Novint falcon

Unity Engine
1

hi, i have a very weird question

look, i got the novint falcon 3d controller but it doesnt have drivers for mac os x, and will not have it in a short time, so, is there a way for me so i can release a Windows (or webplayer) build and run it on Windows so i can use it to control my character ?

this controller have a SDK for developers, its possible with mono to get input from that device ?

thanks in advance.

specs: http://home.novint.com/products/technical_specs.php

.ORG

2

This looks cool, but nobody is going to pay that price for a game controller. What is the target audience for what you’re doing with this? I could see it being part of a neat exhibit at a science museum…

3

Is a marketing application that shows products, it will be used for showing the application to the potential clients, and if they can pay, they can have it :smile:

.ORG

4

Look at the C/C++ plugin interface. You can integrate with any SDK that provides a C or C++ interface. It’ll be some extra work to debug, since you won’t be able to try it out inside the editor, but it should absolutely be possible.

http://unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/Plugins.html

d.

5

So i need to create two plugins, one for Windows and one for Mac (if im planning on release builds for both OS)

Never done it before, its easy ? what kind of tools should i start looking for ?

In case i program the plugin, the code should be the same for mac and windows ? or they should be different ?

This device provides an API but it uses a driver that is only for windows, is that a problem ?

Thanks in advance

.ORG

6

Well, if there’s only drivers available for Windows, it’s going to be hard or impossible to get support on Mac OS X.

In this case you’ll have to decide to write a C/C++ plugin for Windows only, find a different piece of hardware, or write your own Mac drivers (which might be a crazy project :slight_smile: )

d.

7

This is an interesting thread that seems to have fizzled. I’m in no current position to build for the Novint at the moment, but we have two Novint’s laying around collecting dust. I would be happy to talk shop about these controllers either here or in a new thread.
The idea of these controllers combine with Unity and PhysX would be awesome for controlled serious and educational games.

8

In case anyone is interested, I wrote a wrapper for the falcon SDK (for windows) a while ago, that you can easily use in Unity.

EDIT: The page where I originally posted it was taken down. Scroll down a bit in this thread since I have uploaded it again.

Not quite true! There are those of us who actually earn money and yet like to play games and try funky stuff :wink: And hey, if you can spare 1000 bucks for a PC or twice that for a laptop, you can surely spend 200 for a peripheral…
But what is true is that your target audience is indeed very small. You won’t get rich with entertainment games for it. Serious games are a completely different topic, of course.

9

Hey, Orion

I would like to use your wrapper for the Falcon SDK(Windows) if you still have accesible, I clicked on the link showed in your post but it is broken, do you mind to share it, please?

10

Sorry, I wasn’t subscribed to this thread and just stumbled by by accident.

Too bad Novint removed the page where I uploaded the example. I’ll see if I can find the files when I’m home and post them here.

11

Alright, here is a wrapper DLL and an example .cs file that shows how to use it.

I hope it’s gonna be useful to someone. Since I have a falcon, I’m curious to see what you make with it. Drop me a message :slight_smile:

738779–26974–$Falcon Wrapper.zip (165 KB)

12

Hi, thanks for share the falcon wrapper. Is it possible to upload a simple demo that uses the code? I’m a fresher in this area and also want to do something with the falcon device.

Thanks

13

Sorry, right now I don’t have a simple demo ready. Maybe someone else can help out here. Otherwise, you’ll just have to fiddle around a bit with it, it really isn’t very hard.

14

Okay, since a few people had trouble getting the wrapper to work, here’s the source so you can look into what’s going wrong more closely. And possibly add functions that are not present yet. If you do make useful improvements, I would like you to post them here so everyone benefits from it.

799340–29320–$Falcon Wrapper Source.zip (9.28 KB)

15

Hi Orion,

Thanks for the wrapper, I’m just curious how you’ve set it up, as I’m using unity3.4 on windows 7 32-bit. I’ve set up a plugins folder under the standard assets and i am trying to test the c sharp code. All im getting is .dll not found. Have I put it in the wrong place?

Thanks for your help

16

Yes, the dll file goes into the project folder (the one with Assets, Libary, etc.).

17

Thank you Orion for sharing your source, you’ve saved me a lot of time and effort! The attached ZIP has an updated DLL / source which includes a few functions to check if each of the buttons are currently being pressed.

918302–34436–$Falcon Wrapper Source - Update V1.zip (7.67 MB)

18

Good job! I also encourage everyone else who uses these files to improve them freely and to upload their modifications for great justice!

19

Hello,

We have been working on integrating the Novint Falcon into our Unity project as a user interface. We have managed to successfully use the Falcon to manipulate objects in our scene.

The next question we had was whether there is any support for force feedback in Unity using the Falcon. If that capability exists, could someone please show me how to implement this in my project? I am sure that everyone on this forum would benefit from this knowledge, as it is a central feature of the Falcon.

Thank you! :slight_smile:

20

Look at the code that I’ve uploaded / shamelessplugmedia updated - it can both read the input from the falcon and control the motors for force feedback.