u/F2a

I'm not sure if I should post this in the nuclear option subreddit or the hoggit subreddit.

My question is: coming from the perspective of the DCS player, how much depth does nuclear option have in its current state of early access as of August 2026?

I respect that NO is not trying to be a study sim and it's carving its own path. To the players who do not play DCS or do not like DCS please do not take any offense as none is intended. The beauty of gaming is you get to pick what to spend your time on.

- is there any benefit or is it even viable to fly sorties with a wingman in this game?

- is the air to air combat "sim" enough to use bfm tactics at all?

- is there more depth to this game than just taking off, mindlessly launching a full payload at first opportunity to get credits/points, and then landing or respawning? I'm not sure the best way to word this. I'm trying to ask if there are strategic decisions with multiple viable options on a per sortie basis. Different actions can lead to a different flow of the overall battlefield and it's more chess than checkers.

Anything else you would like to share? I'm very curious to hear different opinions, especially from DCS players that fly with a virtual squadron.

Thank you for your time. I hope this can be a respectful and productive thread. Please report any inappropriate posts to the mods for removal.

TLDR: Tobii 5 head tracking out performs IR dot head tracking (trackir, ps3cam, etc), which I didn't expect.

The point of this post is essentially a semi low effort PSA that camera based head tracking has caught up to IR dot head tracking and is much more convenient and comfortable in my opinion. This may be old news to some of you but I was not aware of this.

If I was an enterprising youtuber I would make a video showing this. Sorry, I'm not, so I'll just make a post in case it helps someone else ditch the head gear. If you disagree that's fine, I'm not trying to convince you.

Hardware I've been using: Trackir 5, PS3 Eye Cam, Tobii 5

I made a post in the past about setting up the PS3 Eye Cam. I was able to use the PS3 eye cam and Trackir 5 side by side with the exact same performance. I just needed to tweak the Opentrack settings to my personal preference. I would still recommend the ps3 cam if you want to do IR dot tracking because they are super cheap.

In the past I tried head tracking using opentrack and a logitech web cam. It was mediocre at best, and not steady, so I completely wrote it off never to try again.

Recently I got a Tobii 5 because someone was selling it for way too cheap. I have read a lot of bad reviews about this device years ago so was pretty weary and would not have bought it if it wasn't a steal. Well, it appears they have done some work on improving it because after tweaking some settings the performance is now better than IR dot tracking. It's now compatible with opentrack, but for DCS you don't need to use opentrack and I am NOT using opentrack for DCS. The software now has a bunch of user settings, you can edit curves, sensitivity, camera boost, etc. The Tobii also has very accurate eye tracking you can use but I am not using it.

Important Tobii Setting: You can choose a 'Simple' or 'Advanced' tab in the game hub DCS settings, choose Advanced. In the Tobii game hub DCS settings page there is a setting called "Head auto center", make sure this is DISABLED. Having this on caused the view to be unstable especially when trying to toggle switches. Start by having eye tracking turned off, just do head tracking. Load up the game and try it out. Set up small dead zones for the axis if you notice one of them moving around when you're not moving your head. Turn camera boost on (I think it's on by default). Tweak axis sensitivity, range, curve to your personal preference as you try it out.

Confusing but important Tobii Setup: If you have an extra large monitor/TV or want to put the sensor in a non standard position (on a tripod, up top, offset, etc) you need to use this alpha setup tool: https://help.tobii.com/hc/en-us/articles/21731929821841-Tobii-Display-Setup-Tool-Alpha . They could really simplify this workflow somehow, maybe add it to the main program. I bet people don't even know about this.

Question: Could the Tobii head tracking performance be emulated with a 'higher' end webcam and IR illumination if needed using opentrack? It's very possible but I have not tried. This could be much cheaper. I know there are also options to use your mobile phone camera and feed that data to opentrack which I have not tried.

My personal pros of camera based head tracking vs IR dot given identical performance in game:

• Nothing on my head! When I'm not in VR this is what I want!
• Crouching down / extreme angles never loses tracking so actually works reliably (F4 Phantom cockpit, iykyk)
• Room/background lighting doesn't interfere with tracking.
• Don't need to worry about positioning the IR dot emitter device in just the perfect way on my headset

To conclude: I'm sure I missed things but the gist is that whenever I'm not using VR I no longer have to wear anything on my head, which is an unexpected delight.

If you disagree that's fine. I'm not trying to convince you and it doesn't bother me if other people don't do things the way that I do them.

I'm surprised this hasn't already happened. The cost of modules and maps is high to the point where I would rather pay monthly to have access to everything than have to choose just a few things at a time. I'm not sure what a good price would be, probably $10-20 USD depending on what it comes with. There could be separate subscriptions for modules, maps, and perhaps even campaigns. What do you think? I imagine that a side effect of this would be even higher prices for lifetime purchases but hopefully it would still be an option for those who want it.

For those that just got triggered and are in full reddit contrarian rage mode, perhaps this will give you a different perspective on the pricing or the ability to outright buy a module at all. Or perhaps it will just give you more fuel for your hobby of complaining.

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EDIT: People are mad as expected. This is where I'm coming from: Pretend you are a brand new player, and you want to fly the F4, F14, and Apache on Nevada, Kola, and cold war Germany. That would cost $430 USD (no sale) . If a subscription for $15 a month gets me everything then I can play this PLUS EVERYTHING for 28 months. After a few months I'll probably get bored and take a break, i pause subscription until I want to come back. In the long run I'll spend a lot less and get a lot more variety making the game more interesting for longer.