Unity and SpaceMouse: call for industry experts, influencers and video content creators

Hi,
3Dconnexion recently launched their official SpaceMouse integration plugin for Unity. If you don’t already know what a SpaceMouse is or how it can help, check it out here, it’s awesome!

This expands on existing support for other industry applications such as Zbrush, Substance Painter, 3Ds Max, Blender, Maya and lots more.

We are actively looking for industry experts, influencers and video content creators who want to actively use our products in their workflows and can help us spread the word about the new integration.

Is there anyone here who might be able to help?

 

Will I at least get a free SpaceMouse or am I paying out of pocket to promote somebody else's product?

 

I have replied to you in private chat

 

Does it only support 2022?

How long does it take to learn to use it and see comfort or productivity gains?

It looks potentially cool, and given how many hours I spend in some 3D editor or another the idea of a purpose-built input device has potential. I'd want to try one, though, and none of the vendors are anywhere near me.

 

I wish to see more content on that, like a guide on how to use on Unity or on Blender.
If it solves some problems it should be promising

 

@angrypenguin we have tested it in Unity 2022, I have asked for earlier versions and I will let you know asap.

It takes a few minutes of practice for a couple of days to mastering it, but the comfort and productivity gains can be felt the second your hand touches the SpaceMouse.

In which region / city are you?

 

I PM'd you my location. A few vendors will deliver one, it's just that I can't go somewhere and try one out first.

 

Great, I saw your PM. I have forwarded your request and will let you know asap.

 

Regarding your question "Does it only support 2022?", the answer is that it works with v2021 and newer

 

Hi, there are many video on Youtube about the SpaceMouse in Blender: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spacemouse+blender

Unity is a new integration so there is less content on Youtube and this is why we are looking to find users with whom we could collaborate on creating video content.

Finally, regarding the problems it solves, as Unity provides scene design, animation, simulation, and pre-visualization workflows, given the scope of perspective these flows require to make design decisions and the camera control needed to understand the impact of these decisions, SpaceMouse creates an opportunity not found elsewhere to provide this level of understanding and efficiency unmatched in the industry.

For example, if a designer is working on animating a video game character’s signature finishing move, they’re going to need to understand what the end-user is going to experience from all the effects they’ve been layering on. Playing back the animation and panning cameras in 2D while constantly switching to orbit mode prevents designers from experiencing their work as end an end-user. It is a much slower and less effective workflow that is being deprecated as games become more sophisticated, especially in the context of AAA games.

If the character animation has it jumping into the air and slamming its sword down on an unfortunate victim, being able to navigate around Y,Z (underneath, let’s say) of said character, and observe how the particle effects look from different angles while being able to make changes on the fly and get instant feedback on how it deviates from its origin point, promotes design perspective needed for understanding choices on a level not previously achievable.

Let me know if you have any more doubts

 

Hi @gpenta, does your integration work in builds or is it Editor only? I am using another integration for builds, but it has a few issues and is not guaranteed to be maintained. https://github.com/PatHightree/SpaceNavigator

 

Just wanted to say that I used it yesterday and, while the documentation could be better located on how to get this up and running, it is amazing to use once you get the setting the way you want. Any dev will see a massive QoL increase in getting around the levels and if you have the larger devices with hot keys that just opens things up to another level. I do have some suggestions for the team, though. Allow more settings in Unity itself since as of right now the bulk of the adjustments to how the mouse works need to be done in the software running separately. I've also noticed that after actively using the control knob for a longer period of time it will decide to do its own thing when I release control. This may be a Unity issue as I have had this problem with the unofficial spacemouse asset as well. Even with those minor issues, I cannot recommend a 3d mouse enough! It really is a gamechanger for ANY 3d workflow. I think these devices would be way more common if 3dconnexxion did some sponsoring with devs and 3d artists but as of right now they are relegated to the shadows, unfortunately.

 

Hi @cecarlsen, our integration only works in the editor for now, but we have a preliminary integration for gameplay that needs to be validated by power users.

 

Hi @ramethorne, thanks for your comment! As you also have the issue with the unofficial plug-in, it’s definitely not us. We have it running on several machines and they are all fine. Also, our 3Dx insiders haven’t mentioned any delay issues.

 

Where is the documentation located? I received my device today and cannot get it to do anything besides rotate on one axis

 

It looks interesting so I tried to order one from your website. I ran into some cryptic errors there while creating an account and after slogging through those finally tried to purchase and apparently only UK billing addresses are allowed?

So I ordered one from Amazon instead. Will be happy to provide feedback once it arrives.

Your website experience isn't helping your cause.

 

Well, do let me know if you need more "power users" to test the in-game version of your plugin

 

It would be useful if the page said how to actually install it! I assume it's available by defualt in Unity 2022, but is there a package I can install for 2021?

 

I was sent a device, and ran into this myself. Thankfully this FAQ entry got me sorted - there's a Unity package you need to install from the SpaceMouse's software folder.

It's entirely possible that I missed this somewhere in the documentation (there was a 2 week gap between installing it and trying it in Unity over the holidays) but it wasn't listed in the installation page of the manual, and the app gave me no hint. My suggestion is that the 3Dconnextion Settings app should do some kind of check to see if the plugin is installed, and prompt the user to do so if it's not there.

Now that it's working the device seems pretty simple and intuitive to use. I recommend using the Horizon Lock setting when working in Unity (perhaps it should be default?), but won't say much more until I've worked with it a bit.

 

So, I've been using the SpaceMouse Compact for a couple of hours now, just doing some general grunt work tweaking stuff in a game environment. First impression is pretty positive.

Basically, it's a 6-degree-of-freedom joystick with a couple of buttons. First impressions:

• After getting it working, it took around 30 minutes trying out the different modes and then just getting to work and I felt comfortable and productive with it.
• Moving around feels nice, which is... well, nice, but isn't going to pay the bills. However, I did find myself both navigating the scene more quickly, and looking at stuff from more angles, distances, compositions, etc. than I typically do with mouse + keyboard combo. I'm pretty fast with mouse and keyboard, but this requires zero mode switching.
• With mouse + keyboard I find myself pressing F (focus object) and then scrolling... just... a lot. Which is fine. But in a couple of hours with the SpaceMouse I only pressed F when moving to a new object.
  
• On that note, remap the right button to F (focus object), or something you use a lot. By default it changes the editor layout, which I have zero use for, and surely isn't common enough to be one of the only two buttons on the device.
• The device itself feels really well built. It's also surprisingly heavy for its size, though of course that's necessary because you not only push on it, but lift it up while using it.
  
• The deadzone is nice and small, and input seems really precise outside of that. This means you can get very fine control with a light touch.
  
• It did take a little practice to be able to rotate it toward/away from me without also giving forward/backward input.

So all of that's pretty neat.

While it didn't bother me in today's tasks, my main thought is that it looks like they could fit some more buttons on this, and surely they'd come in handy. It's pretty small, though, so it could be that all of the space is spoken for. And I assume this is why the software provides a radial menu system, and the bigger versions all have extra buttons, too.

The current Unity integration / plugin has a few foibles, though certainly nothing which spoiled the experience, and I'm sure that'll improve as feedback is gathered.

Now that I've tried one, if there weren't one on my desk I'd be sorely tempted to buy one. Its strongest use case, I think, is for making 3D game environments, though I'd suspect any 3D scene or modelling work could benefit from it. I also suspect that for people moving between 3D applications it'd be handy, just because you wouldn't need to learn / switch between different control schemes just to get around.

Of course, the big question is this: will it get long term repeat usage, or is it a nice novelty I'll be over in a couple of weeks? Only one way to find out.

 

Thank you! Works perfectly now. I agree with locking horizon being a must, I would also recommend setting it to Targeted Camera mode, and just reducing the overall speed a bit. In the default Object Mode I have to toggle every axis to Reverse for it to make sense for me.

Edit: Walk Mode is really great, but I wish I could set a button to toggle in without having to open advanced settings!

 

Yeah, I settled on Target Camera too.

Definitely agree that being able to toggle stuff without the settings app up would be useful. Have you checked the radial menu stuff to see if you can map the settings you want in there?

 

I bought a 3Dconnexion 3DX-700028 SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse back in August 2014. I used it some with CAD work, but I always wished it would work with the Unity editor. I am going to dig it back out and test it with Unity 2021.3.

 

I tested my old SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse with the latest 3Dconnexion drivers and Unity 2021.3. In the 3Dconnexion Home Trainer, I can fully move and rotate the teapot model. But when I go into Unity 2021.3, I can only zoom in and out with the SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse. I cannot fully move around in the scene using the SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse. I cannot fully navigate a Unity scene like the video shows on https://3dconnexion.com/us/applications/unity-technologies-unity/

Next I added the package in Unity according to steps on https://3dconnexion.com/uk/support/faq/3dconnexion-plugin-for-unity3d-is-not-loading/

Now with the 3Dconnexion package installed into my project, I can move and rotate within the scene using the 3D mouse. Is there any option to inverse the rotation direction? (similar to Google Chrome options, but in Unity?)

The Unity package that comes with the 3D mouse driver is outdated and cannot be configured. It is version 1.0 of the package. There is also version 1.5 on the Unity Asset Store and version 2.0 on Github.

The Unity package version 2.0 on Github works pretty well. I installed it from https://github.com/PatHightree/SpaceNavigator.git

The version 2.0 include options for managing deadband, sensitivity, inversion. Overall, it works really well. I would strongly suggest including version 2.0 with the drivers instead of version 1.0. The v1.0 package is barely useable compared to v2.0.

In v2.0 package, I had to set the Translation deadband to 5 and the Rotation deadband to 7. The default deadband settings had a lot of drift using my old 3D mouse.

 

Yes, in the settings app, assuming that it works with the Navigator.

I believe the Asset Store / GitHub one is a 3rd party integration, not the official one from the vendor, which is pretty new.

 

I'm not sure what radial menu you are talking about, but when I search for functions in the button mapper nothing shows up for "walk", even though it's something I can chose under Advanced Settings. Preferably setting a mode would work as a a toggle and it switches back to the previous mode if you pressed it again.

 

Well, the vendor provided version 1.0 of the package for Unity is trash, since it barely works and offers no useful adjustments. The 3rd party version 2.0 of the package for Unity (from Github) is actually pretty good and included every needed option. If the vendor wants to get Unity users interested, then the vendor needs to either reach out to the 3rd party about getting that as the official vendor offering or the vendor needs to build their own package of equal quality. The version 1.0 package that the vendor currently includes is not adequate. If the vendor doesn't deal with that, then I would not recommend their product at all.

Beyond that, I am not super thrilled about how long it took the vendor to support popular gaming engines like Unity and UE5. I bought my 3D mouse in 2014, and it is now 2023 and they are still not completely ready. Their product works with Unity, but only with a 3rd party package for Unity. To use the 3D mouse with Unity, I would need to import that 3rd party package into every Unity project that I create. Their 3D mouse is not natively supported by Unity.

I am on the fence right now regarding my old 3D mouse from 2014. I am leaning toward sitting it back in the closet, again.

 

Hi @ShilohGames @erispe10 @angrypenguin @Claytonious @superpig @jabelman @Murgilod @cecarlsen @Niter88 @ramethorne ,
first of all thanks for your comments and feedbacks.
I have forwarded them to the product team to take action, so now it is in their hands.
Bear with me and I will make sure to keep you posted when I hear from them,
Best,
Guglielmo