[SOLVED] How to get mouse position even if no input is detected?

Questions
#1

Hi!

I’d like to make the “magic circle” follow the mouse position even when no input is detected.

The problem here is that the camera is auto-scrolling, so the physical cursor can “move” without triggering any input. In the meantime, the magic circle (supposed to follow the mouse position) stays immobile until I move or click to trigger the power (= input detected).
image

Is there a way to get the mouse position even if no input is detected? :thinking:

#2

you need to add (or possibly subtract) the position of the camera until input is detected. I had a recent similar problem and that was the solution.

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#3

I came to the same conclusion, which leads me to my second problem :slight_smile: (I didn’t want to include it in my 1st message before knowing if there was a simple solution)

Since I need to know precisely when the input is detected (or not), I tried to use a boolean to do so.

Set to false by default in the update function:

function update(self, dt)
	gp.is_input = false
end

and set to true when input is detected:

function on_input(self, action_id, action)
	gp.is_input = true
end

But the parameter remains set to false (like if the update function has priority over the on_input function… or something. I don’t know)

So I’m doing something wrong.

Is there a simple way to know if no input is detected?

#4

I used to know this, but I don’t remember now…

Yes, and you are on the right track. You need to check if the mouse’s position has changed since last frame.

I believe this can be done by checking that action.dx and action.dy are both exactly 0. But you can also try storeing the mouse’s position as a variable, and checking it each frame.

1 Like
#5

That’s what I needed to know :slight_smile: Thanks for the answers!

#6

Well done for getting it sorted! Luckily, I was facing this exact problem just last week.

1 Like
#7

Now it works as intended and seems super obvious, but it required a few “die & retry” iterations to reach this “stupid & simple” solution :slight_smile: (took the wrong path 2-3 times)

In case someone encounters this little specific (but annoying) issue and finds this post:

In the camera script, you calculate the camera position delta (between current and old… old = previous frame):

function update(self, dt)
	gp.camPos_delta = gp.camPos - gp.camPos_old
	gp.camPos_old = gp.camPos
end

Then in the script of the game object you want to adjust the position, you add this delta:

function update(self, dt)
	self.pos.x, self.pos.y = self.pos.x + gp.camPos_delta.x, self.pos.y + gp.camPos_delta.y
	go.set_position(self.pos)
end

In the end, you don’t have to check if the mouse is moving or not (which, for some reason, was not 100% accurate and generated sub-issues) since the “camPos_delta” makes the adjustment automatically.

1 Like
#8

For what it’s worth, the “how to get mouse position even if no input is detected” issue was not solved at all :grin: (I realized that recently: it works on mobile -which is pretty normal- but not on desktop)

The answer lies here: