Got myself a SpaveNavigator and I'm using it with Blender 2.49b. I have to say I Love the heavy thing
, however there are a few things that need to be addressed.Here are the issues I've noticed:
In the Control Panel
I) Blender Configuration Profile
As opposed to say, Acrobat, starting Blender does not change the configuration profile of the driver. I solved this by:
- 1. Copying the default profile loaded by the driver:
"C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3Dconnexion 3DxSoftware\3DxWare\en_us\profiles\default\any.scg"
To
"C:\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\profiles\user42.scg"
2. Editing the following fields to (used notepad)
APPLICATION_NAME = "Blender"
EXECUTABLES = { "blender.exe" }
3. Restarted the driver
II) Tooltips
Where are the tooltips? A few lines of text would go a long way help make the driver friendlier.
III) Button Configuration (request)
It would be nice to be able to assign the "Reverse All Axes" function to a button.
IV)Advanced Settings
Assigning push up/down as "Zoom Direction" in the Device Configuration tab, swaps the "Spin" and "Roll" functions as well as the expected "Zoom" and "Pan". Is this wanted? What purpose does that serve?
In Blender
1. Turntable mode:
I) All Axes Reversed
I had to reserve all axes to get behavior desired; not a problem in itself but this comes into play, read on.
II) In Top/Front/Side view ("Dominant Axis" enabled)
Panning/Zooming brings the 3D view out of Top/Front/Side view, using the MMB doesn't. This is minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.
III) Spin/Roll
Since the functions are swapped in my Advanced Settings, see above, and both behave strangely in Blender, I'm simply going to refer to twisting the cap and pressing the R/L edges.
- Top view:
Twisting -> XY plane rotates round the Z axis
Pressing R/L edge -> nothing (expected XY plane rotation around the Y axis)
Front/Side view:
Twisting -> Nothing (expected XZ plane rotation around the Y axis)
Pressing R/L edge -> XY plane rotates round the Z axis
viewtopic.php?p=17696&highlight=#17696
But as "jjpr" noted, this ISN'T how the device should operate:
What's also strange about twisting and pressing the R/L edges is that depending on the viewing angle, their effectiveness is inversely proportional. That is, when twisting starts to loose effect, pressing the the R/L edges becomes more effective and vice-versa. This bug is particularly annoying as it ends up being a guessing game.jjpr wrote:Technically, your description is mistaken. Three directions of translation and three axes of rotation constitute six degrees of freedom. If one axis of rotation is "locked" then there are only five degrees of freedom. Claiming that 6DOF is supported is inaccurate unless users can "unlock" that last axis. Is that possible?
2. Fly mode
I) Orthogonal/Perspective view
Switching in and out of Fly mode without moving the cap doesn't affect the 3D view. The moment you touch the cap in Fly mode the view goes into perspective mode (as it should), but it doesn't switch back to ortho when you go back to Turntable/Transform mode.
II) Axes and "Zoom Direction"
All the axes behave in the opposite direction than they do in Turntable mode. Same goes for the zoom/pan behavior. This makes this mode unusable, I'm not going to spend my time switching the axes in the driver. Good thing I don't use it in any case.
III) Speed
The speed is all over the place and way off. Again major issue.
3. Transform mode
I) Manipulating objects
- Action performed -> Axis direction
Move along XY (panning) -> Reversed
Move along Z (zooming) -> Unaffected
Tilting -> Reserved
Twisting Cap -> Reversed
Pressing R/L Side -> Unaffected
II) Action confirmation delay
The delay between stopping the movement of the cap and Blender commiting the action to the undo stack is way too short. The undo stack gets filled with way too many actions and you end up having to increase the number of undo steps to an insane number.
III) Using the G,R and S KEYS
- GKEY: Works as *expected* when I adjust the axes directions, see point I).
RKEY: Pressing the R/L side is the only direction that works. Being able to tilt would have been great.
SKEY: Nothing, would be nice to have some direction affect the scale.
CONCLUSION:
Well, I think that about covers it
. Many of these issues are minor and don't really affect my usage (I'm a noob, so no clue if that will change), for the moment though here's what I'd want to fix asap:
- 1. Transform mode -> I) Manipulating objects: Unusable at the moment
2. Transform mode -> II) Action confirmation delay: Undo becomes useless, too many steps in the stack
3. Turntable mode -> III) Spin/Roll: Being able to Roll the view would be great
Despite all of this, I think the SpaceNavigator is an awesome product and the 3Dconnexion team have done their homework. Just a little more and it could be better than Angelina Jolie (okay, maybe not but you get the idea
.