Head Tracking for Outer Wilds

Look around the solar system by moving your head! Turn your real head to peek around the cabin of your ship or gaze up at the stars through your helmet visor. This mod brings immersive head tracking to Outer Wilds.

Works with your phone, webcam, Tobii eye tracker, or any other tracking device supported by OpenTrack.

What You'll Need

• OWML (Outer Wilds Mod Manager)
• OpenTrack - free head tracking software
• A way to track your head:
  • Your phone (easiest - just download an app!)
  • Webcam
  • Tobii eye tracker
  • TrackIR, PS3 Eye + IR LEDs, or anything else OpenTrack supports

Installation

Using the Outer Wilds Mod Manager (recommended):

1. Open the Outer Wilds Mod Manager
2. Search for "Head Tracking"
3. Click Install

Manual Installation:

1. Download the latest release ZIP from the releases page
2. Extract it to your OWML/Mods/ folder
3. You should see "Head Tracking" in the mod list

Setting Up Head Tracking

You'll need to set up OpenTrack to capture your head movements.

Step 1: Install OpenTrack

1. Download OpenTrack from https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/releases
2. Run the installer
3. Launch OpenTrack - you should see a window with "Input" and "Output" dropdowns

Step 2: Choose How You Want to Track

Pick whichever method works for you:

📱 Using Your Phone (Easiest!)

Your phone can track your face and send the data to your computer over WiFi. No extra hardware needed!

Get the app:

• iOS: SmoothTrack ($9.99 - works great)
• Android: OpenTrack Mobile (free) or SmoothTrack ($9.99)

Setup:

1. Install one of the apps above (or another opentrack compatible app) on your phone
2. Make sure your phone and computer are on the same WiFi network
3. Find your computer's IP address:
   • Windows: Open Command Prompt and type ipconfig - look for "IPv4 Address" (usually starts with 192.168)
   • Or check your router settings
4. In OpenTrack on your computer:
   • Set Input to "UDP over network"
   • Click ⚙️ next to Input, set Port to 4242 (SmoothTrack default) or match your app's output port
5. On your phone app:
   • Enter your computer's IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.100)
   • Set output port to 4242
   • Start tracking
6. Windows Firewall: When prompted, allow OpenTrack through your firewall (or manually add an exception for UDP port 4242)
7. Back in OpenTrack, you should see the preview moving when you move your head

🎥 Using a Webcam

1. In OpenTrack:
   • Set Input to "PointTracker 1.1"
   • Click the ⚙️ settings button
   • Follow the calibration instructions (you'll need to print a simple pattern or use the built-in model detection)
2. You should see yourself in a preview window - move your head and watch the tracking data update

👁️ Using Tobii Eye Tracker

If you have a Tobii device (4C, 5, etc.):

1. Install Tobii Game Hub from https://gaming.tobii.com/getstarted/
2. Make sure your Tobii device is connected
3. In OpenTrack:
   • Set Input to "Tracker | Tobii"
   • You should see tracking data when you move your head

Step 3: Connect OpenTrack to the Game

Now tell OpenTrack to send its tracking data to Outer Wilds:

1. In OpenTrack, set Output to "UDP over network"
2. Click the ⚙️ settings button next to Output
3. Set:
   • IP Address: 127.0.0.1
   • Port: 5252
4. Click OK
5. Click the big green Start button at the bottom
6. Move your head and verify tracking is working - the octopus head in the preview window should move and the rotation/position numbers should change
7. Keep OpenTrack running

That's it for setup!

Playing the Game

1. Launch Outer Wilds through OWML (not through Steam/Epic directly)
2. Load your save or start a new game
3. Move your head - your view should follow!

The first time you look around, press F8 to center your view. This tells the mod "this is my neutral head position."

Controls

• F8 - Recenter your view (use this whenever things feel off-center)
• F9 - Toggle head tracking on/off
• Pause menu - Opening and closing the pause menu will also recenter your view

Tips for the Best Experience

Finding the right sensitivity:

• If the camera moves too much when you turn your head, open OpenTrack's "Mapping" tab and reduce the output curves
• If it doesn't move enough, increase the output curves
• You want subtle movements - you shouldn't need to turn your head 90 degrees to look around!
• For per-axis control, you can also edit the mod's config.json file in OWML/Mods/udkyo.HeadTracking/ to adjust yaw, pitch, and roll sensitivity individually

Reducing jitter/shakiness:

• In OpenTrack, click the Filter dropdown and select "Accela"
• In the filter settings, increase smoothing to 1.5-2.0
• Add a small deadzone to ignore tiny movements

When head tracking pauses automatically:

• The mod automatically reduces or disables head tracking in certain situations:
  • When using the model ship (prevents camera lock-ups)
  • When zoomed in with the signalscope (so you can aim precisely)
• It'll come back on its own when you're done

Building from Source

Only needed if you want to modify the mod yourself.

Requirements:

• .NET SDK 4.8 or higher
• Outer Wilds with OWML installed
• Pixi (optional but recommended)

Build & Deploy:

pixi run deploy

This will copy the OWML DLLs, build the mod, and deploy it to your OWML mods folder.

For manual builds without Pixi, see the build scripts in build/scripts/.

Credits

• Built with OWML
• Uses OpenTrack for head tracking
• Harmony for runtime patching

Made for the Outer Wilds community with ☄️