3d controllers

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:08 am

I ran across this site the other day and it brought back memories of all those weird controllers you used to see when "3d" games like Quake and Descent were new. This product family is not specifically game-oriented, but there are drivers floating around that turn them into multiple-axis "joystick" type controllers.

http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/3a.php

So, what are/were your favorite "3d" controllers?

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:02 pm

I got one of those P5 VR gloves when Essential Reality went under. MSRP was along the lines of $120 and I got it off amazon.com for $20.

Does that count?

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:13 pm

Yup. Did you like it?

I always wanted one of those wave-shaped "puck-style" controllers, but they were always too expensive. And rather large.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:47 pm

It was quite awkward for FPS games, but it felt like it was made for Black & White! Tossing villagers was so much more fun with a VR glove than with a silly mouse. The only problem was that you'd have to pause the game every 20-30 minutes to rest your arm.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "puck-style" controller. :S

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:08 pm

Specifically, the Cyberman 2. I didn't remember the name but you made me look it up. The little jigger you twist, push, pull, etc. is commonly called a puck for its resemblance to a hockey puck.

Looking at the design, and noting that the SpacePilot controllers work the same, and 3dConnexion is a Logitech company, I'd say they're still trying to get some use out of those patents.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:51 pm

ok, I understand now. but I never had any problem with Descent using a joystick (as long as it had x,y,z axis and a HAT)

now, were they true 6-axis controllers or were the press, lift, tilt, and other functions just binary switches? I didn't think a gameport (or w/e it's called) could handle more than 3 axis and... well, I forget how many buttons. I think the limitation was based on the number of pins... idk

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:18 pm

I once wrote a program to interpret signals coming in on the joystick port. On a PC, it's a real mess to get those old analog signals because it was dependent on the amount of time it took a capacitor to charge. Ugly. Fancier ones used digital signals over the same analog port, and so needed special drivers. I'm assuming that's what these things did back in the day. The modern ones use USB, which is relatively easy, and so will support pretty much whatever they're doing on the hardware side.

But I don't know what that is because I've never tried one.