I ordered Tobii Eye Tracker 5 last week on a whim, thinking I could use it to enhance my sim experience in ETS2/ATS. My only previous experience with headtracking was using my phone in combination with Opentrack, and the results were less than satisfactory.
Today I got a chance to test Tobii and all I can say is - I. Am. Blown. Away. Headtracking alone with this kind of hardware is great, but the eyetracking adds that little bit of granularity and smoothness that I’d expect from a device like this. I’ve tested it over a course of several hours in ETS2 and it’s just unreal when you realize your eyes are following the road and the camera follows and you don’t even realize it. After experiencing this I don’t think I could go back to the regular setup to be honest, it’s that great. There are some minor quirks for sure, but overall it enhances the experience far and beyond anything I expected.
I’ve always been interested in picking one of these up. How much does a decent setup run, and how obtrusive is the hardware itself? Like do you wear something or is it just a camera mounted on the monitor?
edit: ETS2 = Euro Truck Simulator 2, ATS = American Truck Simulator
There’s actually a surprising amount of Ubisoft games on this list, I had no idea. Really looking forward to trying it on my irioman Deus Ex: Manking Divided run. Kingdom Come: Deliverance of all games also supports it. I bet that’s going to be quite an experience as well.
One of the reasons I decided for Tobii over TrackIR was that it doesn’t require wearing anyting on your head (reflectors). You mount it under your screen, align with the face and that’s basically it. I had to lift my monitor up 2-3cm for a clear line of sight due to a steering wheel but if you’re using peripherals (joysticks etc) that stand on the side, or a kbm, then you don’t need to change anything.
It’s so good with Microsoft Flight Sim! I only do VR about 25% of the time because the Tobiii works so well and I can do other things while flying if I’m not wearing the goggles.
Plus no more having to download “fixed views” for third-party planes.
I hear good things about the Tobii Eye Tracker all the time in the Star Citizen community. It’s very popular there and is also used by content creators to help with the panning 3rd person camera movements.
I haven’t yet read a review from someone who wasn’t blown away by it. I don’t have the budget for one, but I’d love to.
I’ve used my Tobii on a few games, such as Far Cry 6 and Hunternet Starfighter, plus as a TrackIR tracker in several games. It’s a lovely piece of kit.
Tempted to get one for ATS! I’ve always wanted a TrackIR but didn’t want to wear something on my head while gaming. Tobii sounds perfect. Just need to convince myself it’s worth 300 smackers.
I actually once set up the super poor-man’s version of eye tracking with a webcam+head target and via mobile phone just to see (I think it was Elite Dangerous where I was playing around with it). It was pretty cool - especially for as janky as the setup was, but limited enough for things I play that a real device just wasn’t worth it.
I know we supported Tobii when we made Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (one of the producers at Square Enix was friends with an exec at Tobii was what we were told). I remember trying to wrack our brain for uses of it, but I don’t know exactly what features we ended up implementing.
That can work quite well (though at the time I would’ve really liked self-centering option, I don’t remember if OpenTrack supports it). My immediate problem with this setup that I realized after only after several hours of use was - it stops working when it gets dark. You really need an infrared band if you’re playing in bad lighting.
How was your experience with FC6? FPS games are next on my list of things to try. Or maybe one of the Ghost Recon or The Division games. I was actually shocked to see how many Ubisoft games have native support for it.
I used TrackIR for everything I could until I got VR. But for £300, wouldn’t you want to spend just a little more and be in full immersive 3d with a Quest3? I certainly can’t go back.
Does eye tracking yank your screen around like a head move, or does it track your head for the camera and then eyes for selecting inside that nodal rotation?
There is the advantage that it doesn’t require any headset, works with glasses and there is fairly widespread support for those into FPS and flight simulation. I think the Tobii looks really good for those use cases.
You’re right that VR is probably more appealing in other contexts though.
If anyone is curious, the first 5’ of this video give a quick overview of what it’s used for in SC as an example (mixes flight simulation, FPS and cinematic creation).
Quest 3 works fine with even my thick bottlebottom glasses, but yeah, you do need a beefy PC and be willing to be cut off from the room while you play. Also, TrackIR multiplied your head move so even small head turns could look behind you, whereas in VR you physically have to turn all the way, so checking your six means cranking your head 180 degrees giving you a crick after a while… as it should :)
