SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: TrackIR3 in Motorsport Sims

Before going into the sims I used to test TrackIR, I'd like to pause a moment here to reflect upon the profiling software that must be activated when you race using TrackIR3.

If you just activate the software and enter your racing sim, the software will load a default profile, which is very good for getting in to the race car as fast as possible without worrying too much about making your own profiles from scratch. This way you can check that it works ok.

If you wish to refine the way the profiles work to suit your preferences better, there's lots of help on Natural Point's site in the Forum section. Apart from the site being well-designed and user-friendly, it is also packed with valuable information, this was where I found out what to do in order to get the 6 degrees of freedom operating with... GPL!

Initially, I felt that the default profiles were too aggressive for me. Being the TrackIR3 newbie with lots of unconscious head-movement I lean more and more to the left when driving oval tracks, and I have a habit of moving my head up and down now-and-then. Up when trying to relax during a race, down when going for that brilliant out-braking passing maneuver. So my views were all over the place — from the bottom of the cockpit staring at my legs to looking at the roof of the tin-top cars and unable to get the view back to the track again.

This convinced me to take a closer look at the profiles employed and I found that all profiles were set to progressive movement, i.e., a small move of your head will lead to an instant and relatively drastic change in viewpoint. I set all my profiles to smooth action and also discovered a very nice function for centering the view (the F12 key).

On the screenshots below you can see the settings I currently use.

You should know that my monitor is not set up in a direct line from the steering wheel. The steering wheel sits slightly to the left of the monitor, my joystick holds the place to the right of the monitor. I then swing the monitor a bit to the left when racing and a bit to the right when flying.

I was very interested to see if TrackIR3 could handle this slight off-set, and after testing several sims I think it manages very well, even if my arrangement of hardware is less than optimal.

On to the racing sims.

GTR v2.0 Demo

I will concede that I did not take to using TrackIR3 like a duck to water. It took me some time to get some degree of control over my involuntary head-movements, but I'm beginning to get the knack of this, and it's pretty impressive to be able to have a good realistic view of the road ahead while not sacrificing the peripheral vision. Let me illustrate this point with some screenshot taken from the GTR version 2.0 demo.

With this view you can see the road ahead as well as one of the mirrors. This view is useful if you wish to retain some peripheral vision without using the look-left/right buttons all the time. However, I find that this view is slightly unrealistic as the driver's viewpoint is too far away from the steering wheels and the windscreen.

Moving the seat closer to the wheel gives you a great and realistic view of the interior of the car and the road straight ahead. The problem with this view when you are NOT using TrackIR3 is that the peripheral vision is somewhat limited.

With TrackIR3 however, you can have the realistic view and enhance your peripheral vision to left and right simply by moving your head!

Is this great or what!?!

Grand Prix Legends

To my great delight I noticed on the NaturalPoint web site that patching Grand Prix Legends with the JSJ Shift utility, I could have the same functionality in GPL.

What I especially enjoy when using TrackIR3 in GPL is the more natural way of looking for the apex in tight corners, like the cobblestone hairpin at Rouen, probably my all-time favourite track in GPL.

You can also lean out like the pros did back then, before sensible safety-measures enclosed all of the driver leaving only the top of the helmet visible.

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