FreeTrack Forum

Wow, where to even begin.

So, I just built my IR tracking system (PS3 eye w/filter removed and visible light filter installed, 3 point hat setup).  Currently, I'm having major issues with the system pulling video from the camera. Here's the story thus far:


Installed the drivers for the PS3 Eye camera, plugged it in, checked in CL-Eye Test and video output was perfect. Was picking up the IR from the LED's great.  Installed Free-Track and things seemed to be working okay, it was picking up the LED's and tracking them (although it would lose them if I turn my head more than 10 degrees or so).  So, I figured, it was getting late, so I'd come back to it and finalize setting everything up the next day after work.  Shut down my computer...

Came back the next day and popped on the CL test just to show my Fiancee what it looked like, and all I got was a black screen.  No grain, nothing. Red light came on on the camera, and it is selected as the input device.  Checked device manager, no issues there.  Opened up Free Track and the same thing...no video at all.

After trying to reinstall both drivers and the software numerous times (to include the fix), I tried completely removing all software and drivers, deleting anything left over, and removing the entries from my registry.  Restarted after doing each one, and after installing the drivers, the camera started working again. Ran CL Eye Test multiple times, and it worked fine every time.  Installed FreeTrack and the fix, ran the program as administrator, and for a bit it seemed to work okay, albeit a huge red bar and very wacky tracking.  Not sure what happened there, and I tried to adjust the threshold, but no luck. It was either nothing being tracked or slight tracking (jumpy skull..like, all over the place) and a big red bar and flickering track points, or black with no track points.  Played with some settings to try to get it back (point size, etc), to no avail.  So, I shut the program off and tried restarting.  Came back in, and boom. No video from the camera again.  I've tried so many things, its not even funny.

I'm not entirely sure what I did, but for a while I got it to work properly, except for in-game.  I would get it set up, go in game (Arma 2), go back out, fire up the tracking, go back in, made sure it was enabled in-game (as well as selecting the appropriate output type in free track), etc.  Exit from the controller setup menu, and I can see the view jump quick, and then locks in place.  Go back out to FreeTrack and its like the tracking is stuck in one spot, but everything is click-able (ie: program is not frozen). I tried using the pause/unpause to no avail.  This happens consistantly for me, and I've not been able to use the tracking setup at all. I feel I'm very close, and may get it working, but I really need some advice as to where else to look/try.  I'm pretty much at a loss of whats going on with this thing, and it seems as if freetrack is causing a lot of conflicts (as I said before, if I dont install the free track software, the camera works perfectly).

Guys...would love love love some suggestions! I really dont want to ditch the project just to spend an additional 150 bucks for a TrackIR (Although, I feel that it might end up being worth it just for reliability).

Would love to hear from anyone else that may be experiencing simmilar issues, and, if fixed, what your process was to get her working. This has such awesome potential!


Current System Specs:

Intel i7 3770k
MSI GTX 660Ti running latest Nvidia drivers
16GB PC1600 memory
120GB Corsair SSD
1TB HDD
Windows 7 64bit SP1

[EDIT] I will update this post when I get home and test it to see where exactly I am as far as the displaying of the video, tracking, etc. Also noticed last night that Open Broadcaster would only stream a blank window after having these issues, when it was working perfectly before.  Its almost like after installing the software, I'm having video initialization issues and/or acquiring video stream from the computer, regardless of the software used.  The system performed flawlessly prior to installing FreeTrack.

Quick update:

Arma 3 doesn't work at ALL with the software even present on the machine, let alone running. Arma 2 I got to work, but Arma 2 OA crashes every time.(A3 freezes up at BI logo..have to ctrl alt del and escape out of that window to even window that says that the program stopped working)

Came home today to the black screen thing, so I uninstalled and cleaned out everything and reinstalled again. Somehow I got it to work. Not exactly sure what I did, but it was running (albeit very unsteadily...camera was very...jittery ...like it had too much caffeine lol).

Anyway, still having issues tracking (turning too far and losing track...I think I need to file down my LED's), as well as the issues with arma 2 OA and Arma 3 crashing with FreeTrack simply being installed.