Flycam

How do I enable the flycam?

Client menu > Joystick Flycam.
Press Escape to leave flycam mode.

Instructions

The following instructions were graciously provided by Runitai Linden. Note that the flycam isn't a formally-finished feature & at present, it is more like a hidden gem, hence its current location in the Client menu.

The flycam mode offers 6 degrees of freedom that you can bind to various actions:

• Move camera up/down (Y-Axis)
• Move camera left/right (X-Axis)
• Move camera forward/backward (Z-Axis)
• Turn left/right (yaw)
• Look up/down (pitch)
• Bank left/right (roll)
• Zoom in/out

Suggested Flycam Settings for SpaceNavigator

The little output graph shows you the values Second Life is getting from your joystick on each axis. Take the number of the axis you want and set the action you want it to go to to that axis number. Set an action axis to -1 to turn the action off.

The dead zone value tells Second Life to ignore values below a certain threshold to avoid drift. The scale value adjusts sensitivity.

There was a wonky device I tested against that pretended to be a 3D mouse, so it would give values as cursor positions instead of push amounts, so I made a 3D cursor check box that interpreted that device properly. For direct zoom values from the joystick are mapped directly to your FOV instead of being treated as a delta.

Auto-leveling will try to keep the camera up vector sane.

Last but not least is feathering. Setting the slider all the way to the right will make the camera very rigid, giving complete control to the joystick. Setting the slider all the way to the left will make the camera very fluid, like the camera weighs a lot, good for fly by shots, not good for framing.

I tested on a logitech cordless rumblepad 2 (PS2 controller clone) and got some great shots, but with only 4 axes, I couldn't move straight up or down. The device that started this whole mess was a 3D connexion 6-axis controller, so the camera works well with it, but I'm not fond of the device because it acts more like a 3D cursor than a joystick, hence the "3D Cursor" check box.

Enjoy!

Using the Flycam with the 3D-Connexxion SpaceNavigator

1. Install the latest driver from the 3DConnexion web site and launch it. Usually, no further configuration or calibration is needed.
2. Launch SL. Enable the debug menus if needed. Enable Client > Joystick flycam. A Flycam Options window should appear where you can adjust various settings. See the screenshot above for a config that works well for dolly-like camera movements (tracking shots).
3. To exit flycam mode, press escape.

Illumine Demina's Instructions

I made mine work (on Windows XP) by installing, configuring, and calibrating per the factory instructions, starting SL, and selecting the Client -> Joystick Flycam option. A popup appears... and my screen went wonky :) But after fiddling quite a bit I was able to operate using these settings:

First, this is a "3D cursor", so check that box. Then, check "auto-level", un-check "Direct Zoom", and set "Feathering" all the way to the left. Start here:

            x          y          z        yaw         pitch       roll     zoom
mapping     0          2          1          5           3           4        -1
scale      .05        .05        .05       .02          .05         .01        0
deadzone   .01        .01        .01       .01          .01         .01        1

After this, restart the application and re-enable Flycam. This should operate, roughly. I found it helps to slide "Feathering" right a bit and tap the navigator. Keep moving Feathering rightward until thee movement "bounces", then back up a touch. The "Scale" values need to be lots different for moving around a person in a room than they do for moving around a sim, and the nice device "Speed" function (part of SpaceNavigator) doesn't scale nearly so much as needed :( This is way not as flexible as the mouse moving the camera. That said.. search for the "RBC9" driver, which I've yet to try. It really needs to start slow and to accelerate over time...

Tenebrous Pau's Instructions

Tenebrous Pau uses a community-provided joystick driver to connect the SpaceNavigator to SL. See this blog post for Tenebrous' recommended settings with the RBC9 driver.
Note: The RBC9 driver is not needed to make the SpaceNavigator work with SL; just use the latest 3DConnexion driver.

Using the Flycam with a Xbox 360 Controller

Suggested Flycam Settings for Xbox 360 Controller

It's also possible to use the FlyCam mode with the very popular Xbox 360 controller, provided you have one you can connect to your PC and the latest drivers (Works on XP & Vista) you're set for FlyCam. One thing to keep in mind with the 360 controller, is that it only supports five axis's, the joysticks each have two and the analog triggers together represent a fifth (Right trigger for negative left trigger for posative). The FlyCam does not support any digital input, so you can't use any of the buttons on the 360 controller.

To the right you can see the settings I went with for my 360 controller after toying with it for a while, this allowed maximum mobility and smooth movement, also I used a larger than default dead zone on each input because the precision of the 360's joysticks called for it (As well as a 5.00 setting for all movement to allow me to move across the area at a quick but not insane pace). Additionally 90% feathering, or so, was used as it greatly smoothed out camera movement while not suffering from the excessive sliding of the maximum setting.

              x          y          z        yaw        pitch      roll      zoom
mapping       0          2          1        3          4          -1        -1
scale         5.00       5.00       5.00     1.00       1.00       50.00     1.00
deadzone      0.25       0.25       0.25     0.25       0.25       0.25      0.25

Direct Zoom   Disabled
Feathering    90% Left
Auto Level    Enabled
3D Cursor     Disabled

With these settings you can push forwards and back on the left joystick to dolly the camera forwards and back, and left and right on the same joystick to dolly the camera left and right. To pitch the camera up or down push forward (To pitch down) or pull back (To pitch up) with the right joystick, or tilt the right joystick to the left or right to turn the camera to the left or right. To raise the camera pull in on the right trigger and to lower it pull in on the left trigger.

--ZATZAi Asturias

See also

Space_Navigator

Video presentation of Windlight using FlyCam with an Xbox 360 Controller

A short video demonstrating the flycam mode with SpaceNavigator