TrackIR Anticompetition

This website is a regretable but necessary response to a commercial company's attack on free open source software and the free market. NaturalPoint Inc. make the TrackIR, a neat little head tracking solution that is well established in the simulation gaming scene and regarded by many enthusiasts as essential. It has wide support in simulation titles and had the luxury of no competition for many years, making it a de facto monopoly.

In order for competition to gain access to this market it has little choice but to adopt the already established TrackIR interface standard. The free open source software, FreeTrack, was the first to do this for head tracking purposes. NaturalPoint, faced with this new unfamiliar threat of competition, responded by declaring it to be illegal. They set about defaming, silencing and censoring it and then artificially tampered with the free market to lock it out, both through the TrackIR interface and even independent interfaces. In the process they hurt game developers (wanting maximum compatibility with the least effort), consumer choice, head tracking adoption and even their own customers.

Access restriction 
Exclusive dealing 
Refusal to deal
Vilification and censorship
False patent marking and defensive patenting


 

Access restriction


  • Disregarded the industry standard Human Interface Device (HID) protocol, with explicit provision for head trackers (Section 6 VR Controls), in favor of creating a closed proprietary interface protected by a restrictive license agreement and NDA. By tying it to their cameras they effectively established it as the de facto standard for game head tracking. 
  • Locked the interface with text strings containing haiku (Japanese poetry), a registered trademark and a copyright notice under the name of EyeControl Technologies, former name of NaturalPoint, as can be found in linux-track's TrackIR compatible source code (sigdata variable).
  • Demanded the above mentioned text strings be removed from FreeTrack software in an email sent to its developers in 2008, now published on Chilling Effects. They claimed that 'implementing this interface and impersonating a TrackIR has resulted in FreeTrack violating NaturalPoint copyright', compliance with removal of the strings would effectively render it incompatible with almost all TrackIR games. FreeTrack appears to have responded by extracting the strings from games at runtime.  
  • The SDK example code provided to developers for integration into games includes a function call (NP_GetSignature) which retrieves the strings before checking their validity and aborting if they are incorrect. Most developers use the example code without modification but a few remove the string check, thereby avoiding the lock (Live for Speed, Condor and Enemy Engaged for example). 
  • VRInsight HAT-Track, a commercial head tracker similar to TrackIR, supported TrackIR emulation in v1.5 (June 2008) of their software but soon after relented to NaturalPoint pressure to remove it, 'VRInsight now only officially supports FS9 and FSX due to legal reasons brought about by a competitor'. A NaturalPoint sockpuppet described HAT-Track as 'worst ever, do not buy under any circumstance'. The VRInsight website lists HAT-Track as 'Not available'.  
  • "GlovePIE is now completely 100% free of bad Haiku “poetry”, (not even any encrypted or generated poetry), which should get NaturalPoint off my back. Of course, neither GlovePIE, nor anyone else in the world has ever used any of the terrible “poetry” by NaturalPoint, nor would they want to. But NaturalPoint aren’t genuinely interested in protecting the income they make from the sale of poetry books, they are just trying to trick lawyers into forcing competing (or cooperating) software not to supply the correct password to their TrackIR API." - Carl Kenner, GlovePIE
  • In mid-2008 NaturalPoint started supplying game developers with a secretly encrypted version of the interface, making games incompatible with third party software including FreeTrack, HAT-Track, GlovePIE, NewView, and others, in the process TrackIR 1 & 2 cameras were also rendered incompatible. Games using the encrypted interface can be identified as requiring TrackIR software v4.1.035.Final (June 2008) or later and require unique 'ApplicationID' keys to encrypt the data which are distributed in the file 'sgl.dat' (a decrypted version can be found in linux-track). TrackIRFixer can be used to bypass the encryption requirement in games.
  • The encrypted interface went undocumented in the TrackIR changelog and the loss of compatibility was only later explained as due to it being 'optimized' for 'better integration in the newest games', when in fact it does the complete opposite, adding complexity and computational overhead. They never officially acknowledged using encryption, only a NaturalPoint sockpuppet said they 'encrypted their data stream to prevent FreeTrack users or anyone else from hijacking their API without permission'.
  • Reduce the likelihood of the encrypted interface being leaked by only supplying it to select developers of more lucrative game titles, other developers are supplied the unencrypted interface.
  • Several developers have avoided encryption by not using the latest TrackIR SDK provided to them and identifying as an older game version, as is the case with IL2: Cliffs of Dover and rFactor 2. The Cliffs of Dover game manual even advertises this as a feature and TrackIR is not referred to by name; 'More advanced players may consider using a head-tracking device or webcam software' (p68). Developers only given the encrypted SDK could theoretically avoid encryption by removing the decryption function call in the SDK example code and identifying as a game without encryption, for example using the ID for IL2 (1001), the only downside is this prevents custom profiles from being automatically loaded. 
  • Ironically while NaturalPoint claim to be 'democratizing mocap' with their OptiTrack system they are doing quite the opposite with TrackIR.

     

    Exclusive dealing


    • The TrackIR SDK license agreement according to one game developer 'contained verbage related to emulation in any form of their product' which conflicted with their desire to also support face tracking. They declined to accept the agreement noting that 'NaturalPoint is very serious about their castle on the mountain.'  
    • 'I don't entirely like the NDA NaturalPoint want us to sign before being able to get our hands on the SDK though. TrackIR support may come from a third party as a plugin, removing potential restrictions from everyone else (if it's possible).' - Outerra   
    • Made Eagle Dynamics remove their own headtracker plugin interface from DCS: Black Shark shortly after it was made available in 2008, 'Implementation of the "HeadTracker" interface is canceled at the request of NaturalPoint.' A 2007 version of the TrackIR Enhanced™ SDK Usage Agreement prohibits 'creating software with similar functionality'. In response to a petition in 2011, Eagle Dynamics made a second attempt at releasing the interface in DCS: A-10C and were successful. 
    • A 2007 version of the TrackIR Enhanced™ SDK Usage Agreement prohibits 'attempting to enable the TrackIR Enhanced Interface Software to interface with hardware, software, or other devices provided by a third party'. This seems reasonable at first but since software using alternative interfaces are highly likely to also attempt to emulate TrackIR, developers trying to support them could be accused of breaching the license during testing. 
    • Microsoft never supported TrackIR, avoiding its restrictive license agreement, TrackIR uses hacks for FS8 and FS9 and the SimConnect interface for FSX. Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D is based on FSX, does not support TrackIR and NaturalPoint refuse to support it through the SimConnect interface.
    • Racing sim developer PiBoSo (Kart Racing Pro, GP Bikes, World Racing Series) supports FreeTrack and wants to support TrackIR but refuses to sign NaturalPoint's license agreement required to access the SDK. TrackIR is of course free to achieve support through the FreeTrack interface.
    • Seven-g developer is reluctant to support FreeTrack after signing the TrackIR NDA, "some problem that I have is I already signed NDA with TrackIR company. so I don't know ...." 
    • Admitted they are in 'kind of a unique position where we've been around for a while, and know a lot of developers, publishers, and press'.  
    • TrackIR still has priority in games that also support other means of headtracking. In ARMA2 and Take On Helicopters, TrackIR is enabled by default and FreeTrack must be manually enabled. In DCS, alternatives require a headtracker plugin to be manually installed.  
    • Claim they prefer not to purchase support in games and rather developers add support at their own expense. Developers have been known to get free TrackIR cameras for testing and prizes for promotional competitions.
    • Falsely claim on their website that all games on the 'TrackIR Enhanced' list have 'special support features built in just for TrackIR' despite memory hacks being used for thirteen of them (via TIRViews.dll) and a third party interface for one of them (FSX SimConnect). 

     

    Refusal to deal


    • Forced removal of TrackIR camera support from FreeTrack, likely due to an EULA clause; "May not use SOFTWARE [OptiTrack SDK] to develop or create a product or solution which duplicates or reproduces the functionality of other NaturalPoint products." This clause is broad enough to cover almost any use of the OptiTrack SDK to access TrackIR cameras.
    • Have not pursued GlovePIE's (programmable input emulator) continued use of the OptiTrack SDK since 2007 despite appearing to be in similar breach of the above EULA clause.

     

    Vilification and censorship

     


     

    False patent marking and defensive patenting

        

    DeMenthon 4 point 6DOF tracking 1995. 
    • Filed six patent applications for optical head tracking in games between 2004 and 2007 which were all rejected for being obvious and containing significant prior art. Amendments and extensions meant that it wasn't until 2012 that the last patent was rejected. 
    • As of 2012 NaturalPoint Inc. does not have any issued patents or pending patents for optical head tracking in games.   
    • Their official 'TrackIR Explained' YouTube video published in 2007, now with over half a million views, claims TrackIR uses 'patented math' when it was only patent pending.
    • Made a press release in 2007 claiming, "Both of these product lines [TrackIR and OptiTrack] leverage NaturalPoint's patented optical motion tracking technology", but had no issued patents and did not even have a patent application relevant to OptiTrack. 
    • Responded to free webcam solutions on Ubisoft forums in 2007 with, "the detailed, patented math that is Vector and True View are not replicated in web cam based software." 
    • The TrackIR camera and even the TrackClip Pro hardware are marked with 'patent pending' but the patent applications only cover the tracking system realized in the software. 
    • Filed a sixth patent application (11/943,503) after FreeTrack appeared in 2007 with alterations that appear to be in direct response. The number of attributed inventors also dwindled from four to one. 
      • 'Tracking no more than three sensed locations' was broadened to 'one or more sensed locations' or 'at least three', TrackIR has never tracked more than three points while FreeTrack first started with four point tracking. 
      • 'Sensed locations' changed to specify 'infrared light emitting diodes' which is more common with FreeTrack than TrackIR which uses reflective markers by default.
      • 'User input includes a plurality of physical properties that defines a sensed object', TrackIR allows two different model configurations but never permitted the user to change a 'plurality of physical properties' while this was always the case with FreeTrack.
      • 'offsetting the actual position of the sensed locations to a desired adjusted position', this model offset control is a FreeTrack feature and absent in TrackIR. 


    NaturalPoint's anti-competitive behavior potentially puts them in breach of US and EU antitrust law and their false patent marking in breach of patent law. The relevant laws and contacts can be found in the Consumer Action section.