User Input

[Phantom139]

So silly me forgot about one of the most important aspects of the platform module, which is the ability to fetch user input and actually parse it to the necessary locations.

So, I'm going to spend some of my open time over the coming days to nail this down. The context of this system will feature the ability to fetch input from:

• Keyboards (Text Input)
• Mouse
• Controllers (Steam, Xbox, PS, Gamepads, Etc), Force Feedback over Controllers

The best route of attack here is to establish some basic abstract classes in the generic platform and then derive the necessary components as needed by each of the individual platforms we'll be supporting. This is the way Torque did things and I see no reason why it won't work here.

[Ragora]

Sounds like you're rolling with a poll based implementation. An event based implementation makes more sense -- just attach listeners to buttons, etc. Regardless, you should be okay if you build an abstract class for your input types and later extend: Keyboard, Joystick (incl. controllers?), Touch, Accelerometer, microphone, and whatever else may be of importance.

You'll probably want to do the same thing for some output devices like rumblers in a controller or a phone.

[Phantom139]

Pretty much what I'm doing. I've created a few headers for the basics for now. Mainly keyboards and force-feedback over controller devices. The generic application header enumerated the basics for gamepads and controllers, and it will just need to be linked as mentioned on a per-platform basis.

Not too hard, just setting up a good deal of callbacks and utility functions to help for GUIs later on.