Sx2vJoy: Use a 3DConnexion SpaceMouse as a Joystick

A 3DConnexion SpaceMouse is a wonderful device for CAD work — and invisible to most games and simulators, which only know how to read joysticks. Sx2vJoy closes that gap. It is a small feeder application by Lasse-B that takes the input from a 3DConnexion controller and writes it into vJoy, so the SpaceMouse appears to your software as an ordinary DirectInput joystick. This guide explains what it does, how to set it up, and the one honest warning that comes with it: this is legacy software.

What Sx2vJoy is — and what it is not

Sx2vJoy is a vJoy feeder for 3DConnexion controllers. The pattern is the same as every tool in this hub: vJoy provides the virtual joystick device, and the feeder — Sx2vJoy — supplies the data, translating the SpaceMouse puck’s movements into virtual joystick axes that a game can bind. Push, pull, twist and tilt the puck, and the corresponding vJoy axes move.

One disambiguation is worth stating plainly, because the name misleads people: Sx2vJoy is not a Star Citizen tool. It has nothing to do with that game beyond the coincidence that both involve joysticks. The documented Star Citizen vJoy stack is Joystick Gremlin plus HidHide. Sx2vJoy’s job is narrower and older: giving a 3DConnexion device a joystick identity.

Install order: vJoy first

  1. Install vJoy from our download page and configure a device in vJoyConf with the axes you intend to feed from the SpaceMouse.
  2. Make sure the SpaceMouse itself works first — its own 3DConnexion driver should be installed and the puck should respond in 3DConnexion’s own software. Sx2vJoy translates a working device; it cannot resurrect one the PC does not see.
  3. Download Sx2vJoy from its project page and run it with the SpaceMouse connected.
  4. Keep Sx2vJoy running while you use the setup, as with any feeder.

Core setup steps

  1. Start Sx2vJoy and confirm it detects your 3DConnexion controller. If it does not, return to the previous step — the device must be healthy in its own driver first.
  2. Assign the puck’s movements to vJoy axes. Decide which physical motion should drive which virtual axis before opening your game; a written-down plan beats rediscovering your mapping mid-flight.
  3. Open the vJoy monitor and work the puck in every direction. Each motion should move exactly its assigned axis, across a usable range, and return to centre on release.
  4. Bind the vJoy device in your target application. A SpaceMouse alongside a conventional stick works well as an extra set of axes — for example camera movement or thruster-style control in a sim that supports binding a second device.
  5. Adjust sensitivity in the application if the puck feels too lively; a desktop CAD controller is far more sensitive than a typical joystick, and most users tame it at this stage.

How it feels in practice

A SpaceMouse puck is spring-centred in every direction, like a joystick that always returns to neutral, but it is far more sensitive than a flight stick and moves through a much shorter travel. That combination is why it suits fine, continuous adjustments rather than large, fast deflections: nudging a camera viewpoint, trimming an axis, or steering a secondary system while your main stick does the primary work. Expect your first session to feel twitchy — everyone’s does — and expect the fix to be restraint rather than settings: smaller movements, applied earlier. Once the sensitivity in the target application is tamed, the puck becomes the control you reach for when a hat switch is too coarse and a mouse is in the wrong hand.

It also plays well with others. Because Sx2vJoy produces a separate vJoy device, the SpaceMouse does not replace anything in an existing setup: your stick, throttle and pedals keep their own bindings, and the puck arrives as an additional device the application can bind alongside them. That makes experimentation cheap — if a particular game turns out not to benefit from puck control, nothing about your main setup has changed, and removing the experiment is just closing the feeder.

Best use case

The best use case is a second life for hardware you already own. Sim players with a SpaceMouse on the desk gain an extra multi-axis controller without buying anything: the puck’s fine, spring-centred motion suits camera control and auxiliary axes, and because it arrives as vJoy, any DirectInput title that allows multiple devices can use it next to a stick and pedals. CAD users curious whether their puck could double as a sim controller get a real answer in an afternoon. Setups like this sit alongside the other game guides in our games and sims hub.

Limitations

  • Legacy status. Sx2vJoy’s last project activity was in 2019. It is finished, unmaintained software: what works today works, but nobody is updating it for new Windows builds, new 3DConnexion drivers or new vJoy releases.
  • Test it against your vJoy build. Older feeders are exactly the audience for the compatibility note that applies across this hub: if a feeder misbehaves on the 2.2.x vJoy line, the 2.1.9.1 build is the fallback to try.
  • One narrow job. Sx2vJoy translates a 3DConnexion device into a joystick. It does no merging, no curves and no macros — for those, you would feed its vJoy device into a broader setup or choose a different tool from the start.
  • DirectInput only. The result is a vJoy device, so the same rule as always applies: software that only accepts XInput controllers will not see it without another layer.

Next steps: the driver is on the download page, all seven feeders are listed in the vJoy feeder tools hub, and the sibling guide to read next is vJoySerialFeeder — the other feeder in this hub dedicated to unconventional hardware.

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