dual mouse input

[swardson]

I dont know that I would like an interface with 2 mice. Especially in a 3D app. Im not sure what it could do to the workflow to speed things up? Im not going to knock it because i havent tried it, but I could just imagine trying to do any kind of navigating of 2 things at once.

About the only thing I can think of would be for sculpting software like zBrush or Mudbox. Like sculpting with 2 hands. However, I dont think any of that software would support simultaneous brushes.

:shrug:

[yenvalmar]

tweak menu parameters while keeping the brush or cursor in the viewport over what i am working with would be cool is what im thinking. being able to simultaneously rotate and translate objects.. pinning things for char animation..

[LetterRip]

swardson,

I've suggested dual input device support for Blender - my desire for it was using one mouse to rotate the object - the other to sculpt or pose the object. However unless the software was written to take advantage of dual input devices it is probably an accident waiting to happen.

LetterRip

[Per-Anders]

Consider the spacemouse. This has allowed you to have multiple controllers in 3d apps for years now. An actual mouse is interseting, but you need the space on your desk, plus currently your keyboard is your secondary input, you only have 2 hands, doing everything by icon is a very slow and rsi inducing workflow (imo). But it could be neat for games.

[yenvalmar]

this is the first i heard of teh space mouse too.. googled it, theres a wide price range, i wonder if its one of those things like tablets where the $59 one is basically as good as the $495 one.. i just ordered a set of programmable USB foot pedals so maybe that will entertain my multi-input fantasies for awhile.

[harlan_hill]

The Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 is also a very useful tool for additional control/input. It's nice as it has customizable keys & a d-pad. They work well (both Win & OSX) and can be found at most computer stores (you'll find them in the gamepad/joystick section).

Hope that helps.

[Airflow]

Im using a belkin right wow, its great cos you no longer have to let go of the mouse to reach a button across the keyboard while holding down cntrl or alt or shift, and it has a toggle that allows you to map the whole keyboard... I think its better to use keys than 2 mice....

[Szos]

For the examples that they showed off in the video, this seems completely pointless to me. Last time I checked, people still only had one brain - so controlling 2 browser windows at the same time is nothing more than a gimmick.

BUT I could see it being usefull in a 3D environment - like was posted above, to be able to orbit a view, while manipulating points or something like that.

[opus13]

every once in a while (2-3 times a week) i iwll lean over my assistants shoulder to grab the mouse to demonstrate/do something. its kind of a pain in the ass to pass it back and forth. if there was an extra mouse on the desk that i could quickly demo with or just to gesture with, that would be way handy.

[zzacmann]

I have a hard enough time trying to wrestle with one mouse.

[ares623]

that looks difficult...

[Garry3D]

I've always had the idea of using a mouse and a trackball, assigning the trackball to simply rotate the view or selected object. Is this already possible? It wouldn't cost too much either.

[stew]

this is the first i heard of teh space mouse too.. googled it, theres a wide price range, i wonder if its one of those things like tablets where the $59 one is basically as good as the $495 one..
It is. I've used one of the older expensive ones at work, now I have the $59 one at home. It's great.

[havokzprodigy]

this is the first i heard of teh space mouse too.. googled it, theres a wide price range, i wonder if its one of those things like tablets where the $59 one is basically as good as the $495 one.. i just ordered a set of programmable USB foot pedals so maybe that will entertain my multi-input fantasies for awhile.

What $50 tablet is as good as a $500 tablet?


every once in a while (2-3 times a week) i iwll lean over my assistants shoulder to grab the mouse to demonstrate/do something. its kind of a pain in the ass to pass it back and forth. if there was an extra mouse on the desk that i could quickly demo with or just to gesture with, that would be way handy.

You can do that now. I have 1 mouse, two differnt types of trackballs and a wacom tablet hooked to my PC. I switch around all day long to reduce RSI.

[vANON]

so, let me get this straight. dual interaction with apps, like photoshop and 3d applications (things like "pinning") and whatnot, have always been supported, all it took was a couple of drivers from an outside source?

incidentally, i use the wacom with my left hand, and the mouse with my right, so im sure this will get interesting :)
(also, i have always wanted to see multiplayer-photoshop, someone make it happen please ;)

[visualride]

It's all about the software support. I had a spacemouse years ago, but it's been collecting dust because 3ds Max wasn't written to support it completely. It's fine for interactive fly-throughs, but with modeling it doesn't help like it could. I imagine that the second mouse would collect dust too, unless the people at Apple are writing a ton of code to allow for some truely next gen, two fisted input devices.

[strangerthings]

I think the clue is in your statement. you could always update the software... as your spacemouse has been collecting dust they in fact updated the software! 'mazing huh!

I have the space pilot and it is fantastic. I do think you need the viewport keys and the ctl -shift etc on the unit. and the new cheaper space traveler actually looks more ergonomic and you don't really need the screen as your hand covers it up most of the time.

As for the point of this thread - the dual mouse thing. anyone actually that ambidextrous?
*edit* apart from vANON dual wacom / mouse weilding genius.

[mustique]

As mentioned, one mouse is enough trouble. multi-touchscreens are a brighter idea.
maybe we can even pull over little styluses onto our fingers then to pick those little vertices and buttons even on a little screen.

[Breinmeester]

Haha! Just like Apple to connect a second mouse to the system to finally have a second mouse button! -jk

[Szos]

every once in a while (2-3 times a week) i iwll lean over my assistants shoulder to grab the mouse to demonstrate/do something. its kind of a pain in the ass to pass it back and forth. if there was an extra mouse on the desk that i could quickly demo with or just to gesture with, that would be way handy.



Like was posted already, you CAN indeed do this now - just plug another mouse or Wacom into your PC, the difference is that you still only have ONE POINTER. That is they key - with one pointer, but 2 input devices, you would just be fighting with each other for control. With 2 pointers, you could be doing 2 independant things at the same time... but once again, people only have one brain, so still useless unless you have 2 users on 1 PC.

[vANON]

well, of course its kinda useless now, since everything we know is built around a one-mouse system. i think this opens up some new possibilities.

..although with this multi-touch technology (microsoft surface) coming up, i bet it'll fade quite fast.

still can't wait to go mano è mano on a dual-wacom photoshop setup though. how about one of us sitting on a remote desktop? we wouldn't have to wrestle the chairspace :scream:

[yenvalmar]

i'm a mouse lefty wacom righty both-at-once kinda guy myself :) i use the mouse to click while moving the cursor via the tablet, mainly.. since untill now i've never known of anything actually supporting 2 cursors.. but i like to be able to click without disrupting the motion of the cursor whatsoever, which is pretty hard if you are doing both on the same device be it mouse or tablet. and then of course i have to still hit the keyboard a lot with the left hand due to maya's use of key modifiers. but i should be getting foot pedals next week that i can map to space alt and shift to fix that :) another thread though.

[robcat2075]

Looks like a new way for two people to fight over one computer.

[ragdoll]

Looks like a new way for two people to fight over one computer.

:hmm: :argh: :banghead:

lol

i couldn't think of a practical use for this... interesting tho...

[robcat2075]

The whole point of GUIs is to enable more natural interaction with the computer, right?

I'm trying to think of things we naturally do with two hands...

We use two hands to play musical instruments, but that's after years of practice coordinating them.

We use two hands to sculpt clay, but one of them is really just holding the clay steady.

We lift weights with two hands, but do we really need another way to pretend to exercise?

[stew]

For graphics applications, look no further than how painting and drawing work: one hand holds the brush or pencil, the other holds the palette or the paper.

The 3dconnexion devices or the NuLOOQ come close to the drawing metaphor, where I remember that somewhere in the depths of academic UI research the idea of a trackball to move palettes while the other hand moves the mouse came up decades ago.

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