I have a SpaceMouse Compact I received as a gift. I don't use it to its potential, to be sure, but I am fond of it and to be honest I'm tough to buy for, so "product X, please" made life easier for my wife. This would be in contrast to "gift card will be fine," or "niche and visually unattractive consumable for hobby Y, please."
A thought has resurfaced though, from the days before I got it. Has there ever been a serious attempt to adapt XBox or PS controllers to work in place of a 3D mouse? It seems like a no-brainer, at least for FreeCAD and Blender, but every DIY project I've ever seen hijacks the mouse or keyboard controls, while the 3DConnexion driver hooks into apps' APIs and directly adjusts the camera. The ergonomics would be funky with the standard controllers, but we've got generations of people now who are extremely comfortable with gaming-style potentiometer joysticks, and they're available in multiple formats and as inexpensive electronics modules. You'd need three to replace the full range of motion, and while analog triggers are a bit iffy, it should mean that the hardware could be adapted without reinventing the wheel. I get why it isn't common, mouse input is pretty good really, but I'm surprised I couldn't find anything usable.
Is this a miss on my part, or just something that hasn't surfaced?