Alienware Aurora 7500 (purchased May 2005)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2.2Ghz dual core)
2GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
nVidia 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 memory (I replaced the original 7800GTX)
146GB 10KRPM SATA/300 drive for OS and other games
73GB 10KRPM SATA/300 drive dedicated to FS X w/Accelration
Windows XP w/SP2
I get decent performance from this rig with most settings turned up high, in the 15-30FPS range.
The TrackIR packaging contained less than I expected, but it was very simple to install and setup with the instructions they provided (I found out that not all my USB ports are USB 2.0, when I plugged it into some ports I got a warning message from Windows about the device needing a 2.0 port, which I eventually found). You have to start the TrackIR software before FS (or any other game that will use it), and there are some things I had to figure out the hard way. I started the TrackIR software and then FS X, and after loading a free flight I was greeted with a flailing view, like my head was trying to twist itself off in 360 degrees of movement, very fast.
I killed FS X and started playing around with the TrackIR program. I found the Tracking view that allowed me to see what TrackIR sees and figured out that the open window behind me was throwing too much light on the sensor, something to keep in mind if your computer room as a strong light source directly behind you. After closing the drapes I went on to the Heads view, this is 2 heads next to each other that shows you your movement and how that movement would be in the game. I found out here that I needed to "calibrate" TrackIR with the clip I was wearing on my hat as my head was turned round 180 degrees. Luckily this is as easy as hitting the F12 key. I figured out that it's best to get your chair in perfect position and seated in it the way you want to, then hit F12. Once this was done it was time to fly!
I started up FS X and loaded up the free flight I usually use, a Cessna 172 out of Moffett field in Mountain View California. I played around with the movement before starting off, it was amazing to be able to look around, up and over, and everything else just by moving my head and body; and it worked very well! After playing around a bit I took off and headed north west, along the inside of the San Francisco bay. Again looking around was almost as natural as if I were in a real plane, the default flight settings profile that TrackIR software uses seemed to work naturally for me. I did notice that if I moved my head too close to the sensor it would cause my view to go haywire for a bit, the instruction booklet recommends 2-6 feet distance between the sensor and the tracking clip on your head, now I know why. After sitting back and twisting my head for a bit to get everything back to normal I was back to flying, I adjusted my seat a bit to be further away, then adjusted zoom to get my view just the way I wanted it. I did notice that my view tended to jitter a very tiny bit from time to time, I may need to do some tweaking of the flight profile in the TrackIR software.
I did experience one significant problem. During the flight I switched to the chase plane view to get a look from outside and noticed that moving my head left to right would change the view but I didn't' get the full 6 degrees of movement that I did from VC view, then I discovered I couldn't get back into VC view. I tried other views (TrackIR doesn't work well with 2D view) but I couldn't get back into VC view at all, I had to end the flight in mid air.
I quit FS X and went back into the TrackIR software to see if I could figure out why that happened but couldn't find anything in the Help section of the TrackIR software (I'm going to dig around on their support forums later to find an answer). I went back into FS X and loaded up the free flight again to do a complete flight. I wanted to see if it was easier to make an approach to an airport with TrackIR than without it (I'm still learning how to fly and haven't learned about ILS and other methods of approach). I took off from Moffett again and flew north of San Francisco, then turned east and started heading towards San Francisco International Airport (SFO). I found it much easier to make my turns being able to quickly look out my right window to see how the turn was going and where I was in relation to SFO. I was able to line up with one of the runways pretty easily, something I've never been able to do before, and made a near perfect landing!
TrackIR made it much easier for me to taxi, I even stopped at the other runway intersection and was able to look for approaching planes, all in a matter of seconds.TrackIR definitely immerses me into the flight sim more than I had been before, though I'm going to have to do some fine tuning of the movement, and figure out the view issue. I'd recommend this to anyone that wants to make their FS X experience more real.
P.S. Well, it didn't take long to figure out the issue with going out of/into VC view. TrackIR uses F9 to pause tracking, which is also the key FS X is set up to switch to VC view. I'll have to play with the hotkey settings in the TrackIR software to get them to use somethign FS X doesn't
