It's really inexcusable to have left this out of the latest release. I, also, am playing the older version of Ship Sim exclusively until TrackIR support is added to the new release. It was there in the 2006 version, and the 2008 version... and as a result I'd honestly prefer either of those to the newer version.
Those who've never used a TrackIR... believe me, you simply CANNOT go back to using the keyboard, or a hat switch, to control views, once you've used this.
There are three "special" technologies which all first-person-simulation users should have.
1) TrackIR for view control. Yes, there are a few competitors, but these guys are pretty much the benchmark... and it's not all that expensive.
2) Stereo rendering (it's unbelievable how much difference this makes in, say, driving or boating sims, simply from the ability to control the vessel "intuitively"... and it just adds a huge "wow factor" to flight sims, even if most things in those games are "at infinity" as far as the human eye can really tell. Just seeing the cockpit in true 3D, or being able to tell how far you are from the ground during landing (or even moreso, how far from the carrier deck!) is invaluable.
Stereo used to be easy... any decent CRT monitor could handle it, so you only needed the glasses. Today, though, you're limited to only a handful of monitors, plus the glasses. Right now, Alienware makes pretty much the best monitor for true 3D stereo rendering.
3) Voice control. This is really most useful in flight sims (giving commands to your wingman by saying them, rather than hitting keyboard sequences). But in ship simulation games, this is also very useful. For instance, you can tell your "crew" to tie off the boat, or to cast off, or to recover something from the water, or so forth. Or you can talk to the harbormaster. Yes, you need to have specific "vocal commands" rather than natural speech, but it still is fun to actually engage in the direct verbal interaction with your harbormaster.
Voice control is almost trivial these days. You can get lots of different software that will handle this. I got started with something called "Game Commander" and I still use it, since it still works for me, but today, there are newer (and arguably better) packages which do the same thing. Right now, it seems that "Say 2 Play" and "GameVox" are the two leaders, but you'll probably want to do your own homework.
Stereo rendering is entirely compatible with Ship Sim... as is voice control. So you can use those today. But TrackIR support was left out of "Extremes."
And that's just not "OK" as far as I'm concerned.
