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Razer Hydra experience or interest? (3D 6-degree-of-freedom controller, kind of like SpaceNavigator)


Griff Golding
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Razer Hydra is a pair of controllers (one for each hand) that can tell their position and orientation and have several buttons like a console controller:

http://www.razerzone.com/minisite/hydra/what

There are many games supported, but I do not see any mention of using it with Second Life. Is anyone here using a Hydra? Any tips on getting it to work?

I see that SpaceNavigator, a similar 6DOF controller, is supported:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SpaceNavigator

I am hoping that there is a way to get Hydra to work with Flycam without changing any code, but I can recompile the viewer if needed.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Flycam

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  • 2 weeks later...

Razer Hydra is now running the Flycam for me.

I did it by modifying the 3p-libndofdev project. This is not part of the SL or Firestorm source code, but is linked in from the library libndofdev.lib at the last step of compiling the viewer. Source is available from https://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/3p-libndofdev/

I changed ndofdev_win.c to get values from sixense.dll instead of from DirectInput.

There are several possible next steps:

1. Get SL to use more of the available features of the Hydra. (Currently it is just using one of the two controllers, only two of its buttons, and not its thumb joystick. Some configuration is possible - changing the sensitivity and which axis controls what and choosing whether it is active in different modes - but you can't choose what any of the buttons do and there are several more things that one might want to control beyond the ones currently available.)

2. Figure out how best to give this to other people so they can use it. (If you are already compiling a SL viewer, I could send you my Win32 release or debug libndofdev.lib if you don't want to compile it yourself or my modified source code if you do. If you are not compiling SL, I could possibly send my compiled viewer .exe, but I do not really want to get into the business of distributing a mutant viewer.

3. Integrate my new code with the existing version so it could work with either Hydra or DirectInput N-degree-of-freedom devices and see about getting LL and/or Firestorm or any other viewer to incorporate the changes.

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This method of using the Razer Hydra with Second Life does not require any programming or compiling.

Sixense Motion Creator 2 is a free download from http://sixense.com/products/motioncreator

Using Motion Creator, I made a configuration that works for both the stock Linden and Firestorm viewers.

I posted the configuration in the forum that is used for sharing user-created Hydra configurations:

http://sixense.com/forum/vbulletin/showthread.php?4393-Second-Life

That forum can be difficult to access, so if you send me an email address I will send you the config file. It is just plain text XML, no danger of viruses.

This configuration uses both controllers. One controller replaces the mouse. (This works but while sitting at a desk the mouse is still easier.) The other controller handles flying, walking, Alt and Ctrl and I think I may decide I like it better than the keyboard for everything but typing. There are plenty of buttons not yet assigned for you to add voice and other actions. I am using rotation on both controllers but not position.

I look forward to hearing from anyone else who is interested in using Hydra in SL.

Can anyone think of a way to have one of these control your avatar's hand without changing the server? Maybe we will see some of the physical puppeteering ideas return.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Griff!

i own a Hydra and have ordered my Rift. I am using some DIY (or is that WIP?) setup at the moment:

iPod 4 as display, freepie headtracking and a Hydra.

Getting those to play along nicely for SL & opensim will be great!

I am thinking about using the left hand Hydra for head tracking and the right hand one to have a hand inside SL.

This way i'd have full 6DOF headtracking without the angular restrictions imposed by the usual 3 or 4 point IR head tracking devices. Atm the Rift only supports 3DOF, so some way to add the absolute head position will be required anyways.

I'll give your motioncreator script a try and would like to test your dll integration too, but i dont have a working SL viewer compile environment set up.

best regards,

Chris

 

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  • 8 months later...

So little response towards this topic. That is a shame as the Razer Hydra's only downfall is that companies do not want to invest or 'risk' loss of interest. It has potential, but only if companies get into it. I might have to get back into programming and see if I can build a custom viewer that uses Hydra natively. Maybe in conjunction with two 'hand' objects worn or hovering with the user so that you can use them to interact with the environment.  Will have to see what I can do either way as I see a lot of potential in the Hydras and would like to see that potential reached before they fall out of light.

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  • 10 months later...

After having used my DK2 for a number of hours in SL, I _really_ want Hydra/Stem (Hydra v2 basically) http://sixense.com/ intergration in world, so I can actually wave, point and generally use my hands in world.  Would help a heap with the immersion.

 

Not to mentio there are a multitude of hand positional tracking devices coming out of the wood work due to VR now, so there may be a demand for them in the future.

 

But I can see this, we're going to loose a lot of people into VR when they use SL. Its surprisgly immersive.

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