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TrackIR headtracking compatibility

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TrackIR headtracking compatibility

Postby Delta5142 » Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:17 am

Cole wrote in Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:38 pm:
all FG needs is trackir compatibility.


I'm pretty sure it does...?
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Re: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Development

Postby Johan G » Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:17 pm

Cole wrote in Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:38 pm:[...] all FG needs is trackir compatibility.

For various head tracking solutions, see the FlightGear wiki article Head tracking (permalink)
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Re: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Development

Postby Cole » Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:02 pm

Johan G wrote in Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:17 pm:
Cole wrote in Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:38 pm:[...] all FG needs is trackir compatibility.

For various head tracking solutions, see the FlightGear wiki article Head tracking (permalink)


Thank-you. I already read through dozens of threads about this, and tried many "solutions" of those before writing my post. Unfortunately none of those are solutions since what people expect with compatibility is real compatibility where you can quickly use TrackIR, by going through maybe 2 or 3 steps, and not go through experimental programs and dozens of experimental steps. Not having a straightforward solution for TrackIR is losing FG thousands of players. Maybe that is on purpose, thats for people on the inside to answer. I find it very hard to believe that if there was a decision made to make it possible, that it wouldn't be already done. Whichever comment people may make, or opinion they have, the fact remains that there is no solution for people who already have TrackIR to use it with FG. I tried myself to convince other people that these solutions work, but they don't. And many people who would gladly play flightgear, don't. Everyone can make their own conclusions about that.
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Re: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Development

Postby portreekid » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:42 pm

Cole wrote in Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:02 pm:Thank-you. I already read through dozens of threads about this, and tried many "solutions" of those before writing my post. Unfortunately none of those are solutions since what people expect with compatibility is real compatibility where you can quickly use TrackIR, by going through maybe 2 or 3 steps, and not go through experimental programs and dozens of experimental steps. Not having a straightforward solution for TrackIR is losing FG thousands of players. Maybe that is on purpose, thats for people on the inside to answer. I find it very hard to believe that if there was a decision made to make it possible, that it wouldn't be already done. Whichever comment people may make, or opinion they have, the fact remains that there is no solution for people who already have TrackIR to use it with FG. I tried myself to convince other people that these solutions work, but they don't. And many people who would gladly play flightgear, don't. Everyone can make their own conclusions about that.


The development of Flightgear is mainly driven by what developers like to develop and not what "End Users" want. If a feature doesn't exist plainly means no one was interested in making it. In the years I haven't seen any discussion forbidding anyone implementing for instance TrackIR. Just pick up the bits and start.
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Re: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Development

Postby Johan G » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:44 pm

Cole wrote in Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:02 pm:[...] the fact remains that there is no solution for people who already have TrackIR to use it with FG.

It is unfortunately very unlikely that FlightGear ever will have TrackIR support, or that TrackIR will support FlightGear. :(

NaturalPoint want to have as large headtracking market share as possible with TrickIR. Doing this they instead of using an existing HID protocol [1] have chosen a proprietary protocol, and when competitors, some being open source freeware, started reverse engineering it NaturalPoint back in 2008 started using an encrypted protocol for all new products. [2, 3, 4]

While they do have an SDK for developers available on their website, it is covered by an non-disclosure agreement, meaning that it would have to be an external binary blob and likely not possible to distribute with the rest of FlightGear. Being able to select FlightGear from their software would require registering FlightGear as an available title and I can not imagine they would do that without some kind of fee (and not unlikely a mix of a one time large fee and a smaller fee per installation). [5]

Cole wrote in Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:02 pm:Not having a straightforward solution for TrackIR is losing FG thousands of players.

It might be a shock for you but, as much as we would like other to enjoy FlightGear as well, the number of users is for the most of us in the community at most a secondary concern. It is not like we make a living from it. :wink:
____
[1] An open standard used by USB devices. Other parts of the standard cover for example keyboard, mice and joysticks. Pretty much all such devices on the market are USB HID devices.
[2] TrackIR#TrackIR interface with games, Wikipedia
[3] FreeTrack#TrackIR interface, Wikipedia
[4] TrackIR Anticompetition, NaturalPointofView
[5] See documentation that follows with the SDK available at the NaturalPoint website
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
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Re: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Development

Postby Cole » Mon May 10, 2021 1:39 pm

Johan G wrote in Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:44 pm:
Cole wrote in Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:02 pm:Not having a straightforward solution for TrackIR is losing FG thousands of players.

It might be a shock for you but, as much as we would like other to enjoy FlightGear as well, the number of users is for the most of us in the community at most a secondary concern. It is not like we make a living from it. :wink:

"It might be a shock for you", but nobody sees flightgear as interested in new players.
Last edited by Johan G on Tue May 11, 2021 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Please do not quote the entire preceding post.
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