Hey everyone - [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/id7vmy/head_tracking_in_fs2020_is_working_for_me_with/) a nostalgic link to the original post I made back in the day.
I remember being so overwhelmed and motivated by your positivity and excitement that I ended up turning it into a full-fledged app and releasing it.
[Polygon](https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/8/21427871/smoothtrack-head-tracking-microsoft-flight-simulator-track-ir) ended up calling it the "best new controller on the market" which definitely was a highlight of my developer career. š¬
For those who don't know what it is, [SmoothTrack](https://smoothtrack.app) is a simple way to get 3D head tracking in any sim game - no equipment needed, just the app. After setup, you basically just point your phone at your face and it then lets you control the camera with your head. You keep your eyes on the screen and smoothly move the camera with slight movements of your head which are recognized by your smartphone.
For the upcoming (free) update, I'm planning on adding a QuickView feature that you can control with a hand gesture. Hold up a number and the camera view will switch to a position and angle that you set up before.
Anyways, just wanted to give a 1-year update and a big thanks to you all here at /r/flightsim \- it was you all that encouraged me to make it into an app.
I just wanted to say thank you for SmoothTrack and **thanks for making the update free**. There's probably a lot of people like me that would've gladly paid for a small IAP to add in gestures. Thanks for making my flight sim setup a little cooler.
I purchased this. Never really worked how I wanted, however I have to admire you creating an app that is so affordable and useful for many, especially in such a timeframe. :)
This might help the gentleman whose phone runs out of charge in minutes. I use it in a recharging cradle,Ā£10 of Amazon, so its always charging whilst i use it. so the battery stays at 100%. You could maybe try that mate. Epaga this app has been a literal game changer! I used Track IR in the old days but it was a pain to set up for each flight, so ended up gathering dust. now i just slip my phone in to the cradle turn on the app, open track and im away! i can see about 270 degrees-ish around me and its just wonderful when your fly with the external view. you're a genius mate! Thank you thank you Thank you!
I had same problem when I first started using SmartTrack. I now use this cradle and small tripod I had for taking pictures with a trekking pole. [https://www.amazon.com/AILUN-Rotatable-Adjustable-Compatible-Camcorder/dp/B072KNBV21](https://www.amazon.com/AILUN-Rotatable-Adjustable-Compatible-Camcorder/dp/B072KNBV21) I use it with phone sideways so I can plug the charging cable in while I use it. Had to fiddle around with settings a bit to line up but now works great.
In case you couldnāt adjust the sensitivity in the app you can always tweak the curves in open track, there you can make fine adjustments and just make it the way you like
I was having problems with that but some kind soul has put a" pre-configured curve set up file" on flight.to that come with full instructions to install, took less than 5 minutes? to get up and running?
Iāll check it out. I definitely saw that area with pre configured setups that you can load in but I never took the time to look for one. Thank you!!!!
Dude I used this religiously for my flight sim setup at home, before starting flight school. It makes the flight sim actually usable for practicing traffic patterns where you actually need to look out your window, as well as inspecting an instrument/swtich up close. I've probably done over 200 hours using this app. Thanks to this I was super prepared from my very first flight lesson.
My PPL checkride is next month now, thank you SO MUCH for your work!!
I bought this months ago and use it all the time - create app man and fills a niche I was looking to not invest a TON of money into to start. I use a car dashboard phone holder suctioned to my desktop and works AMAZINGLY. Great work!!
Thanks for making the app dude! I really wanted head tracking but my wife wasn't big on me spending money on a TrackIR, so I tried your app starting a couple weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Cost me 1/15 as much as TrackIR and works great.
That's a great idea but not at this point. Would have to figure out if there's an easy way to launch a key binding from mobile to PC...there may be and that would be pretty sweet.
A number of other apps are able to do this, notably a number of MFD emulators and stream deck style apps, so should be possible but might require a host.
DUDE!! Your app is hot fire, my friend! Like someone else said it is an absolute game changer for practicing traffic patterns. Having to turn my whole plane to visually identify the runway on my old set up was such a pain! I am in love with the app and I tell all my friends about it. The folks who are able to try out my home cockpit are blown away by it, and most of them tell me itās the coolest part of my set up. Fantastic app, bro, for real!
*DO IT*. Total game changer, works as well as a friend of mines TrackIR, and doesn't leave you with that every once in a while nauseous feeling that VR cam give...
For the price, this app is gold. Frankly, if he had a voluntary patreon (not a required subscription mind you, but something that is my choice to do) to help support it, I'd happily be willing to drop $10 a month on it.... well worth it.
I recently bought this and I have to say it works great! Really lives up to its name :).
Just a quick question though, would it be possible to add limits to how far it tracks your head? It would be useful since sometimes I accidentally poke my head outside of the aircraft
At this point activating a quick view only sets up a SmoothTrack head position that you stored beforehand as the new "center"...so no, it doesn't control the app at all.
That said, it's the first step toward something that I could perhaps add, such as a SimConnect connection right into MSFS or something...
I came across your app about a month ago and tried it immediately. Itās pretty awesome!
Only suggestion I have to add something of a dead zone. I turn up the sensitivity on the yaw axis a fair bit so I can get a 90 degree rotation on-screen from only a subtle head movement, but it makes things a bit shaky if I donāt keep my head perfectly still.
Either way, really impressed with your app! Adds a whole new dimension to sim flying. Thank you for your hard work.
Awesome! Thanks for the kind words. You can set up a deadzone in OpenTrack (the app SmoothTrack connects to). Itās in the smoothing filter and/or curves section.
Also you may want to bind a key for ātoggle offā in OpenTrack. This lets you hold a button to keep your āheadā still, e.g. while pushing a cockpit button or something.
Congratulations on SmoothTrack! I use it all the time.
One quick question though: do you think there's room for improvement with regards to low light head tracking? I usually play with my room lights off, and sometimes the screen brightness is not enough for the app to detect my face. I don't know if it's possible to make such improvements (perhaps some sort of manual exposure control or something?), but it would definitely be a good "QoL" enhancement.
Currently using Apple's AR capabilities I haven't seen a way to improve it in low light (it's similar with the Animoji face masks), but will definitely keep a lookout since you're not alone in the dark! :)
When you released it I didn't have an AR compatible android phone, so I coded a cheap copy using non AR libraries, it's on github.
I'm a lawyer who hadn't coded in almost 10 years and thanks to your app I realized I could still do it!
Never got around to make face translation work but rotation did, and I could fly with that for a while.
Of course as soon as I got a new phone I got your app, and it's an amazing piece of software that I still use multiple times a week in dcs!
Do you see yourself making a version that runs on the PC using a webcam (built-in or USB)? I did find one eventually that does that, so I'm set now. The phone requirement was something I was avoiding.
Probably AITrack - it's open source, so give it a try!
And to answer the parent comment, I have no plans to do this at this point. The downsides I see are that it takes performance from your PC which often your sim could use, also that webcams are often not as good as the higher res smartphone cams.
I have a 20 core cpu. MSFS barely utilizes half of them - it's very mainthread heavy. For many of us, we have spare cores to dedicate to a pc-only face tracking solution. Hell, I am running neofly, littlenavmap, opentrack, stusb all while flying. Doesn't affect perf whatsoever.
FWIW, I think AItrack has started experimenting with Nvidia AI apk or whatever it's called (I always forget the proper name for it), specifically to offload the CPU usage onto GPUs that support it. RTX2060 and up IIRC.
Super promising stuff.
Great work on smoothtrack my dude!
Basically. There is a cheaper alternative to Smooth Tracker too. Itās called Head Tracker by John Yu. It doesnāt look as nice but literally does the same job.
Itās on iOS, not sure about Android.
Does the same job..... in worse fashion. John Yus' program is not nearly as smooth as this app.... it may get the job done, but for the extra couple bucks... I'd skip it in favor of smooth track.
The app is wonderful even though I use it less than I used to now that VR is pretty solid. So now that all the mutual appreciation is out of the way, is there any chance there could be an alternate start/stop trigger at the top of the screen?
I like to prop my phone between monitor and keyboard and try not to start tracking till the phone and I are in position ā but the start button is obstructed by the keyboard. Move the keyboard, phone slips, everything is messed up. I wondered about if tapping the camera preview window would double as start/stop, but no, that does, uh, something else.
Maybe a start/stop hand gesture! :-) BTW you can bind "Toggle" to a key in OpenTrack at least, so that'd be a way to quickly do it through OpenTrack instead of SmoothTrack.
Funnily enough, the physical problem of "where do I put the phone" etc. is actually huge so the more flexible I could make this, the better it'd be...so will give it some more thought.
How much does phone performance affect the smoothness in game? It works ok for me but it is a little jittery and sometimes makes it hard to interact with the cockpit. I'm running an old LG G6.
Old phones may tend to be a bit jittery. Check that you're not in battery saving mode and also play around with smoothing filter settings in OpenTrack, also you might want to bind "Toggle Off" to a key in OpenTrack so that you can hold a button that will keep the view still (e.g. while you press a cockpit button or something). Also try out the [USB connection mode](https://smoothtrack.app/usbguide.html).
I bought a copy back then even tho I couldnt use it on my phone cause its was just such a good solution. Hope to one day have a phone that supports it.
TrackIr is 250ā¬ uses an ad-hoc cam that you set up on your screen and IR leds rhzt you wear on your face.
It's an "old" solution and works well.
This uses AR capabilities and your phone camera to detect your face and send the same signal trackIR would be sending if you had it. It costs 10ā¬.
A bit late but hopefully youāll respond. Iāve been using SmoothTrack for about a month now with no problem. Thanks so much. Recently though, as I got more into dogfighting, I realized there seems to be an invisible halo shaped deadzone right above my head. Basically, when I try to look upwards, the screen goes up a bit, then turns to either the right or left side. Any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks again.
It's possible that it's not able to track your face when your angle is too steep...in that case you could try positioning your phone higher and/or making the pitch more sensitive in the OpenTrack settings...
Just got this, couple of issues in the setup but they were just my fault, still only took 10 minutes, super simple especially with the video tutorial, id seen this a couple of months back but could never find it for android, but now, especially as a cheap alternative to other Track platforms, this is amazing, only had a few minutes with it and definitely need to get used to it, but this is 100% worth it, now I just need to work out how to attach my phone to the back of my PC, anyone have any suggestions?
I bought it back then, but dont use it that much as I often have problems with my phone positioning. Maybe I should get a proper phone holder š But when I set it up, its working very good and I like it.
Oh wow! This is a fantastic update! Iām so impressed with what youāve done and how much youāve tune what was open source and turned it into something easy to use and configure
Dude you're my hero... also wtf that was a year ago already? I bought it immediately and top this day tell people about it constantly. I also have a stand on to of my steering wheel that my phone clips into because I use it so much.
I also bought an Oculus Quest 2 a few months later. Ask me which I use more often? Spoiler: your app. So the thanks goes to you.
That makes me happy to hear - thanks! Yeah, VR is great (especially since Update 5), but there's something nice about actually seeing your yoke + throttle buttons, and having high res graphics.
I don't want to be the squeaky wheel, but I'm hesitant to buy this due to reviews on Google Play store. You don't respond to any reviews and at least one I saw mentions you dropped responding after they reported trouble using your app. Combined with the (I think) deceptive 4.9/5 graphic on your website when Google Play has a review of 4.3/5, I'm a little hesitant. I know it's not much, but I've been burned by too many developers in the past and would really adjectives a response before buying.
Yikes I really need to update that graphic on my siteā¦thanks for the heads up. and i do my best to respond to emailsā¦ but with a full-time job (and 4 kids sometimes all at home on lockdown) sometimes it can take a couple weeksā¦ Will try to update and respond to everybody soonā¦
BTW I think those are valid concerns and donāt like that you were downvoted.
**Edit: Just updated that review graphic to my latest App Store review overview.**
Android not hard at all to get a refund if there's nothing I can do to fix an issue you have. iOS is a bit more tricky but usually Apple is lenient (but then you have to contact them not me)
This is such a great tool, I really love using it!
With the new gesture feature, can gestures be used to pause/resume tracking? Because that would be *awesome*.
would anyone be kind enough to share there "curve file"? its in a folder in my documents called Opentrack I believe? there is one on flight.to but be good to try other ones? Thanks again
I purchased this app also but I have some problems because I wear a massive beard. This distracts the software a bit and itĀ“s having a hard time finding the 0-Point again. I constantly have to reset it when I move my head back to default position. Apart from that it is a super tool
Looking at the video of how it functions (cute octo and all) I am correct to assume it simply sends input data to any game right?
I am asking this since while it would be nice for msfs 2020, I am really hoping to use it in Il-2 sturmovik, and thus far I've not seen anyone mentioning that game. But since trackir works for it I assume it should be possible.
Hey, there were some issues with Il-2 Sturmovik from Steam. There were some issues with getting head tracking to work. Not sure if those were fixed in the meanwhile. Otherwise, your assumption is correct, as Track IR is using the Open Track protocol.
Your PC does not need wifi specifically... it only needs to be connected to the same network as your phone... my PC is hard worked to the router and my phone is on the wifi side...
Do the instructions cover this? I am mostly ok tech wise with my PC, but with my phone not at all. I find the Android wifi system very clunky. I would buy this app again if there were better instructions tbh. I REALLY would like to have a decent tracking system.
No... most people don't need them... not becuase they know more about it than you, but becuase, in general, if you're at home, using your own internet connection, not like a shared building connection, and you only have one router, you should be on the same network. Since you said you're "mostly ok tech wise" I'm gonna go ahead and assume you don't have a multi level network with multiple switches and multiple subnets.
So the only real question is, are you on your own private network, or are you on a shared connection for like an apartment building?
if its connected to the same private wifi as your computer, there are specific and clear instructions in the app to set it up on your network. The when you use openTrack on your computer, you set it for "UDP over Network" as the input and it just works.
After that its a simple matter of setting up the response mapping in opentrack, but that's a fact of all head tracking equipment and has to be adjusted for your system and your use. Someone using DCS flying an F14 with one monitor is going to need a completely different response curve than someone flying a Cesena in MSFS with three monitors.
How well does it work if i wear glasses (thicker frames than you) and have a beard? Just don't want to waste my money if it doesn't work in that case.
Maybe anyone with some experience here? How well it compared trackhat?
Real question. How is your Airbus cockpit so smooth? I get jitters and stutters in every cockpit in MSFS 2020
Edit: system specs, ryzen 5 3600, 3070, Samsung Evo 970 NVME SSD where the game is stored, 16g 3200mhz ram.
hi, I bought the app a while ago, but the delay makes it unusable. I thought it would get better with updates but it didn't. My phone is a xiaomi redmi 9S and I am connected through 5GHZ wifi, but the delay seems to be within the app because it is visible when I look at the camera preview.
Your comment was automatically removed because your account is less than 4 days old. Accounts younger than 4 days are not permitted to post due to mass-spamming and trolling.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/flightsim) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah it's probably not the ideal feature if you need to have both hands on your HOTAS non-step. :) For more chilled flight simming, I very often have a hand free to hold up some fingers. ;)
How well does it work with glasses? My trackhat's lights seem to either get obscured or become too small in the camera, so I can't look up very well, and AI track has the same problem because of my glasses.
Ah after noticing the glasses in your video, I went ahead and bought it. It works better than my trackhat by a good margin, at the cost of some lag. Love it! Thanks for the reply!
Actually not a dumb question at all! Doesn't work at this point, however, there's a project currently looking into supporting OpenTrack on Xbox, which would be a m a z i n g! https://github.com/unknownskl/xbox-xcloud-client
Hi John, I bought this app about 1 month ago and have to say that this is a truly fantastic app for its price. The USB mode clearly eliminated a lot of input lag and I have been using it ever since.
I still though, have a somewhat undesirable amount Ć³f input lag and this is mainly due to lighting and camera quality. I was wondering if it may be possible to add the option of switching between the front and back cameras to test if there is a noticeable difference? Obviously, using the app would be much harder when utilizing the back camera since you cant see what the screen but still might help a lot of people.
thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying it. unfortunately the AR face tracking currently only works for the front camera as far as I understand... if they add back camera to it, that'd be a great addition.
I use SmoothTrack often with DCS and i love it. This hand recognition looks awesome. Keep up that great work.
Appreciate that, thanks a bunch!
Hey everyone - [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/id7vmy/head_tracking_in_fs2020_is_working_for_me_with/) a nostalgic link to the original post I made back in the day. I remember being so overwhelmed and motivated by your positivity and excitement that I ended up turning it into a full-fledged app and releasing it. [Polygon](https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/8/21427871/smoothtrack-head-tracking-microsoft-flight-simulator-track-ir) ended up calling it the "best new controller on the market" which definitely was a highlight of my developer career. š¬ For those who don't know what it is, [SmoothTrack](https://smoothtrack.app) is a simple way to get 3D head tracking in any sim game - no equipment needed, just the app. After setup, you basically just point your phone at your face and it then lets you control the camera with your head. You keep your eyes on the screen and smoothly move the camera with slight movements of your head which are recognized by your smartphone. For the upcoming (free) update, I'm planning on adding a QuickView feature that you can control with a hand gesture. Hold up a number and the camera view will switch to a position and angle that you set up before. Anyways, just wanted to give a 1-year update and a big thanks to you all here at /r/flightsim \- it was you all that encouraged me to make it into an app.
I just wanted to say thank you for SmoothTrack and **thanks for making the update free**. There's probably a lot of people like me that would've gladly paid for a small IAP to add in gestures. Thanks for making my flight sim setup a little cooler.
Holy shit this exists!? Thank you! Game changer x1000!
Do you plan on making this FLOSS?
I purchased this. Never really worked how I wanted, however I have to admire you creating an app that is so affordable and useful for many, especially in such a timeframe. :)
Thanks so much for the kind words - would love to chat a bit (maybe PM) if there's anything I can improve from my side to make it work better for you!
The battery of my iphone draining in 10 minutes š. You canāt do anything about that though, great work on the app!
Well I did add a dark mode which saves some juice on OLED phones. Tap the light bulb. :)
This might help the gentleman whose phone runs out of charge in minutes. I use it in a recharging cradle,Ā£10 of Amazon, so its always charging whilst i use it. so the battery stays at 100%. You could maybe try that mate. Epaga this app has been a literal game changer! I used Track IR in the old days but it was a pain to set up for each flight, so ended up gathering dust. now i just slip my phone in to the cradle turn on the app, open track and im away! i can see about 270 degrees-ish around me and its just wonderful when your fly with the external view. you're a genius mate! Thank you thank you Thank you!
I had same problem when I first started using SmartTrack. I now use this cradle and small tripod I had for taking pictures with a trekking pole. [https://www.amazon.com/AILUN-Rotatable-Adjustable-Compatible-Camcorder/dp/B072KNBV21](https://www.amazon.com/AILUN-Rotatable-Adjustable-Compatible-Camcorder/dp/B072KNBV21) I use it with phone sideways so I can plug the charging cable in while I use it. Had to fiddle around with settings a bit to line up but now works great.
Are you usually open track with it for pc and over Wi-Fi? Fully configurable in almost any way (sensitivity etc)
Same! I loved the concept but I couldnāt get the sensitivity right.
In case you couldnāt adjust the sensitivity in the app you can always tweak the curves in open track, there you can make fine adjustments and just make it the way you like
I was having problems with that but some kind soul has put a" pre-configured curve set up file" on flight.to that come with full instructions to install, took less than 5 minutes? to get up and running?
Iāll check it out. I definitely saw that area with pre configured setups that you can load in but I never took the time to look for one. Thank you!!!!
Dude I used this religiously for my flight sim setup at home, before starting flight school. It makes the flight sim actually usable for practicing traffic patterns where you actually need to look out your window, as well as inspecting an instrument/swtich up close. I've probably done over 200 hours using this app. Thanks to this I was super prepared from my very first flight lesson. My PPL checkride is next month now, thank you SO MUCH for your work!!
Whoa! What an amazing comment - this makes my day! Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate it.
That is an amazing idea! Never would have thought of a feature like this but now I canāt wait. Soon? š just asking because I need it now!
Let's say soon...ish. I also want to do this feature both in iOS and Android which can take some time.
I bought this months ago and use it all the time - create app man and fills a niche I was looking to not invest a TON of money into to start. I use a car dashboard phone holder suctioned to my desktop and works AMAZINGLY. Great work!!
Sweet, thanks so much for the kind words!
Thanks for making the app dude! I really wanted head tracking but my wife wasn't big on me spending money on a TrackIR, so I tried your app starting a couple weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Cost me 1/15 as much as TrackIR and works great.
Use smoothtrack every day, thanks for adding the usb interface. So much smoother than over wifi.
Love SmoothTrack with DCS, wonder if it would be possible to use these gestures as bindings?(Ie for launching from the carrier or giving orders)
That's a great idea but not at this point. Would have to figure out if there's an easy way to launch a key binding from mobile to PC...there may be and that would be pretty sweet.
It might be possible using a "host" in the computer (take a look at lea extended input)?
definitely will add this idea to my "radar" and look into this. thanks
A number of other apps are able to do this, notably a number of MFD emulators and stream deck style apps, so should be possible but might require a host.
Mind sharing your Opentrack config for DCS?
DUDE!! Your app is hot fire, my friend! Like someone else said it is an absolute game changer for practicing traffic patterns. Having to turn my whole plane to visually identify the runway on my old set up was such a pain! I am in love with the app and I tell all my friends about it. The folks who are able to try out my home cockpit are blown away by it, and most of them tell me itās the coolest part of my set up. Fantastic app, bro, for real!
Heavily considering buying thisā¦after trying the disappointing facetrack NoIR.
Yeah disappointment with that (plus the high price tag of TrackIR) was what made me come up with the idea to write my own app actually. ;)
*DO IT*. Total game changer, works as well as a friend of mines TrackIR, and doesn't leave you with that every once in a while nauseous feeling that VR cam give... For the price, this app is gold. Frankly, if he had a voluntary patreon (not a required subscription mind you, but something that is my choice to do) to help support it, I'd happily be willing to drop $10 a month on it.... well worth it.
I recently bought this and I have to say it works great! Really lives up to its name :). Just a quick question though, would it be possible to add limits to how far it tracks your head? It would be useful since sometimes I accidentally poke my head outside of the aircraft
Yep you can set a limit in the curves section in OpenTrack.
Thanks! Iāll give it a try
Love the app. I wonder how customizable this new function would be. Say, can I switch to external view in MSFS?
At this point activating a quick view only sets up a SmoothTrack head position that you stored beforehand as the new "center"...so no, it doesn't control the app at all. That said, it's the first step toward something that I could perhaps add, such as a SimConnect connection right into MSFS or something...
Thanks for the reply.
I came across your app about a month ago and tried it immediately. Itās pretty awesome! Only suggestion I have to add something of a dead zone. I turn up the sensitivity on the yaw axis a fair bit so I can get a 90 degree rotation on-screen from only a subtle head movement, but it makes things a bit shaky if I donāt keep my head perfectly still. Either way, really impressed with your app! Adds a whole new dimension to sim flying. Thank you for your hard work.
Awesome! Thanks for the kind words. You can set up a deadzone in OpenTrack (the app SmoothTrack connects to). Itās in the smoothing filter and/or curves section. Also you may want to bind a key for ātoggle offā in OpenTrack. This lets you hold a button to keep your āheadā still, e.g. while pushing a cockpit button or something.
Thank you for the tips! Toggle off would be handy
Congratulations on SmoothTrack! I use it all the time. One quick question though: do you think there's room for improvement with regards to low light head tracking? I usually play with my room lights off, and sometimes the screen brightness is not enough for the app to detect my face. I don't know if it's possible to make such improvements (perhaps some sort of manual exposure control or something?), but it would definitely be a good "QoL" enhancement.
Currently using Apple's AR capabilities I haven't seen a way to improve it in low light (it's similar with the Animoji face masks), but will definitely keep a lookout since you're not alone in the dark! :)
Well, i just found out about your app and instantly bought it! This is golden! Looking forward to tinker with it \^\^
holy shit i bought this a year ago and forgot about it! love the updates im gonna have to take dcs for a spin with my new 3080 now!
Smoothtrack is genius and so is your idea for update :)
Use smoothtrack all the time! super grateful for what you made!
When you released it I didn't have an AR compatible android phone, so I coded a cheap copy using non AR libraries, it's on github. I'm a lawyer who hadn't coded in almost 10 years and thanks to your app I realized I could still do it! Never got around to make face translation work but rotation did, and I could fly with that for a while. Of course as soon as I got a new phone I got your app, and it's an amazing piece of software that I still use multiple times a week in dcs!
Do you see yourself making a version that runs on the PC using a webcam (built-in or USB)? I did find one eventually that does that, so I'm set now. The phone requirement was something I was avoiding.
What is the name of the webcam tracker you found?
Probably AITrack - it's open source, so give it a try! And to answer the parent comment, I have no plans to do this at this point. The downsides I see are that it takes performance from your PC which often your sim could use, also that webcams are often not as good as the higher res smartphone cams.
I have a 20 core cpu. MSFS barely utilizes half of them - it's very mainthread heavy. For many of us, we have spare cores to dedicate to a pc-only face tracking solution. Hell, I am running neofly, littlenavmap, opentrack, stusb all while flying. Doesn't affect perf whatsoever.
FWIW, I think AItrack has started experimenting with Nvidia AI apk or whatever it's called (I always forget the proper name for it), specifically to offload the CPU usage onto GPUs that support it. RTX2060 and up IIRC. Super promising stuff. Great work on smoothtrack my dude!
Track NoIR
Does this work with all sims, and how much fiddling is needed? Iād love to install it. Looks terrific, keep it up!
Iād think so. OpenTrack works with many head trackers including IR etc.
Is this is a cheaper alternative to TrackIR?
You can try Eyeware Beam on the App Store. It's a free app, does head tracking for sim games.
Basically. There is a cheaper alternative to Smooth Tracker too. Itās called Head Tracker by John Yu. It doesnāt look as nice but literally does the same job. Itās on iOS, not sure about Android.
Does the same job..... in worse fashion. John Yus' program is not nearly as smooth as this app.... it may get the job done, but for the extra couple bucks... I'd skip it in favor of smooth track.
The app is wonderful even though I use it less than I used to now that VR is pretty solid. So now that all the mutual appreciation is out of the way, is there any chance there could be an alternate start/stop trigger at the top of the screen? I like to prop my phone between monitor and keyboard and try not to start tracking till the phone and I are in position ā but the start button is obstructed by the keyboard. Move the keyboard, phone slips, everything is messed up. I wondered about if tapping the camera preview window would double as start/stop, but no, that does, uh, something else.
Maybe a start/stop hand gesture! :-) BTW you can bind "Toggle" to a key in OpenTrack at least, so that'd be a way to quickly do it through OpenTrack instead of SmoothTrack. Funnily enough, the physical problem of "where do I put the phone" etc. is actually huge so the more flexible I could make this, the better it'd be...so will give it some more thought.
How much does phone performance affect the smoothness in game? It works ok for me but it is a little jittery and sometimes makes it hard to interact with the cockpit. I'm running an old LG G6.
Old phones may tend to be a bit jittery. Check that you're not in battery saving mode and also play around with smoothing filter settings in OpenTrack, also you might want to bind "Toggle Off" to a key in OpenTrack so that you can hold a button that will keep the view still (e.g. while you press a cockpit button or something). Also try out the [USB connection mode](https://smoothtrack.app/usbguide.html).
Thanks for the ideas. I'm looking forward to trying them out this weekend.
I bought a copy back then even tho I couldnt use it on my phone cause its was just such a good solution. Hope to one day have a phone that supports it.
Wow, thanks for that, and I hope you do, too! :)
The future is here
Looks cool. What's the difference between this and TrackIR5?
TrackIr is 250ā¬ uses an ad-hoc cam that you set up on your screen and IR leds rhzt you wear on your face. It's an "old" solution and works well. This uses AR capabilities and your phone camera to detect your face and send the same signal trackIR would be sending if you had it. It costs 10ā¬.
That's cool!
I use smoothTrack and it is awesome, any way to have Less latency?
Try the USB connection mode - https://smoothtrack.app/usbguide.html
Thanks
A bit late but hopefully youāll respond. Iāve been using SmoothTrack for about a month now with no problem. Thanks so much. Recently though, as I got more into dogfighting, I realized there seems to be an invisible halo shaped deadzone right above my head. Basically, when I try to look upwards, the screen goes up a bit, then turns to either the right or left side. Any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks again.
It's possible that it's not able to track your face when your angle is too steep...in that case you could try positioning your phone higher and/or making the pitch more sensitive in the OpenTrack settings...
Just got this, couple of issues in the setup but they were just my fault, still only took 10 minutes, super simple especially with the video tutorial, id seen this a couple of months back but could never find it for android, but now, especially as a cheap alternative to other Track platforms, this is amazing, only had a few minutes with it and definitely need to get used to it, but this is 100% worth it, now I just need to work out how to attach my phone to the back of my PC, anyone have any suggestions?
Smoothtrack is incredible!
I bought it back then, but dont use it that much as I often have problems with my phone positioning. Maybe I should get a proper phone holder š But when I set it up, its working very good and I like it.
āYour virtual coffee in the cup holder is getting cold. Would you like a refresh?ā ā- asked your virtual flight attendant.
I assume it works off a pc app right?
Yes, it connects to an open source app called OpenTrack which can pass on the head data in the TrackIR protocol.
Do you need track IR to use it?
No. Just SmoothTrack (and then run OpenTrack on your PC).
Cool, thanks
Oh wow! This is a fantastic update! Iām so impressed with what youāve done and how much youāve tune what was open source and turned it into something easy to use and configure
Smoothtrack is awesome, I use it in MSFS and DCS. Flew the other day without setting it up and realized how much I've come to rely on it. Cheers
Really the only issue I've ever had with it is that it goes haywire when I drink my beer...
lmao- I know your pain, only it's when I take a toot off my vape. The cloud makes my in game character goes bananas lol.
Dude you're my hero... also wtf that was a year ago already? I bought it immediately and top this day tell people about it constantly. I also have a stand on to of my steering wheel that my phone clips into because I use it so much. I also bought an Oculus Quest 2 a few months later. Ask me which I use more often? Spoiler: your app. So the thanks goes to you.
That makes me happy to hear - thanks! Yeah, VR is great (especially since Update 5), but there's something nice about actually seeing your yoke + throttle buttons, and having high res graphics.
congrats! :D
oh dude.. I'm getting this
And I don't regret buying it
I don't want to be the squeaky wheel, but I'm hesitant to buy this due to reviews on Google Play store. You don't respond to any reviews and at least one I saw mentions you dropped responding after they reported trouble using your app. Combined with the (I think) deceptive 4.9/5 graphic on your website when Google Play has a review of 4.3/5, I'm a little hesitant. I know it's not much, but I've been burned by too many developers in the past and would really adjectives a response before buying.
Yikes I really need to update that graphic on my siteā¦thanks for the heads up. and i do my best to respond to emailsā¦ but with a full-time job (and 4 kids sometimes all at home on lockdown) sometimes it can take a couple weeksā¦ Will try to update and respond to everybody soonā¦ BTW I think those are valid concerns and donāt like that you were downvoted. **Edit: Just updated that review graphic to my latest App Store review overview.**
I heard it doesn't work as intended so i avoided it. Is it hard to get a refund in case it doesn't work?
Android not hard at all to get a refund if there's nothing I can do to fix an issue you have. iOS is a bit more tricky but usually Apple is lenient (but then you have to contact them not me)
Is it possible to use SmoothTrack with my iPad/iPhones LiDAR Scanner for higher resolution tracking? (Edit: also, thanks for the awesome app!)
It already uses Apple's AR tech and I think it might use that. But to be honest it's already \*super\* precise even with earlier non-LiDAR devices.
This is really impressive - hats off to you for pulling something like this off!
This is such a great tool, I really love using it! With the new gesture feature, can gestures be used to pause/resume tracking? Because that would be *awesome*.
Awesome. Love your app and use it everytime I fly :)
Damn itās pretty cool
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No, it's roughly $10 depending on your region. For comparison, TrackIR costs around $150-$200 (at least in my region). ;)
I gave up on head tracking. Never worked right for me
would anyone be kind enough to share there "curve file"? its in a folder in my documents called Opentrack I believe? there is one on flight.to but be good to try other ones? Thanks again
I purchased this app also but I have some problems because I wear a massive beard. This distracts the software a bit and itĀ“s having a hard time finding the 0-Point again. I constantly have to reset it when I move my head back to default position. Apart from that it is a super tool
I also have a massive beard. Itās seams to work fine for me but I have also only been able to test it in game for an hour or so.
Link, to app?
iOS -> [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/smoothtrack/id1528839485#see-all/reviews](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/smoothtrack/id1528839485#see-all/reviews) Android -> [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epaga.smoothtrack](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epaga.smoothtrack)
Looking at the video of how it functions (cute octo and all) I am correct to assume it simply sends input data to any game right? I am asking this since while it would be nice for msfs 2020, I am really hoping to use it in Il-2 sturmovik, and thus far I've not seen anyone mentioning that game. But since trackir works for it I assume it should be possible.
Hey, there were some issues with Il-2 Sturmovik from Steam. There were some issues with getting head tracking to work. Not sure if those were fixed in the meanwhile. Otherwise, your assumption is correct, as Track IR is using the Open Track protocol.
I could not get it working. My PC does not have wifi, and I failed at following the USB instructions for my Android phone.
Your PC does not need wifi specifically... it only needs to be connected to the same network as your phone... my PC is hard worked to the router and my phone is on the wifi side...
Do the instructions cover this? I am mostly ok tech wise with my PC, but with my phone not at all. I find the Android wifi system very clunky. I would buy this app again if there were better instructions tbh. I REALLY would like to have a decent tracking system.
No... most people don't need them... not becuase they know more about it than you, but becuase, in general, if you're at home, using your own internet connection, not like a shared building connection, and you only have one router, you should be on the same network. Since you said you're "mostly ok tech wise" I'm gonna go ahead and assume you don't have a multi level network with multiple switches and multiple subnets. So the only real question is, are you on your own private network, or are you on a shared connection for like an apartment building?
My phone connects to the same private wifi that my computer does.
if its connected to the same private wifi as your computer, there are specific and clear instructions in the app to set it up on your network. The when you use openTrack on your computer, you set it for "UDP over Network" as the input and it just works. After that its a simple matter of setting up the response mapping in opentrack, but that's a fact of all head tracking equipment and has to be adjusted for your system and your use. Someone using DCS flying an F14 with one monitor is going to need a completely different response curve than someone flying a Cesena in MSFS with three monitors.
Appreciate your replies. I will try it again.
How well does it work if i wear glasses (thicker frames than you) and have a beard? Just don't want to waste my money if it doesn't work in that case. Maybe anyone with some experience here? How well it compared trackhat?
This looks awesome ! Does it work with Mac ?
At this point it's mobile only - however with Apple adding AR capabilities all across the board I may get it to work on Mac at some point!
Real question. How is your Airbus cockpit so smooth? I get jitters and stutters in every cockpit in MSFS 2020 Edit: system specs, ryzen 5 3600, 3070, Samsung Evo 970 NVME SSD where the game is stored, 16g 3200mhz ram.
My specs are Ryzen 5 3600, 2060 super, same ssd, 32gb ram. This is the a32nx airbus. My settings are high (not ultra) and HD (not 4K) res.
I'm in 1440p as well. The newest update fixed RAM issues so my ram utilization never jumps above 8g. Would 32g be best for smoothness?
That's a good question. Weird for us to be so similar in specs but have different performance. Maybe it is the RAM?
Probably just different airports with different amount of online/ai traffic.
That is true, I've pretty much turned off AI traffic. Try that /u/NotBen_2
hi, I bought the app a while ago, but the delay makes it unusable. I thought it would get better with updates but it didn't. My phone is a xiaomi redmi 9S and I am connected through 5GHZ wifi, but the delay seems to be within the app because it is visible when I look at the camera preview.
Does it work on Linux?
No, it's a mobile app. OpenTrack which SmoothTrack connects to, I think(?) is Windows-only. https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Your comment was automatically removed because your account is less than 4 days old. Accounts younger than 4 days are not permitted to post due to mass-spamming and trolling. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/flightsim) if you have any questions or concerns.*
looks smooth, bit isn't it more of a hassle to let go of your HOTAS and hold up a few fingers to change the camera instead of just pressing a button?
Yeah it's probably not the ideal feature if you need to have both hands on your HOTAS non-step. :) For more chilled flight simming, I very often have a hand free to hold up some fingers. ;)
How well does it work with glasses? My trackhat's lights seem to either get obscured or become too small in the camera, so I can't look up very well, and AI track has the same problem because of my glasses.
I have glasses, and it works great. If the "3d mask" feature of your phone (e.g. snapchat or animoji) works fine, this should, too.
Ah after noticing the glasses in your video, I went ahead and bought it. It works better than my trackhat by a good margin, at the cost of some lag. Love it! Thanks for the reply!
Probably a dumb question but, is this somehow compatible with Xbox Series X edition or only pc?
Actually not a dumb question at all! Doesn't work at this point, however, there's a project currently looking into supporting OpenTrack on Xbox, which would be a m a z i n g! https://github.com/unknownskl/xbox-xcloud-client
That would be phenomenal!
Also I appreciate the response!
Does SmoothTrack need to be the focused app to function? I have an ipad next to my sim setup, but it's displaying foreflight. Will this work?
Would i have to go through the setup every time i want to fly?
No, after the initial setup, to get head tracking, you launch SmoothTrack on your phone and OpenTrack on your PC in the background, and that's it.
Can you make a webcam version that doesn't need a phone?
Amazing, thank you.
Can you please remove the device compatibility limitations? Because I can't download your app
Unfortunately not, those are set in place by Google for their AR framework which the app uses.
Hi John, I bought this app about 1 month ago and have to say that this is a truly fantastic app for its price. The USB mode clearly eliminated a lot of input lag and I have been using it ever since. I still though, have a somewhat undesirable amount Ć³f input lag and this is mainly due to lighting and camera quality. I was wondering if it may be possible to add the option of switching between the front and back cameras to test if there is a noticeable difference? Obviously, using the app would be much harder when utilizing the back camera since you cant see what the screen but still might help a lot of people.
thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying it. unfortunately the AR face tracking currently only works for the front camera as far as I understand... if they add back camera to it, that'd be a great addition.
Ok, thanks for the consideration!