Empathy List Archives

JB

Jordan Brown

Fri, Apr 17, 2026 8:00 PM

One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for
gamepads and maybe other similar devices. (Not sure whether that was
platform-specific.)

I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's
interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have
on it.

So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you
use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using
it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD?

In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD
can't support two such devices at once?

(For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying
to do something generic, that should more or less handle anything with a
valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there: (1) there
are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require
specific support, and (2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech
gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong and cannot be used to
generically handle the device.)

One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for gamepads and maybe other similar devices. (Not sure whether that was platform-specific.) I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have on it. So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD? In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD can't support *two* such devices at once? (For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying to do something generic, that should more or less handle anything with a valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there: (1) there are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require specific support, and (2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong and cannot be used to generically handle the device.)

WF

William F. Adams

Fri, Apr 17, 2026 8:54 PM

On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 04:00:46 PM EDT, Jordan Brown via Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org wrote:

One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for gamepads and maybe other similar devices.
(Not sure whether that was platform-specific.)

Bummer.

I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have on it.

I bought a Connexion SpaceMouse a while back, and would definitely want to see it supported.

So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD?

In addition to the Spacemouse, I use a trackpad and stylus, but they seem to work as well as Samsung's drivers will allow.

In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD can't support two such devices at once?

(For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying to do something generic,
that should more or less handle anything with a valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there:
(1) there are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require specific support, and
(2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong
and cannot be used to generically handle the device.)

Please restore the SpaceMouse support --- I'd be fine if doing so required loading the driver (that would aid w/ using other applications which want it).

If you don't have one, let me know your address in a PM and we'll work out how to get one to you.

William

On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 04:00:46 PM EDT, Jordan Brown via Discuss <discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: >One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for gamepads and maybe other similar devices. >(Not sure whether that was platform-specific.) Bummer. >I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have on it. I bought a Connexion SpaceMouse a while back, and would definitely want to see it supported. >So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD? In addition to the Spacemouse, I use a trackpad and stylus, but they seem to work as well as Samsung's drivers will allow. >In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD can't support *two* such devices at once? >(For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying to do something generic, >that should more or less handle anything with a valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there: >(1) there are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require specific support, and >(2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong >and cannot be used to generically handle the device.) Please restore the SpaceMouse support --- I'd be fine if doing so required loading the driver (that would aid w/ using other applications which want it). If you don't have one, let me know your address in a PM and we'll work out how to get one to you. William

MM

Michael Marx (spintel)

Sat, Apr 18, 2026 12:39 AM

I have a SpaceMouse Wireless (pre Bluetooth - with the USB-A dongle). It used* to work with OpenSCAD (on Win7), both cabled & via dongle, without the 3Dc drivers.

I haven't tried it with recent versions (of OpenSCAD or Win11), let me know if you want me to.
The VID/PID was added early in tp's original work.

I haven't used it in anger for a while as I've been doing simple stuff.

If I had two such devices I think it would get confusing trying to use them at the same time for 3D manipulation,
except if one was e.g SpaceMouse and the other something like a keypad, I could see that being handy

p.s. In my wonderings, I found this list of 3Dconnexions VID/PID list, may help:

https://the-sz.com/products/usbid/index.php?v=0x256F (note dup for C631)

From: Jordan Brown via Discuss [mailto:discuss@lists.openscad.org]
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2026 6:00 AM
To: OpenSCAD
Cc: Jordan Brown
Subject: [OpenSCAD] SpaceMice, gamepads, et cetera

One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for gamepads and maybe other similar devices. (Not sure whether that was platform-specific.)

I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have on it.

So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD?

In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD can't support two such devices at once?

(For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying to do something generic, that should more or less handle anything with a valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there: (1) there are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require specific support, and (2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong and cannot be used to generically handle the device.)

I have a SpaceMouse Wireless (pre Bluetooth - with the USB-A dongle). It used* to work with OpenSCAD (on Win7), both cabled & via dongle, without the 3Dc drivers. * I haven't tried it with recent versions (of OpenSCAD or Win11), let me know if you want me to. The VID/PID was added early in tp's original work. I haven't used it in anger for a while as I've been doing simple stuff. If I had two such devices I think it would get confusing trying to use them at the same time for 3D manipulation, except if one was e.g SpaceMouse and the other something like a keypad, I could see that being handy p.s. In my wonderings, I found this list of 3Dconnexions VID/PID list, may help: https://the-sz.com/products/usbid/index.php?v=0x256F (note dup for C631) _____ From: Jordan Brown via Discuss [mailto:discuss@lists.openscad.org] Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2026 6:00 AM To: OpenSCAD Cc: Jordan Brown Subject: [OpenSCAD] SpaceMice, gamepads, et cetera One of the things that we lost when we moved to Qt6 was support for gamepads and maybe other similar devices. (Not sure whether that was platform-specific.) I'm doing some work to revive that support, mostly because it's interesting, but I'd like to know who uses it and any comments you have on it. So, if you have an input device (not a mouse, not a keyboard) that you use... what is it? Be as specific as practical. Any comments on using it or how it's supported in OpenSCAD? In a corner case of a corner case... is anybody unhappy that OpenSCAD can't support *two* such devices at once? (For those who may be interested in the technical details... I'm trying to do something generic, that should more or less handle anything with a valid HID descriptor. However, there are two gotchas there: (1) there are a zillion "usages", different types of inputs, that probably require specific support, and (2) in my sample of one device, a cheap Logitech gamepad, the HID descriptor is just wrong and cannot be used to generically handle the device.)

JB

Jordan Brown

Sat, Apr 18, 2026 1:00 AM

On 4/17/2026 5:39 PM, Michael Marx (spintel) via Discuss wrote:

I have a SpaceMouse Wireless (pre Bluetooth - with the USB-A dongle).
It used* to work with OpenSCAD (on Win7), both cabled & via dongle,
without the 3Dc drivers.

I haven't tried it with recent versions (of OpenSCAD or Win11), let
me know if you want me to.

Please.

The VID/PID was added early in tp's original work.

One of the things that's probably in the picture in the long run, if we
want the best possible support for these devices, is some user-level
configuration - adding VID/PID that we should look for, et cetera.

For my Logitech gamepad, I decided that the HID descriptor that it
reports was so bad that I needed a way to just replace it. That's a
very powerful mechanism, but not at all user friendly. More likely
would be a way to supply a JSON file for a particular VID/PID, that
describes the values and how to handle them.

If I had two such devices I think it would get confusing trying to use
them at the same time for 3D manipulation,

Yeah, I have enough trouble with three buttons on the mouse and
Ctrl/Shift/Alt. I don't know what I would do with two joysticks, two
triggers, ten buttons, and a hat switch, which is what the gamepad has.

except if one was e.g SpaceMouse and the other something like a
keypad, I could see that being handy

Indeed.

p.s. In my wonderings, I found this list of 3Dconnexions VID/PID list,
may help:

https://the-sz.com/products/usbid/index.php?v=0x256F (note dup for C631)

I don't think we want to add VID/PIDs for devices that we don't have
in-hand to test. And see also thinking about having a way for the user
to supply configuration files.

There's a huge array of things that could be done with HID devices.
(Want to control something based on the temperature of your left ear?
HID can describe it. And I suspect that there are real devices that
will report buttons associated with your left ear - think earbuds.) But
I'm dubious that much more than the stuff that we have will make sense.

On 4/17/2026 5:39 PM, Michael Marx (spintel) via Discuss wrote: > > I have a SpaceMouse Wireless (pre Bluetooth - with the USB-A dongle). > It used* to work with OpenSCAD (on Win7), both cabled & via dongle, > without the 3Dc drivers. > * I haven't tried it with recent versions (of OpenSCAD or Win11), let > me know if you want me to. > Please. > The VID/PID was added early in tp's original work. > One of the things that's probably in the picture in the long run, if we want the best possible support for these devices, is some user-level configuration - adding VID/PID that we should look for, et cetera. For my Logitech gamepad, I decided that the HID descriptor that it reports was so bad that I needed a way to just replace it. That's a very powerful mechanism, but not at all user friendly. More likely would be a way to supply a JSON file for a particular VID/PID, that describes the values and how to handle them. > If I had two such devices I think it would get confusing trying to use > them at the same time for 3D manipulation, > Yeah, I have enough trouble with three buttons on the mouse and Ctrl/Shift/Alt. I don't know what I would do with two joysticks, two triggers, ten buttons, and a hat switch, which is what the gamepad has. > except if one was e.g SpaceMouse and the other something like a > keypad, I could see that being handy > Indeed. > p.s. In my wonderings, I found this list of 3Dconnexions VID/PID list, > may help: > > https://the-sz.com/products/usbid/index.php?v=0x256F (note dup for C631) > I don't think we want to add VID/PIDs for devices that we don't have in-hand to test. And see also thinking about having a way for the user to supply configuration files. There's a huge array of things that *could* be done with HID devices. (Want to control something based on the temperature of your left ear? HID can describe it. And I suspect that there are real devices that will report buttons associated with your left ear - think earbuds.) But I'm dubious that much more than the stuff that we have will make sense.

WF

William F. Adams

Sat, Apr 18, 2026 1:41 AM

On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 09:00:49 PM EDT, Jordan Brown via Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org wrote:

(re: testing a SpaceMouse)

Please.

The USB SpaceMouse I had worked perfectly w/ "HIDAPI" checked under Axes using the current nightly on Windows:

OpenSCAD-2026.04.16-x86-64-Installer.exe

William

On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 09:00:49 PM EDT, Jordan Brown via Discuss <discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: (re: testing a SpaceMouse) Please. The USB SpaceMouse I had worked perfectly w/ "HIDAPI" checked under Axes using the current nightly on Windows: OpenSCAD-2026.04.16-x86-64-Installer.exe William

JB

Jordan Brown

Sat, Apr 18, 2026 4:57 AM

On 4/17/2026 6:41 PM, William F. Adams wrote:

The USB SpaceMouse I had worked perfectly w/ "HIDAPI" checked under Axes using the current nightly on Windows:

Thanks. Yes... HIDAPI is still there, and provides one of the avenues
for support of SpaceMice. The one that went away was QGamepad, which if
you believe its name supports ... gamepads.

In the current builds, HIDAPI is very specific to SpaceMice. I'm
working on making it more generic; I have it supporting my Logitech
gamepad https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VAHYQY. Most of the support is
pretty generic, but it still needs to know a list of devices to try to
use. I'm thinking about how to make that more generic - for instance,
trying to support anything that looks like a gamepad or a joystick, or
at least making it so that a user can tell it which devices to look
for. (And if it could capture the SpaceMice using generic mechanisms,
so much the better.)

I may also turn the axis configuration upside-down. It's currently got
a list of a bunch of actions (translation, rotation, zoom, et cetera),
and for each action you can say which device axis input is linked to
that action. That seems backwards - it lets you have a single control
do multiple things (which is almost certainly meaningless), but does not
let you have multiple controls that do the same thing. It should
instead have, for each input, what action that input does.

So... does anybody use, or want to use, an "auxiliary" input device like
this, other than a SpaceMouse? Is anybody currently using the QGamepad
support? (When I say "auxiliary", I mean not a keyboard and not a
mouse, and probably not a vanilla numeric keypad.) Gamepads?
Joysticks? Button boxes (other than numeric keypads)?

On 4/17/2026 6:41 PM, William F. Adams wrote: > The USB SpaceMouse I had worked perfectly w/ "HIDAPI" checked under Axes using the current nightly on Windows: Thanks. Yes... HIDAPI is still there, and provides one of the avenues for support of SpaceMice. The one that went away was QGamepad, which if you believe its name supports ... gamepads. In the current builds, HIDAPI is very specific to SpaceMice. I'm working on making it more generic; I have it supporting my Logitech gamepad <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VAHYQY>. Most of the support is pretty generic, but it still needs to know a list of devices to try to use. I'm thinking about how to make that more generic - for instance, trying to support anything that looks like a gamepad or a joystick, or at least making it so that a user can tell it which devices to look for. (And if it could capture the SpaceMice using generic mechanisms, so much the better.) I may also turn the axis configuration upside-down. It's currently got a list of a bunch of actions (translation, rotation, zoom, et cetera), and for each action you can say which device axis input is linked to that action. That seems backwards - it lets you have a single control do multiple things (which is almost certainly meaningless), but does not let you have multiple controls that do the *same* thing. It should instead have, for each input, what action that input does. So... does anybody use, or want to use, an "auxiliary" input device like this, other than a SpaceMouse? Is anybody currently using the QGamepad support? (When I say "auxiliary", I mean not a keyboard and not a mouse, and probably not a vanilla numeric keypad.) Gamepads? Joysticks? Button boxes (other than numeric keypads)?