3DSMAX / MAYA roll rotation inverts when above/below horizon

syndicate · Post by **syndicate** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:15 pm

Hi,

I have both a Spacepilot Pro and Space Navigator.

When I am moving around an object in either MAYA/MAX, I notice that the roll (twisting the controller) gradually slows down when I tilt to be in line with the horizon, then it switches roll direction...

Eg: If I am orbiting a car, and I am dropping the height of my orbit until the ground plane is parallel to my view, then the roll has virtually stopped working, and then if I continue to lower my height... until the ground plane is now viewed from underside.. the roll has inverted its direction.

Please help as this is making the products unusable for me.

Also I noticed another thing, In Maya I'm trying to do a simple camera animation. So I look through the camera and pan/roll/tumble/truck/dolly etc and then set a key. Then I go to another frame and do the same thing. No keyframes are actually being recorded for those changes unless I navigate with the controller THEN use my mouse to pan/roll/tumble/truck/dolly and THEN set a keyframe. This is really not working properly and its a shame because I bought both controllers at SIGGRAPH where I wanted to check that everything works in person (which it did!!!) but seeing as I have Maya 2012 and 3dsmax 2012 I dont see what is different to the setup displayed at the booth.

I work in high end automotive visualisation as well as film and TV, so if someone at 3DConnexion gets this working, I can make a recommendation.

Thanks

Post by **ngomes** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:35 am

Hi syndicate,

Using the pop-up menu in Maya or Max, disable the option "Lock Horizon". This should allow you to roll even when looking along a direction almost parallel to the ground panel.

syndicate · Post by **syndicate** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:24 am

Hi ngomes, I tried that but it just throws the whole orientation around to the point where its beyond difficult to control.
So I'm unable to roll when its almost parallel to the ground level? Seems absurd!

Post by **ngomes** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:24 am

syndicate wrote:So I'm unable to roll when its almost parallel to the ground level? Seems absurd!

It would be absurd, absolutely. You can "roll" even if parallel to ground plane as long as "lock horizon" is not active. Most designers prefer not to roll the view when modelling and restrict the movement to "tilt" and "spin".

The actual calculation are more complex than a simply "not roll" flag: we need to ensure the horizon stays levelled.

syndicate · Post by **syndicate** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:11 pm

seems very strange.

Wouldnt it be possible to just check "rollspeed" and have an option to set it to constant? also set the roll orientation to world coordinates so that even if it falls below the ground plane (I imagine negative coord values are causing the issues) just do a calculation that roll direction references the z axis (or y in maya) and bases its rotation on that?

Honestly, it would be amazing if it worked. The lock horizon is especially useful, but until it works without the slowdown and invert, I dont see myself using the controller at all