As in our last Review with Track IR 3 Pro there was no way we were going to read a manual when the TrackIR 4 Pro unit arrived, we would do that later. We wanted to get in the air and flying.
Trackir 3 Pro has changed everything for us here at Solo Elite. Pilots in this team who found it difficult to fly using (padlock view) became aces overnight upon there discovery to TrackIR. So we were all pretty excited to see what the TrackIR 4 Pro was all about! To do this review we all joined a net meeting and those of us who had TrackIR began the installation. We opened the box put the Track IR 4 unit on top of our various sized monitos, in my case i was using a 19" Flat Screen. The first thing that we noticed is the TrackIR was sat on our monitors as if it was custom made for it! Despite all our differnet types of monitors no one had a problem with mounting there TrackIr unit. My guess is it will fit most if not all monitors including laptops - a very good design feature.

I plugged in the USB connecter then i put the vectoring clip on the cap and inserted the installation CD following the installation instructions all of this took no longer than a few minutes. I put the cap on and instantly the Track IR unit came to life. I hit the Lockon-Flaming Cliffs icon, it was time to fly! When the game loaded I was sitting on the ground in my F15 Eagle there were also other team members who dont have TrackIR in same multiplayer server i hosted. They were all eager to hear what I had to say about my first impressions of TrackIR on comms (voice overnet). I hit F12 to centre my head then I looked left and I could see 2 other eagles sat on the runway I looked right and seen other members of the team, my first thought is this seems so smooth no jerkyness im so excited by this time I forget everything else that's going on around me. I look down at my cockpit I zoom in and out just by moving my head forwards and backwards, all systems are go ! I have not changed anything in the settings of TrackirIR 4 Pro I haven't even been in there yet but from what I can see so far there is no need! you can see some of the first screenshots I had taken on the right. Click on the images to view them full size.

I asked a member of Solo Elite to do a dogfight with me, where i would use TrackIR and he would not, he would have to use built in game views to view his surroundings. Usually when we fly there is not much that seperates us therefore our skills are on a similar level, only now I have TrackIR 4 Pro and he doesent. It's a gunzo dogfight with external views off! We both take off we give ourselves 5 miles distance between us, one of the spectators in the room calls GO ! he is coming right at me. I know he probably is using padlock view as we both merge at around 790 knots I go up vertical he turns right thinking this is going to be a circle fight I can hear him say where did he go on coms? He has already lost padlock view, I've not once taken my eye off him since the merge I'm using TrackirIR I'm just turning my head as I come over the vertical loop. I can see he is looking for me he has lost padlock view he is flying blind! Me on the other hand I've never lost eye contact with him, a few more seconds he was on the ground in flames we must have had more than a dozen fights and each time he crashed and burned! I was more than willing to carry on flying but understandably he had more than enough for one day. The funny part of this though is right after our flying session I know for a fact that TrackIR 4 Pro units were being ordered online by members of Solo Elite. So TrackIR 4 Pro is a big thumbs up from the Team here at Solo Elite.

A closer look at TrackIR 4 Pro by Natural Point

Now the fun is over its time to see what comparisons there are between TrackIR 4 Pro and its older brother the TrackIR 3 Pro,The TrackIR 3 Pro enabled you to look up and down, and side to side, two axis motion, with the Vector Pro which is a software upgrade and a metal clip attached to your cap. Now the TrackIR 4 Pro has arrived with built-in 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DOF) TrackIR 4 gives you a 30% wider tracking area with its 46 degree field of view, a 25% faster response time, and resolution doubling which is going to improves performance a lot . The unit itself was a lot smaller it looks great sat on top of my monitor and it was so easy to clip onto the monitor as shown on the right in my diagram. The LED lights have changed also ! The TrackIR camera has status LEDs which give the user visual cues about the status of the TrackIR software. There are two Status LEDs, one is located on the front directly above the infrared shield, and the other is on the bottom of the TrackIR camera which will cause the case to glow blue when it is illuminated. The following keys show what the state and colour of the status LED's mean look below.

TrackIR 4 Pro - LED Status

Off - NO reflective surface is being tracked, and TrackIR Enhanced output is NOT paused.
Green - A reflective surface is being tracked, and TrackIR Enhanced output is NOT paused.
Orange - A reflective surface is being tracked, and TrackIR Enhanced output IS paused.
Red - No reflective surface is being tracked, and TrackIR Enhanced output IS paused.
Blue - Off, There is NO TrackIR Enhanced Title (game or simulation) running.
Blue - On, A TrackIR Enhanced Title is running and has registered with the TrackIR software to receive tracking data.
Individual thoughts:

Individual thoughts

TrackIR takes away the stress of having to work your way around your keyboard in order to visually track your target. I used TrackIR 3 Pro for Lock On Modern Air Combat and since then my flying has improved so much! Now with there new unit, TrackIR 4 Pro I'm sure it will improve my flying abilities further. I could not imagine gaming without my TrackIR 4 unit!. Natural Point has made this product as valuable and as necessary as a Joystick. Hats off to the people at Natural Point for another out standing product.

Conclusion

To conclude this review I can only say that I have really enjoyed putting this Review together, We owe the guys at Natural Point respect and gratitude for making gaming even more fun, and easier to pick up using there TrackIr unit. The only problem we had during this review was actually trying to find a downside to there TrackIR unit, and believe me, we couldnt! But what about TrackIR 3? well, TIR 3 is a successful milestone in gaming input devices and we thought improving on that unit would be hard if not inpossible! Enter TrackIR4, there new an yes "improved" unit. It has added features, its smoother and more accurate. So for those who take gaming in there stride stick with TrackIR 3, but for those of you die hard gamers out there; Track IR 4 is the way to go and without a doubt one of a kind! With TrackIR its so much more fun, at 9pm every night the TrackIR units light up and its time to rock! I could go on and on about TrackIR but I guess the only way I can finish is to quote what I said to a team member when we were talking about TrackIR 4 on Ventrilo Coms! The only way I would part with it now, is if someone pried it out of my dead hands!

Solo Elite Product Rating 1-5
	Product TrackIR 4 Pro

AMD Athlon 4.2 Ghz:
Gigabyte K8 Triton 64 Bit Motherboard:
1024 MB DDR Kingston RAM:
Radeon 9600 Pro:
Sound Blaster Live! 
Maxtor 250GB
X52 Joystick

Support: www.naturalpoint.com
Direct product link: www.naturalpoint.com/trackir
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs: Eagle Dynamics
Solo Elite (Virtual Groud/Flight Assault): www.solo-elite.com

Special thanks to Mr Patrick Hewitt
for giving us the oportunity to review trackir and Best regards and many thanks to NaturalPoint!