[simpits-tech] Cool RAH-66 pit w/EECH + More Facetracknoir comments

[Brian Sikkema]

Hey all,

Been messing around a bit with Enemy Engaged: Commanche vs Hokum lately. 
Came across this page for a guy building a Commanche pit using the sim:
http://www.simpit.me.uk/index.htm

He goes by AndyB over on SimHQ, perhaps he's on this list?

For some good pics go to Photographs then click on "Cockpit dashboard" 
and browse through those. You can see he's using the MFD export feature 
to drive a monitor behind the two main MFD's, and he's using some of the 
data extraction capabilities in the latest mods of EECH to drive some of 
the other indicators and lights. In all it looks really cool!

I've gotten the MFD extraction working in EECH to throw some MFD's on my 
second monitor, however so far I've found NO documentation on the data 
extraction stuff. I'm thinking of dropping this guy a line and seeing 
what he used to figure it all out. There's some stuff on the wiki at 
http://www.eechcentral.com/ but it appears to be completely out of date, 
as the data extraction programs have changed...

I also got a chance yesterday to play around a bit with the facetrack 
program, and I like it! I just grabbed a cheapie webcam I've had in a 
box for a couple years, plugged it in and was set up ready to go in a 
few minutes. I did have some issues with it loosing "lock" on my face at 
first, but this was solved by dropping a cheapie LED flashlight next to 
the webcam to illuminate my face a bit better, as my computer setup has 
a lot of light behind me, but not much up front. After I did this I had 
almost no issues with tracking.

My one gripe is that the facetrack API registers your head position 
relative to the camera, which means for it to register 0/0/0 on the 
rotation axis', you have to be looking directly at the camera, which 
means ideally the camera should be right smack in the middle of your 
monitor. Obviously that can't happen, so I had mine set up directly 
below my monitor. However facetrack then registered that I was looking 
up slightly... it didn't make too much of a difference, and with all the 
adjustment you can do with the tracking curves I could probably just set 
the dead zone high enough for it to not register, but what I'd much 
rather be able to do is calibrate it so it register 0 when my head is at 
my normal position, and register changes from there. Of course, maybe 
that is possible and I'm just missing it...

Anywho, anyone looking for a VERY cheap alternative to TrackIR should 
definitely check out facetracknoir. Cost me nuttin but a webcam I hadn't 
used in ages anyway! lol.

Brian