# Anyone have a TrackIR peripheral?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-trackir-peripheral/500914>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [June 25, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-trackir-peripheral/500914 "2009-06-25T06:26:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-trackir-peripheral/500914/1 "2009-06-25T06:26:51Z")

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[TrackIR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackir) is a camera/motion capture system that tracks your head movements and maps them to control your view in [video games that support it](http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/03-enhanced-games/enhanced-games-all.html).

[This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AO0F5sLdVM) demonstrates what it does … and it seems really cool and I was thinking of getting a unit, but then later seeing [how it integrates with Arma II](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wXx3vMy_AQ) now I really want one.

Does anyone have experience with it? Do you like it? How well does it work? The game list is somewhat limited, but it has some good ones on there - I’m guessing flight sim games benefit the most, but the way it looks with FPS games in that Arma 2 video looks great too.

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-trackir-peripheral/500914/2 "2009-06-25T13:54:56Z")

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Another question for anyone that might have it:

The wiki page says

> [@](#):
>
> Unofficial support is available for several third-party programs that can be used to separately emulate mouse (TIRMouse, only in games), keyboard (TrackMapper, yaw and pitch axes mappable), and joystick (TIR2Joy to PPJoy) controls. Only one control type can be emulated at a time and not in conjunction with view control in TrackIR Enhanced games.

Does this mean in games that don’t support it, you could emulate it to work like a POV hat? That is… you look right, the emulator sends a “POV hat right” to the game? It wouldn’t be full functionality but that’d still be cool.

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**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-trackir-peripheral/500914/3 "2009-06-25T16:51:43Z")

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I have the older TrackIR3 model, which has only two degrees of freedom. Still, the sense of immersion for flight sims is incomparable. There’s nothing like tracking a bandit through a merge, getting on his six, then shooting him down, all without once losing sight of the target. Tracking the smoking wreckage as it crashes to the ground is pretty sweet, too, although you want to keep an eye out for other bandits that may have crept up behind you. The TrackIR can help with that, too.