OpenFOV – Webcam head tracking for iRacing

Cool to see this, it's a cool in-between step for not having additional wraparound screens or a VR headset.

I used to run a similar software[1] for when I was really into playing F1 racing games. However one of the problems I found was the initial disconnect in your head and eye movement that took some getting used to.

For example, if you want to look left to see an upcoming turn, naturally your eyes move before your head, and your head follows after. With this software enabled, you have to consciously inverse the process where your head moves a direction, but your eyes still remain looking forward at the screen.

It took a some getting used to and resulting in some dizziness afterwards, but was fun.

[1]: https://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm

Also check out the SmoothTrack mobile app. Same use case but the compute is done on a phone instead of the gaming machine. Head position data can be sent over local network or USB.

I gave OpenPOV a try with FS 2024, and found it really disorienting. It was not useful at all. I went to a Meta Quest 3 and that actually made me feel like I was inside an aircraft. At on point I tried to lean on a bulkhead. Oops.

What are the differences between OpenTrack and this ?

But doesn't it make you look away from the monitor? Unless you have this 45 inch curved monitor really close to your face?

While we're on the subject, there's also TrackyMouse: https://trackymouse.js.org/

You can do some related tricks to this in browsers too: https://github.com/atomirex/fishtank-js (example https://atomirex.github.io/fishtank-js/dist/index.html )

There is a greatly cleaner version of the same idea in the React Fiber libraries these days as well.

Wouldn't it be better to use head tracking to get the position of the head relative to the monitor, so the monitor behaves like a window? Like in Johnny Lee's classic Wii demo [1].

The way it currently works (rotating the view upon head rotation) doesn't really make sense because a monitor is not a head mounted display.

1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

It would be cool to use something like this or openfov to control OBS to automatically switch between different cameras/scenes when you turn your head. Either multiple cameras, or switching between screenshare/camera if you look directly into the camera.

Hmm, from the title i expected a tool to calibrate FOV angle to monitor size/distance

It would be nice to know the limits of this tech, like how does it tolerate head gears and garments like headphones or hoodies, beanies and glasses, long hard, different skin colour and facial features or even background contrast.

Wonder if I could use that to swipe through virtual desktops?

when your head move, and with it your eyes, you move what's in front of them to your perspective inside the simulation, just as VR works

but in this case it is detrimental because the screen is fixed, the natural behavior would be not to move it

or at least do very little with it like a parallax

the current demo would cause nausea after a moment

Would be cool to see this become a fully viable TrackIR alternative.

...why would webcam head tracking need a new standalone vibecoded project? I thought there are plenty of those already.

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