This Makes Elite Much More Immersive
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- I recently discovered a way to use my webcam for head-tracking in Elite and it completely blew my mind. I know I’m late to the party but I had to share it with you all.
I hope you'll enjoy this video. If you do, please leave a LIKE and Subscribe to the channel.
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#EliteDangerous #HeadTracking #OpenTrack #EliteDangerousGameplay #EliteDangerousOdyssey #EliteDangerousMining
A few additional notes I forgot to mention in the video:
-You need to be in a well-lit environment for this to work
-If you want to do eye-tracking, there's a premium software that support it called Beam Eye Tracker ($30 on Steam) but not worth it imo
-You can also use a smartphone if you don't have a webcam but that's a whole lot of extra work
-If you don't have a webcam, you can find a slightly older webcam model on Aliexpress for under $25 (like the Logitech C270)
If you like head tracking, VR is going to blow your mind. But thanks for posting this for those who don't have a VR headset.
I'm _definitely_ going to try this. Thank you for the tip.
Headtracking software makes Elite Dangerous SO much more fun to play! It's a great, budget conscious method for those who can't afford a VR headset.
Great video and bravo for making it - I’ve been using head tracking (with the TrackIR5 device) for years, it's a complete game changer and the more people that know about it and are encouraged to give it a try the better. If, like me, you have VR but end up not using it regularly (for whatever reason) then having head tracking also makes the transition back to a flat screen much easier to accept. I really couldn’t go back to not having it now, so strange to think that people are playing this game with their cockpit view fixed in a forward facing position. Unlock the full potential of this beautiful game commanders!
Totally agree. I can't imagine going back to fixed view after playing with head tracking
Yees! I set up headtracking when getting into SRV flyving/parcour a few years back - it such a game changer being able to look through the roof of the SRV.
During normal gameplay it's more a lot of small QoL things you don't notice until you used it but you notice immediately when headtracking is off - being able to simply select a target (planet/ship/...) as long as you can look at it, is fantastic. Even just keeping your view locked on a target while realigning the ship. Searching for exobios is more comfortable too.
I really don't want to go back anymore.
Totally agree. Now I can't imagine playing without it
This is an awesome idea! I am gonna give it a try haha
Thanks man!
o7
Glad you found it helpful o7
Well, one of the most useful videos I've seen about Elite! Thanxxx
Glad you found it helpful o7
I’ve been playing long enough to remember being excited for Horizons and this is all very new to me! Thanks.
Mind you, the current loading speed has made an immersive experience pretty tough, the sound effect of footsteps in the loading screen from the cockpit to a planet’s surface are now more immersive to think of as a drip in the coffee machine as you drift off to sleep.
Head tracking in Elite is a game changer. The olny problem i found with open track is that you need to be well lit, Otherwise it loses tracking, and need to hit the re-centre. Not a big deal if you're mining or exploring, but in combat it's a bit off putting. On the up side, unlike VR you can still use it on foot.
If you can't afford VR googles, it's well worth giving it a try.
Absolutely agree, in VR you need so much more GPU power for same visuals, so Headtracking is a much more affordable solution. Only situation I prefer VR is landing a Helicopter in a flightsim
Yeah I forgot to mention about the lighting
@@thraxas79It is true, VR is very power-hungry. Understandably, since it is rendering each frame twice(if not three times for the spectator view on the flatscreen).
I do prefer VR at lower settings to non-VR at higher settings in Elite, though. My main issue is using the starmap in VR... well, that and on-foot in general.
I find it painfully ironic that dual graphics cards stopped being a thing right as VR started being a thing. It is basically an ideal workload for SLI/CrossFire.
I've got a Valve Index that I paid around $1000 for. Now I can do much of what the Index does for free? Nice. Thank you! Sometimes it's just a pain in the butt to hook up the Index for a short session. Thank you!
I have a box in my closet with at least three unused webcams!
Awesome. I wouldn't mind having the Index though lol
This is really really cool oh my freaking god
I've been playing Elite for 10 years and knew about head tracking and the prices of dedicated units.
It never even occurred to me there might be software out there that could repurpose an existing webcam as a head tracker.
Downloading now. o7 CMDR
You and me both lol I felt stupid for not knowing sooner
I've come back to Elite after 6 years, and I used a DIY IR headtracker before, which does the same thing. I thought I'll try out the camera tracking, because I didn't want to deal with cables and equipment again, and it surprised me how good they are now. After playing around with curves and sensitivity a bit, it feels so much better than my old setup. And it's just a cheap 720p30fps webcam, nothing fancy. Oh and it doesn't even care about light conditions, the IR headtracker always had troubles when I used my desk lamp which is close to my head. Btw you can leave the Y axis on, and use it to zoom in the screen when you push your head forward, but I agree with turning off the roll, it just made me more disoriented XD
Definitely a game changer. Thanks for the tip about the Y axis o7
I learned about it thanks to D2EA's video.
Can't play without it ever since
Ive been playing elite practically since launch and have dabbled in head tracking before but couldn't get it to work quite right, I will give open track with your settings a go, I'm also an ETS player, and this will be a game changer there as well. o7 Commander
Ok, have tried this now and there there was one tweak I needed to make this usable and that was to set the centering method in the settings to 'point' otherwise it was jerky as all hell and would not track properly.. thanks for prompting me to revisit head tracking options 😊
Glad to hear it works. You can also set an extra point in the mapping to create a small dead zone if it's too jerky
Started this about 3 weeks ago and I must agree ITS GREAT!! o7
Great video! Thanks for sharing! Hopefully, @TheBuurPit will see this for TWSN. BTW, is that your voice? If so, nice!
Thanks. Sadly no, it's text to speech
@@lootandgrind wow. It sounds really good. Nice choice of voice. 🙂
Free, FOSS and on Linux?! Awesome! I knew about head tracking but was always put off by the fact that many of the solutions are expensive and unavailable on Linux anyway. Great to see something that costs nothing (or a donation) and I can actually use on my system! 🎉
Yeah the developer definitely deserves a donation. Most other software are quite expensive
Awesome thanks. I'm definitely trying this. I've got a couple of old broken laptops I can pull a webcam out of.
That's awesome
Yes I knew about this one, very well known in the flight simmers community. Great tool.
Good too know ! Thx's L&G. Now something else to get Track IR for. Other then ATS , & OoO.
A must.
This week i received my track ir v5, and the experience its amazinnng... the title changes complete 100 %, free track ir or pro, its a mandatory for exciting experience with ED and another Titles like X Plane, IL 2, DCS etc. Thxs for the video cmdte.
It's a game changer
I just discovered this too this week. It's really great!
But I hadn't noticed the neuralnet tracker. I use AITrack as an external tracker (it then communicates with OpenTrack via UDP over network.
I find the result more accurate.
Yep AI track is better but I didn't want to run an extra software just for this
I think I'll buy a webcam just to do this lol. Thanks of the idea!
It's totally worth it
Congrats on the H.T.
Been using TrackIR for many years now and it is probably the one hardware I would miss the most should it break. ^^
TrackHat, which is UK based, also offers a webcam with Infrared-LED's for lighting (plus their own software), maybe there are IR-LED-lamps available to do the same for a normal webcam.
Most phone cameras can pick up IR-LED's, maybe this is an option for normal webcams also? Instead of siting in a well lite room, which I would hate to do when gaming. ;)
Oh, btw. in the Odyssey Beta headtracking also worked on foot, so you could look around while walking (and even while aiming down sight, iirc, but I might misremember this).
This was also very very cool, and I'd like to get this feature back, tbh. :/
o7
Yeah VR in Odyssey is one of the most requested features yet. Let's hope the devs listen to the community
If you’re playing ED you cant beat doing it in proper VR.
It's true. One of the best games to play in VR... except for on-foot. But sit down, grab a joystick and throttle, throw on a headset, and just marvel in the sheer majesty of space.
I don't always throw it on, but my best play sessions are with me jacked into cyberspace like an 80s sci-fi movie.
I have a Tobii eye and head tracker. This can be set up where your eye movement will move the camera. you can turn off or on either or both at the same time. The issue I have is it takes time to get it to work the way you want it to. Practice makes perfect. I payed $225 US dollars for it. It makes a huge difference in Combat and mining. As a side note it doesn't work on foot. It did when the dlc first came out. Aiming was impossible at the time. If you want a better experience then give this a try.
Yeah it takes a bit of tinkering to get it working perfectly. But it's not that difficult and well worth it
I am using my TrackIR system for over 15 years now. It works reliably and is immersive. Much better than my META Quest 3
It's great innit. It doesn't work for me because I play on a 48" LG OLED display in a dark room, so there is barely any light when playing a space game, not enough for a webcam to detect me. Being able to try these things out without spending money to see if you like them is always useful, the world is littered with devices like this and vr headsets that people bought and never use for one reason or another.
I tried opentrack, it worked nicely, but disabled the headlook button.
You can set values like deadzone mb and head movement so basically you move your head a little and the view moves a lot.
Ultimately it was breaking my focus/concentration/orientation in combat, so I uninstalled it from PC.
I bough ED (Legacy) on PS5 for like 5 EUR, you can use headlook by engaging it and moving (tilting) the controller itself, which is pretty rad. Kinda curious whether it works on PC using the PS5 controller.
Sorry to hear it didn't work well for you
nice one, but it is reliable on pvp?
I think it will be helpful in PVP. It does not interfere with aim. but you'll probably have to get used to it first
Great video. I tried all the free head trackers. They aren't horrible but Track IR 5 is definitely smoother.
Yeah this method is not perfect but hey it's free
Not sure how it should work. If I will turn my head I will be looking on the wall instead laptop :D
You should try it, it's very intuitive
My understanding is that the camera turns more than your head does, so you're still looking at the screen.
I have no first-hand experience, as I use either plain ol' unaugmented flatscreen or a full VR headset.
You don't have to turn too far. You can adjust it to turn fast if you want
I've followed the instructions in the video. Fired up elite and nothing happens. I can see that opentrack is working and tracking my face but nothing happens in elite. What in game settings do you have?
You don't have to change anything in game it should detect automatically. Make sure you're playing the game in fullscreen mode
You don’t need to use it when your mouse can do it for you in game
But that's boring.
@ maybe but it’s a free option that does exactly what it’s suppose to leaving more funds for ARX lol
@@dj-slt-ukmusikhousestudios3003 True. You can never have too many paintjobs.
I've been doing that for the past few years. Trust me it's not the same
Head tracking adds a lot to games.
Is this an AI voice? It sounds so emotionless lol
First lol