An Open Letter to 3Dconnexion:

[DKP]

Dear Sirs,

You folks are BRILLIANT!!! I have recently purchased a SpaceNavigator and it is an amazing human to computer interface! The multiple axies of rotation, the directional control...all fantastic!

Also...

You folks are IDIOTS!!! You don't have it configured to work as a game controller? How big is the market for this kind of controller as a C.A.D. device? A few thousand? Maybe a few tens of thousands?

Do you have any idea how many people play World of Warcraft? MILLIONS! Over 8,000,000 people play that one game alone! And it's only one of many MMORPGs. And controlling your "character" in games like World of Warcraft is EXACTLY like the control you advertise your SpaceNavigator for. Furter, the cost of the SpaceNavigator is quite in line with what many avid gamers are willing to pay for an excellent game controller.

Mind you, I'm not saying you should NOT support the various C.A.D. applications. If you want to support C.A.D. applications, as a charity, fine. But unless you have some kind of religious aversion to making a ton of money, the VERY FIRST thing you should be working on is making this controller game-ready.

Thank you.

Dave Putney

P.S. Thanks to the handy add on software created by another of your customers, I'm able to use the SpaceNavigator as one of the beta testers in the soon to be released game "Age of Conan".

[TanMan]

I would like to add a request for support of games like HomeWorld2 on the Macintosh as well--it's the first truly non-First-Person-Shooter 3D game, unlike Warcraft or Starcraft which are just 2.5D or isometric views of 2D.

[mishman]

I own two SpaceNavigators, one I use at the office and one I use when working at home.

It would ge great if there were drivers available for games, multipurpose device, all work no play.....

[Absum]

Well as far as adding support for games, that really isn't up to 3dconnexion, sure they could make the device more joystick like (on the interface side that is, the device it self is excellent) by using absolute axis instead of relative and such... and better buttons... The onces you should be complaining on is the game makers who don't add support for 6DoF devices.

The thing 3dconnexion has made that's f*in brilliant is realeasing a 6DoF device thats aimed at consumers (such as us) and if enough have one and starts to think of ways to use them, more options will appear!

[Absum]

And by consumers i mean home-users, geeks and other technophiles who can't afford a device for lets say 500$+

And it seems to be working too... just look at novint (they are getting closer to consumer-grade pricing)

[megavyrus]

I just got a SpaceNavigator and I was very surprised/disappointed to see its limited application support outside the 3d field. It could be used in so many other areas: image editing for panning zooming, etc in apps other than Photoshop, 3d strategy games, web surfing for scrolling... and many more.

From what I've seen on the forums so far, many people request such features, why won't 3DConnexion make this happen??

Since you are a Logitech company, why don't you take example from Logitech's own Setpoint software ... which allows customization of the mouse and keyboard buttons for various usage in various applications.

The SpaceNavigator i believe can easily be programmed to act as a multi-button mouse which sends out different commands as specified by the user.

Most applications are built with support for common commands for zooming for example... like + or Ctrl+ to zoom and - or Ctrl- to zoom out... so i don't believe it's up to each software company to build plugings but rather to 3dconnexion to make their drivers support these general standards.

Afterall, the SpaceNavigator is basically an input device, much like a keyboard and mouse. I have not yet seen any other keyboard or mouse company which expects software makers to build plugins for the software to support their input device (keyboard or mouse). The input devices are simply made to work with Windows or any other operating system.

So please, 3dconnexion, make it possible for the users of your products to fully exploit the potential of your products by updating the drivers with support for more applications and usage scenarios.

Thank you.

[TanMan]

Well, since I was attending MacWorld San Francisco 2008, I went up to the 3Dconnexion rep and asked him to relay to whomever it concerned that we Macintosh users would like to see better drivers for their product and that I was already a Space Explorer owner who hoped to use it with more apps than just Sketchup. He told me that he would pass the message onwards and upwards and email me after the show. Of course, assuming he does remember to answer me, the answer from 3Dconnexion *might* be a polite middle finger but I've done what little I could on my part at least...

[TimW]

tff

[pwscottiv]

Dear Sirs,

You folks are BRILLIANT!!! I have recently purchased a SpaceNavigator and it is an amazing human to computer interface! The multiple axies of rotation, the directional control...all fantastic!

Also...

You folks are IDIOTS!!! You don't have it configured to work as a game controller? How big is the market for this kind of controller as a C.A.D. device? A few thousand? Maybe a few tens of thousands?

Do you have any idea how many people play World of Warcraft? MILLIONS! Over 8,000,000 people play that one game alone! And it's only one of many MMORPGs. And controlling your "character" in games like World of Warcraft is EXACTLY like the control you advertise your SpaceNavigator for. Furter, the cost of the SpaceNavigator is quite in line with what many avid gamers are willing to pay for an excellent game controller.

Mind you, I'm not saying you should NOT support the various C.A.D. applications. If you want to support C.A.D. applications, as a charity, fine. But unless you have some kind of religious aversion to making a ton of money, the VERY FIRST thing you should be working on is making this controller game-ready.

Thank you.

Dave Putney

P.S. Thanks to the handy add on software created by another of your customers, I'm able to use the SpaceNavigator as one of the beta testers in the soon to be released game "Age of Conan".

I agree, there's so many games out there that this could work with. I'm really surprised they haven't made it compatible with at least a few popular games to see how the market reacts to it.

[dale]

This type of 3d device has been used in CAD for decades, long before any of your games existed. The games offer new potential for sales, but the original hardware existed for CAD long ago.
They use to cost thousands, not hundreds.

[pwscottiv]

This type of 3d device has been used in CAD for decades, long before any of your games existed. The games offer new potential for sales, but the original hardware existed for CAD long ago.
They use to cost thousands, not hundreds.

It's my understanding that the original device was designed to control the Magellan spacecraft. I'm not aware of anyone offering anything like this for CAD before about a 10 years ago. Maybe you know something I don't... Who was the manufacture of the devices you're talking about. I've been involved with engineering/design for about 15 years and I'm not familiar with anything else existing before the original Spacemouse.

[jwick]

The first commercial product was the Spaceball 1003. 1988. $3500 comes to mind, but my memory may be fading. It quickly fell to less than $2000, where it stood into the early 90's then continued to fall with various models.

[pwscottiv]

The first commercial product was the Spaceball 1003. 1988. $3500 comes to mind, but my memory may be fading. It quickly fell to less than $2000, where it stood into the early 90's then continued to fall with various models.

Ahh, I totally forgot about those... They were white and used a serial connection, right? And, from what I remember with the one I used, the movement wasn't nearly as smooth as what's available today... Although, the spring on mine was kinda damaged I think.
It's weird how the grip design changed from the original ball, to the puck, back to the ball, and then back to the puck like the designs you currently sell. I personally like how the ball design feels in my hand... Do you know why you've reverted back to the puck?

[jwick]

It's a Coke vs. Pepsi thing. People get used to one or the other. There is no difference in capability. Each shape can be used equally as well as the other.

[dale]

It's a Coke vs. Pepsi thing. People get used to one or the other. There is no difference in capability. Each shape can be used equally as well as the other.

Pepsi can't cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
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