives.

When I replace a HDD I save the old one incase the new one dies. If that happens I can just put the old one back in the machine. No Problem. When you have confidence that you won't need the old drive anymore you can use it for backups.

Now this is the point where you'll have to spend big money - $10-$20.

I have a different version of this, but it's almost EXACTLY the same. BTW, it works for Macs or Windows, and will probably work for Linux too (so long as you have a USB2/3 connector on your computer).

SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive / Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter
Image


Software

Once you have an old (or a new & cheap) hard drive you're almost set to make backups. Most newer operating systems will have a backup utility in it. It shouldn't be hard to find. The one for Windows 7 Pro is super simple.

At worst, search the computer magazines for a free backup program.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:06 pm

The NOT SO poor mans sim pit

SSD vs HDD

The two things that have given me the biggest improvements in a computer are a fast video card and a fast drive with a large cache.

I moved from a fast HDD to a SSD last year. Truthfully the speed increase wasn’t as fast as I had expected. After checking out the specs on the old drive I understood. It was already a VERY fast spinning SATA 3 HDD with a large cache.

I would say though, that moving from a standard drive to an SSD would definitely give most people a big boost.

If your motherboard only has SATA 2 on it then a fast spinning SATA 2 HDD (with 32 to 64meg of cache) will be the best for you. If your board has SATA3, but you can't afford an SSD, then go with a fast spinning SATA 3 HDD, again - with a large cache.

For what it's worth, I used Clonezilla to clone my Windows 7 64bit Pro system to the new SSD. The software is a little odd to use the first time, but it worked absolutely perfectly.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Apr 13, 2013 1:11 pm

UPDATE

If you can use it here's a very good deal that’ll make you think that you have an SSD. My previous HDD was the 32 MB cache version of this one.
WD Black 500 GB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA III, 64 MB Cache ($79.64 at the moment)

True, it's not the largest drive in the world. But unless you like to keep movies on your drive it’ll probably fit a good many peoples needs. If it is too small go for a higher capacity version of this.

I’m not sure if on one of the newer motherboards with SATA 3 that a 64 MB cache is beneficial, a 16 to 32 MB cache would probably be fine. If you have an older board with SATA 3 then yes, go for 64 MB Cache.

On an SSD, a large cache is less important for most uses.

BTW - The old WD Black 500 GB drive was reformatted and is now used as Drive E:. Most of the programs that will not benefit from an SSD were moved there. FSX stays on the C drive of course.
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Apr 14, 2013 12:26 pm

UPDATE on the hard drive.

The prices keep falling so I won't keep doing this, but here's an even better deal;
Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache $72.37

(For some reason, that maybe the mods know of, I couldn't just add this in to the posting above. Anyone else run into this problem when attempting to edit a previous post? I'm thinking that it's a time limit thing)
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Re: The poor mans sim pit

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Apr 19, 2013 9:39 pm

LOOK NOW!
TrackIR and FaceTrackNoIR


TrackIR
Image
I've had the TrackIR 5 for about a year and a half. After learning how to use it correctly I would never give it up.

But when I first tried it, I hated it. I was ready to send the stupid thing back. What stopped me was the fact that a good many people like it. A lot, at that.

I've never had motion sickness until I used the TrackIR. After the first two hours I was sweating and ready to throw up. I couldn’t touch it again until the next night. And even then I started to feel sick after starting FSX up with TrackIR running.

There's a simple solution to the motion sickness problem. If you have even the slightest uneasiness caused by the "movements" on screen change the Speed to .1, .2, or .3 and SLOWLY, over a few days, increase it. With the lower "Speed" settings I got used to the on-screen movements, and soon had it at my optimal setting. For what it’s worth, depending on the plane, I use either .4 or .5. Those settings give me the “natural” feel of looking around a cabin and out the windows.

This is the original "Speed" setting.
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Set it to something slower when you first start using it.
Image


The biggest problem is the cost. Even a slightly lower price would sell a lot more units, but that's their problem. And DON'T buy it with the TrackClip Pro. That's the LED set that attaches to your headphones. The extra USB cable will drive you crazy. I used it for about half an hour before I relegated it to the dustbin. THAT part was a total waste of money. Sometimes "The Best" just isn't very good.
Image

Is TrackIR 5 worth $150? I think so; It's much more natural and I can fly and land much better with it. What more do you want? And if you're into fighter games TrackIR may be essential to winning.

Another, and perhaps better, option is to buy the TrackIR 4 for $100. I’ve tried both TrackIR 5 and TrackIR 4 software. The TrackIR5 software is much better, but they both work perfectly well in FSX.



Back to the poor mans sim pit

And that gets us to the FaceTrackNoIR software.

I tried it for 2 reasons. One, it's free. And two, I just wanted to see how well it would work. Did I mention that it's free?

FaceTrackNoIR worked better than I expected and the more that I played around with the settings, the better it worked.

I can't really give it a thorough review because I only used it for about an hour. But I can say that it would be well worth trying out if you don't have, or don't want to spend the money for, a TrackIR. However just like TrackIR you do have to reduce the speed of on-screen movement at first. This was easy to do by making changes under the [Curves] button.

Image


The USB camera that I used to test the software is a 13-14 year old Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000. And, technically, it's no longer supported on Windows 7 (which is what I have).

Not a problem. FaceTrackNoIR started using it without me installing any drivers or even having to select it. Impressive.


Under "Game Protocol" you have the choice of;
Flight Gear
FS2002/FS2004
FreeTrack 2.0
FaceTrackNoIR
Mouse Look
FSX SimConnect
VJoy Virtual Joystick


That should cover most of the people here.


The following videos are a good representations of how TrackIR and FaceTrackNoIR look in action.

TrackIR 5
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FaceTrackNoIR
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With FaceTrackNoIR being free and webcams costing less than $10 what have you got to lose?
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OldAirmail
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Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

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