Tobii vs. TrackIR

Killbilly

Killbilly

SOH-CM-2026
I've been using TrackIR for many years now, and it's worked great. Is it worth it to jump to Tobii? The eye trackers are on sale right now, and it would be nice to fly without a hat on, but I don't know how the performance and flexibility are with Tobii. For those of you who've used both, is there enough of an improvement to justify the cost and the setup?
 
I haven’t connected my TrackIR 5 since the day I got my Tobiii. The tracking quality is exemplary, it’s nice not to have to wear a hat or clip the IR thing to headphones. Works really well, and I use VR less because the Tobii is just there working with zero setup when I want to do a quick flight.

I turn the actual eye tracking WAY down and mostly use head tracking. The eye tracking lets you just go a bit more towards the edges that way.

I had a Track IR, Track IR 3, and a 5. They were quirky but a nice immersion improvement. Tobii is the improved experience without the quirky part.
 
Hmmm, this again. TrackIR's specs are consistently higher than Tobii's. Its camera has a wider field of view, higher tracking frequency, lower latency, and more precise tracking with less jitter. The Tobii's software suite (‘Tobii Experience’) is poorly featured in comparison to TrackIR, notably in the customisation of response curves for each axis. Detailed reviews of the Tobii Eye Tracker consistently report a subjective experience of sluggish and imprecise head tracking when compared to TrackIR, and that eye (gaze) tracking adds little or nothing to current flight sims, none of which offers any gaze-tracking specific API. Some reviewers report headaches from gaze tracking and most simply turn it off. Another common gripe seems to be Tobii's non-negotiable reset-to-centre when tracking is interrupted.

You will see lots of superficial reviews, some of which argue that TrackIR is 'old' so should not be a contender. Of course you can reframe 'old' as mature, refined, proven, (etc.), and Tobii and TrackIR use the same technology: both track your face by emitting pulsed infra-red (IR) and detecting an image of an illuminated target. In the Tobii’s case the target is your face, while in TrackIR it is a passive reflector array (or an optional active LED array). The result? A sub-standard TrackIR substitute, costing twice as much and with the sole advantage that it doesn't require you to wear a baseball cap. You can watch a good comparative review (not by me) here: https://youtu.be/-tQqXdqek1A?si=_NKqaZfBCV63nbnD

To be fair, I have not personally tried the eye Track5. I did have the original Tobii eyeX and it was very poor.

You did ask :)
 
I went from TrackIR to Tobii and never looked back ( pun...sorry). I only have a very small percentage of eye tracking, while the rest is head tracking, and I find that perfect for glancing at instruments on short finals. Tobii might not be as adjustable as TrackIR, but it meets my requirements perfectly, so how much more fine-tuning do I need ? It also works beautifully in ARMA 3. Plus, there's the BIG advantage of not having to wear any head tracking device - you just start up MSFS and you're all set.

I've kept my TrackIR hardware, but it's in a box at the back of a cupboard and will probably never see the light of day again.
 
I have been wanting a head tracking device for a long time now and have been reading and watching a lot of reviews on both Tobii 5 and TrackIR 5. I'm sure both are good, but I am going with Tobii because I do to not have to wear a hat, it's easier set up, and it all together looks like a better piece of hardware.
 
Thanks, all, for the reviews and good information. I'll probably go ahead and make the switch, but first of all, I have to figure out how to mount the thing. I have a curved monitor with buttons on the bottom in the center, so I guess I'll have to get a different mount set up as well.
 
I have an MSi WinX laptop with Tobii, would love to get it working, so if anyone of you would be willing to help me getting it working, that would make me very happy.

hertzie
 
There is also Beam Eye Tracker.

It allows you to utilise a webcam to track your eye & head movements (which is great if you already have a webcam) Not tried it as of yet.

Apparently they've released a Beta build that removes the requirement of Opentrack & connects to MSFS2024 directly.

Also supposed to work with the IL-2: Great Battles series which Tobii doesn't (I'm hoping to try that out soon).

Keith.
 
I used TrackIR for years, then switched to Tobii, and love it. Briefly tried Beam Eye Tracker, but in my opinion, Tobii is far superior. NC
 
Well, I ordered it and a stand that will work for my monitor. Should arrive on Saturday. Thanks, again, for the info (both good and bad). (y)
 
Killbilly said:
Well, I ordered it and a stand that will work for my monitor. Should arrive on Saturday. Thanks, again, for the info (both good and bad).
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I bought the Tobii Eye Tracker 5 about a month ago.

After a little experimenting with settings (maybe a few hours) I am loving it. I did minimize the Eye tracking part.

Settings for X-Plane are similar to FS2020/2024 in my case. I did make 2 separate profiles, one for flying GA and one for Tubeliners.

I am sure you will enjoy it as well.
 
Well, I wish I could enjoy it. I disconnected my TrackIR, got the Tobii all set up and calibrated, and launched the sim. I bound keys for the reset and the toggle, loaded up a flight, and . . . nothing. No movement at all. So, I went back and fiddled with the profile (both in the sim and in the app) -- still nothing. I installed Opentrack, and the head tracking works just fine there. Back to the sim -- still nothing.

I've even tried running sfc /scannow (which found no errors). It's pretty frustrating that it works in the Opentrack preview but not in the sim. Right now, I'm still troubleshooting, I guess, but I'm VERY tempted just to reinstall TrackIR and send this thing back.

Any suggestions on possible solutions would be appreciated.
 
Killbilly said:
Well, I wish I could enjoy it. I disconnected my TrackIR, got the Tobii all set up and calibrated, and launched the sim. I bound keys for the reset and the toggle, loaded up a flight, and . . . nothing. No movement at all. So, I went back and fiddled with the profile (both in the sim and in the app) -- still nothing. I installed Opentrack, and the head tracking works just fine there. Back to the sim -- still nothing.

I've even tried running sfc /scannow (which found no errors). It's pretty frustrating that it works in the Opentrack preview but not in the sim. Right now, I'm still troubleshooting, I guess, but I'm VERY tempted just to reinstall TrackIR and send this thing back.

Any suggestions on possible solutions would be appreciated.
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Don't send it back - it works for everyone else, and going by your computer specs, there's no reason to suppose it won't for you.

First thing I would try is to delete anything and everything to do with TrackIR and /or Opentrack. I had to scrub Track IR out of my system in order to get Tobii working and elsewhere on the web, I am reading that Opentrack also conflicts with Tobii. Try those things first.
 
Thanks, Paul. I managed to get it working after scrubbing TrackIR and Opentrack twice. I guess some bits were left over the first time.

Now, my questions are:

1. Is there a way to get it working in walkaround mode? TrackIR worked great there, but Tobii doesn't work in this mode at all.
2. Is there a way to stop the "jerky" head movements? I've played around with the settings pretty extensively, but no matter what I do, I get little "bumps" and "jerks" which are very annoying when I'm trying to hit a switch or move a dial.
3. Is there a setting that can help with the slight delay? When I move my head, there's a small delay before the view shifts. I'd like it to be a bit more responsive.
 
Killbilly said:
Thanks, Paul. I managed to get it working after scrubbing TrackIR and Opentrack twice. I guess some bits were left over the first time.

Now, my questions are:

1. Is there a way to get it working in walkaround mode? TrackIR worked great there, but Tobii doesn't work in this mode at all.
2. Is there a way to stop the "jerky" head movements? I've played around with the settings pretty extensively, but no matter what I do, I get little "bumps" and "jerks" which are very annoying when I'm trying to hit a switch or move a dial.
3. Is there a setting that can help with the slight delay? When I move my head, there's a small delay before the view shifts. I'd like it to be a bit more responsive.
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Sorry for the delay - busy busy here.

1. Are you saying the view doesn't alter at all ? That must be a camera setting in the sim. For me, in walkaround mode, Tobii emulates the mouse i.e. I move in the direction I am looking. I haven't tried to make head movements independent of travel direction yet, as you can in ARMA 3, but I might look into it.

2. I know what you mean. I tend to disable Tobii when I'm having to turn knobs and dials. I always had that with TrackIR too.

3. Might it be something to do with the head movement dead zone ?

There is a piece of software, similar to Opentrack, which changes how Tobii works., and I'm trying to find it. For example, when you temporarily disable Tobii ( as I mentioned in answer 1 above ) it keeps the view pointing in the direction you were looking, which helps if you want to alter the radio frequencies, or other fiddly things. If I find it, and if it works following SU 3 and SU4, I'll let you know.

By the way, there was an issue with altering Tobii settings in MSFS2020 - I don't know whether it has carried over into MS2024, but it's worth being aware of. When you alter some of the Tobii sensitivity sliders in MSFS, if you go below a value of 1.0, it won't change back upwards again. The sim needs to be restarted. That was the case before - I don't know whether it is still the case.

Here's some videos from Mark at Simhanger - they are intros to Tobii, and how to configure it. I think they are in chronological order, with the MSFS2024 config one at the bottom.




 
Killbilly said:
Thanks, Paul. I managed to get it working after scrubbing TrackIR and Opentrack twice. I guess some bits were left over the first time.

Now, my questions are:

1. Is there a way to get it working in walkaround mode? TrackIR worked great there, but Tobii doesn't work in this mode at all.
2. Is there a way to stop the "jerky" head movements? I've played around with the settings pretty extensively, but no matter what I do, I get little "bumps" and "jerks" which are very annoying when I'm trying to hit a switch or move a dial.
3. Is there a setting that can help with the slight delay? When I move my head, there's a small delay before the view shifts. I'd like it to be a bit more responsive.
Click to expand...

On point 2, I have seen reviews such as this one that say you need to trade reduced jitter for increased latency. Your point 3 seems to describe latency, which is at best significantly higher than TrackIR's. It's hard to get definitive numbers, or to establish whether you're reading theoretical or measured values, but ball-park latency quoted for the Tobii is 50-60ms, while for TrackIR it's generally under 20ms. I have not measured this myself, as it has never been an issue for me with TrackIR. You can, however, notice it in a couple of videos like this one where I used a head-mounted GoPro camera and TrackIR.
 
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