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3D Connextion space mouse with Houdini

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DisneyAnimationAdmin
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Does anyone know if it's possible to lock the horizon tilt in the Houdini viewport? I use a 3d Connextion space mouse and the tilt/roll in the viewport is really nauseating, and I was hoping I could disable it. In space mouse settings in other packages there's an option to "lock horizon" but for Houdini I don't see that option in the space mouse settings, so I was hoping I could do this through the Houdini preferences, but I'm just not finding it there. Any idea if this is possible in Houdini?
Thanks!

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Siavash Tehrani
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It's not possible, SideFX has not implemented it. There is an existing RFE (Request for Enhancement) #106266 for this feature. I would urge you to add your voice to it.

https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/submit/ [www.sidefx.com]
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Jonathan de Blok
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Working on this at the moment. Should give (technical) users full customization control since the raw data is simply exposed to python..

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/777706928 [vimeo.com]
Edited by Jonathan de Blok - Dec. 3, 2022 18:44:47
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Siavash Tehrani
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!!!

Fantastic Jonathan. It would be great to finally have Spacemouse navigation in Houdini that's as usable as other DCCs.
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ttiimmaacc
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Jonathan de Blok
Working on this at the moment. Should give (technical) users full customization control since the raw data is simply exposed to python..

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/777706928 [vimeo.com]

Did you end up finishing the script?
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mandrake0
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https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/3dmouse.html [www.sidefx.com]
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Jonathan de Blok
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ttiimmaacc
Jonathan de Blok
Working on this at the moment. Should give (technical) users full customization control since the raw data is simply exposed to python..

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/777706928 [vimeo.com]

Did you end up finishing the script?

I polished it a bit so it's ready for basic use, had more plans for this to control objects etc but for now it's just viewport navigation. It does work for recording camera movement if you lock a camera to the view and enable autokey.

Anyways, You can grab the SpaceMouse panel from here:
https://bitbucket.org/jcdeblok/jdb_houdinitoolkit/src/master/python_panels/ [bitbucket.org]

Place the file in your '/Documents/houdini19.5/python_panels' or equivalent folder and you should be able to add it to the UI.

PS: You do need to set the "HOUDINI_ENABLE_3DMOUSE" environment var to "0" to avoid interference with native support. The panel will display a message about this if this has not been done.
Edited by Jonathan de Blok - Oct. 22, 2023 05:30:12
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Siavash Tehrani
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Thanks so much for sharing this Jonathan! I get the following error when trying to access the panel:

There is an error in the SpaceMouse script.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/hibbi/Documents/houdini19.5/python_panels/SpaceMouse.pypanel", line 18, in <module>
#
File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.5.773\python39\lib\site-packages-forced\shiboken2\files.dir\shibokensupport\__feature__.py", line 142, in _import
return original_import(name, *args, **kwargs)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'spacenavigator'
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Jonathan de Blok
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Siavash Tehrani
Thanks so much for sharing this Jonathan! I get the following error when trying to access the panel:

There is an error in the SpaceMouse script.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/hibbi/Documents/houdini19.5/python_panels/SpaceMouse.pypanel", line 18, in <module>
#
File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.5.773\python39\lib\site-packages-forced\shiboken2\files.dir\shibokensupport\__feature__.py", line 142, in _import
return original_import(name, *args, **kwargs)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'spacenavigator'


Ohh yeah, I forgot to include this 3th party python bit: https://github.com/johnhw/pyspacenavigator/blob/master/spacenavigator.py [github.com]

I guess you could place it in here: 
C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.5.752\python39\lib\site-packages

But what I prefer to do it make separate folder for nondefault site-packages and add it to the PATH env variable so the imports will find it. That way things will stay intact when updating/changing Houdini versions. In my case it looks like this:



I see the 3th party code is MIT licensed so that gives me the option to just include it in the code and make it a single package, I'll look into that later, until then the above method should work.
Edited by Jonathan de Blok - Oct. 22, 2023 13:58:17

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Screenshot 2023-10-22 195313.jpg (20.5 KB)

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Siavash Tehrani
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Thank you. I added spacenavigator.py. It then complained about missing pywinusb, so I installed it via pip, following Paul Ambrosiussen's handy tutorial here: https://youtu.be/cIEN50WuPoc?si=t-aXG4CZSOElqaBV [youtu.be]
The panel now loads without errors, however while the buttons on the spacemouse still work fine, no inputs from the puck seem to be detected.
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Jonathan de Blok
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Siavash Tehrani
Thank you. I added spacenavigator.py. It then complained about missing pywinusb, so I installed it via pip, following Paul Ambrosiussen's handy tutorial here: https://youtu.be/cIEN50WuPoc?si=t-aXG4CZSOElqaBV [youtu.be]
The panel now loads without errors, however while the buttons on the spacemouse still work fine, no inputs from the puck seem to be detected.

My system had a modified version of spacenavigator.py to support the compact model, which is not in the original repo so that's why it didn't work. I've added support for all current 3dconnexion devices and added a package handler that, after asking permission, install missing python packages like spacenavigator and pywinusb on the fly.

( The buttons are being handled by the 3dconnexion driver but there are hooks in the panel's code to make your own handlers for this. For that you do need to disable the driver's button handlers by messing around with some of the relevant XML files in C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\3DxWinCore\Cfg )


All in the SpaceMouse.pypanel from https://bitbucket.org/jcdeblok/jdb_houdinitoolkit/src/master/python_panels/ [bitbucket.org]
Edited by Jonathan de Blok - Oct. 24, 2023 07:58:52
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OlaHaldor
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Supernewbie to adding stuff like this to Houdini.
Could anyone who's made it work write me a recipe ? Would love to get my SpaceMouse work properly in Houdini! A pity it doesn't work as it should out of the box.
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Konstantin Kovalenko
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Hey guys!
I just bought this mouse and a bit upset that in houdini it works weird, so in houdini there are two types of navigation, camera and fly mode.

In first one the problem that the target point is somewhere in the middle of object and need to focus on it everytime with F hotkey, but if i have huge city as one object its gonna be a problem. And it cant change the focus as normal mouse, where you have cursor. Fly somewhere far is breaking all rotation pivots and target.

In the second mode, fly, once you start flying its great, but when you fly far you notice that the pivot of the camera for rotation kept at the very first place where you started movement, and you cant rotate normally around yourself! So much struggling!

So looks like there is no way to fly normally in houdini at all for now!
Maybe you know any scripts or tools to fix it? And be able to fly like drone mode?

Thank you!
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AndyTheBouncer
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MAN is this in infuriating. I got this spacemouse and it's been absolutely killer in so many applications but absolutely utterly useless in Houdini. I believe 3Dconnexion makes the drivers, so this is probably more on them than SideFX, but Houdini isn't exactly cheap, and while I've worked in software long enough to know that there are often unknown hindering factors, but really... locking one axis of rotation that I find counterproductive in Houdini and live without in every other appseems pretty trivial.
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Kareeem
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There is a guy on YouTube who uses the space mouse and it seams to work OK.
https://youtu.be/tW-FkD_m9SE?si=9i295paOWxTOBpqY [youtu.be]

I also did not get it to work though...

But maybe check with him through his discord.

https://discord.gg/4hGpBWDq4H [discord.gg]
www.rehimi.de
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tomwcutler
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Siavash Tehrani
The panel now loads without errors, however while the buttons on the spacemouse still work fine, no inputs from the puck seem to be detected.

Hey Siavesh, I'm at the same point as you - even with Johnathon's latest SpaceMouse, only the buttons work. Did you ever fix this?
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GoCeltics
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Try the official drivers:
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/3dmouse.html [www.sidefx.com]

Please report back as we are also looking to purchase a space mouse. What OS and mouse?
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OlaHaldor
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I am still clueless about how to be able to properly use the Space Mouse with Houdini.
I don't understand.. Is someone at SideFX truly navigating the viewport like it does out of the box?

Still have no idea how to make use of the Python panel [bitbucket.org] file either.
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