[Bf-committers] NDOF plugin for windows enabling buttons

Ettore Pasquini ettore_pasquini at 3dconnexion.com
Thu Aug 2 22:13:41 CEST 2007


On 8/1/07 10:31 PM, "sfogoros" <sfogoros at att.net> wrote:

> Matt Ebb wrote:
>> Here's one: http://mke3.net/rt/blender-ndof-20070801.zip
>> 
>> Some feedback on a quick test here: The buttons seem to work in this
>> version, but the turntable rotation is quite wacky - the panning is a
>> lot more sensitive than the rotation, where previously for me it was the
>> other way around, though not to the same extreme.

I removed all scaling from the plugin as requested. You may adjust the
sensitivity in the 3Dconnexion control panel.

I think Jean-Luc and sfgoros already did some scaling inside the application
to have comparable sensitivity for all DOF.

>> Transform mode doesn't
>> seem to work at all, and fly mode seems a bit odd.

Fly mode is kinda weird for me too. It improved after I adjusted the
sensitivity though.

Transform mode works for me - any additional details about this? Can you
step thru the code to see where it fails maybe?

> 
> I worked on the fly mode, viewmoveNDOFfly(), against 2.44 stable. I
> don't have a working windows version of NDOF branch to test the fly mode.
> 
> I originally based the axes scaling on the 3dConnexion driver default
> settings. This setting returned a range of values of +-200. I didn't
> realize the other drivers, mac and linux, would return values in the
> range of +-1000, which the windows driver is capable of at max scaling.
> This has led to some variations in axes scaling depending on the platform.

This is weird. Using default config settings, all platforms should return
the same ranges more or less, and that should be +/- 500. Are you sure you
are using the latest drivers? The mac  driver at some point was returning
larger values, but that has long been fixed.

> 
> When I tested, I would first change the view to front using the menu.
> Then I would proceed to use the SpaceNavigator. I experienced well
> behaved translation and rotation. If I started from the default top
> view, translate moved wrong until I rotated the view to z up (same as
> front or side view). I hope this description of how I used fly mode
> helps to understand its current limitations.

I am aware that some of the rotations are not coherent and I am working on
that. The origin of this, as I understand it at least, is that the blender
user experience always wants to keep the horizon horizontal (correct me if
this is not true). To this end, the Roll values (fval[5]) are ignored.
However, it's not that simple.

Spinning around the world's up axis should move from the device's spin axis
to the device's roll axis when we are moving from the Front (or Side) view
to the Top view. In other world, when we are looking from the Top view, we
should use a Roll motion on the device to spin around the zoom (blue) axis.
When we are looking from the Front view a Spin motion on the device is
required to be consistent.

Ettore


> 
> 
>> cheers,
>> 
>> Matt
>> 
>> On 8/2/07, *Johnny Matthews* <johnny.matthews at gmail.com
>> <mailto:johnny.matthews at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>     Do you happen to have a link to a windows build with this patch? My
>>     other computer (not here) is what I build on and I would like to try
>>     it out.
>> 
>>     On 8/1/07, Ettore Pasquini < ettore_pasquini at 3dconnexion.com
>>     <mailto:ettore_pasquini at 3dconnexion.com>> wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>> 
>>> As promised, I completed the work for enabling the NDOF buttons
>>     on Windows.
>>> This should meet my objectives for siggraph.
>>> 
>>> To enable the buttons this patch is necessary for Windows:
>>> http://cubelogic.org/blender/ndof_buttons_win.patch
>>> 
>>> The new plugin is available here (look at the latest date of course)
>>> http://cubelogic.org/blender/builds/
>>> 
>>> As of now, in that directory you will find builds for all major
>>     platforms
>>> (mac, windows, linux) in zip files that include the source code,
>>     a build, a
>>> license copy, and a readme file. I intend these zips to be the final
>>> deliverables for all interested users. Feedback is really very
>>     welcome at
>>> this point (and I mean NOW) on all levels and on all platforms, in
>>> particular:
>>> - *please* test the included plugin builds;
>>> - let me know if the readme files are clear enough or not (they
>>     include
>>> installation instructions for the plugins)
>>> - anything *legal* related that I missed or got wrong (very
>>     important)
>>> 
>>> Any other suggestions are always welcome :-)
>>> 
>>> These zip files will soon be available somewhere on 3Dconnexion
>>     website, as
>>> agreed - I'll send a note when this happens. I really wanted to
>>     give this
>>> stuff more testing before committing it to my company. We will be
>>     showing
>>> blender in our booth at Siggraph VERY soon so it would be really
>>     great to
>>> have a more proven and tested product. BTW just to be clear, my
>>     internal
>>> deadline for giving the plugins to the booth people is this Friday.
>>> 
>>> Thanks to everyone!
>>> 
>>> Ettore
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> 
>> 
>> 
>>     --
>>     Johnny Matthews
>>     johnny.matthews at gmail.com <mailto:johnny.matthews at gmail.com>
>>     Check out my blog at - http://johnnygizmo.blogspot.com
>> 
>>     "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
>>     - Arthur C. Clarke
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>> 
>> 
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