3Dconnexion Spacenavigator & Rift

[marbas]

The spacenavigator is a really neat input device for moving in 3D space. Especially in modelling applications.
http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacenavigator.html

Haven't seen any games support this yet. But it might work well with the Rift HMD.
Only drawback is that it's quite heavy, since it's intended to stay firmly on your desktop.

What do you think? Would it work good in VR?

[eshan]

I have one sitting on my desk. 6DoF in one hand is nice for 3D modelling or even just flying around Google Earth.

As for VR gaming, unfortunately I don't think it's a good match. It pretty much has to stay on a desk to function. Your fingers lightly move the knob around with the base staying stationary. I suppose you could hold the base in one hand and manipulate the knob in the other, but then you're out of hands for anything else.

[rmcclelland]

I also use one of these daily. For VR, I can mostly see using them for object manipulation rather than Avatar movement. By first SpaceBall cost $700, now they are down to ~$70.

[cybereality]

Yeah, I have one. Its pretty cool, great for 3D modelling actually. Not sure how useful it would be for gaming though. Certainly not for standing up (thing is heavy).

[marbas]

I have two .. and actually wouldn't mind trying using both as some control scheme for a flying type game in VR. Haven't checked their SDK yet, but I guess using both is no go.

Yeah I was thinking about using them in VR from a sitting position. Without proper position tracking, I think VR games experiments for the dev kit would work best from a sitting position.

[EdZ]

I'd love to see a spaceflight game using one. Trying to get unconstrained Newtonian motion with other setups usually ends up with a confusing and highly unintuitive mix of joysticks, throttles, rudder pedals, hatswitches, etc.