Who's excited about 3D mice?

[Sirrobert]

It sounds fun to try, but I'm not going to buy something just for one game

[sparty48]

My thoughts..... Bleh.

[Securus]

Who came to this thread other than me, thinking that 3D mice would be incorporated in the game somehow, as 3d shaped mice roaming the complexes and reaches of space as animal experimentation projects.

nice thread but I was disappointed personally.

Yeah... I was really hoping for an animated mouse that would float around the cockpit and get spaced when you go eva.... Truly, it is a sad day.

[Thomas988]

I need a 3D mouse!

[NASAFanboy]

Sounds hard to use.

I think 2D mice would suit me fine.

[Xaiier]

Which modelling program? I use it to control my view with blender (I still move objects with the mouse) While I can see that it would be irritating to move objects in freeform directions, it's really nice for camera control. I hope Camera control is what squad has in mind for 3D mouse integration, but I'll be even happier if I can just map it to whatever I want.

Autodesk Maya

They have stated that it will be primarily for RCS controls, and rotation and translation at the same time is something I don't see as being all that beneficial. Camera controls would be nice, though unless they significantly overhaul the camera workings only 3 of the axes will be useful, and I still need my left hand (the generally accepted place for a 3d mouse) to work the keyboard.

[MSD]

I hope this will remove at least some camera bugs and limitations... I'm not getting any fancy dust collecting 3d mouse, but cannot wait for a trackIR mod.

Saying that, I do have a joystick but never could get the config to.. Feel right, to much keyboard presses in between..

[Torham234]

Not interested at all. I didn't even know that 3d mouse contraptions existed. I would be much happier if Squad troubleshooted some more traditional control devices like *gasp* Joystick!. Try and do a roll on a jet with a joystick. Its so oversensitive you will flip 5 times before you can react.

[SkyHook]

Absolutely zero interest in 3d mice, but never used one nor am I capable of imagining what it might be like to use one in KSP. With that being said, it could be awesome!

[Albert VDS]

I can see how 3D mice would be great to use when docking, but that's about it.

[Moach]

I(...)Also, I've found that they tend to be imprecise, like when you only want to move one axis its almost guaranteed that another one is going to move slightly too. I would think that with RCS that would be mighty annoying. With a massive deadzone it would work, but then its basically just a fancy layout of keys that I already have on my keyboard and I'm perfectly fine working with. The price is massively prohibitive for anyone who isn't also going to use it for 3d applications, which means most of the community won't ever use one.

first thing that comes to mind here - there is a good chance there's something wrong with your hardware/software if it's really performing in any way as poorly as you describe

I own one of the simplest devices 3Dconnexion has to offer (the SpaceNavigator) - it has no flirtatious features like LCD's or a plethora of colorful buttons to go around (it has only 2) - but the thing is precise. very accurate even within the minimal travel distance of no more than ~1cm those things have...

mine does not jitter or any produce any unwanted motion in almost any situation. any effects of that kind would only appear should I have it set at near-max speed sensitivity. it is also able to isolate movement on a predominant axis, so that moving one way doesn't mess anything... and that can be toggled by setting one of your buttons to it.

I highly recommend it for anyone who has any regular contact with 3d applications - I find it impossible to do without by now, so efficient it makes moving your view however you want - it's the perfect tool for that job.

It's not a full precision tool for moving objects around, tho - but still helps a lot in coarsely approaching a final position, when it can be switched on and off (and even get a button assigned for it, in most 3d tools...) then use the 'gizmo' for fine tuning as you need, meanwhile, you can pan around seamlessly.

for the lack of a clearer way of saying: the thing has made me spoiled.

how on earth can ppl still consider 3d work while having to press some awkward key-mouse combo just to see what's going on...

I know I have been there once, myself - but nowadays it seems like a thing of utter madness, seeing others do that

I'll also say - it was one of the best cost-benefit purchases I ever made for my PC, all under 100 bucks... not altogether prohibitive, at least - it's the same price you'd pay on a proper gaming mouse, or less - and those still have many less degrees of freedom to offer, in comparison

I highly suggest checking for the newest drivers - if anything, I might recall having once some such errant behaviour, perhaps.... I had all but forgotten about it until you mentioned it, as no such weirdness had been noticed from it since some number of years...

my poor lil' 3d mouse has even had it's tail USB cord broken - suffice to say, it got that way following an "ex-wife event" that will forever remain logged in my self-regulative behavioral protocols, under a category understatedly entitled: "must not repeat"

and following that event -- I did not hesitate at taking the trouble to re-weld that cable. and it's one of those tiny ones, took me several hours...

This was a couple of years ago. And today, It still works, albeit now somewhat closer of the USB extension jack for which it formerly hadn't need.

word of advice - do yourself a favor and grab a patch of self-adhesive velcro tape at the nearest hardware store (they sell that by the foot) -- but first, make sure you're Ok with sticking that stuff to your desk, just in case. (it's very powerful stickiness) It's highly worth doing it, if so.

and maybe it's perhaps not worth the cost, if really you'd get it "just" for KSP -- but as a general investment, it's quite solid in many ways. (including literally - surprisingly heavy little things, they are)

Edited November 27, 2013 by Moach

[zekes]

soorry, while most people think on one axis at a time, I think on a 2-d omnidirectional plane, but not 3-d.

[minimuffin]

I think it is a very neat feature. I however, think it would be more of a novelty. We will have to wait till it actually comes to decide! I also have never used one so... I could not really tell you. I am excited about it though.

[Moach]

my guess is that this is one of those things that it's just "not worth not having" - mind the double negative here.

I think 3DConnexxion is making a push so their API is supported by Unity, or maybe it's unity doing the other way around... can't remember - I think it was something like that going on, somehow...

this made more sense in my head, before I tried to write it down

but as a 6DoF ready player, I'm very much looking forward to what it can possibly do. It'll surely make for some interesting new camera work among the tubes...

[tom1499]

What I'd like to do is take the old Apollo style docking control and be able to use that for RCS; added realism and, in my theory at least, better performance.

If you have two joysticks you can do just that, I did it with FASA's gemini, as it had low power reaction wheels and RCS was better. Went to the moon like that.

[drakesdoom]

This don't float my boat. What I really wish is a good way to use XBox or Dual Shock controller. I have tried but can't find a good config that works well.

You will never find a good setup with an xbox controller because it only has 5 axis analog control. Each stick is two, and each trigger is 1/2. The new duel shocks might have 6 I have not had them in hand yet.

[jfx]

how on earth can ppl still consider 3d work while having to press some awkward key-mouse combo just to see what's going on...

I know I have been there once, myself - but nowadays it seems like a thing of utter madness, seeing others do that

Because they need one hand on the keyboard anyways to quickly access functions and select tools. And the other is needed for fine control so a classic mouse it is.

[KOCOUR]

Great i have 3Dconnexion spacemousePro, that iam using at work. Something tells me that i´ll start to taking it home with me.

[Smidge204]

Hey, anyone remember these things?

I got one of those. Not as good as the hype, particularly with the lack of sensitivity and analog range. Tried playing Descent with it but you either turned like a beached whale or completely lacked any fine control, depending on the sensitivity settings.

The main problem with 3D input is the display is still 2D for most people, so it only really makes any sense with a 3D display of some kind. Since I've never owned a 3D display system I can't tell you if it'd be worth it even then. I can't see KSP truly benefiting from it but I'd be happy to be wrong.

=Smidge=

[Nuke]

ive seen those. ^ unfortunately you couldnt get one. they only manufactured a few of them, then stopped making them all together. i ended up getting the original sidewinder force feedback instead (this was the late 90s), and didnt regret it. those microsoft joysticks were top notch and way ahead of their time.

I wonder if you will be able to configure TrackIR to use this. It tracks 6 axes of motion and you can set up profiles just to emulate mouse control. I'll have to test it out when this update lands.

same here. id rather use a device i have than blow a bunch of cash on something that i really dont have a use for. there are ways to get trackir data into the game. if absolute (not relative) look axes are implemented, we could just use it through tir2joy or freetrack (they had an old vision that supported trackir, to natural point's dismay, which i use because of its better configuration options) or some other utility (freePIE looks nice if you know python, supports everything). thats the problem with all these 3d input devices, they all have proprietary apis (the trackir sdk for example requires you sign an nda) that they dont want to see used by 3rd parties, forcing us consumers to suffer the deluge of 3rd party utilities to make things talk to eachother (the irony).

Edited November 27, 2013 by Nuke

[CaptainBullet]

OMG! I've been waiting for 3Dconnexion support and I couldn't believe they actually going to do it.

For everyone who never had such a thing in their hand: It's far better than it sounds. Takes a bit of practice to get into it, but it's totally worth it. I bought one originally for CAD programms (mainly ProE) but I found out what a nice Gamecontroller it is. I know they are expensive as hell, and for many games it might not be usefull at all. But for KSP it's definitly the best controller you could think about, aspecially when you spend a lot of your time in the VAB, constructing and tweaking your vehicles. Thats what those things are made for.

And for docking... well, its just much more intuitive than using the keys.

Big thumb up to Squad for implementing this

[Aramiyo]

I definitely like the idea of a 3D mouse but the price is what's putting me off.

With KSP supporting it as of .23, I might just have to give in a buy one.

[Darkstar One]

Finally a chance to use my old 3DConnexion Space Navigator that was unused in the box since years.

It's much to sensitive and axis are not what I would expect but... I think I'll love it once I get used to it.

[Legendary Emu]

I think I'll stick with a good ol' joystick for now. I am intrigued by the idea of a 3D mouse but right now it doesn't really appeal to me. I just need to get a good joystick