Self-centering joystick mode for trackpad

[colinh]

Hi,

I've just started using Oolite on a MacBook (Air). (gosh, has it only been 23 yrs...)

Anyway, I've never managed to hit anything using the keyboard for manoeuvring. The trackpad is a bit closer to using a joystick - but it doesn't centre itself when you "let go". Wouldn't that be an improvement?



I'm guessing that:

[self setVirtualJoystick:0.0 :0.0];

in

- (void)mouseUp:(NSEvent *)theEvent

in

.../src/Cocoa/MyOpenGLView.m

might do the trick?

I'll try it out tomorrow, when I've got libpng etc. It's nearly 3 am now...

[JensAyton]

That would require you to click to recentre. (Currently right-click does that, but of course that’s not terribly convenient for Mac trackpads.) The behaviour you want would require OS X 10.6 touch gesture support, although it’s not immediately clear whether one-finger “gestures” are supported.

[colinh]

Ah, OK - yes mouseDown and mouseUp are events generated by the a mouse button being clicked and released.

[irrelevant stuff removed]

Thanks for the prod in the right direction.

[colinh]

Success! Sort of...

I got it working, but only in the NON full-screen mode! The mouse pointer jumps back to the centre of the sights when you lift your finger from the trackpad (on my MacBook Air). This feels quite close to using a joystick. Yes, the mouse pointer *is* visible. Perhaps it could be hidden when the Oolite app is active, or when the mouse pointer is within the Oolite window?

One has to set the target system as OS X 10.6, I'm afraid.



Then, in MyOpenGLView.m, in method - (id) initWithFrame:(NSRect)frameRect add

[self setAcceptsTouchEvents: TRUE]; // CDH only available from OS X 10.6

(obviously, somewhere after the self = [super initWithFrame:frameRect pixelFormat:pixelFormat]; line )



And add a new method:

Code: Select all

- (void)touchesEndedWithEvent:(NSEvent *)event
{
	[self setVirtualJoystick:0.0 :0.0];	
	CGDisplayMoveCursorToPoint(kCGDirectMainDisplay,
						    CGPointMake([[self window] frame].origin.x + viewSize.width / 2,
									(900 - viewSize.height / 2 - [[self window] frame].origin.y)));
}

The 900 is the screen height of my MacBook Air. That needs to be set properly...


I wanted to add a

case NSEventTypeGesture:

to goFullScreen in GameController.m

This is the NSEvent that's generated for touch begin and end (intended for when it can't recognise a proper Gesture). But it's the same event type (and subtype) for both. And [event touchesMatchingPhase:NSTouchPhaseEnded inView:gameView]; isn't returning any NSTouch objects at all so I can't detect when specifically a touch ends.

[JensAyton]

One has to set the target system as OS X 10.6, I'm afraid.

We already have infrastructure for loading code for later OS versions. I’ll set up a Snow Leopard bundle this afternoon.

[JensAyton]

We don’t recentre the mouse in windowed mouse mode normally (which is why it’s officially unsupported). Ignoring the obvious fact that this sucks, is there a particular need to do it for touch events?

[colinh]

Hmmm. Not sure what you mean. What sucks?

I can't play this sort of game using the keyboard - it has to be a joystick, or something equivalent.

The normal mouse mode with pressing button 2 to centre is OK (I have the bottom right of the trackpad configured as Button 2) but it's kind of distracting when you're trying to shoot down missiles

Surely having self-centring automatic (simply by lifting your finger from the trackpad, analogously to simply letting go of a joystick) - can't be what sucks?

The only way (AFAIK) to detect trackpad touched, finger moved, finger lifted, is by implementing the NSResponder methods invoked by the system for NSTouch events. Gesture events are what you get when you make one of the standard multi-touch (ie 2+ fingers) gestures (magnify, rotate, swipe - and scroll (which is signalled as a mouse event, I think)).

[JensAyton]

I am referring to the CGDisplayMoveCursorToPoint() call. For windowed-mode mouse control to work well, we’d need equivalent behaviour (only implemented completely differently, which is part of why I don’t want that there.) Does the trackpad control basically work without CGDisplayMoveCursorToPoint(), assuming you don’t hit the edge of the screen?

[colinh]

Ah, ok I think I see what you're getting at.

Except for the bit "does trackpad control basically work without..."

Well, I think one can get the absolute trackpad coordinates for touch events ie. touch began, moved and ended. (and then, obviously, use the motion relative to the coordinate of where the touch began).

So one could use that data instead of the mouse coordinates, but would you want the trackpad simply not to move the mouse when the oolite window is active? If so, I'm not sure how to do that.


Wouldn't it be easier to simply hide the mouse pointer (using [NSCursor hide] or whatever) when the oolite window is active?

... [ edit 2 mins later ]

If one adds

[NSCursor hide];

after the

[self setAcceptsTouchEvents: TRUE]; // CDH only available from OS X 10.6

line in initWithFrame:(NSRect)frameRect in MyOpenGLView.m, that's precisely what happens.

[JensAyton]

[NSCursor hide];

That would be fine as long as the user didn’t try clicking anywhere.

But my point is that this is beyond the scope of touchpad improvements, because it applies to mouse control as well. As far as I can see, touchesEndedWithEvent: should be doing exactly the same thing as a right-click, i.e.:

Code: Select all

my_mouse_x = my_mouse_y = 0;
past_first_mouse_delta = NO;
[gameView setVirtualJoystick:0.0 :0.0];

Is there some reason this doesn’t work?