Novint falcon

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

 

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...

 

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

.ORG

 

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
http://unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=Plugins

d.

 

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

 

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 )

d.

 

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.

 

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 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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

View attachment $Falcon Wrapper Source - Update V1.zip

 

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

 

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!

 

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.

 

I've been working on a few projects with the Falcon using Orion's wrapper. It's been working good so far, the force feedback is nice. I've successfully made a virtual ball in the Unity workspace that's comparable to the one included in the HAPI demo files for the Falcon. I've modeled simple physics like inertia, friction, gravity, etc. already, and I also modified the mouselook script to function with the Falcon. Right now I'm working on haptic textures, should be done soon. Thanks Orion for the wrapper, it's a godsend. Just posting to let anyone working know that it's possible to apply smooth forces in Unity, if anyone needs help send me a PM and I'll get back to you.

 

I'm working on a unity3D project with the novint falcon and the Orion's falcon wrapper has been working great as well as shamelessplugmedia's improved version.

On my application I'm able to pick some objects and now I would need to add some forcefeedback to simulate gravity and collisions. Can anyone point me the way?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi.
I have a falcon and would like to incorporate it into some tasks I am developing for my research in autism. I'm interested in how people with autism (in particular, those who cannot speak) process information in order to better understand what competencies they do have as a stepping stone toward building apps that can eventually help with improving communication. Adding haptic feedback would be a vluable additional to visual and auditory information.

I'm trying to use Orion's wrapper from earlier in the thread and have placed the DLL in the project folder but still getting:

DllNotFoundException: FalconWrapper.dll
Haptics.Start () (at Assets/Haptics.cs:48)

I've tried putting it in /Assets/Plugins too but same error.
I've set the project for .NET 2.0.

Running Unity Pro 3.5.5f3, Win 7 ultimate 64-bit.

Any ideas? I've got some other projects that I've successfully used various 3rd party DLL's, but I'm not a programmer (rather a research psychologist) so I'm stuck in what to try next and how to diagnose the problem.

Thanks!

my email is jeffmun at u dot washington dot edu

 

The dll file goes into the folder above the assets folder. In my case it's called "Falcon Wrapper.dll" (with a space between the words). Make sure it's called -exactly- right (whatever that is).

 

Thanks for the reply. I do have the dll in the folder above assets and it's spelled correctly in code (I've tried it both with and without the space, and updated the .cs file accordingly).

Do I need to add a reference to this dll within Visual Studio? When I try to add a reference to it, I get an error:

"A reference to "Falcon Wrapper.dll" could not be added. Please make sure the file is accessible, and that it is a valid assembly or COM component."

I'm using Win 7 Ultimate, 64bit. Unity Pro 3.5.5.f3, Visual Studio 2010. Is there a problem using a 64-bit version of Windows?

Thanks again for the help.
- Jeff

 

The reference shouldn't be necessary, since you don't really compile the project with visual studio. So only unity has to find it. 64-bit could be the issue. Maybe the dll has to be recompiled for 64 bit. Unfortunately I don't have much time to look into this. Maybe someone else could give that a try.

 

Does this wrapper work with unity 4.0.1?

 

hi there,

im running into some issues here if anyone has any input,

if you copy the dll + all the other dlls from the novint /HD_SDK_2.1.3/bin folder into the root of your project, you can get it running in the editor, but also paste all these into the plugins folder so they are included in the build

now, when i first run the build i get a "can not open device" error and it crashes out, if i try to run the exe again without rebuilding it doesnt crash but the log says it can no longer find the DLL, any input here?

 

Hi All,

I downloaded the wrapper (thanks to Orion) and have been trying to re-compile it for 64-bit under visual studio 2010 with no luck. I tried to write a simple C# program using the wrapper but I was always getting DLL library linking error (the code compiles fine), and thus thought of recompiling for 64-bit win 7. I'm having the same problem as jeffmun!

@jeffmun: I'm having the same exact problem, were you able to solve it? Any hints are appreciated

 

I know this is an old topic, but I think I found a solution to both Antoine_Mellon and jeffmuns problem, if not THE solution. When the location is defined as a string, the ".dll" part should no longer be included, as such:

Code (csharp):

1. const string falcon = "Falcon Wrapper";

and NOT

Code (csharp):

1. const string falcon = "Falcon Wrapper.dll";

I hope this helps someone else as well.

Regards

Emil

 

Hi, I am new to Unity and I am trying to integrate novint falcon with the same. Thank you for your comments. I have integrated an ran a suimple program with falcon wrapper.dll. Next, I am trying to do this.

HOW TO MODIFY THE FALCON WRAPPER.DLL?
I add a function to hapticsclass and want it to be exported to falcon wrapper.dll. But the program does not work. The error that I get in visual studio are:

1. Unable to start program Falcon Wrapper.dll
2. In my post build events: do I need to add an xcopy executable. I tried to add the path- C:\Falcon\$Falcon Wrapper Source\xcopy.exe" in quotes but I get the error
Error 2 error MSB3073: The command ""C:\Falcon\$Falcon Wrapper Source\xcopy.exe"
:VCEnd" exited with code 4.

 

someone has the 64-bit version? Please...