OMG Space Navigator ROCKS!

Does anyone use one?

If you have one, you've GOT to try the RC1.2 viewer. Edit has a new tab called Input & Camera, Click "Joystick setup" and then the "Space Navigator Defaults" button. The left button to switches modes.

I've been waiting for this for over a year.

Erm, wot's a "space navigator"? Some kind of input device?

and will i need lube?

This thing looks interesting, I may have to try one out. Google brings up this...

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

I've used these products (originally from Spacetec IMC, then bought by Logitech, now 3DConnexion) for over a decade.

SpaceOrb 360
Spaceball 4000FLX

I love them. Will have to look at it.

I'll wait till it has 5 programmable buttons.


Is Space Navigator now more compatible with SL?

Depends on how tight the space is you are trying to navigate through

Hmm I still find flycam keeps activating and I lose control of my avatar at the same time as I try and get settings to work, it also doesn't show which axis my Joystick is working
I have a cheap joystick with 2 axis and a 4 settinf Z axis and 3 buttons.

It also lets you spin and move prims directly. WOOT! The default settings seem a little touchy tho.

SL should get a deal going with Logitech the way they did with headsets for Plantronics.

That's interesting. My son has an unused SpaceOrb 360 tucked away in a cupboard in his room somewhere and I think I know where to find the driver disk. Does it work OK under Win XP Home SP2 or do you have to resort to OS compatability?

Might be useful to use in SL in combination with a laptop where there's limited space

Elfrida

One of my buddies used to play Descent with a SpaceOrb. Or maybe it was called Orbit something-or-other. After about two weeks of constant training, he could do Death Bloosom from The Last Starfighter. Bloody insane. It got even more insaner when he moved on to Descent II with the bigger weapons.

Or how flexible you are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZwR1JUWCqs&NR=1

OK. . .now that the initial rush is over, I can talk with a little more objectivity.

It works and it's fully supported by RC 1.2. In fact, clicking the "Space Navigator defaults" button lets you get started right away. You can move your avatar, move your camera POV ala "camera contols" but without the restrictions, for example, you can aim at anything you want to, and zoom right in on it directly without having to alt select it, (Actually, you CAN'T alt select anything while in flycam.) or coming to the limit of camera movement.

Upon rezzing a prim, you can move it just about any way you want to. I had some trouble with this at first and knocked a few prims into neighboring sims. Even after adjusting it tho, I still had a few issues rotating and moving prims with precision--which is the whole idea behind this thing. I figure that, even if I could move prims precisely with it, actually moving prims is just a small function of prim manipulation. It's not like the SN is going to keep my hands off the keyboard

The default settings seem a little touchy to me. I had to open up the dead zone a bit, and turn off feathering completely in order to be able to spin and move prims without knocking them off the grid. Maybe I'm just a bit heavy handed but I kept ending up crawling when I wanted to walk.

There seems to be a bit of lag in movement. That is, I start out fine, attempt to change direction but it doesn't happen, so, having overshot, I attempt to compensate, THEN the first change of direction kicks in. . .

Vehicles were probelmatic. The flintstone car worked OK. The bug i got from Privateer Space wouldn't respond to controller OR keyboard, even tho I could send it commands such as start up and raise gear. My Terra Claww worked ok using the keyboard, but unpredictably with the SN. My Dagger seemed to suffer from lag at times but responded nicely to the flying controls most of the time.

I'm happy to see it working, but I can see I'll have to tweak the settings a bit more. Most people probably wouldn't bother.

I have been using SN with SL for some time now, mostly for camera control.
The new support is good. Not sure what use I can make of the Build mode, but it is entertaining. I wish there was an on screen indicator to let me know what mode I am in. It does seem to switch modes on it's own, unexpectedly sometimes.

Sure, it rocks... Very intuitive...
But it drifts. And the control panel is completely beyond me, and believe me, I am a "Rocket Scientist".

So, is there a button to calm down the drift? In flycam mode, if I leave the SN sitting there, my camera drifts off in some direction. Needs a single button on the interface somewhere to say... "Cancel out drift Now"...

Or did I miss seeing that button??

I'm using the 1.20.3 RC SL client on Windoze.

- wwv

OK.. Figured it out...
If your drift around, then you need to increase the dead zones a little.
While in flycam, or wherever your camera drifts, open the joystick config and increase the dead zone for X Y or Z... Y is vertical - in some systems Z is vertical which messed me up at first. The changes take effect immediately, so you will see your camera stop. I needed a Y or .05 and a Z of .03 to stop camera movement.

Ok.. back to Torely's tutorials on YouTube...

Yes, it's now supported by SL.

Amazon has despatched mine - I am waiting! Very impatiently

Should be here tomorrow - omg, I can't wait any longer!!!!

Mine's leaving China tommorrow, we better beat the rush, there may be a shortage of them in a few weeks.

I got mine from buy.com in two days.

I've been playing with it...

For avatar or camera movement, it's great.
It sorta bites for editing...not precise enough, movement is in all axes (unless you set up single axis movement, and just using the handles is quicker). Also, there is a bug in the Release Candidate (at least as of RC2) that causes slow rotation about the Z axis. This is annoying when it's your avatar, but it makes lining up prims impossible.

There should be an option to use a keyboard key to switch between movement and flycam mode...the button on the side of the Space Navigator is too hard to find and depress.

Please! Don't anyone post anymore comments on how wonderful it is, as I have to go to work tomorrow and won't get to play with mine until early evening - and that is assuming it turns up tomorrow.

If it doesn't I am going to be SOOOOO sulky!

I've been using mine pretty much exclusively for moving and camming. I figured out pretty quickly that most of the dead zone's need to be opened WAY up.

For building, all you can do is move and rotate a prim or group of prims. Can't do anything with the prim torture buttons, so, using it for building just doesn't work out for me. I tend to use numbers anyway.

The only problem I have with movement is while you can move forward and climb or dive (flying into the ground was much too common before I increazed the Z axis dead zone.) you can't move forward and TURN at the same time. Can't understand why that doesn't work, but--Hey we're talking about Linden Lab here. Not like they have this reputation for getting simple things right.

I found there are several versions of this thing-which is the one that you all use? The cheap or the more expensive one...?

That's interesting, because walking and turning my view is something I do often. I hold down 2 arrow keys while also holding down the mouse on my character [I use click-lock for that]. That way, I can look to the side, a bit forward of my avatar, as it walks, so I can see what I'm walking past. I really wish I had independent control of where my head/eyes/cam faces, regardless of the direction I'm moving in.

Anyway, keep the feedback coming! I'm seriously thinking of getting one, and really like hearing your detailed reviews.

Does the Space Navigator require much hand pressure?

I already have pain probs because I work and play with computers all day, all night. Your feedback on how it feels would help me decide to get it:

-- do you feel like you must apply lots of pressure?

-- do you feel like you must apply constant pressure?

-- does your hand or arm get sore or tired from using it?

Please can someone send me 300 usd to buy one of those fancy ones?
LOL just joking