Better Gamepad Support

[Prescott]

Description of the Feature: The ability to utilize all of a gamepad's buttons and axes, to map said buttons and axes to any key, and to allow multiple controllers for multiplayer.

• Use all of a gamepad's buttons and axes.
• Map said buttons and axes to any keyboard key.
• Option to enable independent buttons and axes aside from keyboard mappings (i.e. Button 1/Controller 1, Axis X+/Controller 2)
• Allow multiple controllers for multiplayer (this is why the previous entry would be needed, so you can make an event or something that is controlled by another gamepad).
• In-editor controls first and foremost. The ability to lock out the player from editing them or to provide them with a menu option to edit the bindings, or maybe switch out between a few different profiles, would be perfect. But that can be made by a third party. An in-editor configuration tool is what this post is mainly about.
• Possibly the ability to make controllers rumble and option for the player to turn it on or off.

Code for Implementation:
The code to recognize that a controller is plugged in is already in the engine, but it can only make use of a few buttons for what can only seem to me like an imposed limit rather than one that couldn't be done. Not to mention, the default control layout is atrocious and you NEED Yanfly's GamepadConfig plugin to change it to something usable. Even then, it doesn't have support for the d-pad which most people prefer for navigating menus and grid-based-movement games. Yanfly's plugin actually has unused configs for up, left, right, and down, and after enabling them I found that they couldn't even be mapped to the d-pad anyway.
I would just make it another menu beside the database, plugin, etc icons. From there you just let the developer map each button to a keyboard key or engine function. See the mockup for more info or even take a look at Steam's, Dolphin's, CEMU's, etc configuration tool for controllers and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

Mockups:

Spoiler

Why is this feature good?
This feature is great because of the following:

• More accessibility.
• Bringing MV games closer to the standard of having full native controller support in your game.
• Mobile users can make great use of it so they aren't REQUIRED to use a touch screen.

Possible issues with this feature?
Issues that might arise from this feature:

• Conflict with steam controller profiles, but that's all on the end user.

I'm actually pretty surprised that nobody has wondered about this or asked about it yet. I see this as being a must-have in a game developing engine. Unfortunately, I lack most of the know-how to implement it myself, which means if it isn't brought to fruition I'm either going to have to pay someone a decent chunk of money to make a plugin that can do all of this somehow, or just say "sorry" to anyone who tries playing the game with a controller (without configuring it in Steam or some other third party program).

 

[Archeia]

When RPG Maker MV was first released there were a slew of plugins we included precisely to cover this on release (this is not to say that I disagree with the suggestion). In case you missed them and you absolutely need them, here are the plugins in question.

http://yanfly.moe/2016/03/06/yep-80-keyboard-config/
http://yanfly.moe/plugins/en/GamepadConfig.js

 

[KayZaman]

I like that idea, but the plugins helpful for me.

 

[Prescott]

When RPG Maker MV was first released there were a slew of plugins we included precisely to cover this on release (this is not to say that I disagree with the suggestion). In case you missed them and you absolutely need them, here are the plugins in question.

http://yanfly.moe/2016/03/06/yep-80-keyboard-config/
http://yanfly.moe/plugins/en/GamepadConfig.js

I actually tried using said plugin but like I mentioned, it has VERY limited compatibility and only lets you change buttons for a few things. I'm thinking of a system much more robust. As it stands now, in order to use the d-pad for movement/menus at all while using a gamepad in an MV game, you would need to use something like joy2key to map all your buttons to keyboard prompts and the gamepadconfig plugin would no longer be needed. That's the only way as far as I can tell. If the gamepad could be used by the engine natively, MV games could be branched out by a wide margin and include more than just RPGs, even extending to stuff like multiplayer beat 'em ups.
Either way, if you're playing a game with a controller, especially one based on grid-movement or side scrolling, you generally do not want to use the analog stick for everything (if anything at all).
I'm sorry if I come across as sounding a little pissy (for lack of a better word) during these posts but having full gamepad support is something that can make or break a game (Mother Russia Bleeds is one I simply can't play because the gamepad support is awful), and adding it in would create a lot more possibilities for game designers to use this for a heck of a lot more games with unique genres.
And I'm not talking about just mapping BUTTON 0 to "OK" in the engine, but even going as far as to have something akin to plugin commands where you could make events move based on the developer entering "Gamepad.0 is pressing.Left" and make a move event left command. It could really go a long way.

 

[ChampX]

I mean, you can modify the plugin code to fit your needs. Yanfly's gamepad plugin is a good base for all your gamepad needs but it certainly can be extended to fit your needs if you are comfortable using JavaScript. You could easily write a plugin command that has Gamepad.0 act as pressing left if the player didn't already do so. You could also disable the ability to let the player put in their own configuration from the options menu (not recommended) and just define your own custom controls for the gamepad for your game. A lot of Yanfly's default configurations are hard coded so at the very least changing defaults is usually rather trivial as well as adding/removing certain buttons from being active.

 

[Prescott]

I mean, you can modify the plugin code to fit your needs. Yanfly's gamepad plugin is a good base for all your gamepad needs but it certainly can be extended to fit your needs if you are comfortable using JavaScript. You could easily write a plugin command that has Gamepad.0 act as pressing left if the player didn't already do so. You could also disable the ability to let the player put in their own configuration from the options menu (not recommended) and just define your own custom controls for the gamepad for your game. A lot of Yanfly's default configurations are hard coded so at the very least changing defaults is usually rather trivial as well as adding/removing certain buttons from being active.

Well I tried adding the d-pad into the plugin, because it's actually in there but not usable. So I tried making it usable, but it turns out the engine can't even read the d-pad's input.
AFAIK there's no support for multiple gamepads, either.

 

[JeremyInDenver]

Hi guys, it's nice to see the mutual respect in the RPG Maker community. I'm using the gamepad plugin myself and noticed that there's a significant delay with it becoming active after the game launch. Is there a way to force it to register immediately?

 

[mlogan]

@JeremyInDenver It would be best if you start a new topic in MV Support or Plugin Support, if you are using a Plugin for gamepad control.

 

[nathkyo]

no his idea is to add an internal editing system for controls . He doesn't need plug-in support or anything he was trying to come up with an idea so that way you could edit it in the editor without plug-ins a.k.a. work with it natively. Instead of hoping that the plug-ins is out there and it's not out of date because RPG maker decided to break the universe for the sixth time.

 

[Vanya]

Better gamepad support is definitely important, because for example I have an imported playstation controller adapter and it does not work at all here. It even interferes with the normal operation of my projects.

 

[Alexandr_7]

The idea is good but I'm not sure that this is a necessity. To toggle, there is still no support for compiling for consoles.

 

[KayZaman]

Mine’s working without plugin. But it use x-input.

Spoiler

 

[kalfax]

I tried using the gamepad plugin with yanfly's option core but it doesn't show up like the keyboard one does. anyone know if theres a newer version than v1.01 ?