SpacePilot Pro premature end of support and compatibility issues

[Kit0]

So I have a big dilema right now.
I understand that a device won't get support forever, I don't understand, however, that such time should be shortened on purpose to force people into buying new ones.

My issue is the following. Since several versions, my SpacePilot Pro does not work correctly with 3D Max 2020 and later. There is a bug in the software that, if you are working in your model while moving the camera, the file may get corrupted, save and load functions stops responding properly and strokes of the brushes may act as "undo" commands.

I have a threat opened with such issues to which only solution given was to revert back the drivers as there were a known bug since several versions in the drivers affecting 3D Max compatibility. As you may understand, reverting back isn't an option as I also need access to new products.

Now what's my surprise that there is no more drivers support and I can't use updated softwares because the working driver it's too old and the newer ones are suspicious bugged in what seems an attempt to make people change to a new device.

Beyond that, I don't even have any wanrraty that buying a new device will go away with those never fixed bugs and that's my dilema. I want to use my SpacePilot Pro for which I paid a huge amount not so long ago and which still in perfect condition and worked fine till I updated the drivers but you guys aren't allowing me to. And I wouldn't mind getting the new Enterprise one if weren't because it may still carry the same bugs in Max 2020 and 2021 because, as you said, "3D connexion isn't a big company and have limited resources". When one pays over 500€ for a device, it's expected to work correctly specially when there is only a handful of compatible softwares.

I also got surprised by how other users in the forum are getting similar issues with their older devices and how they all stops working properly if they update drivers.

I really need a solution other than "buy the new one" because you can't just postpone a fix till you release a new device and disable compatibility with older models right in the driver where the fixes are (if it's really fixed as I have no way of testing that).

[claireh]

Hi Kit,

Can you tell me a little more about the issues you are seeing. What steps do you take to reproduce the issue?

I've been trying to sort out a lot of the 3DsMax issues over the past year or so, but without ways to reproduce the problem, we can't fix it and find a solution. I don't believe the problems themselves are related to the age of these devices. (Barring a hardware issue in which one button may not function. However, functionality would be lost regardless of the application you're in.)

I remember seeing some info about 3DsMax crashing in which the only solution was to restart the software. Does 3DsMax ever crash from using your Space Pilot Pro? What do you mean when you say moving the camera? Are you referring to the viewport, or are you actually trying to move a camera element within the scene?

Do you press any buttons or do anything while moving the camera at the time? Are you able to consistently cause the instability?

[Kit0]

This is the thread with the issue:

https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewtopic ... 701#p76701

We can continue the conversation here if you want. Let me know if there is still any doubts regarding those issues.
Regards.