Some simulators are truly extraordinary, but they become even better when you can add an extra movement factor. The "brute-force solution" is to buy a virtual reality headset, but there are very interesting software alternatives. One of them is Opentrack, which combined with the AITrack plugin lets us do head tracking using a simple webcam and inject that information into our favorite simulators at no cost.

Opentrack: How to Track Your Head Movements with a Webcam
How to track your head movements with a webcam

From the latest Flight Simulator to the F1 series, from Elite: Dangerous to No Man's Sky with its most recent update, some games change completely once we introduce the virtual reality element into their gameplay. But the VR headset isn't for everyone, whether it's due to price, hardware compatibility, or something more personal like motion sickness.

An alternative is motion tracking with optical devices, and that brings us to the projects Opentrack and AITrack. Basically, these programs allow us to do head tracking with something as simple as a webcam, or a mobile device working that way with the help of DroidCam. Best part? All the necessary software is free, portable, and open source.

Opentrack + AITrack: Head Tracking via Webcam

Opentrack: How to Track Your Head Movements with a Webcam
The interface isn't the most intuitive in the world, but it gets the job done

The best tutorial I've found to properly set up Opentrack and AITrack was published by Honosuseri on YouTube in the middle of last year. In total there are two videos (both below), and all instructions are in English, but it's not hard to get started: The Visual C++ x64 Redist must be installed on your computer, as well as the webcam. Download the latest version of Opentrack, and when you run it, select the option "UDP over network" in the Input section. Press Start in Opentrack, move to AITrack, select the correct camera (the description changes depending on your system), and click Start Tracking.

This should open a new window with the camera feed and register the movement. However, the Opentrack and AITrack combination demands several additional hours to refine and adjust tracking sensitivity. In other words, it's up to the user to find a good balance between settings, each game's requirements, and the natural limits of head tracking… but if the plan is to enter this particular world at zero cost, I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Opentrack: Click here

AITrack: Click here