Cloudhead Games got a couple of 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator 3D mice to use in Unity and 3D modeling applications. This is an abbreviated setup guide.
Ooh, shiny!
If you only ever plan to use it with the short list of applications that have fully native support for it (Maya, Blender, and such), you can download and install the current 3dxWare 10 driver from here: 3dxWare driver downloads
If, on the other hand, you want to be able to use it with other applications and want to be able to edit your own custom profiles, steer clear of the driver above. Install this older beta driver instead: 3dxWare 10 Beta 16 driver download
(For some reason, 3dConnexion castrated their non-beta drivers by removing the ability to manage and edit custom profiles from within the driver’s UI. Supposedly the functionality is still there, but involves faffing around with XML files in a text editor. However, time is money and the documentation is sparse, so I just installed the Beta 16 driver and called it a day.)
Next, to make it work in Unity, download this package from the Unity Asset Store and import it into your project: SpaceNavigator Driver by Patrick Hogenboom
Once you’ve imported the package, a new SpaceNavigator entry is added to Unity’s Window menu. Clicking that entry will create a new SpaceNavigator window. Make sure you drag one of the window corners down to resize it so you can actually see all of the information on it. Initially, everything below the Lock controls was hidden at first, and I had a tough time using the SpaceNavigator because the default sensitivity settings were much too high for beginners.
Crank the sensitivity way down, because the SpaceNavigator is incredibly sensitive and can sense the gentlest of inputs. At this point, you’re able to navigate in the scene window by tilting, pushing, twisting, and pulling the SpaceNavigator’s knob, which beats the pants off of keyboard/mouse navigation.
I use the big brother of this at work. I prefer it to the “simple” navigation with mouse and keyboard…
Me too! Once I had gotten it working and spent a few minutes getting used to it in Unity’s scene window, I really liked the much finer control it gives me when moving the camera around. The arrow keys and mouse button are kind of coarse and clumsy in comparison.
thanks for post.
can i use space navigator as a input device for my game???
Ehhh….sort of. For best results, you’ll want to register for and download the SDK for it first, then explicitly add support for it to your game.