Personally in my experience TrackIr does make the game much more immersive and realistic, however I haven't found that it actually 'helps' me in any way.

I have found that situational awareness is a function of proper lookout and scanning, whether that is done thru TrackIr or the mouse in my left hand.

For me the best things is it freed up my left hand to use on a throttle.

I hope you are wrong - all I want is to be able to move my head side to side and back and forth (does anyone actually find twisting their head like a curious cat, or bobbing up and down useful?). This could easily be mapped to a few joystick buttons. (my crappy old cyborg has 3 ideally placed behind the hat switch).
Forgive me, but nothing I have read at any time convinces me I need anything else. Personally I would say only a bigger field of view (more monitors) will improve my SA, and would much rather spend money there than buy an overpriced web cam.

FaceTrackNoIR :grin:
just plain simple web camera :cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDYfEYBEG90

but i heard it's a cpu hog... i pass...

It's mostly around 15% and in case of Quad CPU's it's not an issues at all :cool:

15% is a lot in a game... change the fluidity... and i also prefer to disable the antivirus when i play to get the max speed from my system (it's a Phenom II X4 965) or it will be like you drive your car with the 1/2 handbrake pulled.. i don't like it :D

So TrackIR software don't need any resources ?
FreeTrack also needs nothing to run ? :-o
Paying hundreds of dollars for TrackIR , having baseball
cap on your head with lights and then it's also using
computer CPU and memory resources , is that any better
than plain simple web camera with head tracking and
small software and for free ? ;)

FaceTrackNoIR :grin:
just plain simple web camera :cool:

That's really useful Jumo.
Can you provide links to a 'how to' site, or post a simple guide?
I know a few people who won't spend the money on trackIR who'd happily use this as an alternative.
cheers
Dutch

Oooops ! I am sorry :)

Here is FaceTrackNoIR website: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm
More detailed discussion with link about various IL-2 settings and web
cameras is on YouTube , when you watch this video on YouTube , just right
below video there are links , I can't post those links directly here , better not :grin:

Thanks mate, much appreciated.