VMD-L Mailing List

From: Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl_at_lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Wed Dec 08 1999 - 15:05:42 CST

John Stone writes:
> Hi,
> sorry for the delayed response, I'm still catching up on things after
> being out of town.
>
> We are definitely interested in supporting more input devices for VMD,
> but the existing tracker framework in VMD expects 6-degree-of-freedom
> input devices, potentially with haptic feedback. This is a tall order
> for most people, as you might guess. Ultimately I'd like to support a
> much wider variety of devices than just the high-end 6DOF trackers etc.
 
As to cheap 6DOF, have you had a look at Logitech's Cyberman2?
   http://www.google.com/search?q=cyberman2&num=100
 
(unfortunately, http://www.cyberman2.de doesn't allow me to connect
(perhaps I'm getting rejected at IP level?) perhaps someone from
Germany should have a try). It uses robust and precise optical
technology, a spin-off from the space programme.

> Just to give you an idea of what is involved presently:
> The most recent incarnation of our tracker system supports
> VRPN (Virtual Reality Peripheral Network) is available from
> Russell Taylor's research group at UNC. VRPN is the replacement
> library that they are using in place of the old "UNC" tracker
> library found in older versions of VMD. VRPN works with a fair
> variety of devices, but definitely favors the 6DOF variety.
> The new VMD also supports the CAVE's tracker interface.

Cool. VMD/NAMD is a great suite.

> I'd like to add in some support for random joysticks, spaceorbs, and
> other low cost input devices for use in VMD, particularly on the PC
> platform. Since August, when the new tracker interface finally started
> to take form, we've been very busy fixing bugs and getting VMD 1.4 ready
> for release, which has taken us longer than we originally anticipated.
> Support for arbitrary joysticks probably won't be in VMD until sometime
> after VMD 1.4 is released, but it might be one of the earlier developments
> for VMD 1.5. If you (or others) would like to see this happen sooner rather
> than later, we'd be happy to work with people that want to implement support
> for their favorite device(s).
 
I'm fiddling with FreeD under Python now (much less pain than in
C). As a wild guess, it could be perhaps possible to interface it with
MMTK (which uses VMD as a default visualizer).

        http://starship.python.net/crew/hinsen/MMTK/

> Thanks,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu