FreeTrack, FaceTrackNoIR, TrackIR, etc. - Your experiences

[sesselpupser]

I started making my third FreeTrack headset today and thought I'd start a thread about it, because why not I guess. Also because @Akira AC showed interest so I thought I'd write it up.

Ages ago I made a three-point model using terrible LEDs and camera (they were all I had, though) and no IR pass filter, so it didn't really work too well. Then I made another attempt, only the second was a one-point model. The LED I used was much, much better (it could track further than I could turn my head!) but the camera was the same, however I made an IR pass filter out of the red and blue filters from a pair of 3D glasses I had lying around and it was a huge improvement, but the tracking frame rate meant it was a no-go.

This time, I'm using the same LEDs, a Playstation 3 Eye camera and a new mounting method that should be much more durable (last time it was a pencil, before that it was a wire coathanger, this time... It's a short length of thick cable insulation!).


A rough wall of text/guide to the process:

- I ordered these LEDs (datasheet PDF), this PS3 Eye and this camera stand (the one I got is actually a lot better, I've just realised they're different; mine has an additional foot on the back to sit flush with the curvature of the montior and holds the camera's base with a magnet, rather than a clip). I chose the...

- ... LEDs because although they're SMD (I can and have soldered them to stripboard before), they've got a huge viewing angle (145 degrees) and are of around the right wavelength (865nm). I had no idea if they'd be powerful enough, but the one I tested before was, however I can't remember what kind of resistance I gave it. I'll have to work it out again when I get the LEDs again.
-... Camera because of the frame rate, software and, well, also because I could use it with my PS3 if I ever decide I want to. This particular Amazon page seems to be a listing for the "good version" (SLEH-00443) with the removable IR filter, but frankly if you pick your wavelength correctly it doesn't matter; the "bad version" only attenuates about 7% of the luminance of 865nm IR, but I've lost the link to the graph that proved that.
- ... Stand so I could put the camera on top of my monitor and point it downwards. This is because I have my wheel in front of me and monitors either side of the middle one, so the only place it could get a good view is from above.
​

- An explanation of the model I'm using: My first two tests were too fragile to be realistic long-term headphone attachments, the wire coathanger thing kept poking me in the temple and the pencil tore off as it was only held on with masking tape. This time I wanted to find a soft but rigid material to make the model with, I initially thought to use a spring but I couldn't find any extension type springs of a reasonably small diameter, only huge ones that were no good, and compression springs wouldn't work either because they're too, well, springy. I found the solution whilst cleaning my desk: a section of thick mains wiring cable insulation. It's rigid enough to not wobble when I shake my head, but soft enough so if I drop the headphones face-down it won't stress the joint between the model and headphones. It's about four inches long at the moment but I might try and make it shorter. The idea is pretty simple; LED at one end, wires through the middle, down the headphone cable and into a power supply under my seat (courtesy of a USB extension cable, a USB port and a resistor of as-yet uncalculated value). To test it while I wait for the LEDs I ordered to arrive I've bodged together a quick test using one of the old, terrible LEDs with the same model and it is really quite good. It was only joined to the headphones with some thick wire, though, I think for the actual thing I'll use maybe some sort of fabric strap or finer wire so it can wrap more tightly.

Anyway, back to preparing the camera:

- I installed the Code Laboratories CL-Eye driver, plugged the camera in and tested it, so far so good.
- It was at about this point that I 'installed' my IR pass filter. It's a carry-over from my last test as mentioned above; the red and blue filter from a pair of 3D glasses held over the lens with an elastic band. Ugly, but it works so it'll stay for now (read: probably forever).
- I then uninstalled my previous FreeTrack install and reinstalled it, but before I launched it I installed a fix to enable FreeTrack (sendspace download link) to work with the CL-Eye driver, as per this guide. Then I ran FreeTrack as an administrator.
- This bit is slightly annoying, but it's not a big deal - You MUST click 'Stream' before 'Start' in FreeTrack, otherwise it will crash, every single time you run FreeTrack. This drove me crazy earlier on as I couldn't work out why it kept crashing.
- I left pretty much all of the settings at the top alone. I set the camera to 320x240 at 60fps in the Stream button window (lower resolution because it's sufficient (as far as I can tell) and reduces processor load, high frame rate for smoother tracking), then in the Frame Rate tab (in the main FreeTrack window) I changed that to 60fps with 1 multiplier (I had to uncheck 'Auto' to do this) because I think using a multiplier introduces some latency. Adjust the threshold until the IR points are much bigger than any other thing you might be able to see, which should be pretty much nothing unless you have a strong IR source behind you. Then go to Point Size and play with that until the IR dots are the only thing the software will recognise to be a trackable point. I didn't touch anything in Orientation or Calibration, or any of the options at the top (except in Global I turned the yaw and pitch sensitivity all the way up as my LED sucks at the moment, so I could get noticeable amounts of movement).
- Exit FreeTrack, save profile changes and reboot the PC.

Then you just launch a game. Race 07 worked perfectly with no extra work, Euro Truck Simulator 2 required me to edit a file to enable TrackIR and Arma 3 gave me a big headache and I couldn't work out why... I don't even know how I fixed it but I was at it for about an hour, possibly more. One thing to note is that Bohemia Interactive's games - notably Arma 2, Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead, Arma 3 and Take On Helicopters (I didn't try Take On Mars or DayZ Standalone) - will always, always crash the first time you launch them with FreeTrack active. Launch them again and they should be fine.

In Arma 3 and Take On Helicopters, you have to go to the key mapping screen, then look for a button that says 'controllers'. Click on that, then enable FreeTrack (TrackIR doesn't work because of proprietary encryption, but it recognises that FreeTrack would like to try and do TrackIR... but it can't for Arma 3). If you're lucky, it'll just work instantly. I personally couldn't work out for the life of me why it wouldn't detect FreeTrack inputs, but after an hour of trying everything I could find, it just suddenly decided to work again.

So I think that's about it. When the good LEDs finally get delivered I'll see about recording a video demonstrating how well it works in a few different games, but as it took me 300 minutes (what's that, like 5 hours?) to upload a 3 minute video I might have to be quite economical.

TL, DR: The PS3 Eye is a great FreeTrack camera, but everyone interested knew that already. Don't worry too much about the IR filter, if you're careful about picking your wavelength (anything at or over 865nm) you can 'brute force' your way around it.


So, how about you? Have you got or tried FreeTrack or FaceTrack, or did you just spend five to ten times what they cost to get the hassle-free TrackIR? If you do want to do as I've done and need any clarification or have questions about compatibility (I've got quite a lot of games so unless it's iRacing, I've quite possibly got it) then let me know. As for troubleshooting, I'm probably not the best source, but I might be able to help.

 

[insert coin]

I'm a happy FreeTrack user as well. I can race without it, but with it is so much better: to be able to look into a corner before turning is a big plus, as well as being able to look left and right smoothly. Looking into the mirrors is easier too.
I have built a 3 point cap: I simply pinched the LEDs through the fabric and wired the LEDs (with resistors) to a small battery pack which is velcroed to the back of the cap. The batteries last about 10 hours.
I recommend the PS3 Eye camera as well. I did remove the IR filter in the camera since it made a huge difference in sensitivity in my case (a tricky job to remove the filter I must say). I'm using a more or less professional daylight blocking filter made of glass. This works very well.
I'm mainly using Race07, GTR Evolution and Game Stock Car. Race07 / GTR Evo is working very well with FreeTrack out of the box. The only thing I did in FreeTrack was setting up a tracking graph so it's less sensitive in the center. I'm still a bit struggling with Game Stock Car to get the same tracking 'feeling' as in Race07, but it is working.
I had the crashing problem too when starting FreeTrack, but that can be avoided by using an older version of the PS3 camera driver.
If you have questions, just shoot.

 

[CC570]

I use Facetracknoir with a PS3 eye. I use a photographic reflector for lighting and it works very well. Supposedly Facetracknoir is cpu intensive, but I haven't noticed any effect using it with either rfactor, Assetto Corsa, or xplane.
Since I run a single 27" monitor and a realistic FOV (27.3 degree vertical, 44.7 degree horizontal) the facetracking is absolutely necessary imo. I don't plan on changing anything until Oculus Rift makes it into my eager hands.

 

[Akira AC]

So that's why ArmA 3 seemed to be broken.

I did a similar assembly, though I was using a cheap MS live camera and Facetracknoir to test if the inputs were registered by the software, this was using the Face API + FreeTrack as game protocol, and while the software and while it did registered some basic inputs (this was for testing purposes), nothing in ArmA seemed to receive that input (yeah I also went to the controllers section in options and only enabled FreeTrack but no luck). In the meantime I tested it with LOMAC, to my surprise it works (though the face capture was all messed up because of the software, it recognized the inputs).

Due to recent shortcomings (new job) my time has dwindle to keep fiddling with it, however once I get facetracknoir to work in ArmA III I'll set about making the assembly with the PS3 eye (or wait for people to use and test the PS4 eye and see how that turns out, in order to cover all basis if Morpheus or whatever offers IR tracking).

 

[insert coin]

I did an interesting discovery yesterday that I'd like to share with you. Until yesterday I used FreeTrack with the PS3 Eye camera set to 320x240 at 100 fps. I tried 125 fps, but my camera produces too much noise at that speed. Sometimes I could see a small jitter and I thought it could be the low resolution of the camera, so I set it to 640x480. And yes, the jitter was gone, perfect tracking now. But at 640x480 the maximum fps is 75, so it lagged a bit more. But this problem can be fixed: if you set the output fps of FreeTrack to 120 (tab at the bottom of the screen), the lag is almost gone. Hardly any lag anymore, with perfect tracking! FreeTrack mentions the output fps should match the camera fps, but setting it at max (120) gives a much better result.
Other things I would recommend: set smoothing to 4 (as low as possible) and set the minimum point size as big as possible (10 in my case). This will reduce the lag as well.

FYI: I have tried Facetracknoir / OpenTracker with the pointtracker plugin, but was disappointed: even with the Accela mk4 filter it had some tracking problems and it lagged more than FreeTrack.
I amazed to see people on Youtube use Facetracknoir with an incredible amount of lag (0.5 seconds or more). That would make me sick .
FreeTrack FTW! Hardly any lag!

 

[Punknoodle]

Thanks so much for this thread, I already have a Playstation Eye camera and I have no problem using a soldering iron to make my own LED arrangement, so I think I will try this out as I was thinking about buying TrackIR

 

[j_speed]

Just my $0.02, I have tried Freetrack and FaceTrackNoIR and later purchased a TrackIR and it was a noticeable improvement in performance. It barely has any lag.

 

[John Garrett]

Hey neema_t what file did you have to edit in Euro Truck Simulator 2 to get this to work? and how did you do the editing?

Thanks -- John G