Input and games.

[Pekka Paalanen]

On Mon, 6 May 2013 09:07:01 +0200
David Herrmann <dh.herrmann at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Pekka
> 
> On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 8:54 AM, Pekka Paalanen <ppaalanen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, 5 May 2013 15:27:54 -0400
> > Todd Showalter <todd at electronjump.com> wrote:
> >>     Having given it some thought, I'd be inclined to be cautious about
> >> how much you consider the gamepad-with-builtin-keyboard case.  They
> >> really made those things to make MMOs viable on game consoles.  As far
> >> as I know, not a lot of people have them, and the main argument for
> >> them is on consoles which don't have native keyboards.  On a PC, the
> >> kinds of games that need keyboards are the kinds of games you tend to
> >> want access to the mouse.  That's not to say that nobody will ever use
> >> a gamepad keyboard in a game on Linux, but I'd argue it's on thin
> >> enough ground that I wouldn't let it drive the design considerations.
> >
> > I could imagine the Wii pointer exposed as a wl_pointer with the
> > gamepad... hrm, that's another curious input device that does not fit
> > well in our categories: it needs a cursor image, but provides absolute
> > positions unlike a mouse, right?
> 
> I wrote the Wii-Remote kernel driver and I can assure you that there
> is _no_ way you can handle this as a generic device. It is a good
> example for a device that needs client support to make sense.
> Of course, you can write a compositor input driver that emulates a
> mouse via the raw Wii-Remote input, but then you should also advertise
> it as a mouse to the clients. Depending on the method you use, it can
> report absolute or relative events (accel: relative, IR: absolute)
> 
> I think we shouldn't try to support such special devices. It doesn't
> make sense. Instead, provide generic devices via generic interfaces
> (mouse, keyboard, touch, gamepad) but also provide a raw interface so
> clients can have device-specific support. And if it turns out that a
> new device-class emerges, we can always add support for them.

Ok, so are we completely out of any input devices (standard input
interfaces like wl_keyboard or wl_pointer, really) we would really like
to associate with a gamepad?

If yes, that leaves only the gamepad focus issue, that ties into
wl_seats.


Thanks,
pq