Parallel process doesn't activate when pressing certain directional keys

[rpgLord69]

EDIT 2: Nope, the problem is back.


So I have a simple event, where I'm moving a picture on screen with the directional keys. When I press enter, a sound-effect plays. The event works (sound effect plays) when pressing and moving in any other direction than South-West (down and left and enter the same time). When I do that, the sound effect doesn't play. Why is that?

 

[Nolonar]

So you're saying the sound effect doesn't play when you press left+down+enter at the same time?

I'm guessing you just triggered your keyboard's anti-ghosting feature. There's sadly nothing you can do to fix that, other than use another keyboard.

You can read more about anti-ghosting (and keyboard press limits) over here: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/a/326085/46740

Summarized:

• Instead of using a dedicated wire for each key, keyboards map their keys to a grid (keys are sharing the same wires) to save costs.
• Depending on which keys you press, the keyboard might detect keys that haven't been pressed (ghost keys).
• To prevent that, they ignore any additional keys if it might trigger a ghost key (anti-ghosting).
• The only solution is to use a more expensive keyboard, that supports more simultaneous key presses.
• When buying a new keyboard, pay attention to the "Rollover". A 5-rollover keyboard guarantees that you can press any 5 keys on your keyboard at the same time. A n-rollover keyboard guarantees that you can press all keys at the same time.

You can use this site to test whether your keyboard supports pressing left+down+enter at the same time: http://gadzikowski.com/nkeyrollover.html

Another common (but not particularly useful) test is to type the entire alphabet (from A to Z) with both left and right Shift keys pressed at the same time. For example, the Surface Book 3 fails to type X, but the Logitech G910 and the MacBook Pro 16" (2020) both pass the test.

 

[rpgLord69]

@Nolonar Thanks for the reply, but like I edited in, it started working after I restarted RPG Maker. However, I didn't know anything about that anti-ghosting...can just using 3 simultaneous keyboard presses make a game unplayable on some people's devices?

 

[Nolonar]

can just using 3 simultaneous keyboard presses make a game unplayable on some people's devices?

If those 3 simultaneous key presses are necessary to play the game, yes.

For example, the original Half-Life sometimes requires that you perform a crouch-jump (this allows you to reach higher places), which means you need to press 3 keys at the same time, forward + crouch + jump. If your keyboard doesn't support that, you'd have to change your keybinding until you find a combination of 3 keys that do work.

Or you use a gamepad (if the game supports it). Those are pretty much guaranteed to recognize all buttons at the same time.

 

[rpgLord69]

@Nolonar
The problem appeared again! Can this have something to do with what you were talking about, or is something else causing this? Yes, I tested my keyboard pressing both shifts and trying all the letters. Indeed it didn't write all the letters.
But how did the problem in my game momentarily resolve itself earlier? Can that anti-ghosting feature somehow change itself? Because when I made my first edit to this post the south-west + enter started working (after closing and restarting RPG Maker).

Now again south-west + enter isn't working and south-east + spacebar or north-west + spacebar isn't working...

 

[Nolonar]

It's possible you used different keys when it worked. Movement in MZ is mapped to both the arrow keys and the numeric keypad (2, 4, 6, 8). Also, "ok" is mapped to Enter, Space, and Z (if you have a numeric keypad, your keyboard has 2 Enter keys).

What happens when you try those combinations on the following site?

gadzikowski.com rollover test page

gadzikowski.com

If the combinations don't work on that site, it means the problem is with your keyboard.

PS: I just remembered that some laptops have a "feature", where they block the keyboard if your hand is touching the mousepad (or the other way around; blocking the mousepad if you're typing). Might be worth investigating.

 

[rpgLord69]

@Nolonar
Ok, I tested it, and the problem is indeed my keyboard (laptop). But I'm 100% sure that I used the same arrow keys and same enter when trying it earlier when it started working for a while...strange. If that's not possible, then I must have subconsciously released one of the keys for a moment or something And unfortunately none of those combinations arrowkeys + enter/space/z work for all directions. How am I even supposed to give instructions to the players? "Press these keys and hope you have a n-rollover keyboard"?

 

[Nolonar]

That's a difficult question.

I don't know a single game that mentions rollover, and I doubt mentioning it will be helpful (player generally don't like it when you say: "your hardware is bad, buy something better", and that's understandable).

The best thing you can do is design your game to not require 3 simultaneous button presses. I don't really know what you're trying to do with that event, so I can't really give a better recommendation, but allowing the player to split movement and Enter would probably solve this. It's not unusual for games to ignore certain actions while other actions are happening, especially old NES or Game Boy games would usually only allow either attacking or moving, but not both at the same time.