[jai_]

Cool to see this, it's a cool in-between step for not having additional wraparound screens or a VR headset.

I used to run a similar software[1] for when I was really into playing F1 racing games. However one of the problems I found was the initial disconnect in your head and eye movement that took some getting used to.

For example, if you want to look left to see an upcoming turn, naturally your eyes move before your head, and your head follows after. With this software enabled, you have to consciously inverse the process where your head moves a direction, but your eyes still remain looking forward at the screen.

It took a some getting used to and resulting in some dizziness afterwards, but was fun.

[1]: https://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm

[Freaky]

opentrack would be the one to beat these days: https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack

It's completely replaced my TrackIR 5, since it averts the need to wear headphones and dig out the tracking bracket every time I want to use it, and the accuracy feels about the same.

I found head tracking pretty much becomes second-nature after a while - to the point at which it feels weird to play first-person sims without it. Not quite as fancy as VR, but much more comfortable and much more practical.

[itsloopyo]

Head tracking's great, the reasons it became a niche thing are easy to overcome in 2026. I've been churning out loads of decoupled look+aim head tracking mods for non-sims with this in mind (all OpenTrack compatible) - https://github.com/itsloopyo#the-mods

[Freaky]

Ooh, awesome. I was literally just thinking the other day that it was a shame on-foot head tracking games pretty much started and ended with ArmA 3, because it's great both for situational awareness, and for just plain gawping at stuff.

Will definitely be trying out some of those :)

[kqr]

I second how awesome head tracking is for simming. Feels somewhat natural after a short adjustment period.

Last time I tried it there were still some problems (combinations of face pitch adjustment and z-axis translation resulted in weird camera movements in-sim IIRC) that makes me hesitate to call it fully natural, but some of it could probably be a filtering/configuration issue.

It's also fully possible TrackIR suffers from the same issue!

[arrowleaf]

Do you really prefer webcam + opentrack over the trackir? Asking because I literally have a trackir on the way to me in the mail, and most discussions I could find were at least 2-3 years old.

[simonjgreen]

I have had a TrackIR 5 since pretty much release which I used religiously for flight siming. I also have a tobii eye tracker. I have pretty much stopped using the trackir entirely now in favour of the eye tracker + opentrack. It is incredible, works flawlessly. You have a very small amount less horizontal turn tracking, but honestly your head has to be comically side on for you to notice the difference. Perfectly smooth and predictable. Lately been using it in Nuclear Option and it’s changed the game. TrackIR also works great, and is also flawless, but the key difference is the eye tracker requires zero hardware on your head to work. Even works through glasses.

[kqr]

How does the Tobii + OpenTrack combination work? And why does it not count as zero hardware?

Edit: Oh, zero hardware on the head. Makes sense.

[Freaky]

I guess so, given I have my TrackIR in a box!

That said, I have had issues with opentrack that involved some mildly irritating troubleshooting. Namely X4: Foundations didn't work properly with the standard freetrack output regardless of how I configured it, and I ended up needing to use "UDP over network".

I've never had a comparable problem with TrackIR, in spite of using it with a wider variety of titles over a longer period. I do kinda like having it as a backup in case more intractable problems crop up.

[moffkalast]

I set up a basic nose tracker to do the same thing in beamNG just for left/right motion a long while ago, just to see if it was usable. The neat thing there was that you could also just translate your head to get the same effect and didn't need to move your eyes at all. Feels even weirder though lol.

[ry-grah]

just wondering, did this difference in looking around mess you up at all when driving in real life

[kqr]

Not the person you're asking, but I can answer from my own experience: No. There's a big difference between looking at a monitor and looking out a real car window. Your brain can tell.