[solved (sweat & shame)] What is « mapper » for configuring game input bindings?

cubixpix · August 7, 2023, 9:33am

Hello,

Searching how i could remap inputs for player, i was thinking first of this:
filling game.input_binding with all possible values. Then the player could chose in a menu which key he wants for an action, and in on_input i could test the stored value.

Reading the forum, i landed on this page:

github.com

britzl/defold-input/blob/master/in/mapper.md

# Mapper
Use the Mapper module to map action ids to in-game actions. This makes it very easy to allow the user to rebind keys or gamepad button or to assign different sets of input for the same actions in a multiplayer game.

# Input bindings
In order to allow players to bind in-game actions to any key or gamepad button it is recommended to use an `*.input_bindings` file where each Input is bound to an Action. The [all.input_bindings](in/bindings/all-input_bindings) does this and it's recommended to use this file together with the Mapper module. The triggers in `all.input_bindings` exist as constants in `in/triggers.lua`.

# Bind actions to in-game actions
Use the Mapper to define how incoming actions should translate to in-game actions. In the example below key bindings are defined for two players. For player one the KEY_LEFT and KEY_RIGHT (ie cursor keys) keys are bound to the in-game actions "move_left" and "move_right". For player two it is the "A" and "D" keys that are bound to the same in-game actions.

	local mapper = require "in.mapper"
	local triggers = require "in.triggers"

	function init(self)
		-- bindings for player 1
		mapper.bind(triggers.KEY_LEFT, "move_left", 1)
		mapper.bind(triggers.KEY_RIGHT, "move_right", 1)

		-- bindings for player 2
		mapper.bind(triggers.KEY_A, "move_left", 2)
		mapper.bind(triggers.KEY_D, "move_right", 2)

This file has been truncated. show original

It seems less overkill (avoid to send a message to on_input for each pressed key), but i have questions:

The web page above says: The all.input_bindings does this and it’s recommended to use this file , but the link it gives is dead.

Then i see it’s on Britzl github, so this method is not integrated in the Defold’s engine, isn’t it ?

What is in named directory given in the sample ? Is it part of Defold sources ? Is it usable directly from a lua script in Defold ? Should it be copied somewhere in the project path before ?

(i’m speaking of this) :

local mapper = require "in.mapper"
local triggers = require "in.triggers"

Thank you.

Potota · August 6, 2023, 9:27pm

That file is now bundled with Defold at /builtins/input/all.input_binding.

The repository is for the defold-input library which provides the in folder once you follow the directions in the README to add it to your project:

cubixpix · August 7, 2023, 9:32am

Believe me if you want , but i didn’t even thought on going back at the root of the project ( https://github.com/britzl/defold-input/tree/master ).

I was 100% sure to be lost somewhere in the sources of Defold…

thank you.