Simple, Consolidated Game Device Input

[dbox]

Hi All,

I put a good deal of work into a simple, consolidated game input API that allows for simple detection and testing of input from keyboard, mouse or game controller devices and thought I would share as there have been recent discussions on this topic.

With this approach device input can be detected with the following:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. Dim Shared diMoveLeft As GXDeviceInput
2. GXDeviceInputDetect diMoveLeft
3.  

The program will wait until a keyboard key, mouse button, or game controller button or axis movement has been detected.  Then later in your code when you want to test for that device input, simply do this:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. If GXDeviceInputTest(diMoveLeft) Then
2.    ' Do your move left logic here
3. End If
4.  

I've added specific logic for linux and maxos to handle the fact that keyboard button presses are not returned by the _DEVICEINPUT method on those environments so that the behavior can be consistent cross-platform.  This is actually related to my very first post on the forum: https://qb64forum.alephc.xyz/index.php?topic=4448.msg138691#msg138691.

I've included a few demonstration programs in the attached zip.

1) The detect.bas program will display the last detected input and print information about the device input:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. Option _Explicit
2. '$Include:'gx/gx.bi'
3. _Title "Detect Device Input"
4.  
5. Print "Waiting for input..."
6. Do
7.     Dim di As GXDeviceInput
8.     GXDeviceInputDetect di
9.     Cls
10.     Print "Device #:    " + Str$(di.deviceId)
11.     Print "Device Name: " + GXDeviceName(di.deviceId)
12.     Print "Device Type: " + GXDeviceTypeName(di.deviceType)
13.     Print "Input Type:  " + GXInputTypeName(di.inputType)
14.     Print "Input Id:    " + Str$(di.inputId)
15.     If di.deviceType = GXDEVICE_KEYBOARD Then
16.         Print "Key Name: " + GXKeyButtonName(di.inputId)
17.     End If
18.     Print "Input Value: " + Str$(di.inputValue)
19.     Print
20. Loop
21.  
22. Sub GXOnGameEvent (e As GXEvent): End Sub
23. '$Include:'gx/gx.bm'
24.  

2) The input.bas demonstrates detecting input for certain actions and then testing for those inputs in a game loop:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. Option _Explicit
2. '$Include:'gx/gx.bi'
3. _Title "Test Device Input"
4.  
5. GXSceneCreate 500, 300
6. GXFrameRate 10
7.  
8. Dim Shared dleft As GXDeviceInput
9. Print "Press Left... ";
10. GXDeviceInputDetect dleft
11. PrintDeviceInput dleft
12.  
13. Dim Shared dright As GXDeviceInput
14. Print "Press Right...";
15. GXDeviceInputDetect dright
16. PrintDeviceInput dright
17.  
18. Dim Shared djump As GXDeviceInput
19. Print "Press Jump...";
20. GXDeviceInputDetect djump
21. PrintDeviceInput djump
22.  
23. _Delay 1
24.  
25. GXSceneStart
26. System
27.  
28. Sub GXOnGameEvent (e As GXEvent)
29.     Dim ldown As Integer
30.     Select Case e.event
31.         Case GXEVENT_UPDATE
32.             If GXKeyDown(GXKEY_ESC) Then GXSceneStop
33.  
34.         Case GXEVENT_DRAWSCREEN
35.             GXDrawText GXFONT_DEFAULT, 10, 10, "Press one or more mapped inputs:"
36.             If GXDeviceInputTest(dleft) Then
37.                 GXDrawText GXFONT_DEFAULT, 100, 100, "Left"
38.             End If
39.             If GXDeviceInputTest(dright) Then
40.                 GXDrawText GXFONT_DEFAULT, 150, 100, "Right"
41.             End If
42.             If GXDeviceInputTest(djump) Then
43.                 GXDrawText GXFONT_DEFAULT, 125, 125, "Jump"
44.             End If
45.     End Select
46. End Sub
47.  
48.  
49. Sub PrintDeviceInput (di As GXDeviceInput)
50.     Print GXDeviceName(di.deviceId) + " : ";
51.     Print GXInputTypeName(di.inputType) + " : ";
52.     Print Str$(di.inputId) + " : ";
53.     If di.deviceType = GXDEVICE_KEYBOARD Then
54.         Print " [ "; GXKeyButtonName(di.inputId); " ]";
55.     Else
56.         Print ;
57.     End If
58.     Print " : "; di.inputValue
59.     Print
60. End Sub
61.  
62. '$Include:'gx/gx.bm'
63.  

3) The nes-config.bas program is an example of using the API in a device setup screen with the ability to save the config:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. Option _Explicit
2. '$INCLUDE:'gx/gx.bi'
3. '$INCLUDE:'control-config.bi'
4.  
5. GXSceneCreate 256, 240
6. GXSceneScale 2
7.  
8. ControlConfigInit
9. ControlConfigShow
10.  
11. GXSceneStart
12.  
13. Sub GXOnGameEvent (e As GXEvent)
14.     OnControlConfigEvent e
15. End Sub
16.  
17. '$INCLUDE:'gx/gx.bm'
18. '$INCLUDE:'control-config.bm'
19.  

Feel free to use any of the examples in your own projects.  I would be very interested in any feedback you have.

[madscijr]

I put a good deal of work into a simple, consolidated game input API that allows for simple detection and testing of input from keyboard, mouse or game controller devices and thought I would share as there have been recent discussions on this topic.
...
Feel free to use any of the examples in your own projects.  I would be very interested in any feedback you have.

Thanks for sharing.
One question - is this cross-platform (ie will it work on QB64 for Linux & Mac)?

[dbox]

Yes!  In fact, there is additional logic in the library to handle the fact that keyboard DeviceInput support is different between windows and the other supported platforms.

[madscijr]

Yes!  In fact, there is additional logic in the library to handle the fact that keyboard DeviceInput support is different between windows and the other supported platforms.

Great, thanks. I'll give it a look...

[dbox]

Great, I’d be interested to hear any feedback you have.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

I need to send you code that I did for Xinput using Windows API