The Question: Do Triple Monitors Need Head Tracking?
Triple monitors are already one of the best upgrades you can make to a sim racing setup. They give you a wider field of view, better awareness, and a much more natural cockpit feel compared to a single monitor.
But after racing with triples for a while, I started wondering:
Can head tracking make triple monitors feel even more immersive?
VR is still the king of immersion in sim racing. When you move your head in VR, the cockpit moves with you. You can naturally look into corners, glance toward mirrors, and feel like you’re actually sitting inside the car.
The problem is that VR comes with tradeoffs.
You can’t easily see your physical wheel. You can’t look down at your Stream Deck. You can’t glance over at your keyboard, button box, or viewers if you’re streaming. And for some people, myself included, VR can bring motion sickness.
That’s where head tracking with triples becomes interesting.
It gives you some of that VR-style camera movement while still letting you keep the benefits of a traditional triple-screen setup.
For this test, I used Beam Eye Tracker with my triple-monitor iRacing setup to see whether head tracking actually improved immersion — or whether it felt like a gimmick.
You can check out Beam Eye Tracker here:
Beam Eye Tracker Affiliate Link:https://beam.eyeware.tech/?via=moorepodiums
My Sim Racing Setup for This Test
For this test, I used head tracking with a triple-monitor iRacing setup.
The main goal was simple: determine whether the extra camera movement made driving feel more natural, especially when looking through corners or moving around in the cockpit.
The setup included:
- Triple 32-inch monitors
- iRacing
- Beam Eye Tracker
- Head tracking enabled through Beam’s immersive camera settings
- A button mapped for quick recalibration
- Testing at Brands Hatch
The key thing I wanted to evaluate was not whether this made me faster.
It didn’t magically make me hit every apex.
But it did change how the car felt.
And that’s where things got interesting.
What Head Tracking Feels Like on Triple Monitors
The first thing I noticed with head tracking enabled was how much more alive the cockpit felt.
With triples, you already have a huge amount of screen real estate. You can see out the side windows, look toward your mirrors, and naturally use your peripheral vision.
But normally, the camera itself stays fixed.
With head tracking on, small movements of your head translate into subtle cockpit movement. When I turned my head left, I could see more to the left. When I turned right, I could check the other side of the car more naturally. When I leaned forward or backward, the view adjusted with me.
It felt closer to what happens in a real car.
In real life, your view is never perfectly locked in place. Your head moves. Your body shifts. You look into corners. You lean slightly. You make small corrections without even thinking about it.
Head tracking adds some of that feeling back into triples.
It does not fully replace VR, but it gets you closer to that sense of being inside the car instead of just looking at three screens.
Driving With Head Tracking On
While driving around Brands Hatch, the biggest improvement was looking through corners.
With head tracking enabled, turning my head into a corner felt more fluid. The camera moved just enough to make the cockpit feel less static.
That was especially noticeable through right-handers. Instead of the view staying completely fixed, the camera responded to my head movement and made the corner feel more natural.
It added a small but noticeable layer of immersion.
Not a massive change.
Not a “this will make you two seconds faster” upgrade.
But more of a chef’s kiss immersion improvement.
It made the car feel less locked to the screen and more connected to my physical movement.
That matters if you’re the kind of sim racer who already moves around in the rig. During longer races like Daytona, I tend to get physically into the driving. I move my head, shift my body, and use the rig more naturally.
Head tracking rewards that style of driving.
Driving With Head Tracking Off
After testing with head tracking on, I turned it off to compare.
The difference was immediately noticeable.
Without head tracking, everything felt more stationary. The triple monitors still gave me a great field of view, but looking through corners felt flatter.
I found myself needing to crank my head more to look into turns, but the camera itself stayed locked in place.
That’s the normal triple-monitor experience, and it’s still excellent. Triples are popular for a reason. They give you visibility, consistency, and comfort.
But after using head tracking, the static camera felt less natural.
That was the biggest takeaway.
Triple monitors are already immersive. Head tracking just adds that extra bit of movement that makes the cockpit feel more alive.
Is It Like VR?
Not exactly.
VR is still more immersive overall because your entire view is tied to your head movement. You can naturally look anywhere in the cockpit or around the car.
Head tracking on triples does not fully replicate that.
But it does bridge the gap.
That’s the part I really liked.
You get some of the movement and immersion of VR, but you still keep the practical advantages of triples:
- You can see your wheel
- You can use your Stream Deck
- You can see your button box
- You can interact with your viewers while streaming
- You avoid wearing a headset
- You may reduce the motion sickness issues that come with VR
- You keep the comfort of racing on monitors
For me, that’s the sweet spot.
I love the immersion of VR, but I don’t always love the experience of using VR for longer races or content creation. Head tracking with triples gives me a middle ground.
The Beam Eye Tracker Settings I Used
Inside Beam Eye Tracker, I used the Immersive Camera mode.
Here are the general settings I used during this test:
| Setting | My Setup |
|---|---|
| Tracker | On |
| Response to eye movements | Off |
| Camera response to head movements | On |
| Camera movement amount | 5% |
| Speed | 100% |
| Stability on small head movements | 80 |
| Link camera position to head orientation | On |
| Horizontal rotation | On |
| Horizontal position | On |
| Forward position | On |
| FreeTrack 2.0 | On |
| Other camera options | Off |
The biggest setting for comfort was stability on small head movements.
When I made the tracking too sensitive, I started to feel some motion sickness — similar to what I sometimes feel in VR. Bringing stability back up to around 80 helped smooth things out and made the experience much more comfortable.
That’s something I would definitely recommend experimenting with.
You do not want the camera moving too aggressively. For triple monitors, subtle is better.
Why I Turned Eye Movement Response Off
One important detail: I turned off the response to eye movements.
For this setup, I only wanted the camera to respond to head movement, not where my eyes were looking.
That helped keep the camera more predictable.
Eye tracking has its own use cases, especially for coaching, streaming overlays, and showing viewers where you’re looking during a race. I think that could be really useful for remote coaching or educational sim racing content.
But for actually controlling the camera while racing, I preferred head movement only.
That gave me the immersion benefit without making the camera feel too busy.
The Downsides of Head Tracking With Triples
Head tracking is not perfect.
The biggest downside is that it tracks real-life head movement, even when you may not want it to.
For example, if you look down at your camera, glance at your viewers, scratch your face, or move around too much, the camera may follow that movement.
If you’re using a webcam-based setup, small interruptions can occasionally affect tracking. Even something as simple as brushing your nose or moving your head in an exaggerated way can cause the camera to shift.
That’s why having a recalibration button mapped is helpful.
It lets you quickly reset your view if things feel off.
The other downside is comfort. If the settings are too sensitive, it can cause motion sickness. I found that out quickly when I turned the responsiveness up too high.
The key is to tune it so the movement is subtle, smooth, and predictable.
Who Should Try Head Tracking With Triple Monitors?
I think head tracking is worth trying if you already race on triples and want more immersion without switching to VR.
It makes the most sense for sim racers who:
- Race on triple monitors
- Want more cockpit movement
- Like looking naturally into corners
- Stream or create content
- Use a wheel, Stream Deck, button box, or other physical controls
- Want a VR-like feeling without wearing a headset
- Have tried VR but dislike the comfort or motion sickness issues
It may not be for everyone.
If you prefer a completely locked, predictable camera, you may find head tracking distracting at first. And if you’re extremely sensitive to camera movement, you’ll want to start with very conservative settings.
But because Beam Eye Tracker can work with a regular webcam or phone, it’s a pretty easy thing to test.
That’s part of why I think it’s worth exploring.
Does Head Tracking Make You Faster?
Probably not directly.
This is not a magic lap-time upgrade.
I still missed apexes during testing. The technology is not going to drive the car for you.
But it can make the experience feel more natural. And when the car feels more natural, you may feel more connected to what’s happening on track.
That connection can matter.
For me, the biggest benefit was immersion and comfort. It made triples feel less static and gave the cockpit a more realistic sense of movement.
That alone makes it worth considering.
Final Verdict: Am I Keeping Head Tracking On?
Yes.
After testing Beam Eye Tracker with my triple monitors for several hours of sim time, including a race, I genuinely like it.
It adds another layer of immersion to an already strong triple-screen setup. It does not replace VR, but it gets you closer to that feeling without forcing you to give up the things that make triples so practical.
For my rig, it feels like the right balance.
I can still see my wheel. I can still use my Stream Deck. I can still interact with my audience. But now, when I move my head, the cockpit responds in a way that feels more natural.
That’s enough for me to keep using it.
Head tracking with triples may not be talked about as much as VR or full motion rigs, but I think it deserves more attention.
It is simple, relatively easy to try, and for the right setup, it can make iRacing feel noticeably more immersive.
Try Beam Eye Tracker
If you want to try the same head tracking setup I used, you can check out Beam Eye Tracker here:
Beam Eye Tracker Affiliate Link:https://beam.eyeware.tech/?via=moorepodiums
Using the link costs you nothing extra and helps support Moore Podiums.
This video was not sponsored. Beam did not ask me to make this. I tested it because I was genuinely curious whether head tracking could make triples feel closer to VR.
And honestly?
It kind of does.
Not all the way.
But enough that I’m keeping it on.