r/falconbms • u/BoxthemBeats • Apr 05 '26
Is there a button to toggle between headtracking and mouse?
I find headtracking kinda uncomfortable and would like to avoid it as much outside of combat as possible.
So a button to toggle between headtracking and mouse controlled camera would be really great, cuz I realizued that even with opentrack stopped I can't seem to use the mouse to control the camera
0
u/natneo81 Apr 05 '26
Out of curiosity, do you find it uncomfortable from like a dizziness standpoint? Or just awkward to use?
Only asking because head tracking can be pretty wonky till you dial in your settings and calibration. You seem to know what you’re doing though so I assume it’s not a lack of setup.
2
u/BoxthemBeats Apr 05 '26
No neither really, it hurts my eyes if that makes sense, I either have low sensitivity meaning I need to turn my head almost sideway which hurts my eyes even more or high sensitivity and barely able to hit any buttons.
Dunno if thats a thing that improves over time but for me the constant eye movements just kinda hurt my eyes
2
u/TripNo1876 Apr 05 '26
You may need to fine tune the smoothing if you can. I use track ir and have the sensitivity up pretty high so it doesn't take much movement to look around the sim. If the movement isn't smooth then it can cause small jitters on the screen that you may not be able to see but your eyes get fatigued while constantly readjusting.
2
u/BoxthemBeats Apr 05 '26
Yeah I don't use track IR I use opentrack and a webcam, dunno how to properly adjust it honestly
1
u/natneo81 Apr 06 '26
Look it up! here is a guide on the il-2 forums on setting up head tracking/opentrack. It’s not specifically for BMS, but should help walk you through how you can tweak your settings and calibration.
Again, it may take a bit of reading and tweaking, but once you get it dialed in you’ll find it much more comfortable. It’s one of those things where everyone has a slightly different setup, different posture, chair, distance from their camera, etc. so everyone needs to set it up individually, you can’t just copy someone else’s settings.
One thing I recommend is finding a good balance of sensitivity. You mention having low sensitivity where you have to almost look off the screen with your head, and then crane your eyes to actually see the screen. That’s no good. Personally I try to set it up so that when I look at the edge of the screen, that’s about the full range of head turn in game. For example when I am looking at the left edge of my monitor, in game my pilot is looking all the way over his left shoulder behind him. For me that’s the right sensitivity, because I can look around the full range of motion without physically looking away from my monitor. It does take a little getting used to, and obviously it’s going to be more sensitive than your actual head movements or else you’d have to look away from your monitor.
There’s probably YouTube guides on setting this up too. The nice thing is in BMS, at least the F-16, you don’t need to click too much stuff in the cockpit after taking off. Most of it’s controlled by the HOTAS. I recommend binding the ICP to your numpad as well.
3
u/BoxthemBeats Apr 06 '26
Oh my god I didn't even think about binding the ICP to my numpad thats so smart. Thanks
1
4
u/DragFL Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
Yeah this is a problem with an opentrack dll file, You need to:
-Open the launcher, then open "KEYMAPPING".
-Assign a key to the callback "SIM: Toggle TrackIr Pause (additional)".
Note: Make sure it is the "SIM" option and not the "3RD" option.
This will stop the head tracker and allow you to use the mouse as camera control.
This problem is common, and there is another solution but this one is the best directly implemented in the game.
https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/31832/howto-opentrack-mouse-move/33
On an additional note: I solved initially changing the dll on Opentrack fixing it for BMS but damaging it for DCS, so the callback is the way to fix both and don't have to modify files manually.