Re: [tuxdroid-user] Tuxdroid gamepad interface

[Bruno C. <bru...@fr...>]

Le lundi 09 avril 2007 à 19:26 +0200, Philippe Teuwen a écrit :
> Florent THIERY wrote:
> > Sounds like a good idea to me !
> >
> > Add to this the possibility to use the IR transceiver as if it was
> > really on the host computer...
> >
> > But then there would be no need for the daemon anymore....
> >   
> Using the joypad API won't help that much I think.
> We have many inputs, not just 4:

Well there are joypads up to 10 inputs as far as I saw.

> - wings & head

Can be mapped to button

> - light level
> future: battery level

Can be mapped to 2 analogs axis

> - IR codes

Should use the GNU/Linux IR API (don't know it).

> Some of those inputs are on events, some are on polling (which could be 
> also on events if there is a trigger level in the firmware such as low 
> batt warning)

Like I said, low batt can be an analog axis, for the rest, using the
force feedback API, it should be possible to set trigger levels if
needed.

> We have many outputs, more than what feedback joystick API could offer
> - eyes, mouth, wings, spin movements
> - eyes leds, IR led

I have not seen the force feedback API, this needs investigations.

> We have still the major issue to be dealt by a daemon: allowing multiple 
> applications to interact with the Tux.

Having a clean standard way to access the daemon does not preclude you
from making a daemon on top of it for this need. The daemon way implies
a much more complex / specific integration with each applications but I
don't see what it means for having several applications waiting for a
tux button, which one must make the action, both, ...
For the IR function, I already played with LIRC that does the
application sharing, each IR code can send specific X events to any
applications. It would be easy just to create lirc config files for
gnome, kde, ...

> And having a "false" joystick being the Tux could make strange thinks 
> with games using automatically any found joystick...

Well, I saw vlc for example, it let you specify you /dev joystick
interface to use. But frankly, it's not tuxdroid problem and the user
can simply unplug fux.

Just checking supertux --help we have:
 -j, --joystick NUM  Use joystick NUM (default: 0)
  --joymap XAXIS:YAXIS:A:B:START


Clearly, more i dig into it, more I believe it's a natural path to go
through the standard API, it has some drawbacks but the benefits are
huge.

-- 
Bruno Coudoin
http://gcompris.net Free educational software for kids
http://toulibre.org Logiciel Libre à Toulouse