Space Pilot

Well, after reading this I got all excited about getting one...until I found out how much it costs -- $499.00! from the site that's linked from 3dconnexion.com:

Link

The tiny notebook version (SpaceTraveler) costs $599.00! (that's $100 more than the brand new Space Pilot version in the review).

Are you nuts?! Who in their right mind would spend that much money on something like this?

They should have priced the product using the "academic" prices like $ 149.98 for the SpaceTraveler and $ 299.98 for the SpacePilot 3D Controller.

Heck even with the academic price, I still think it is way too expensive for a input device. The price should be more like $49.98 for the SpaceTraveler and $79.98 for the SpacePilot 3D Controller.

Or you can try this alternative:

1. Grab the latest Joystick 2 Mouse program from here:

http://atzitznet.no-ip.org/Joy2Mouse3/

2. Attach any joystick/gamepad to your computer (I use MS Sidewinder gamepad USB).

3. Setup/Assign/Map/Bind keys/mouse to gamepad using Joystick 2 Mouse.

Now you can use the directional pad on the gamepad/joystick as a sort of spaceball (think rotate in 3d studio max). The MS Sidewinder directional pad works quite nice because it's directional pad is made of a single mold instead of individual buttons like what you would find on a standard PS2 controller.

Also you can assign the MS sidewinder's 2 shoulder/trigger buttons to zoom-in / zoom-out under 3d studio max. The face buttons x,y,z and a,b,c can be assigned to any keyboard shortcut you want. And don't forget the "." and ".." buttons.

Total cost:

MS Sidewinder gamepad USB = $19.99 (or less)
Joystick 2 Mouse = free ($20 if you donate)

That's a heck of a lot less than what it would cost for any of the devices that 3dconnexion sells. Go figure...