Free Track Working??

[RickRuski]

Hi People,

I have decided to build a "Free Track" setup but have trouble getting it working correctly. Is there anyone who has it operating correctly that can show me the way??

Cheers

Rick

[jayrc]

what problem are you having, might be able to help, mines working great

[RickRuski]

I have the basic setup with 3 led cap but probably need the correct profile to get it to work. One time I will set it up and it works intermitantly, next time it won't work at all. It is really frustrating me.

[jayrc]

here's mine using ps3 eye, microsoft vx1000 works good too, just takes more work to set exposure, ps3 eye just has some sliders to set exposure. doesn't matter what your profile is called, you could use any, mine is still called il2 1946. also make sure your center view button isn't set to toggle in the controls menu in freetrack, that will make it not work while it's toggled. other than that? are you using ir leds? sanded them flat? taken out the ir filter, covered lense with floppy disk material? hope something here helps, Jay

[MadBlaster]

I have the basic setup with 3 led cap but probably need the correct profile to get it to work. One time I will set it up and it works intermitantly, next time it won't work at all. It is really frustrating me.

If it is working intermittent, makes me think either:

1) your camera settings are off. press the "camera" button on the "camera" tab to change those, or
2) the "stream" settings are off. press the "stream" button on the "camera" tab to change those, or
3) the threshold setting is off on the "cam" tab (btw, adjust this last), or
4) maybe also you have too much light in the room your playing in and it is affected by sunlight from windows, time of day?

tips
-I would use rgb24 in the stream settings.

-I have success setting all the camera settings to zero except for brightness I set that to maximum value 10000 and gain is set to 10000 too.

-make sure auto gain is unchecked/off

-exposure rate no less than 30s. mine right at 30s.

-image mirrors, unchecked/disabled

-anti flicker unchecked/disabled

-image enhancers like rightlight, unchecked/disabled.

-the last thing to adust is the threshold bar. if you set it up "good to go", then you will notice there is just one spot on that threshold bar where the red dot will show up. if you are off that mark, then everything is either all red or all black in the test window. When you find that mark, you won't have to change it again as long as your room lighting conditions are consistent and your freetrack headset is working correctly.

The "profile" tab is for setting up the input/output axis and the "curves" tab is for for shaping the axis to your head movement. I don't think these would not make it freetrack act intermittent. But you do need to configure them.

There's some other settings you also need to consider, fps, pixel size min/max...etc.

[RickRuski]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will try those. Jay, I am also using a VX 1000 but have removed the IR filter. I am using "Yellow" leds as suggested on "Youtube" setup demo, is this adviseable??.

Madblaster, I will try your settings and see what happens.

Appreciate both your help.

Cheers

Rick

[zwiebacksaege]

by the way i'm using freetrack as well with the ps3 cam and its working perfectly except for some random errors... maybe someone using this hardware can help out:

when i start freetrack first time I often get some "exception error" or so and I have to close freetrack and start it again to make the ps3cam working.
also when i uncheck the auto-buttons in the cam driver menue it doesn't save the manual exposure value for the next start. This wasn't always so but reinstalling drivers or changing usb port doesn't help so far. Any tweaks I'm not aware of?

greets zwieback

[Bokononist]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will try those. Jay, I am also using a VX 1000 but have removed the IR filter. I am using "Yellow" leds as suggested on "Youtube" setup demo, is this adviseable??.

Madblaster, I will try your settings and see what happens.

Appreciate both your help.

Cheers

Rick
I'm using IR LED's so I can't tell you about the yellow ones, as long as your camera can 'see' them I don't think it matters. Camera wise I bought a ps3 eyetoy for £8 from cash converters (electronic pawn shop) highly reccomended, by me anyway. When you've got the hardware side of things sorted here's my favorite CoD profile, (see below) none of the default profiles really worked for me. Its quite sensitive and there are no dead zones, suck it and see. To use it just copy and paste the txt below into notepad and save it as an .fgp file and pop it into your profiles folder. Let me know how you get on.

[Defaults]
Average=2
[Sensitivity]
Yaw=65
Pitch=56
Roll=75
X=57
Y=97
Z=65
[Deadzone]
Yaw=98
Pitch=150
Roll=80
X=90
Y=80
Z=80
Zooming=65
SmoothStableMultiplier=25
SmoothRawMultiplier=25
Dynamic=3
Point=10
[Inverted]
Yaw=0
Pitch=0
Roll=0
X=0
Y=0
Z=0
[AxisEnabled]
Yaw=1
Pitch=1
Roll=1
X=1
Y=1
Z=1
[YawCfg]
X0=0
Y0=130
X1=79
Y1=82
X2=286
Y2=62
X3=403
Y3=2
[PitchCfg]
X0=0
Y0=130
X1=48
Y1=87
X2=146
Y2=29
X3=357
Y3=1
[RollCfg]
X0=0
Y0=129
X1=5
Y1=78
X2=49
Y2=64
X3=183
Y3=2
[XCfg]
X0=0
Y0=102
X1=2
Y1=92
X2=2
Y2=85
X3=315
Y3=2
[YCfg]
X0=0
Y0=130
X1=24
Y1=71
X2=30
Y2=46
X3=377
Y3=2
[ZCfg]
X0=0
Y0=129
X1=3
Y1=70
X2=161
Y2=51
X3=431
Y3=2
[Output]
MouseX=0
MouseXEnabled=0
MouseY=0
MouseYEnabled=0
MouseWheel=0
MouseWheelEnabled=0
MouseAutoPan=0
MouseAbsolute=0
MouseWheelScale=50
PPJoyControllerNumber=1
TIR=1
Mouse=0
PPJoy=0
Keys=0
SimConnect=0
FS=0
[Mapping]
MiddleMouse=0
Center=
CenterBeep=1
CenterHold=0
Pause=Ctrl+D
PauseBeep=1
PauseHold=1
SmoothStable=
SmoothStableBeep=1
SmoothStableHold=0
SmoothRaw=
SmoothRawBeep=1
SmoothRawHold=0
Yaw=
YawBeep=1
YawHold=0
Pitch=
PitchBeep=1
PitchHold=0
Roll=
RollBeep=1
RollHold=0
X=
XBeep=1
XHold=0
Y=
YBeep=1
YHold=0
Z=
ZBeep=1
ZHold=0
Mouse=
MouseBeep=1
MouseHold=0
Joystick=
JoystickBeep=1
JoystickHold=0
6DOF=
6DOFBeep=1
6DOFHold=0
SimConnect=
SimConnectBeep=1
SimConnectHold=0
Keymap=
KeymapBeep=1
KeymapHold=0
[OutputKeys]
YawThreshold=50
YawAutoPress=1
YawPos=
YawNeg=
PitchThreshold=50
PitchAutoPress=1
PitchPos=
PitchNeg=
RollThreshold=50
RollAutoPress=1
RollPos=
RollNeg=
XThreshold=50
XAutoPress=1
XPos=
XNeg=
YThreshold=50
YAutoPress=1
YPos=
YNeg=
ZThreshold=50
ZAutoPress=1
ZPos=
ZNeg=

[Untamo]

S!

I use super bright IR-leds (invisible to human eye), M$ VX-3000 cam with IR-filter removed + 2 layers of diskette as visual light blocker. No matter the lighting conditions, always works perfectly.

Only thing I had to adjust in the FreeTrack program was the Threshold, and the sensitivities for each axis. ... Disabled the Z-axis (movement and translation), don't like it :)

EDIT:

The leds I use have a somewhat narrow effective cone of IR-light out of the box, so I did some tuning with fine grain sandpaper. Made the tip dome non-clear so it will radiate more to the sides. Makes it possible to use more head movement and angle.

[SEE]

When you launch FT check that the skull is moving in response to your head movement. Any problems at this point need to be sorted and that you have three defined dot images of your LED's and no stray light interference (a single incident of stray light will stop FT working). Also check the correct clip is assigned in the set up (i.e. 3 point hat,etc). How well FT performs is very much down to set up and type of LED used.

When FT is working reasonably well you can launch CloD but depending on your camera and system specs it can hang when you start a mission. Go back to desktop and leave CloD running in the background and check FT Skull is still moving. If it isn't then use task manager to kill FT and re-launch it.

You can launch FT after CLoD has been launched (if you are getting conflicts/FT hangsh) - it will still work in game.

Once you get it working reasonably well I would upgrade to wide angle IR LEDS - Osram SH451??? (something like that but the exact model/part number is referenced on FT website).

I started with a MS VX1000 lifecam but now use a PS3 eyecam with a 3 point clip fitted with Osram wide angle IR LED's. FT correctly set up is superb!

[SEE]

When you launch FT check that the skull is moving in response to your head movement. Any problems at this point need to be sorted and that you have three defined dot images of your LED's and no stray light interference. Also check you have the correct clip assigned in the set up to match the one you have made. How well FT performs is very much down to set up and type of LED used.

When FT is working reasonably well you can launch CloD but depending on your camera and system specs it can hang when you start a mission. Go back to desktop and leave CloD running in the background and check FT Skull is still moving. If it isn't then use task manager to kill FT and re-launch it.

You can launch FT after CLoD has been launched (if you are getting conflicts/FT hangs) - it will still work in game.

Once you get it working reasonably well I would upgrade to wide angle IR LEDS - Osram SH451??? (something like that but the exact model/part number is referenced on FT website).

I started with a MS VX1000 lifecam but now use a PS3 eyecam with a 3 point clip fitted with Osram wide angle IR LED's. FT correctly set up is superb!

[Korn]

This is the single most important aspect of successfully setting up FreeTrack: on the "Cam" tab (right side of FreeTrack as you open the program) you have to see the LED dots and nothing else.

If that doesn't happen, you are doing something wrong, as the guys before me suggested:
-> you have parasitic light sources - remove them or change to IR LEDS + visible light filter for your camera (exposed photo film works best in my experience, or you can try with the floppy disk material);
-> your camera settings are wrong - set the camera in such a way that you will only get the LEDs. This might not be possible in daytime with visible light LEDs unless you have some serious blinds at your window.

The quality of the dots :D is easilly checked not just by looking at them on your screen but also by watching the lower right corner of the FreeTrack window: you have to see the green dot things lighted up at all times (during head movement also).

[Untamo]

Adding to Korn's statements:

In the dot tab you can determine the minimum and maximum pixel sizes for the led dots. Adjusting these can help with "extra" dots from unwanted light sources. Set the minimum dot size to the minimum of where the led dot is marked with a cross when you turn your head to its maximum deflection when playing. And set the maximum dot size when you look directly at the camera.

[jayrc]

[QUOTE=RickRuski;344174]Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will try those. Jay, I am also using a VX 1000 but have removed the IR filter. I am using "Yellow" leds as suggested on "Youtube" setup demo, is this adviseable??.

I'm using ir leds from radio shack, I think they are 4 or 5 mm