Features

Okay, so why do you need an input system? If you ever wanted your player to move right with multiple inputs you did something like this:

var right = keyboard_check(vk_right) or keyboard_check(ord("D"))
    or gamepad_button_check(0, gp_padr) or gamepad_axis_value(0, gp_axislh) > 0;

Thats pretty long isn’t it! Well with this input system you could do this:

var right = inputCheck([vk_right, "d", gp_padr, gp_axislr]);

Read more about the inputCheck() function here.

But we can go a step further with this system. Imagine that you want your player to do the following: move right and left, jump and shoot. For that, you could create a new InputSystem that stores a set of inputs in categories and checks them automatically for you. Here is an example:

// Create event
in_sys = new InputSystem({
    right:  [vk_right,  "d", gp_padr, gp_axislr],
    left:   [vk_left,   "a", gp_padl, gp_axisll],
    jump:   [vk_up,     "w", gp_a],
    shoot:  [vk_space,  gp_shoulderrb, gp_x]
});

// Step event
var input = in_sys.check();

if (input.right.down) x += 4;
if (input.left.down) x -= 4;

if (input.jump.pressed) y -= 10;

if (input.shoot.down) shoot();

As you can see first you create a new InputSystem with the categories and inputs. Then you can call the InputSystem’s check method which will check if any of the inputs are pressed. After that you can get the inputs in three ways:

• .down - Returns true continuously if any of the inputs are currently held down

• .pressed - Returns true only at the moment when any of the inputs are pressed

• .released - Return true only at the moment when the input is released

Read more about the InputSystem() here.

The system contains a lot more useful stuff. Here is a list of what else it can do:

• Getting the last gamepad input pressed similar to keyboard_key

• Getting the last input pressed from any type

• Getting the type of any input

• Turning an input into a string (good for drawing and debugging)

• Drawing inputs with nice-looking icons

• Replacing ord(“X”) with “x”

• Replacing gamepad_axis_value() with new constants like gp_axislr

• Checking gamepad axis inputs as pressed

• Saving and loading Input Systems in one line

• More vk constants