Possible to get event-driven raw keyboard input?

[ataylor]

I am using App::setKeyPressUnicodeFunc to handle keyboard input. The uint arg passed to the keypress function provided appears to be a hybrid mix of "raw" keys and characters. That is, if the user presses the F1 key, the function receives uint value 277=KEY_F1. If the user presses the 'm' key alone, the function receives uint 109='m'. If the user presses 'm' while holding shift, the function receives uint 77='M'. If the user presses the 'm' key while holding control, the function receives uint 13, a carriage return. 

 

If a user presses any particular key, I would prefer the function always be called with the same value, regardless of what modifier keys may already be held. Is there a way to do this? Converting between upper- and lower-case letters is trivial but mildly inconvenient. Having to convert control characters into raw keyboard input is more of a nuisance.

 

I would also like to avoid using App::getKeyState to check all applicable key states every tick as an alternative.

[silent]

Hi Adam,

 

Could you please specify the OS, keyboard layout that was used (QWERTY / AZERTY / QWERTZ) and system locale? We will try to reproduce this behavior first and then we can suggest you something useful :)

Thanks!

[ataylor]

Windows 10 / QWERTY / en-us.

 

спс

[ataylor]

Hi, it's been a week. Is the Unigine engine capable of providing the info I need?

[silent]

Hi Adam,

 

Sorry for the late reply.

 

Task called "create RAW-input" sample is more complicated than we thought before. I will raise priority, but more likely it will be delayed for next week.

 

Also currently it is not completely clear what to do with "Ctrl + M" key combination (for example, Notepad++ threat such combination as carriage return, but some other software - not).

[ataylor]

Yes, keyboard input at a low level can be complicated in ways one would not expect. I have worked on / with other engines before with similar headaches, so I understand :)

I can mostly work around the problem with ugly hack in the meantime:

void MyClass::OnKeyPressed(uint key)

{

key=tolower(key); // convert capital letters into lower case letters

if(key<=26) key+=96; // convert control characters into lower case letters

if(key==27) key='[';

if(key==28) key=\\';

if(key==29) key=]';

if(key==30) key='6'; // CTRL ^ produces 30, and ^ is on the 6 key

if(key==31) key='-'; // CTRL _ produces 31, and _ is on the - key

 ...

}

 

27 through 31 probably won't work on other keyboard layouts...

 

For reference: https://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/chars/c0.html

[silent]

Hi Adam,

 

I'm afraid the best solution our devs can provide to you is looking like your ugly hack. The second solution will be to write your custom App that will handle all the input, but it will require a lot of time and debugging.

 

We will keep in mind this use-case (it still opened in our internal bug tracker) when the controls system will be refactored or updated in the next SDK versions (probably, not this year).

 

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.