Freetrack

Thanks Kestrel for posting this at UBI..

Does anyone out their use this? (I know their must be someone...maybe I should ask if their is someone who uses FreeTrack that will answer my (thoughts) questions...lol).
Does this application use a lot of CPU? Does it have a fairly steady CPU load or does it spike at times?
What is your general experience with the program?
good? bad? simple? is it what you think it would be?
I love free application alternatives...and really respect the people who take the time out of their lives to tackle projects like this....thanks!

I use TIR4.. I have no clue... but I know that some folks just cant afford it right now.. so it is always gfood to have options.

I used it before I made the TIR4 purchase. It worked but I think the particular camera I was using had issues. It definitely worked but due to my cameras limitations I never got a good chance to try it out.

I'll say if you have a newer camera that meets freetracks specs try it out. You may not like the software but I think it will give you a better idea of how much TIR4 kicks @ss! At least this way you can kind of test out the technology without having to commit to the TIR4 purchase.

Thanks for the feedback I really must give this a try...I feel like I'm missing something. C

I have to wonder what it would really take to get a 6DOF patch for IL2? It amazes me that a game of this calibre falls behind older games in that respect.

I dont think 6DOF was out when the Aces Exp./Forgotten Battles was released and considering the fact that Maddox would have to pretty much re-code the game to get it to work. Thats asking way too much and if you still dont think so I'd think your being unreasonable!

On my AMD 3200+, using RGB24 compressor, window minimized I have this :

I don't think I can do much better now the video processing is written en SSE assembler.

you welcome

cu

fyi - Il2 will support 6dof easily. The reason they will not enable/allow it is that the cockpit models were designed for viewing from a fixed viewpoint and if you were allowed to move the viewpoint around there would be a crapload of anomolies (see through engines, etc...).

A guy called Kegetys came up with a hack that enabled 6dof (in the past, he never released it, just did some demos- try youtube). It worked quite well in some of the newer cockpits, but many il-2 pits date from <2000, and too much effort to be updated- considering that BoB will have full 3d cockpits. It's a shame, as planes like the FW-190 really needed it. Still I can wait...

Thanks for the effort. It seems to range 3 to 7%. I might have to buy a new web cam...I don't seem to be able to find the one I have. (...nuts!)

I've just made this freetrack thingy and it looks promising.
It's cheap (if you already own some web cam) - only 4 IR diodes, 4 resistors, piece of wire...

The only problem I have is shivering screen in IL2
Maybe it needs some more testing or tweaking .ini file...
Here are some tracks with diferent "Average" value setting in freetrack.ini file

This project seems to be alive and kicking.
http://n.camil.chez-alice.fr/index.php
Up-to-date information - unfortunately it's in French can be found at http://freetrack.online.fr
Has anyone else tried it yet?

Thanks for sharing Tomik and good luck with the tweaking.

What about someone making a small kit and selling it, a little competition would do the Natural Point prices good - from a customers pov.

I will be trying this system as soon as I gather everything together.

Thanks a lot for the headsup.

Cheers

Nico

Nico or anyone else with French skills,
could you please try to translate important parts of Freetrack manual?
http://freetrack.online.fr/fichiers/manuel121.pdf
It will be very helpful.

Sure, so long as you're not asking for anything TOO technical... lol

Which parts would you like me to translate ?

Cheers

Nico

Most important for me is freetrack.ini section and possibly settings (camera + stream) section.
And sure if you find something relevant to IL2...
Many thanks for your effort
Tomik

French web page http://freetrack.online.fr has been automatically translated to English

The english manual.

http://freetrack.online.fr/fichiers/ManualEN.pdf

I am new to this forum.

Just tried Cachya, the new software utility recently mentioned in simhq newsletter.

http://www.simhq.com/news_archive/June25-29-2007.mht

I am very much impressed by its performance. I have two webcam, one 30fps, one 20fps; both are working fine with this program. I also found some other good conmment on the web about this software. It is commercial but worth a try.

http://www.cachya.com

New version is available. More setting options...
http://freetrack.online.fr/english/

Just finished making my 4 dot LED clip this evening. It took about 2 hours to make and works pretty well so far. Thanks for the hardwork on this software.

Cheers

Do I really need a LED, could I just use a single reflective silver sticker??


TS

bump

No you don't have to use LEDs, you can use anything, as long as the tracking points are brighter than the background light so it can be filtered. Reportedly Freetrack works with reflective tape being illuminated by a lightbulb, if you don't mind a light shining in your face :P, alternatively you can use invisible IR LEDs to illuminate the tape but you will need to remove the IR filter from your webcam.