10.7.1 Unreal Editor 4.26 Plugin Error

[ngomes]

work in all viewport modes and when you hit play like a joystick mode i guess is what i mean

And are you aware of any other plugins that will load in game play? If so, can you please let us know what they are. We'd like to understand how game developers expect Unreal Engine to work with plugins in both Editor and game play modes.

[cjadams]

https://github.com/microdee/UE4-SpaceMouse

this is a pc version but it controls most of the viewports

[cjadams]

I also had a question that has been bugging me for years which also might help with the use-fullness of the spacemouse going forward.

I noticed a few years back.. ONLY on the windows side.. you hid the puck assignments. This was a really really useful feature! - it let us for example use the spacemouse as an editing device like jog/****** in adobe premiere.. or in music programs like pro-tools simply by assigning keyboard shortcuts with the right repeat rate. It was brilliant! - this would also work in Unreal. to assign joystick control options. I'm pretty sure the assignment functionally is still in the xlm files.. but that the particular control panel options were hidden from user-view in the control panel.
I would love it if you would unhide those again.. This gave the space mouse devices much wider acceptance! in Many different use cases.

Just a thought.

[jwick]

Most game editors have a God mode where they can independently fly around during game play to see how it's going. It's a good use for the 3D mouse.

[ngomes]

I noticed a few years back.. ONLY on the windows side.. you hid the puck assignments. This was a really really useful feature! - it let us for example use the spacemouse as an editing device like jog/****** in adobe premiere.. or in music programs like pro-tools simply by assigning keyboard shortcuts with the right repeat rate. It was brilliant! - this would also work in Unreal. to assign joystick control options. I'm pretty sure the assignment functionally is still in the xlm files..

Most of that feature is still available in the driver configuration (xml files) but, as you pointed out, the GUI was removed. I don't think we got much traction from our customers.

Some of my colleagues may want to jump in and help you with that.

[ngomes]

Most game editors have a God mode where they can independently fly around during game play to see how it's going. It's a good use for the 3D mouse.

Is there such mode for UE-based games?

[cjadams]

Honestly at the time.. it felt less like "customer traction" then it felt like "we don't' want to support it" Why take away good functionality? what was it hurting being exposed? .. your just artificially limiting uses.. which from a product sales standpoint seems short-sighted...

[cjadams]

Most game editors have a God mode where they can independently fly around during game play to see how it's going. It's a good use for the 3D mouse.

Is there such mode for UE-based games?

well i mean at the moment when your in the normal editor you can see an overview and zoom around.. but.. hitting play.. you actually activate things like collision and proper visual rendering etc.. .. Not sure about god mode. others might be able to chime in on that...It just occurred to me that if you DID expose the puck assign commands again... we could easily assign keyboard navigation for all the axis.. in "game play" mode. However.. i don't think your driver has a way of swapping out command sets. i.e one for normal operation and then a 2ndary set for gamy play mode.. having swappable templates per program.. might actually be useful.. hmmmm....

[cjadams]

This might be what you are thinking of? IT detaches you from the player but gives you control of the editor options.. while still executing all blueprints etc..

Simulate in editor maybe?

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Bui ... index.html

[jwick]

I noticed a few years back.. ONLY on the windows side.. you hid the puck assignments. This was a really really useful feature! - it let us for example use the spacemouse as an editing device like jog/****** in adobe premiere.. or in music programs like pro-tools simply by assigning keyboard shortcuts with the right repeat rate. It was brilliant! - this would also work in Unreal. to assign joystick control options. I'm pretty sure the assignment functionally is still in the xlm files..

Most of that feature is still available in the driver configuration (xml files) but, as you pointed out, the GUI was removed. I don't think we go much traction from our customers.

Some of my colleagues may want to jump in and help you with that.

There is quite a bit of capability in there still. You will have to become an XML editing expert. For the most part, the GUI will follow what you have done in the XML files but not help you with the more advanced features.

Fundamentally, when each event from a device comes in, it gets translated to something and sent out. There are built in operations to do many things, but you can extend the driver to do anything you want.

A cfg file determines what is being done at any time. If you examine the cfg file, you will see Inputs and Outputs for each device (and generic types of devices). Those are what you must edit.

All you have to do is change those settings. You can do it with an editor, you can copy files around, our GUI edits those files, there are lots of ways of specifying what you want. One way or the other the file needs to get changed.

When an app gets focus, the driver will look for a file for that executable. Probably you want to collect all your different settings for that executable in one file. But there is nothing to stop you from just copying one entire file over another. The file rules.

In a single file you can define any number of "Banks" for each device and switch amongst them. There are ButtonBanks and AxisBanks. E.g., you could create some Banks for 3D mouse usage (the Unreal plugin), another for sending Joystick X events along the twist axis, another for sending Joystick Z events along the twist axis, etc. I assume you can define these various joystick axes to do something specific in the app. Don't try to map all 6 axes to do a bunch of operations all at the same time. It works in 3D, but it's extremely difficult to change one setting w/o accidentally affecting another setting on another axis. I'd use it more like the Microsoft dial - one, or maybe two, degrees of freedom at a time. Switch between the Banks to determine which output to send.

The question becomes how do you switch to the desired Bank. You can use Bank operations. E.g., assign button 1 to go to the JoystickX Bank, button 2 to the JoystickY bank etc. Or my personal favorite, assign button 1 to temporarily bring up a Bank selection Bank. E.g., press Button 1, all the buttons now change to a list of Banks. Then press button 3 to go to the AdjustLightEffects Bank. When you release the button, you are in the AdjustLightEffects Bank. Press button 1 again to switch to some other Bank. This is very useful with the LCD of the SpaceMouse Enterprise, not so useful for other devices. I think you can also do this with radial menus.

...Or buy two different devices. One to do 3D things in one hand, and another to do non-3D things in another hand. Then you don't have to switch Banks.

And if there isn't enough built-in functionality, assign button 1, or Axis Tx, etc to call a script or executable for you. There are ways of extending just about every program. You can link in to that.

The only problem is trying to figure out what is going on w/o a GUI. It's not easy, even for me, to keep track of what is going on. The GUI will show you the current Bank, which you can edit, but not help you navigate to, or create, a new one.

As pointed out, we didn't get a lot of traction on this so it never matured. But I didn't take it out. A few excited users can go a long way to improve it.

[cjadams]

Yah.. i don't know why you don't just "unhide" it.. What was the "original" reason to do the extra work to actually HIDE it in the first place?
That part i just don't understand.. Seemed like an odd decision.. can't you just reverse that and "*UNhide" it in the control panel UI again?

[mrboni]

@ngomes

I think the best way to make the SN work during play mode (which would be amazing I agree) is to write functionality to allow each SN axis to come in as an Axis Mapping https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog ... ngs-in-ue4

Quite how to do this I'm not sure but there must be some code examples around, or in the Engine source.

Additionally you could provide a component that could be added to a pawn that would connect these mappings to the pawn movement in the same way that the FloatingPawnMovement component does https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/API ... index.html

[ngomes]

I think the best way to make the SN work during play mode (which would be amazing I agree) is to write functionality to allow each SN axis to come in as an Axis Mapping https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog ... ngs-in-ue4
[...]
Additionally you could provide a component that could be added to a pawn that would connect these mappings to the pawn movement in the same way that the FloatingPawnMovement component does https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/API ... index.html

Thank you for the suggestions, mrboni.

I believe there's a project from a third-party (end-user?) that is already mapping SpaceMouse axis as input actions. We can look at implement something similar.

The "FloatingPawnMovement" component is intriguing. I don't think anyone of us had look into it. Perhaps we can have a "SpaceMousePawnMovement" component.

One question, how would you prefer to integrate such a component into your application? Would this be something that needs to be part of the engine or can it be a separate addin or module?

[cjadams]

I Did find this which sadly is PC only..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvTMJ2U ... vTMJ2UaTAQ

From these guys:
https://tetherscript.com

it can intercept output and then let you assign stuff. NOTE on the mac we still can set puck stuff but pc users its hidden.. which was why i was asking about un-hiding it in the 3dxware on the PC..

[David Cameron]

Space Navigator movements do map to Unreal axis mappings for use in game.

I've not tried with the latest driver because I don't want to risk breaking anything with my older versions of 3ds Max and Autodesk Inventor. I've tested with an older plugin (which uses my existing 3DConnexion drivers) but hopefully this plugin works the same.

The following has the format
Space Navigator Action: Unreal Input Axis mapping (positive, negative values)

Push Left/Right: Gamepad Left Thumbstick X-Axis (left negative, right positive)
Push Forward/Backward: Gamepad Left Thumbstick Y-Axis (forward positive, backward negative)
Twist: Gamepad Right Thumbstick X-Axis (clockwise positive, anti-clockwise negative)
Tilt Forward/Backward: Gamepad Right Thumbstick Y-Axis (forward positive, backward negative)

I have mapped pull up/push down and tilt left/right previously but can't remember the details.
I will have to go through all the axis mappings to find them again and get back to you.

HTH