[Polpolion]

Most likely all of the flight sim folks here know what I'm talking about here, so I'll say this simply: What is the cheapest, most effective webcam to buy to use for Freetrack to use in games like LOMAC and FS?

I've been thinking about investing in this for a while, and I don't want to spring the $200 for trackIR, so Freetrack is the only option, unless I'm missing one other free one.

[Nuke]

there was a night vision webcam i saw on the freetrack forum but i cant remember who makes it. its similar to the track ir but its designed for low light cam chats. il poke around and see if i can find it.

i prefer using the track ir camera because of its frame rate. 30 fps just isnt enough for a clean motion. i can tell from using cam2pan that such lag in the motion can be nauseating at best. if you can find a cam at between 40 and 60 fps it would be a great improvement. another thing you might try is using a video capture card and a security camera (which are infra red sensitive) and filter, assuming those work with freetrack (i dont see why, webacams use the same apis as video capture cards). i can tell you that the next version will probibly support optitrack cams and trackir cams (im a beta tester and have freetrack working with my trackir). older track ir cameras and even wiimotes will soon be viable interfaces for freetrack.

actually theres a whole bunch of night vision webcams out there, all of which just need to be filtered for infra red. aparently standard webcams have a filter to block infra red but theese dont. just did a google product search and found some cool cams that arent too expensive.

http://www.google.com/products?q=night+vision+webcam&oe=utf-8&scoring=p

if you get one with built in lights, id add an infra red filter and use retroreflective stickers, if no leds are in the setup, use an active infra red system with leds. just get them from radio shack and diffuse them with sand paper. you want the infra red filter though (one that lets it through and little else).

doing further reserch i believe you want an infrared pass filter. filters for professional cameras can get expensive, fortunately you can get them off ebay used for a few bucks. i was looking for plastic sheets which could be cut to size but didnt see anything. optimal setup would be to use one of the night vision webcams, with or without leds (do what i said in the previous paragraph) and get a used camera filter off ebay. glue the filter over the lense with a wad of meat paste glue gun and you will have yourself a makeshift track ir. from the rpices i saw you could do the whole thing for less than 20 bucks.