Re: Improvements to the GameController API

I've implemented support for inverted axes and independently binding
separated halves of axes:
https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/5ea5f198879f

The syntax for binding half of a game controller axis is:
-leftx
+leftx

The syntax for binding half of a joystick axis is:
+a0
-a0

The syntax for inverting an axis is:
a0~

The controllermap test program has been updated to generate the new syntax
controller config if it detects the appropriate binding types, and allows
you to map a D-Pad as a thumbstick and vice versa.

Please let me know if there are any problems with this!

On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 1:17 PM, RodrigoCard <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
>
> Sentmoraap wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> the gamepad API is far better than a "i have X buttons and Y axes" API and
> a gamepad-specific API for having good default mappings and consistent
> mappings from one gamepad to another and from one OS to another.
>
> Some issues has already been addressed:
> http://sdl.5483.n7.nabble.com/Extending-GameController-
> mapping-syntax-td38149.html
> https://bugzilla.libsdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2181
> https://github.com/cxong/SDL_JoystickButtonNames
>
> There is already someone assigned to this bugzilla, but I am willing to
> contribute if there are improvements which everyone agrees to.
> I also would like to have more informations on some design decisions.
>
>
> The current syntax does not allow mapping half an axis. On some controller
> the D-Pad is exposed as 2 axes, and the triggers are halves of the same
> axis.
> Sometimes you also need to invert an axis.
> There is a proposal to have a0+, a0- for halves and a0i (or !a0, ~a0) for
> an inverted axis.
> This issue is addressed in the first two links.
> There is someone assigned, but I have not seen anything new since november
> 2013.
>
> They also discuss about dead zones. I am not sure if handling deadzones
> fits with the purpose of SDL2 GameController. The game could handle this.
>
> We have some mappings defined in SDL_gamecontrollerdb.h, and the project
> SDL2 game controller. Do we need SDL_gamecontrollerdb.h, can't we just use
> a text file, provided with the game, which will be easily updatable by the
> user ?
>
> For now the controllers are identified by GUID, which is an OS-dependent
> number. So we have to provide mappings for every supported platform. The
> GUID contains the vendor id and the device id. We could provide mappings
> with the vendor id and the device id instead, assuming the OSes sees the
> buttons and the axes in the same order. We just have to take into account
> OS differences (d-pad as axes on Linux etc...). We could provide
> platform-specific mappings only when it's needed.
>
> Linux has an API which provides mappings in a way similar to SDL2 Gamepad.
> https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/input/gamepad.txt
> We could use it to provide default mappings when it's not provided by the
> database. We have to recognize if the mappings complies with the new API.
> If all buttons and axes used are contiguous, it's likely that the driver
> did not map events according to the gamepad layout.
>
> About the labels. For now we can show the Xbox equivalent, show generic
> button names, or both. We could add a field "labels:something", which could
> be generic, xbox, playstation, etc.... This field will just be ignored by
> the current version. We could just have a fixed set or another database
> containing the name and color of buttons.
>
> Thoughts on those ?
>
> Regards.
>
>
>
> pretty sure SDL_GameController syntax needs some additions,
> flipping the axes is the most important of them.
>
> Steelseries MFI controllers seems to have an inverted Y axis on Mac. Fully
> Mapping to the GameController API is not possible with these controller
> because of this.
>
>
> Also the Button Names seems to be a neat idea, anyone working on this?
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Rodrigo Cardoso Rocha
> @RodrigoRodrigoR - twitter.com/RodrigoRodrigoR
> Chibata Creations - chibatacreations.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> SDL mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org
>
>

_______________________________________________
SDL mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org