OT - FaceTrackNoIR

[Tamper 9]

Not so sure it's a system spec thing...

 

I use an i7 930, GTX260/Core216, 6G DDR3-1333, and two SSD's in RAID 0 on a hardware controller - not a slouchy system, by any standard. I bought the Logitech C-160 cam, as listed on the FaceTrackNoIR website. Like Ratatat, I also tried for quite some time to get this working, to no avail. Either no response in-game, or at best, very slow response (panning as if in slow-motion, for example). Also, in the FaceTrackNoIR interface, it will show as tracking my face fine, but even there (without running CFS3/OFF) it seems to go away and come back intermittently.

 

I would give anything to not have to wear the cumbersome head-tracking LED array (TrackClip) - well, anything *except* not having head-tracking that is. And I think it's a great idea, using face-tracking tech to replace the LED array, etc. It just doesn't seem 'ready for prime time' in my experience, and that's a shame. Even though it means wearing the array, TrackIR works well, so it's "worth the pain".

 

I do hope to see the idea continue to develop, though.

[Hellshade 110]

I highly recommend (if people can afford it) the Pro version of TrackIR which is able to clip onto the side of a pair of headphones. Works great and you don't have to wear a hat like the normal version recommends. But obviously that presumes you are wearing headphones and not using regular speakers.

 

I too hope they continue to develop and improve the FaceTrackNoIR. The more people that can play OFF with "TrackIR-like" efficency, the better.

 

Hellshade

[V4Friend 0]

I use an i7 930, GTX260/Core216, 6G DDR3-1333, and two SSD's in RAID 0 on a hardware controller - not a slouchy system, by any standard. ... Like Ratatat, I also tried for quite some time to get this working, to no avail. Either no response in-game, or at best, very slow response (panning as if in slow-motion, for example). Also, in the FaceTrackNoIR interface, it will show as tracking my face fine, but even there (without running CFS3/OFF) it seems to go away and come back intermittently.

 

I do hope to see the idea continue to develop, though.

Hello Tamper (and others),

 

After Ratatats' posts and after I had made some video's for FSX and FS2004 to put on youtube (see Gallery ), I tried CFS3 again (actually, I also want to shoot some images with that). Then I saw what Ratatat means: gameplay became very 'choppy' and head-movement was everything but smooth . Maybe the solution with the Tirviews DLL is not so good (yet).

I'll look into it some more .

 

BTW: my PC is not very impressive. It's a simple Medion Core2Duo E7300 @ 2,66GHz. Anyway, if you look at the video's I've shot with other games, you can see that the problem isn't really a face-tracking one (on my system). If the yellow lines appear and disappear like you say, then apparently there is a facetracking problem though...

[V4Friend 0]

Well, couldn't find an 'Edit' button? This is my edit of my previous post:

 

I have just tried CFS3 and FaceTrackNoIR again, while monitoring the CPU-usage. When both are running, my CPU-usage (well, of one CPU) is sky-high. That explains what happens when I also try to run fraps to record some video: my PC can't handle it .

[+Polovski 460]

Thanks for your efforts V4Friend, CFS3 is quite CPU intensive program. I wonder if telling the program to use another separate core might help?

[V4Friend 0]

Thanks for your efforts V4Friend, CFS3 is quite CPU intensive program. I wonder if telling the program to use another separate core might help?

Hi Polovski,

 

'Your thoughts are my thoughts' . I just tried that... Well, I changed the affinity of FaceTrackNoIR to use only CPU1 and let CFS3 use both CPU0 and CPU1. Actually, the results were worse than before...

 

When I first tried the Tirviews solution, I only sat in the plane while moving my head and not touching any controls. Doing that it seems to work fine. However, when I do use the controls the CPU-load gets bigger (I can understand why) and the game gets choppy...

[Gous 0]

This is truly amazing. Donate if you can, I approve of this project.

[+Polovski 460]

Just a theory I'm not a CPU expert but it may need to be on a separate core completely (think core 0 and 1 are basically hyperthreading?). Maybe try CFS3 on core 0 and FacetrackNoIR on CPU 2??

 

It seemed to work fine for me at default settings in OFF though (Phase 4), no fps issue. Although I will have to play with sensitivity as it took large head movement to move in sim.

I have an overclocked quad core i7 920 on Windows 7 64bit. I noticed my webcam uses 11% CPU approx, maybe others use more CPU too? Webcam is Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000.

 

Also not sure it's important I noticed when it was tracking my eyes etc that it sometimes moved the eye dots to nose area or something, (as if it thought my nose area was where my eyes were ;)) but worked ok.

[V4Friend 0]

This is truly amazing. Donate if you can, I approve of this project.

 

Hello Gous,

 

Thanks for your support. Indeed all donations are welcome! Some people just don't seem to realize the time, effort and money it costs to maintain and support a program like FaceTrackNoIR.

 

@Polovski: Well, your PC-specs are significantly better than mine . 11% CPU-load is very decent. I had an older web-cam first and that used approx. 20%. Now I have a PS3 Eye and it tracks better, but uses more CPU (30%). I think that is mainly caused by the fact that it's resolution is higher, so a bigger image must be analyzed by faceAPI. I must investigate, to see if I can change that...

 

I will try to run CFS3 and FaceTrackNoIR on seperate CPU's, to see if that works. I'll be back

[Ratatat 0]

Hi V4Friend,

 

My CPU load also shows 11%.

 

My computer specs again are:

 

Dual Core E8400 @ 3.0 GHZ

4 GB PC-800 RAM

GTX 460 768 MB

Win 7 Ultimate 64 BIT

Joystick is Cyborg Evo

Camera is S5500 Logitech

 

I wish you good luck with your testing!

[V4Friend 0]

Hi V4Friend,

 

My CPU load also shows 11%.

 

Camera is S5500 Logitech

I wish you good luck with your testing!

 

Hello Ratatat,

 

I've just tried some other combinations with the CPU-affinity of the processes FaceTrackNoIR.exe and CFS3.exe. Alas, to no avail: CPU-load jumps to 100% as soon as I start flying and then I can't even fly straight any more . It works best when I leave CPU-affinity to default and let both processes use both processors... I think there are some 'connections' there, which I am not aware of.

 

You say 11%?! That very fair. I do really wonder why it won't work smoothly on your system then. I'm hesitant to propose some other things you might try, but I will anyway. Could you try another flight simulator (like FreeFalcon 5, it's free!) to see if that does work? Another thing you might try, is another web-cam (maybe you can borrow one, from a friendly neighbour?).

 

I hate disappointing people

[+Polovski 460]

Just wondering if the some cameras have any processing on board and some have none? Just as some built-in sound cards use a fair bit of CPU, and some have their own processing units.

[V4Friend 0]

Just wondering if the some cameras have any processing on board and some have none? Just as some built-in sound cards use a fair bit of CPU, and some have their own processing units.

 

Yes, that may very well be the case. Maybe someone else can enlighten us on that subject?

 

While trying to find a way to optimize my PS3 Eye, I did find a way to switch the driver to 'advanced-mode', so it can go higher than 30fps (see Webcams on FaceTrackNoIR) .

I am now studying the CL-Eye SDK, to see if I can create a facetracker, using opencv (hopefully creating a 'lighter' tracker than faceAPI that way). That will not be easy and very time-consuming. It would really help if more people would support the project.

[V4Friend 0]

Hello Combat Aces!

 

I have recently released update 5 of FaceTrackNoIR (if you didn't already notice). The website was also completely re-designed, so maybe you would like to take a look there?

 

Update 5 contains a number of improvements, among which a brand new filter. It responds faster and makes tracking more accurate. As a bonus, the program seems to consume less CPU-power: I am now able to run CFS3, FaceTrackNoIR and TIRViews on my Dual Core PC and it works fine!

 

Try it and have fun!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I have trackir..and a webcam..I shall have a go with this proggy V4Friend (another guinea Pig wont hurt)

 

Well done Sir!

[vonOben 55]

Thank you very much for the update V4Friend!

 

I’m very interested in FaceTrackNoIR, especially now when I can’t get TIR Attack and my TrackIR 2 to work in OFF or CFS3 any longer.

 

But I don’t have a webcam so I can’t test it, so it would be interesting to know how the latest version performs in OFF.

 

Anyone tried it yet?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[V4Friend 0]

I’m very interested in FaceTrackNoIR, especially now when I can’t get TIR Attack and my TrackIR 2 to work in OFF or CFS3 any longer.

 

But I don’t have a webcam so I can’t test it, so it would be interesting to know how the latest version performs in OFF.

 

Anyone tried it yet?

Hello vonOben,

 

I just tried FaceTrackNoIR with OFF. Just like CFS3 it now works fine on my PC (CPU-load is quite high, but my PC is not exactly 'state of the art'). I think that with the previous version the load was 'just' too high and now it isn't any more .

 

I would recommend a PS3Eye, if you are planning on buying a web-cam. Have fun!

[vonOben 55]

Thanks V4Friend!

 

So OFF is now fully playable with FaceTrackNoIR?

How much does the framerate drop when you use FaceTrackNoIR and OFF?

 

Any one else tried it yet?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[V4Friend 0]

Hi vonOben,

 

Well, I haven't really paid attention to that. When I tried it before, the game 'kind of' halted and facetracking was not good. Now I have just flown a little round while looking around a lot. I would like to hear feedback from others too .

[crash101 0]

Greettings, V4Friend;

 

I have only recently become aware of your work. I used to use Trackir in my combat flight sims but it passed away. I have gone to your site and downloaded all the applicable, recent upgrades etc. I am going to set this up on OFF but it appears that some files have to be swapped around to get optimum performance on Freetrack. I have a new MS 3000 webcam and will start this from scratch- any direction from any users would be appreciated

 

thanx, crash101

 

 

[V4Friend 0]

Hi crash101,

 

I guess you read the manual?

 

For OFF, there is not very much 'extra' to do. You should however get the TirViews.dll from NaturalPoint and set the 'use TirViews' checkbox for the 'fake TrackIR' settings.

Good Luck!

[crash101 0]

Hi crash101,

 

I guess you read the manual?

 

For OFF, there is not very much 'extra' to do. You should however get the TirViews.dll from NaturalPoint and set the 'use TirViews' checkbox for the 'fake TrackIR' settings.

Good Luck!

 

 

I quess 'when all else fails read the directions' Thanx, I got the files and will follow the steps.

 

crash101

[Tanyrhiew 0]

Returning to the front after a long absence, I've started using facetracknoIR as a replacement for my old TIR1 which is no longer supported under win7 64bit. After hunting for config info I came across a useful post over at the other WW1 sim's forum. Using that info I have the following settings that work well with my laptops webcam:

 

 

 

[Tracking]

Smooth=1

sensYaw=152

sensPitch=58

sensRoll=148

sensX=110

sensY=177

sensZ=242

NeutralZone=3

invertYaw=false

invertPitch=true

invertRoll=false

invertX=true

invertY=false

invertZ=false

useEWMA=true

redYaw=50

redPitch=50

redRoll=50

redX=80

redY=80

redZ=80

 

[Curves]

Yaw_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Yaw_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@?\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Yaw_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@d\x80\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Yaw_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@f\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Pitch_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Pitch_point2="@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@=\0\0\0\0\0\0)"

Pitch_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@f\x80\0\0\0\0\0@\b\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Pitch_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@f\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Roll_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Roll_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@9\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Roll_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@F\x80\0\0\0\0\0@5\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Roll_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@F\x80\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

X_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

X_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@6\0\0\0\0\0\0)

X_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@b@\0\0\0\0\0@\b\0\0\0\0\0\0)

X_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@b@\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Y_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Y_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@8\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Y_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@b \0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Y_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@b \0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Z_point1=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Z_point2=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@5\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Z_point3=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@U\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)

Z_point4=@Variant(\0\0\0\x1a@U\0\0\0\0\0\0@I\0\0\0\0\0\0)

 

[GameProtocol]

Selection=4

 

[KB_Shortcuts]

Keycode_Center=208

Shift_Center=false

Ctrl_Center=true

Alt_Center=false

Keycode_StartStop=200

Shift_StartStop=false

Ctrl_StartStop=true

Alt_StartStop=false

Keycode_Inhibit=0

Shift_Inhibit=false

Ctrl_Inhibit=false

Alt_Inhibit=false

Inhibit_Pitch=false

Inhibit_Yaw=false

Inhibit_Roll=false

Inhibit_X=false

Inhibit_Y=false

Inhibit_Z=false

 

[FTIR]

useTIRViews=true

 

 

 

 

[+SkateZilla 49]

im still trying to get it to work with my camera,

 

my Webcams' default is 1280x960, if i set to any other res, i get a white screen.

 

SoNoTrackIr shows a white screen, is there a way to change resolutions?

Edited July 3, 2011 by SkateZilla

[V4Friend 0]

Hi SkateZilla,

 

Unfortunately, the non-commercial version of faceAPI does not support resolution-selection. But I think you could change the resolution in another program? FaceAPI uses 640x480 as standard...