Last updated on June 11th, 2023 at 03:05 pm
SmoothTrack: Head Tracker
SmoothTrack: Head Tracker is one of the best $9.99 to play game in the App Store.
Developed by John Goering, SmoothTrack: Head Tracker is a Action game with a content rating of 4+.
It was released on 23rd August 2020 with the latest update 5th April 2023
Whether you are a fan of Action, Simulation, or Developer Tools games, you will find this game interesting and will absolutely like it.
Rating
181 people have rated 1.07
You can download the game SmoothTrack: Head Tracker from APP STORE.
Description
SmoothTrack uses the AR capabilities of your phone to provide the simplest and best head tracker for 6 degrees-of-freedom head movements in your sim games.
ANY iOS 13 DEVICE IS SUPPORTED!
"The best new controller on the market will only set you back $9.99. It’s a smartphone app called SmoothTrack." – Polygon
Customer reviews:
"SmoothTrack just works. Less than 5 minutes to install, setup and fly. Love not being tethered to my desk! 5 stars!!"
"This worked perfectly and way better than expected! Totally enhanced my experience with MFS 2020!"
It’s a near magical experience to seamlessly slightly move your head and have your game perspective immediately play along (the movements in the game are exaggerated so that you only have to make slight movements of your head to control the camera).
- Simply lean forward to get a closer look at your Flight Simulator cockpit!
- Look a bit up to see the overhead panel of your A320!
- Simply shift your head a bit to the right to see the direction of the space station you’re approaching in Elite: Dangerous!
- Look a bit left before a hard left turn in Euro Truck Simulator 2!
No headset or extra equipment of any kind is required! Simply set up your device so that it can see your face. Using the on-screen controls, you can shift your perspective in-game.
Your head movements are slightly exaggerated which enables you to look out of a cockpit side window with just a slight movement of your head to the left.
Any game that supports the FreeTrack or TrackIR protocol will work with this, including:
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Microsoft FSX
- DCS World
- Elite: Dangerous
- IL2: Sturmovik
- Euro Truck Simulator 2
- Kerbal Space Program
- …and many, many others!
INSTRUCTIONS (included in the app):
1. On your computer, install and run the latest version of the free program "OpenTrack". It is available on GitHub at http://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/releases
2. In OpenTrack, as "Input source", choose "UDP over network". As Output, choose "Freetrack 2.0 Enhanced", as its sub-type "Both".
3. Make sure the UDP port OpenTrack is using is open both on your firewall and router.
4. Find the IP address of your PC by running 'ipconfig' in a Command Line - look for "IPv4 Address".
5. Now, in SmoothTrack, set up your IP address and port in the settings
6. Press "Start" in OpenTrack
7. Tap Play here in SmoothTrack and you should see the OpenTrack octopus move around, which means any game that supports TrackIR will now be supporting your head tracking! If the octopus is not moving, then check Troubleshooting for more detailed instructions.
Email support is provided if there are any issues (or if you have any ideas for new features!).
Updated on 5th April 2023
Provides a fix for iPhone 8 devices, improves performance slightly for all devices.
Updated Privacy Policy URL.
SmoothTrack: Head Tracker Reviews
As a former rw pilot of 22 years and avid flight summer in the past after a 10 year hiatus we broke down and got a new computer and msfs 2020. When setting up with latest hardware and some ancient the sim still didnt feel real. As a past user of tracker ir we thought we would give this app a try. After a challenging setup mostly due to windows 11 idiot proofing thanks to the great help files included with the app got it up and running. We are not exaggerating that the realism of the sim went up about 80%! As a former user of tracker ir this does it all with no wires and no headset. With an iPhone stand we have our phone charging on a great almost unseen place to the left of our velocity yoke and this thing just works-perfectly. One of the best most useful add ins for flight simulator! Extremely happy!
App works as advertised, but doesnt appear to be able to stay connected in the background (so wont work if you also want to run an instrument panel or flight planning app simultaneously on the same device).
Works with ATS and Euro truck! Worth the purchase.
For someone without a dedicated set up and on a budget this app is a life saver. Never had a single issue and is so easy to use. Recommend to everyone getting into the sim world. Thanks Dev!
Great face tracking tool and responsive dev.
A fantastic head tracker for 10 bucks. A game changer. Setup was pretty quick, we use it every day.
We use this with MSFS and it adds so much. VR isnt great as we need access to our notepad when talking to ATC and throttle controls. This adds that VR realism. The new update to account for camera angle helps so much.
So far the app is definitely not bad but seems a bit buggy. We are using an IPhone 8 so that may be the issue but Im not sure. Basically the problem we have is that the app freezes when we try to interact with the axis sensitivity and/or the start/pause button. When this happens the tracking stops working and we have to restart the app to fix it. Its not a massive issue because we can use opentrack to edit sensitivity but it is pretty annoying still. We also find that when turning our head (yaw axis) the app will think we are also pitching our head down (causing us to look to the side and down in game). This same thing happens with the roll axis (when we yaw our head the app thinks we are rolling also. Anyways most of these issues are manageable with the right settings in opentrack, but any feedback from the developers would be greatly appreciated.
We knew about this app for a while before getting it but we were pretty skeptical at first. But we finally decided to try it out and we’re very happy with the results. We used to run AITrack and OpenTrack in DCS, Elite Dangerous, and War thunder, but that felt glitchy and spastic at times. Plus if we looked over our shoulder in a game and looked forward again, we felt like we were fighting AITrack to look where we wanted. But with this app paired with OpenTrack, we didn’t feel like we were fighting the tracker at all. It was very smooth and fun to use and contrary to some of those critical reviews here, it’s not that hard to set up. 10/10 would definitely recommend.
Im using this in USB mode with DCS and the A10C module. It works incredibly well. Follow the instructions on the support website to a T and it will work. We were previously using AI track and a PS2 eye, which worked ok – this is better, much better. Well worth the price. Im so glad we tried this before shelling out the money for trackir.
This is truly amazing for the money we love it! We used it on American Truck Simulator, X-Plane 11 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 it all worked flawlessly its nice how you can also edit the sensitivity and everything keep up the great work it was definitely worth the money.
We are using this with OpenTrack and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. The instructions were simple and everything worked straight away. Using this app is way better than fiddling around with TrackIR or other methods where you tape arrays of IR LEDs to your headset.
Using this for MSFS2020. Was skeptical, but this is the real deal. Worked straight away with default settings. Very impressed. Best money we’ve ever spent on an app.
No new equipment Inexpensive Works Easy to set up and use our only complaint is that its a bit clunky in what you need to have opened on your computer in order for it to work (lots of windows), so for us alt+tabbing through windows while gaming, it can be cumbersome. But its a small complaint for a $10 item that does everything else we want.
This app is truly one of the most immersive – yet simplest to set up and operate – ever. Truly ahead of its time. Im not sure we’ve ever received more value from ANY app – gaming or otherwise than this one. Its not too good to be true – it just works – really, really well.
1 hour in Elite Dangerous with SmoothTrack head tracking and Im already going to give this 5 stars. We were unsure at first when walking around in a station but as soon as we got out into a resource extraction zone and could more easily see asteroids and keep track of combat targets it felt completely natural. Even before head tracking we were already moving our head instinctually in the direction of what we wanted to see better, this just gives you the in-game feedback that your brain expects. Its so natural feeling. Setup was dead simple if youve ever used a computer before and the app does exactly what it claims to. Could not be happier.
We have been a pilot, both fixed-wing and rotary-wing, in an Arma 3 unit for a while now and our biggest gripe with flying was the lack of visual information without using a head tracker. We use a joystick and to free look without this app, you need to take your hands off the stick to go to the keyboard and free look. This is extremely dangerous as you lose all of your fine controls just to take a look at where you need to land. We’ve looked into getting TrackIr but those options seemed too pricey to get in our opinion. This app is at the perfect value however. $10 is such a good price for what you get. While still rough around the edges, (not of the fault of the devs but from limitations of the system being from a phone) we think it does the job well. The customization both in the app and in Opentrack helps alleviate some of those issues. Overall we think any pilot should give this option a shot if they are interested with a head tracking system and dont already own TrackIr or other alternatives.
Im still dialing it in a little with XPlane but the improvements within a few minutes indicate thatll be no problem. Using our X Plane settings in MS Flight Sim and it was good to go. Its simply astonishing what this app was doing. $10 for something that would end up being $80-$800 for other alternatives. Truly remarkable. Nice job folks!
For $10, this app is a must buy for anyone who plays Microsoft Flight Simulator. Being able too look around while flying not only increases the realism, but it makes flying in the simulator so much easierparticularly when flying patterns. We have been using this for months now and it works great. It isnt perfect and it does require a bit of research to understand how the mappings work in OpenTrack (search YouTube), but the value for price is exceedingly high. Other solutions like TrackIR are orders of magnitude more expensive and while we havent tried them, we have trouble believing that they are orders of magnitude better. The amount of enjoyment that SmoothTrack adds to flight simming cannot be overstated. Anyone who doesnt already have a head tracking solution should buy this app!
This ten dollar app is better than expensive peripherals like Tobii or Track IR. Up and running in less than ten minutes, works flawlessly. Saved us 200 bucks since we no longer need extra hardware! Support this dude he deserves it.
Fantastic. Very little fine tuning (basically just adjusting sensitivity on app screen thats fairly obviously displayed) required to get the right amount of movement.
This app literally saved us $190 because we almost bought a trackIR to play DCS and MFS2020. We have an Oculus, but it gets annoying sometimes we have an iPhone 13 pro max, works flawlessly. 10/10 recommend.
It works like a charm if you cant afford Track IR dont worry smooth track is the same thing as Track IR, its confusing at first but its super fun, this is crazy on how it works!
Im using this for DCS and it is great! The tracking is smooth and it automatically connects to DCS as soon as we open the game. Our only grievance is that connecting it to the pc can be a little annoying at times but it is well worth it.
Wish we had this for FSX back in the day. Works amazing and flawlessly. Simply amazing and brings out the awesome scenery even more in MSFS 2020. A must have if you are not going the very expensive route of VR.
Works very well and the guides are very helpful.
We tried TrackIR at$169 and didn’t think it was worth it. We also tried AITrack which is free and we wasn’t impressed by the tracking. This app is perfect and a bargain at $10. We use it in MS FS2020 and it works smoothly and consistently. We highly recommend this to anyone who, like us, doesn’t want to do VR. We were so impressed that we offered the vendor more money and he refused it!
This app is a great headtracker if youre on a budget, but there are some things that arent perfect. One of them being that it eats through a phone battery real quick, we recommend using it on low power mode. The other being it loses track of your head if you turn horizontal to it, but we cant ask for too much from a phone camera. Overall a great option if you need a fast and cheap headtracker.
This works pretty well. We’ve tried a few of these types of things and this is the best so far. We would like to suggest making the mobile app capable of using other apps simultaneously. We use flight simulations and the iPad is great for instruments. Would like to start SmoothTrack and swipe to another app without this app pausing.
Perhaps this is more of a bug report than a review, but we do give John props for creating an easy-to-use alternative to TrackIR. The reason we didnt give it 5 stars, though, is that even though Smooth Track app appears to support multi-tasking on our iPad Pro (4th Gen, 12.9), when we bring up another app either floating on top of SmoothTrack or in the split screen along side it the inset image in the Smooth Track screen showing our face & X,Y,Z lines freezes up. The rest of the apps interface seems to still be responsive, but the camera inset. When we close Foreflight (or whatever other app we are running along side it), the inset window returns to normal operation.
It does work but it has to be so bright in our room to read our face, that it isnt worth using.
We went through all the steps to try to get this thing downloaded we feel so stupid because we spent two hours trying to do it we have to download applications and install things within those applications we find it ridiculous and we cant even open the software anymore open track is useless waste of money go get some other tracking app.
Awesome piece of software! Saved us lots of money on more expensive head tracking options. Works great in DCS!
We generally dont bother leaving reviews for apps but this one definitely deserves it. Worth every penny. For anyone out there whos struggling to get FaceTrackNOIR working with an old webcam Im telling you, ditch that and buy this app. Took 5 mins to setup OpenTrack and youre up and running… Im now using it in MSFS 2020. No IR trackers, hats, LEDs, etc. Just our phone. Its great and Im glad we bought it.
We dont write reviews often, but this app warrants a glowing review and recommendation. With a few steps we went from trying to use our mouse to look around in MSFS 2020 to gleefully looking around using nothing more than our phone to capture our movements. So many people who couldnt afford or justify $150 for TrackIR hardware can drop $9.99 and have full functionality. Sorry, TrackIR. Your time is so over. Thank you to the developer for seeing the need and meeting it for so many who were left out of the joys of head tracking.
We are not one to leave reviews normally but this app is an exception. We have used it with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 for a couple hours and we are blown away. We dont know how we havent heard of this up to this point but it seems like magic. We guarantee this app is going to go viral. It is a seamless TrackIR alternative for $10. Setup was incredibly easy, we used a YouTube tutorial and it took 5 minutes. Spent another 10 minutes setting response curves, and thats it. We hope all flight simulator users find and use this app! Thank you Developers!!!
As someone who is seriously considering an oculus for mfs2020 and any other VR games but this is great until then the app works amazing very real and sensitive Its a tat confusing to set up if your not great with computers but it it was easy enough for us Once its active it automatically hooks up to the game you have running if the game supports it so open the program on the pc open the app then run the game and it work 10 bucks is the most we’ve ever paid for an app but it works great so we guess its worth it.
Works exceptionally well considering its 1/15th the price of tracIR, which is half the price of just getting a VR headset. This app works well and although it seems to bug out every once in a while and not respond to open track, the price point is hard to beat. Using it for dcs works wonders, we just downloaded the devs preset profile and it worked out of the box. Highly recommend, especially once it becomes slightly more stable.
Easy as the broken down steps install and enjoy very happy with the purchase.
We dont write reviews. But we really wanted for this one. It Works perfectly with Microsoft flight sim 2020. Easy to setup and works flawlessly. We used Track IR 4 in the past. We honestly dont see a difference except this is a $10 solution.
We bought this at work today and was skeptical cause it was advertised on Facebook lol! But once you set it up this is an amazing budget tracking IR build just lookup John Goerings YouTube video on how to set it up before you give any reviews he walks you step by step! We have yet to use it on Armas flight models but it works on dirt rally superbly!!
Thank you for the latest update which includes a screen dimmer to save battery life. If youre on the fence and cant decide, let us tell you this app works flawlessly. Forget spending hundreds of dollars on TrackIR and similar products. Best $10 we’ve ever spent.
Fantastic head tracking solution for any sim that works with trackIR. Low latency, smooth, configurable and very immersive. Definitely happy with our purchase. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Incomparable. If you do simulations, this is a must have.
This does everything you need and it is seriously so simple to setup. A little bit of networking knowledge is all that is required, it took under five minutes to get it going. The instructions in the description are spot on and dont leave any room for mistake! It is a tad bit nervy to have your phone camera on at first with an app, but that feeling fades! Doesnt take much configuration and it can be placed anywhere in front of you without fail so far. Awesome app, really really impressive.
Best application for this type of need. VR for little cost and working efficiently. Service is great, developer answers emails within minutes if you need set-up help.
We used trackir5 and it overheated and quit working within a week. Tried SmoothTrack and wow. Incredible. Just as good. No difference. Everyone who flies or races needs this.
Talk about a game changer! This app does exactly what it says it does. We were actually surprised how easy it was to just jump into Squadrons and see that it automatically started working!! Initial set up, however, will probably be a little on the difficult side for those that arent used to changing settings beyond their desktop background in Windows 10. Its not exactly plug and play just yet. Just follow the step-by-step provided by the dev and have fun! If you get hung up just email him! Looking around in your cockpit using head tracking is only 10 bucks away! Im looking forward to seeing where this developer brings this app in the future!
The since the most recent update only infinite flight shows when opening the app. Please bring back opentrack…
- A great alternative for head tracking while using a simulator. * Price is fair * Customer Service is five stars we had issues trying to connect with FS9. E-mailed the developer with questions. He replied back and guided us same day.