Head Look in Flight Simulator using a Wiimote

How to do full head tracking in MS Flight Simulator X using some cheap IR LEDs and a wiimote

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Flight
• Simulator
• wiimote
• head
• tracking

[deludedrich]

Just a little note to say I'm not working on this any more. Whilst it was a great project, it made gameplay a little to serious for my liking.

I've since rebuilt my pc and never got around to installing all the drivers needed to make it work.

Would suggest people use Freetrack as it's much better supported.

[deludedrich]

Yes it coped with moving head forwards and backwads, but I couldn't find an easy way of mapping that to flight sim.

Also suspect that it would have forced you to keep your head a bit too still for comfort.

[deludedrich]

You might want to look at Freetrak - it seems to do everything mine did but with a lot more support.

I suspect you will need the wiimote libraries installed and working before my app will run.

[uufflakke07]

Why so complicated? One option is buying a TrackIR system for about $200 and the other option is to use freeware developed by Freetrack. In that case you only need a cheap webcam and three LED's. In that case you can make even more movements than with a wii like zooming in and out. That is a much better headtrackingsystem because it is 6DOF instead of just 2DOF.

[deludedrich]

No more complicated than the cheap webcam and 3 LEDs, and probably more reliable since the wiimote is designed to track IR leds, and reduces CPU load that would be needed to process raw video images.

My system works in exactly the same way as freetrack, and has the 6DOF, just not all movements are mapped to flightsim.

Freetrack wasn't around when I did this, so I'll have to have a look and see which system works best!

[deludedrich]

@etin12 As mentioned - I've not worked on this for a long long time.. But the general idea was that it used a virtual joystick driver, then you can map the view axis etc to a joystick axis within flight sim.

I'd imagine there are plenty of better solutions out there now.

[GoonRider176]

Where have you gotten your leds? i have no idea what kind of power supply to use or anything. thanks

[rapmax79]

It works only with Original WiiMote? Does it work with alternative WiiMote control?

thnx

[amilldevil107]

Is this 6dof. u know so you can move camera forward and backward as you push or pull your head.

[sportfreundmc]

hi,

first that looks nice....

but i have a problem, ein connected my wiimote, installed FSX and Freetrack. Freetrack is running and everything seems to work pretty good. But how can i get the headtracking of Freetrack to the headtracking of FSX the only way i found is to use the wiimote as mouse. But how does ist work without using it as a mouse? If a have started Freetrack there is no headtracking in FSX. Do i have to configure FSX first?

thanks a lot.....

[jediaka]

Pretty good work.

You need to increase the sensitivity of the head tracker so that you only have to tilt you head to see the side and not lose track of the monitor.

[sk8t3rforever]

dude nice video

[deludedwendi]

Such a geek!!!!!!!!!!!!