FreeTrack Forum

The petition was created just 4 days ago, and already have 184 signatures!!!

Let's wait until the right moment to show them.

People who didn't sign yet, sign it now, please.

Yeah - let it build a while...

Have you SEEN the buglist!!! Unreal!!

Even if they were gonna include freetrack it would be WAAY down on the list...

They wanted evidence of support - plenty of time to build overwhelming evidence then present it when there's a decent chance they could fit it in to their schedule..

I also think that adding a link to the poll in your sig if u post regularly on BIS forums is a good idea - I've had at least one person tell me they signed after seeing it...   Jorge.PT is also keeping the closed threads alive in his sig - another great idea...

Its early days yet...

Excuse my ignorance on this matter guys, but I was wondering, is it a matter of there is NO support for FreeTrack in Arma2, or has FreeTrack support been disabled via a patch recently?

Is there no freelook option that one can use?

Ps> Signed the petition

Hi Justify... thanks for your support...

To answer your questions - take a browse through these links...

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=72569

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76698

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=77521

A quick summary and the current best solution...

http://forum.free-track.net/index.php?showtopic=1892&page=1#11594


B

Here's a new video that can be added to the Freetrack in ArmA2 campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0EufF6hrR4

See ya head tracked.

I signed the petition. 189 people signed so far.

I am highly highly upset with this move by NP and BIS. It is a simple cop out to ignore post and close post that mention FT. The mods of that community should be ashamed.

I am a faithful FT user of couple years now. I will not purchase ARMA 2 if they don't list this banning of FT. I will stick to ARMA 1 if I must. Even though I was going to buy ARMA 2 in the coming month, I will hold back and stand my ground because of the simple fact we must not fold because of monopolies such as this.

I am highly upset to hear this news  

Hi, I signed the petition and must say I was really disapointed when after buying the game I found out freetrack didnt work, it was working so good in arma 1!

Only way I found was using ppjoy and mapping ppjoy axis to corresponding control option in arma2, only problem is that the resolution of the virtual joystick ppjoy is really low and is make the head movement kind of laggy...

I have test to map the head movement controls to a real joystick I own and it wasnt laggy, so I got thinking, and since arma2 will support any directx joystick as an input device and it can be map for head movement, the solution here is really simple, we need to program a virtual directx joystick and have freetrack output the data into this virtual directx joystick, or the virtual joystick feeding from the data freetrack is sending...

Now, I have some programing background, but I lack the ability to program at driver levels, (because obviously we will need to program a driver for this to work), I can make gui and stuff like that but for driver programing, I would not know how...

But I'm sure there's some other programmer around that know this stuff better than me and maybe we can come out with our own solution for this, without involving any crack (and fade)

Maybe the dev here from freetrack would know how to do this stuff??

If any of you think they can contribute to a possible solution, let's share idea and maybe we will come out with a real solution, because BIS wont even try to do anything for us until at least when all the bugs are gone, and this can take a while!

Well after getting into it with Placebo over at the BIS forums. It is clear they don't give a crap about the Free Track community. I made a well thought out post. Showing the reasons for the uproar about the lack of free track support and how this will prevent me and most likely many others from purchasing their product.

This is stupid business sense on BIS. First it does NOTHING to benefit them from not allowing Free track support. All it does is lower their sales. The only company coming out on top of this is Natural Point.

I stated I would love to have a conversation and dialog about WHY support was removed from ArmA 2. Well the response I got was this.

Placebo a dit:

This has been discussed, in the other free track threads

Then he closes the thread. So I make another thread asking "Why are all the Free track threads being closed. How are you supposed to get this supposedly idea of how many free track users if we can't have a open thread to discuss about free track"

Well they banned me from BIS Forums.

The old BIS that listens to its consumer base is gone. It has been replaced by a MOD by the name of Placebo that has a serious "authority" problem.

So I hope some great guy here on the Free Track forums can come up with a solution so i can purchase this game. Till then it looks like I am stuck with ArmA 1. I don't want to support BIS anymore but i really want ArmA 2. but i won't buy it unless I can use it to its full potential.

later guys, Sorry to bring this news  

@Locks...

This sounds like a great idea - I know nothing about programming sadly...

just thinking tho... Kegetys (as in No Blur Mod Kegetys) is a long-term OFP/Arma/Arma2 modder - he also wrote the SoftTH triplehead software using directX... He also contributed once or twice to one of the earlier Freetrack threads on the BIS forums... I'm pretty sure he could rewrite the manual as far as DirectX is concerned...

www.kegetys.net



@hotshot...

Placebo may act like god on the BIS forums but he's just another employee...
If you don't get satisfaction from an employee you speak to the manager...

Why don't you write (not email - actual on paper write - the sort of write you can't just "accidentally spam filter" write) to the Boss ???

I published his full contact details back on page 3...

B

I just want to share a nugget of info. I been having a rather long list of PMs with Placebo about the inclusion of Free Track support. We were talking about that there is not enough free track users to warrant putting in support for it. So I said this.

hotshot a dit:

That right there shows you that it is enough of a problem that you are having people sign up for this forum to come voice their opinions

He said this. I am talking to him trying to get something figured out. I just recently asked him if the Free Track developers go and talk to BIS if this can get resolved. When I get the PM back I will let you all know.

placebo a dit:

No it shows me that supporters of Freetrack (some not all) have no respect for these forums, the forum rules and even our game itself, this is blatantly obvious in the way they constantly ignore our decision that they were welcome to discuss freetrack on the forums as long as they didn't attack Naturalpoint, TrackIR, or Naturalpoint's business practices, this is something they were apparently incapable of doing.

I've subsequently learned that Freetrack condone the use and spreading of Nocd cracks by warez groups for our game , so as of right now I have a zero tolerance policy for their website or anything Freetrack related.

If the Freetrack community really wanted Freetrack support they should have shown respect to these forums, the moderators, the BIS developers and most of all to our game.

Ok more News.

Read this and come to you all own conclusion. We need the Free Track Devs to read over this and see if they can talk to BIS and come to some kind of agreement.

hotshot a dit:

That is very one sided view of the situation. Of course Free Track users have animosity towards Natural point. Why would you think they would not??? I mean Natural point has made a effort of forcing Free track users to go out and buy natural Points product. It is a terrible move for the consumer.

Also about the members coming here and disrespecting BIS, NP and your game. That is taking something that is business and bring it into a personal stance. So what if they come here and bash BIS, this is done all the time across every game out there. The simple fact that it is needed by Free Track users to play your game the right way and they are mad enough that this move would take place. Placebo you can't take things so personal about your company, NOT EVERYONE will like your company policy and the way you all conduct yourselves. But being loyal to the fans and people who have supported you should over take people "talking badly".

None of this conversation have i shared with the Free Track community. This is between me and you. But you have to understand that no one wants to "no cd Crack" games. It has been stated numerous times that NO ONE on Free track sites wants to do that. But if the only means of us using our systems we built. Which also cost money to build, mine was around 50 bucks. Well we are in a weird situation. Just wanting the option of using Free Track. I know I am a firm no piracy, I buy every single Game, CD, DVD, etc. The correct route is to support these developers. Which I have stated I have always done for BIS. Plus in ArmA 1, no crack was needed. Support was in from the get go. The only reason cracks hit the door for ArmA2, is because I think people bought the game thinking "of course it would support Free track, ArmA 1 did". Then they realized it was not and looked for means of using their equipment.

If the Freetrack community really wanted Freetrack support they should have shown respect to these forums, the moderators, the BIS developers and most of all to our game.

This right here bothers me and is what i was talking about up above. The Free Track community is big enough that there are tons of users. Why should the large amount of users that have done nothing wrong suffer for guys you don't like.

I know personally my "rant" about BIS and the exclusion of Free Track support was on my own view. No one elses. I look at the move made by BIS in a respect if I walked into a store and wanted service and someone just blew me off. That is how I felt by you. You blew me off and then lumped me into the "I hate free track" group you don't like. You can have a different reason to hate me, I am open and I am honest I always speak how I feel. Peoples personalities are different.

I wish you could understand that there are many many of us who LOVE your games. But at the same time only have a Free track IR device. So we are stuck looking at a game we love but can't utilize fully. We just want to play and use the game as the Natural point guys.

What if I got the Free Track developers to come here and talk to you?? Could we maybe get something worked out?? I don't know them and I don't even know who they are on the Free Track site, but I would do anything to have you welcome the support of Free Track. Like I have said before, I want ArmA 2. I just won't spend the money on it if i can't use it all the way. So please think about this section of fans.

Also thanks for having this open line of communication with me about this subject. You have no idea how important customer service is to me, it is what makes me spend my money again with a company. I hope we can mend the relationship between Free Track users and BIS.

Placebo's response

placebo a dit:

If the freetrack devs want to start showing support and respect for us they should ban users from their forums who share cracks for our games, they should put out a clear message that such behaviour is completely intolerable.

If they do that I will be happy to start a closed poll in ArmA2: Suggestions with a simple yes/no question "Would you like to see Freetrack support in ArmA2 in the future?" this way all those who're fans of Freetrack can make their voice heard, without fear of thread closures and the troll minority spamming threads with anti NP/BIS rants

Locks, try to alter (increase) ppjoy and freetrack process priority for one step in the "task manager" (taskmgr).

hotshot232 @ 12/07/2009 - 17h28 a dit:

I just want to share a nugget of info. I been having a rather long list of PMs with Placebo about the inclusion of Free Track support. We were talking about that there is not enough free track users to warrant putting in support for it. So I said this.

hotshot a dit:

That right there shows you that it is enough of a problem that you are having people sign up for this forum to come voice their opinions

He said this. I am talking to him trying to get something figured out. I just recently asked him if the Free Track developers go and talk to BIS if this can get resolved. When I get the PM back I will let you all know.

placebo a dit:

No it shows me that supporters of Freetrack (some not all) have no respect for these forums, the forum rules and even our game itself, this is blatantly obvious in the way they constantly ignore our decision that they were welcome to discuss freetrack on the forums as long as they didn't attack Naturalpoint, TrackIR, or Naturalpoint's business practices, this is something they were apparently incapable of doing.

I've subsequently learned that Freetrack condone the use and spreading of Nocd cracks by warez groups for our game , so as of right now I have a zero tolerance policy for their website or anything Freetrack related.

If the Freetrack community really wanted Freetrack support they should have shown respect to these forums, the moderators, the BIS developers and most of all to our game.

I see the fatheads over at BIS are bigger than I thought. What they fail to realize is that they are the ones who created this situation and they have refused to listen to any of us from the very start. They are the business, they are the ones who make the decisions. FreeTrack is simply a not-for-profit community of individuals with a common interest. We are not a hive mind, we have no leaders who can control the decisions certain people make in the community and we can't all be expected to take responsibility for everything everyone does around here.

The idea that BIS is simply snubbing an entire segment of their fans out of spite because of a few individuals is truly disappointing and is very telling of the unprofessional characters calling the shots over at that company.

The bottom line is that NP has gone to get lengths to monopolize their industry at the expense of the good reputation of game developers they deal with. Shameful.

Hands up how many people actually USED the "NoCD" facility of their "doctored" .exe file??? I completely forgot it was a crack - to me it was merely an uncompressed .exe file which can therefore be patched successfully for tracking capability - my disc was in my drive anyway - I'm a legitimate customer... so are we all, I imagine - and there is the biggest problem with this whole sorry tale... I'm not a gamer and apart from OFP/Arma/Arma 2 I don't think I even own any games - two weeks ago I wouldn't even have known where to FIND a crack for a game... I learned though - I was forced to... We've all had to learn how to use cracks in order to continue to use our equipment and software... NOT a good situation...

NOT a good situation for BIS either if you stop to think about it... Theres always a percentage who'll download a pirated game and use a crack - those people are unlikely to buy ANY game - they probably won't play it for long, (and Arma 2 less than most I suspect)...
However - this situation is rather different - by refusing to even consider freetrack support for Arma2 they have effectively turned EVERY FREETRACK USER - current or potential - INTO a "crack user"... to use Freetrack - you HAVE to be... Thats an incredibly Bad Idea - simply because Freetrack users are likely to be long-term players - the sort of people BIS want and need in their community... Worse still is the fact that the uncompressed arma2.exe required to patch for Freetrack use actually IS also a NoCD crack - if you've just played the demo, finished looking for Freetrack info on the BIS boards, seen nothing but closed threads... Instead of heading to Sprocket with your credit card, it would be awfully tempting to just say "The hell with it" and download the game along with the necessary crack and headtracking patch... A few pirates whould would never have bought is one thing, but to effectively force a visibly sizable segment of your consumer base to actually have to seek out cracks in order to play your game is commercial madness...

Its one of the wierdest situations I've ever heard of - legitimate buyers having to crack their legitimate games...


B

Bushlurker @ 13/07/2009 - 06h05 a dit:

Hands up how many people actually USED the "NoCD" facility of their "doctored" .exe file??? I completely forgot it was a crack - to me it was merely an uncompressed .exe file which can therefore be patched successfully for tracking capability - my disc was in my drive anyway - I'm a legitimate customer... so are we all, I imagine - and there is the biggest problem with this whole sorry tale... I'm not a gamer and apart from OFP/Arma/Arma 2 I don't think I even own any games - two weeks ago I wouldn't even have known where to FIND a crack for a game... I learned though - I was forced to... We've all had to learn how to use cracks in order to continue to use our equipment and software... NOT a good situation...

NOT a good situation for BIS either if you stop to think about it... Theres always a percentage who'll download a pirated game and use a crack - those people are unlikely to buy ANY game - they probably won't play it for long, (and Arma 2 less than most I suspect)...
However - this situation is rather different - by refusing to even consider freetrack support for Arma2 they have effectively turned EVERY FREETRACK USER - current or potential - INTO a "crack user"... to use Freetrack - you HAVE to be... Thats an incredibly Bad Idea - simply because Freetrack users are likely to be long-term players - the sort of people BIS want and need in their community... Worse still is the fact that the uncompressed arma2.exe required to patch for Freetrack use actually IS also a NoCD crack - if you've just played the demo, finished looking for Freetrack info on the BIS boards, seen nothing but closed threads... Instead of heading to Sprocket with your credit card, it would be awfully tempting to just say "The hell with it" and download the game along with the necessary crack and headtracking patch... A few pirates whould would never have bought is one thing, but to effectively force a visibly sizable segment of your consumer base to actually have to seek out cracks in order to play your game is commercial madness...

Its one of the wierdest situations I've ever heard of - legitimate buyers having to crack their legitimate games...


B

Very good point Bush. I passed alone this post to Placebo, because it makes a very good point. It shows that THEY are forcing these actions. Not the Free Track user base, we are looking just for a means of using our equpiment with their game.

I don't believe in piracy, I buy every DVD, CD, Game, etc. So I totally agree with their stance of not wanting their game cracked. But it is their fault from the get go of not wanting to listen to their fans. A size able group of Long Term, community involved, and good users are being forced down this road.

This is honestly one of the stupidest moves by a developer I have seen to date. I mean BIS has NOTHING to gain with the relationship with NP. But NP has everything to gain. Why would BIS loss sales because of something like this. It is really really dumb business sense.