Head tracking in BoP on PS3 is possible....
 

sort of.

Years ago when optical mice were first coming to the market, I saw a demonstration on television, where the host used the mouse on a variety of surfaces, including his head.

So the other day I started up BoP, entered an easy training mission, held the mouse to the back of my head and started looking around. After orientating the mouse for left and right (buttons up) and changing settings for up/down I was surprised at how well it worked.

Last night I rigged up a makeshift harness to hold the mouse to the back of my chair and taped the left button down. I spent the next hour or so just looking around.

It's not perfect but I'm working on ways to improve it. If anyone wants to hear how I'm progressing I'll keep posting, and if anyone wants to laugh go ahead I'm Canadian and I can take it. Besides I can't really blame you.

StiC

LOL!

That's genius! I just wonder how smooth your head's got to be, perhaps you need a very good shave! For those who are not willing to go that far for their favourite game, maybe a helmet could work, but then I wonder how to keep the mouse steady when the head is moving underneath it.

Keep us updated how it's going! Good luck!

:grin:

MAC

I have lots of hair in back, not so much on top, and I found I didn't need to press my head into the mouse, just brush it with my hair.

That's amazing! Now I have an excuse to wear my Adolf Galland downhill helmet around the house! So any old optical mouse with a USB will work?

or attach it to a swivel chair and that way you can keep looking straight ahead at the monitor... :grin:

Helmets are not required, but if you're going to wear one be a sport and post a picture. LOL and yes any USB mouse should work. Hold down left to mouse look and right to zoom.

Good idea.
I guess I should mention that I'm using a 52" screen, and I'm turning my head about 35 degrees to each side so this may not work with smaller televisions.

Will do, just as soon as i find a way of putting a mouse behind my head (bed I sit on doesn't have a back support). I'm thinking goggles too, I'm also thinking of looking VERY silly...

Awesome

Lets see some pics!

I now have an old mouse donated from my wife's office because it no longer worked. I got it going without much effort (damaged cable) and will begin modding as soon as I get some parts. The mod will allow mouse look to be triggered from my flight stick.

My first attempt at a permanent harness has failed, all materials will be recycled and put to good use in v.2. On the plus side I used a sewing machine for the first time in my life, and managed to stay out of the hospital.

StiC

With the kinect and ps eye, I'm hoping we start seeing more head tracking built into these games. The systems are capable of doing it. GT5 has headtracking but you can only do it in arcade mode for some reason.

Brilliant solution in the meantime though.

I hope Anton is reading this.

yeah....we are hoping anton is reading A LOT of these posts. if so it will be a kick ass game!

Hey guys, just a little update. I gave up on the idea of a harness because it was too hard to adjust after installing it on my chair. Instead I now have a piece of denim material which drapes over the back of the chair. This is a lot like my makeshift setup as mentioned above only with more stability and it works well, but looks like ass.

I'm still looking for proper buttons to mount in my flightstick and I'm adding right mouse button so zoom will work in custom or pc stick controls

I will post pics and maybe a vid when it is finished.

StiC

I finally recorded some video to share. It's not very exciting because I still suck and you guys don't need to see me getting my ass kicked. I don't have any way to capture video directly so the quality isn't much to talk about but here it is nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QU9aV5f-U0

I had a similar idea but never got round to the actual mod..
Got this with the intention of mounting the ball where the hat switch on my stick is and the mouse buttons on top of the throttle.

http://liliputing.wpengine.netdna-cd...-trackball.jpg

When I play sim I currently stick it to the throttle with blu tack. It works but it's hard to use if you're right handed.

That's a solid idea, I see we think alike. That's the smallest trackball I've ever seen. I would have picked it up as well.

StiC

Here are some pics of the mouse setup. It's not pretty but it works.

I still haven't found buttons to mount in my flightstick and I may just make some foot switches in the meantime.

An old pair of jeans worked well to support the mouse. I attached the mouse simply by opening up the mouse and clamping it to the bottom edge of the cutaway material before replacing the screws. Running the cord through a small hole and using a paper clamp adds an extra bit of stability.

StiC

I found a group of guys playing sim and I decided to take my rig online. It was rough at first trying to track human players, but by the last match I was getting better. I also crashed a lot because of the low level dogfights and losing awareness of the plane's attitude while tracking, but this also got better. In the last match WalterNowotny reminded me about flaps and I managed to get 2 kills that match. lol Once I got used to it it felt good and the flaps made a huge difference.

Anyway I sent my idea to Ben Heck and he likes it, maybe he'll do something cool with it.

Time to let this horse rest in peace.

THE END?

Friken awesome buddy!! this would take flying on the ps3 to a whole new level if head tracking is not used in BOS! Way to go!

Thanks, it was really put to the test last night and I got to watch every plane as it shot me down lol. Nice flying btw.

Just to let everyone know I finally have a button on my flightstick. It has two modes, push to headtrack or push to re-center forward view. I use the latter more or less for calibration. I also found that wearing a cap greatly improves accuracy. The mouse I am using now is more sensitive than the original one I started with and the comment I made in a previous post about using a smaller screen is no longer true.

StiC

If you would like i can set something up when things are slow. I will let you know next time we are on PSN.