Using Space Navigator in my RTS Game Dysis!

[CFarrell]

Hey everyone! I just wanted to thank 3D Connexion for their product and say that I'm really excited to have 3D mouse capabilities in an RTS game I'm making. It makes a ton of sense to have a 3D mouse for a 3D RTS, because it lets you pan and rotate around the terrain in a much more precise manor (especially since you need your mouse and keyboard for other stuff). Anyway, I'll just drop this youtube link to a gameplay video in case anyone wants to see it in action - and while this is a gameplay video, I am using it to move around - so you can see how seamlessly it works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLdqFt5e5NM



Thanks again, and hopefully we'll start seeing even more games using your stuff in the future!

[ngomes]

Hi CFarrel,

Cool stuff. Very cool. It seems that you have set up very nice, smooth navigation from wihting a robot (free-camera control) and when flying over the scene (target-camera control).

How have you defined the target-camera rotation center (pivot point)? Intersection of camera view direction (centered) and terrain?

[Witroubt]

Hi CFarrell ,
really thanks for the post of the video . I watched the video liked it a lot. Nice movement and everything is cool man........

[CFarrell]

Thanks! I mostly use the target-camera control with the 3D mouse (the WASD for inside the robot seems a bit more natural for an FPS game still - maybe once I get into space combat robots, the 3D mouse will re-gain its advantage). The pivot point for the flying camera actually rests on the terrain and is indeed the intersection of that and the camera view vector. It can actually be raised and lowered, but right now I have the game automatically do this with the terrain - I'll probably give people the option of manually adjusting this if they want later in development.

It's a lot of fun to have this capability - especially for making gameplay videos - helps with smooth/complex movement while I can still use the mouse to do stuff.

[ngomes]

Hi CFarrell,

The pivot point for the flying camera actually rests on the terrain and is indeed the intersection of that and the camera view vector. It can actually be raised and lowered

Do you ensure that the view centre always intersects the terrain? Is it possibel that the view vector may point above the horizon?

It's a lot of fun to have this capability - especially for making gameplay videos - helps with smooth/complex movement while I can still use the mouse to do stuff.

There you go. Keep the best device for the job at hand: regular mouse for point-and-click and 3D mouse for navigation, natural movement. Two hands work better than one.

[CFarrell]

Actually I don't ensure that the view always intersects the terrain - it can float above (and be pushed below), but it is indicated through a small semi-transparent sphere (which grows as you move around the terrain - and shrinks to zero when you stop moving... that way the player sees their rotation point, but isn't distracted by it when they've stopped moving). By doing this, I allow the camera to go underground (since there are cave systems in Dysis) as well as rest above the ground and allow the camera to face upwards towards the sky (which is good for screenshots sometimes).

Two hands definitely work better than one! If only I could get a 3D mouse into all the players of the game, I'm sure they'd have a blast!