lingering desire to look around.. finally satisfied with this trackir alternative.

[fsim]

As a poor guy    has to save every penny for video card,  I also had a wish to look around from cockpit. It was just a dream until the Cachya...

It is not free..   but cheap  It delivers 6DOF (theoretically) with acceptable accuracy, smoothness and reponse time. It requires a webcam, which I happen to have:D .   Feels so much released when use it in Aces High II!!!    with good potencial to support other games...

I will live with it until my next promotion.




http://www.cachya.com
http://www.cachya.com/esight/download/AcesHighII_video_1.wmv

[DamnedRen]

Is there a button to self center? Also, I didn't see the vid showing the guy looking "around" the nose cowl at all. That would be the additional axis', like looking around the seat back headrest.

[Finn]

fsim,

I was wondering if you are an agent or something for this product?

Appart from the fact that you are only just registered here, and have ONLY just posted 4-5 times in threads relating to catchya only, promoting it.

Personally I have tried all/most of these webcam alternatives, and the accuracy and framerate problems are so bad, that you really only end up with a solution that will work 75%-85% of the time.

Do not get me wrong, they give you a good feel for 3DO or 5DO, but once you realise they dont work 15-25% of the time, you will start saving now for something that works 100% with no framerate hits.

People ... try the freeware versions, as in my opinion,  paying money for webcam 3DO or 5DO tracking is not worth it... eevn if it was $5!!  Put the money towards a trackir and start saving now!!..

Finn

[Hawser]

Yes, I also would like to know if you can look "around"  nose of plane and seat backrest
Let us know

[MWL]

Greetings,

  I use TrackIR, I like TrackIR, I trust TrackIR.  If your gonna do this, just do it.

Regards,

[Chapel]

I also have a TrackIR.
I couldn't be happier. At $200 bucks, it's WELL worth the price.
I don't use the "Head Tilt" because it was difficult to assign. If I messed with it I could probably get it factored in a little better. But I can shift in my virtual set just fine to look around the headrest and the nose cowling.

In my opinion, save your loot, and pony it up for a TrackIR if you're looking for something like this. It's from a dependable company, and made from quality equipment. It also doesn't hit the Frames Per Second.
I regularly get 100+ while using it unless there's some extensive action going on. But that hit isn't from the TrackIR.

[fsim]

Hi Finn,

I also see myself suspicious. I'm usually as lazy as most people, never post, never reply, only look around for informations. Just can't help to share the news, which I think is good.

As to this product, I happen to be its early customer, (not sure the earliest or not. ) and have been playing with it for a while. In my experience, it rarely lose track! Well, after a bit of tweaking with the software settings. The most important are brightness and contrast. It doesn't work well in auto-exposure mode, cause the frame rate is way too low. It could be that the "frame rate problem" is "camera sensitive", and I am just lucky.

Ren and Hawser,

I can see the headrest and around it, but not further. I guess there must be a limitation somewhere; neither can I move my head outof the cockpit. Sensitivity is adjustable for any of the 6DOF. The default recenter key is "Ctl-`" for cachya, and you can always do F1 to center your view in Aces High.

Sorry again to those I offended, it wasn’t my attempt.

[Finn]

Fsim,

no offence taken,  but I think you answered my question when you said:

 "I can see the headrest and around it, but not further. I guess there must be a limitation somewhere; neither can I move my head outof the cockpit."  Have you played AH2 for long????...lol

Framerates - this is NOT from the webcam ... but from the PC.  Catchya uses your PC's CPU, and thus there is less computing power for it to run AcesHighII, therefore slower frame rates (Trackir works like a USB device, and does not do it computations on your CPU, so it does not impact your CPU usage or frame rates).

Do you really play aces high fsim? Not that I care, and mis-representation is not a crime.

Infact it is BETTER that you are from catchya as alot of people would like to ask you questions about it.

[Vulcan]

Originally posted by Finn
Framerates - this is NOT from the webcam ... but from the PC.  Catchya uses your PC's CPU, and thus there is less computing power for it to run AcesHighII, therefore slower frame rates (Trackir works like a USB device, and does not do it computations on your CPU, so it does not impact your CPU usage or frame rates).

Err AFAIK trackir does do its computations using your PCs CPU. Trackirs advantages are its camera is optimized (high contrast images = less workloads), and the camera has higher capture rates than normal webcams.

[Finn]

I stand corrected then Vulcan,

but for something that is doing 3dimensional computations using upto 3 different points/lights about 60-100times per second it uses a tiny amount of CPU load, on my machine it is almost negligable.  I just assumed it did some pre-processing on the hardware, as it does have a large chip on it that could do some pre-processing.

The webcam versions seem to impact framerates alot (like my frames went from 60--> 20 or 40-->18)... is this cause of the cameras or the code?

[RTGorkle]

Finn, if you are using TrackIR, then why are you such a crappy pilot? :^)

[Vulcan]

Well gents, I had a quick play with this software as I'd like to add x/y/z movement to my headset without throwing down $200 for a trackir 4 combo.

It seems OK, it has a few gotcha's though.

My FPS dropped from 60 (max refresh) to 40, theres a ~20% CPU hit on an Athlon 64 4000+ .

It requires a dark background, especially behind the wearer, with lighting in front of the wearer. I think a dark room with high visibility reflective material for the shape would work wonders.

But overall the tracking seemed good. I'm going to track down some better material to make the shape out of.

[fsim]

Originally posted by Finn
Fsim,

no offence taken,  but I think you answered my question when you said:

 "I can see the headrest and around it, but not further. I guess there must be a limitation somewhere; neither can I move my head outof the cockpit."  Have you played AH2 for long????...lol

Framerates - this is NOT from the webcam ... but from the PC.  Catchya uses your PC's CPU, and thus there is less computing power for it to run AcesHighII, therefore slower frame rates (Trackir works like a USB device, and does not do it computations on your CPU, so it does not impact your CPU usage or frame rates).

Do you really play aces high fsim? Not that I care, and mis-representation is not a crime.

Infact it is BETTER that you are from catchya as alot of people would like to ask you questions about it.

Don't laugh at me! I am also new to AcesHigh, have played for a few months now, mostly offline practice. For the limitation, what I meant is this: In mouse look mode you can turn your head around as much as you want, 360 degree or even more; but with cachya I can only turn for about 200 degree, no matter how I set the sensitivity. So, there could be a "limitation" in the software.

For CPU usage, Cachya takes 16%-20% of CPU constantly in my case.

I think I can claim myself from cachya; given what I am doing here, I could be their most valuable assess.

BTW: Are you saying that I can move my view point out of the cockpit somehow?

[Finn]

Gorkle ... cause i am too busy looking all arround my cockpit at the pretty scenery I miss the one on my 6 ....lol

oh yeah ... and cause u always steal my kills ...!!!!

Good to have u back in the air Gorkle!!!!