TrackIr 5 Optical Head USB Tracking System Bundle + Track Clip PRO

This thing is awesome! Once you get it setup and get the settings dialed in, dead zones etc, it’s just epic. I play Star Citizen and have the game to use it only when I’m in the cockpit of my ship. I can look around, lean in close and look up etc. The realism that it adds during flight is a game changer. Just take taking off from a station and being able to look over you shoulders and quickly see stuff is really cool. I highly recommend this to anybody playing star citizen.

This is a nice alternative to using VR goggles. You can pan around fairly well once you get it dialed in and you can still see your keyboard unlike using a VR headset.

The TrackIR is a product that performs well for me. I use it to play DCS World and Microsoft Flight Simulator and while the setup's learning curve is a bitsteep, there's a lot of help on YouTube. A little perseverance will pay off.I did have a problem with the included TrackClipPro. It quit working but I was able to use the normal hat mounted clip with no issue. I created a trouble ticket with Natural Point (the manufacturer) that was responded to very quickly. Once they determined that it was defective, they told me to contact the seller on Amazon.I did just that and in 3 days, and two emails, I had my replacement. Great Support!!TrackIR has almost no serious competitors so, while it's a little spendy, it works as advertised and makes my gaming a whole lot more immersive. That and my excellent support experience makes recommending this thing a no-brainer.

This impressive concept does exactly what it claims. Since the mid 1980's The most unrealistic aspect of all the flight software I have experienced was the lack of the ability to turn the head fluidly to see anywhere but straight ahead. Joystick hat switches never really cut it. For real pilots, situational awareness - the ability to look around - is not a luxury. It is a necessity. It isn't much different for pilots in simulators and flight games. I eventually pulled back from flight software because the sense of immersion wasn't there for me.TrackIr comes to the rescue brilliantly, and opens up a new world and a greater sense of immersion for all desktop pilots. That said, there are a few issues.This product is obviously long-in-the-tooth. The infrared camera, as has been frequently mentioned, comes nowhere close to fitting atop any monitor I've had in the last 20 years. You will be on your own when it comes to finding a way to adapt it to the top of yours.Lots of people complain about the flimsy plastic clamp on the TrackClip PRO. It's actually quite a clever, if complex, design, allowing a range of expansion to fit a variety of headsets. I successfully tested it on 3 very different sets. It's true that this clamp is made with small, delicate parts, and will be prone to fail if abused, or just removed and replaced frequently. It would be best to attach it and leave it mounted between uses. I would have designed something simpler and more robust, but it is what it is. be careful with it!Most impressive is the software provided for setup and adjustment. Unfortunately, NaturalPoint has done one thing that is quite inexcusable. The software, though a free download, comes with absolutely no guidance as to it's use. The user is left clueless as to how to use it and must rely on the kindness of other users (YouTube videos) to understand it. The only instructionals in the package only deal with assembly of the hardware itself. (Post Script - I later discovered a help manual via a tiny drop-down at the top left corner of the screen! Frankly.....the YouTube videos were easier to decipher!)People also rant about how the user is confined to one position and cannot move without messing up the alignment. Trust me - while strapped into my open cockpit Experimental home-built by a five-point harness, my body is totally restricted from movement! If you should accidentally move your position a bit there is a key assignment that allows the user to instantly re-center the view with one stroke.The other common complaint is the cost. That is doubtless because NaturalPoint has had a monopoly for years. This shows in their complacence in keeping the product updated (ie. a printout with their current web URL is actually just thrown into the box so they wouldn't have to reprint the packaging).You will see reviews that complain that this is just a dumb-simple I.R. camera and a few LED's, and is correspondingly way overpriced. As a former professional toy designer I can assure you that this seemingly simple package and the accompanying software required a considerable bit of cost and development to bring to market. Still, that's no excuse for leaving the product on the market for so many years without providing consumers with needed updates. It's your choice. With all it's faults It's probably still the best of it's kind available today, and you're going to have to pay-to-play. I'm just sorry I waited this long to get on board.Addendum. After using this device for two years I offer these tips: I have now used Track IR with Win 7, and using the same software, with recently installed Win 10. No issues. I have mounted the IR camera to the top of two different thin monitors by gluing a block of stiff stiff packing foam to the inside of the longest leg. The foam fills the space between the inside of the back leg and the back of the monitor. People having issues with alignment should understand that Alignment IS fussy! Place yourself in a comfortable position, squarely in front of the camera and make an effort not to move from that position during play. Put on and plug in your headset first, then start the software, being careful not to move yourself or the position of your head while the software is booting. Oddly, in Win 10 my software opens in a tiny minimized window at the top edge of my monitor. I maximize it to full-window, and then quickly return my head to a centered position. If I am square to the camera, the alignment cross-hairs will appear directly in the center of the screen, and I will be able to turn my head to the left and right, getting approximately the same range of movement on both sides. If I seem to be slightly off-center I hit my F12 key to re-align to center (you will also do this every so often while in-game). At this stage the left camera LED will be lit. Once I enter game the right side LED will also light up. You don't have to fuss with the software in any way to get this far. Second thing to be aware of is that the Track Clip Pro must be fairly solidly mounted to the side of your headset. With most of today's headsets it won't remain that way. Feel free to use tape or a soft glue to hold everything in place if you wish, after you get it operating correctly. Adjust the angle and tilt of the side arm that has the 3 LEDS, and once certain that everything seems to function smoothly and squarely, take off your headset and make note of how the Clip is clamped and adjusted on your headset, so you can return it to that same position later. If operation becomes wonky in-game, or you're way out of alignment from the start you can be pretty certain it's because the clip had twisted out of alignment. I actually use my phone's screen as a mirror to check the alignment of the arm after putting on my headset. It is also possible for a cable to unknowingly get twisted around the Clip arm and pull everything out of adjustment. It does take time to get used to the idea that you can't squirm around in your chair or move it's position, or do anything that changes the relative position of your track Clip in relationship to the camera without whacking out it's alignment. There is a slight bit of leeway, but not much! And disabuse yourself of the idea that you are going to take the Track Clip on and off regularly. It likely won't survive that! Put it on your headset and leave it on! I use a homemade desktop stand to hang my headset and wrap it's cables on when not in use. Sounds like this is all too much trouble, but once you learn the ropes and get used to operating with it, you won't actually pay that much attention to it. I consider it so essential for flight sims and for multiplayer Arma 3 that I have ordered a spare in case the day should come that I can't get another one.

There are no two ways about it: I could never fly the same again without headtracking. Elite: Dangerous, DCS World, Rise of Flight and Arma 3, the games I purchased this equipment for, all recognized it immediately with no input from me. And there is no lag whatsoever when I turn my head to check a cockpit warning light, or look down to see what my fuel pressure is at, or examine my cargo holdings... It took a few minutes to acclimate to a turn of 15 degrees of my head translating to a turn of 50 degrees on screen but it becomes quite easy to glance at exactly what you want with barely a few hours of practice.And let's talk about being able to lean out over the side of the cockpit of a Sopwith Dolphin biplane roaring 20 meters over the ground to check that your two released 20lb bombs had an effect on your intended target: You will never be able to go back to a POV hatswitch after the feeling that that gives you. The depth that this brings to flight simming cannot be overstated; the only thing I see challenging this would be full VR and I frankly did not want to invest that much in rather unproven tech yet.The Pro Clip is poorly manufactured, and has a terrible design, but if/when it breaks I will just fabricate my own fastener; a first-year engineering student could have done better than this tripe so I'd wager I can whip something up without starting WW3. Truly, the Pro Clip's design is the weakest point of this whole package. It will not fit all headsets, and is counter-intuitive to properly fit to even regular headsets with thin metal bands. I recommend checking whatever you plan to affix the Pro Clip to for compatibility before ordering it unless you don't mind having to work at it. However, once the Pro Clip is in place: magic. I game at night when my daughter is asleep; so the IR emitters the Clip brings to the table are great since I cannot use the regular reflector design as well. The Pro Clip is definitely questionable; but since you can get this bundle for just about $10USD more than the regular TrackIR 5 and I can work with it I won't complain too loudly - your results may vary. I could easily see someone with less delicate installation methods breaking the Clip before ever even getting to use it, and that would be a no-go.Drivers were a breeze to install, and the program comes "out of the box" with a default setting I have not needed to tweak or mess with whatsoever. Seriously, from when this arrived to when I was excitedly calling my wife over to watch me turn my digital head was under 20 minutes. I tried FreeTrack, FaceTrackNoIR, and several others and they all required more setup and work than I wanted to engage in, especially for the dubious results I was getting. TrackIR has won me a customer and I will recommend the TrackIR 5 to anyone I fly with.Try it. You will never want to fly without it, and if you use it with Arma 3 or DayZ you'll wish every single FPS ever made supported this thing. I know I do.