gamepad.txt 7.4 KB

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  1. Linux Gamepad API
  2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  3. 1. Intro
  4. ~~~~~~~~
  5. Linux provides many different input drivers for gamepad hardware. To avoid
  6. having user-space deal with different button-mappings for each gamepad, this
  7. document defines how gamepads are supposed to report their data.
  8. 2. Geometry
  9. ~~~~~~~~~~~
  10. As "gamepad" we define devices which roughly look like this:
  11. ____________________________ __
  12. / [__ZL__] [__ZR__] \ |
  13. / [__ TL __] [__ TR __] \ | Front Triggers
  14. __/________________________________\__ __|
  15. / _ \ |
  16. / /\ __ (N) \ |
  17. / || __ |MO| __ _ _ \ | Main Pad
  18. | <===DP===> |SE| |ST| (W) -|- (E) | |
  19. \ || ___ ___ _ / |
  20. /\ \/ / \ / \ (S) /\ __|
  21. / \________ | LS | ____ | RS | ________/ \ |
  22. | / \ \___/ / \ \___/ / \ | | Control Sticks
  23. | / \_____/ \_____/ \ | __|
  24. | / \ |
  25. \_____/ \_____/
  26. |________|______| |______|___________|
  27. D-Pad Left Right Action Pad
  28. Stick Stick
  29. |_____________|
  30. Menu Pad
  31. Most gamepads have the following features:
  32. - Action-Pad
  33. 4 buttons in diamonds-shape (on the right side). The buttons are
  34. differently labeled on most devices so we define them as NORTH,
  35. SOUTH, WEST and EAST.
  36. - D-Pad (Direction-pad)
  37. 4 buttons (on the left side) that point up, down, left and right.
  38. - Menu-Pad
  39. Different constellations, but most-times 2 buttons: SELECT - START
  40. Furthermore, many gamepads have a fancy branded button that is used as
  41. special system-button. It often looks different to the other buttons and
  42. is used to pop up system-menus or system-settings.
  43. - Analog-Sticks
  44. Analog-sticks provide freely moveable sticks to control directions. Not
  45. all devices have both or any, but they are present at most times.
  46. Analog-sticks may also provide a digital button if you press them.
  47. - Triggers
  48. Triggers are located on the upper-side of the pad in vertical direction.
  49. Not all devices provide them, but the upper buttons are normally named
  50. Left- and Right-Triggers, the lower buttons Z-Left and Z-Right.
  51. - Rumble
  52. Many devices provide force-feedback features. But are mostly just
  53. simple rumble motors.
  54. 3. Detection
  55. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
  56. All gamepads that follow the protocol described here map BTN_GAMEPAD. This is
  57. an alias for BTN_SOUTH/BTN_A. It can be used to identify a gamepad as such.
  58. However, not all gamepads provide all features, so you need to test for all
  59. features that you need, first. How each feature is mapped is described below.
  60. Legacy drivers often don't comply to these rules. As we cannot change them
  61. for backwards-compatibility reasons, you need to provide fixup mappings in
  62. user-space yourself. Some of them might also provide module-options that
  63. change the mappings so you can advise users to set these.
  64. All new gamepads are supposed to comply with this mapping. Please report any
  65. bugs, if they don't.
  66. There are a lot of less-featured/less-powerful devices out there, which re-use
  67. the buttons from this protocol. However, they try to do this in a compatible
  68. fashion. For example, the "Nintendo Wii Nunchuk" provides two trigger buttons
  69. and one analog stick. It reports them as if it were a gamepad with only one
  70. analog stick and two trigger buttons on the right side.
  71. But that means, that if you only support "real" gamepads, you must test
  72. devices for _all_ reported events that you need. Otherwise, you will also get
  73. devices that report a small subset of the events.
  74. No other devices, that do not look/feel like a gamepad, shall report these
  75. events.
  76. 4. Events
  77. ~~~~~~~~~
  78. Gamepads report the following events:
  79. Action-Pad:
  80. Every gamepad device has at least 2 action buttons. This means, that every
  81. device reports BTN_SOUTH (which BTN_GAMEPAD is an alias for). Regardless
  82. of the labels on the buttons, the codes are sent according to the
  83. physical position of the buttons.
  84. Please note that 2- and 3-button pads are fairly rare and old. You might
  85. want to filter gamepads that do not report all four.
  86. 2-Button Pad:
  87. If only 2 action-buttons are present, they are reported as BTN_SOUTH and
  88. BTN_EAST. For vertical layouts, the upper button is BTN_EAST. For
  89. horizontal layouts, the button more on the right is BTN_EAST.
  90. 3-Button Pad:
  91. If only 3 action-buttons are present, they are reported as (from left
  92. to right): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
  93. If the buttons are aligned perfectly vertically, they are reported as
  94. (from top down): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
  95. 4-Button Pad:
  96. If all 4 action-buttons are present, they can be aligned in two
  97. different formations. If diamond-shaped, they are reported as BTN_NORTH,
  98. BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST according to their physical location.
  99. If rectangular-shaped, the upper-left button is BTN_NORTH, lower-left
  100. is BTN_WEST, lower-right is BTN_SOUTH and upper-right is BTN_EAST.
  101. D-Pad:
  102. Every gamepad provides a D-Pad with four directions: Up, Down, Left, Right
  103. Some of these are available as digital buttons, some as analog buttons. Some
  104. may even report both. The kernel does not convert between these so
  105. applications should support both and choose what is more appropriate if
  106. both are reported.
  107. Digital buttons are reported as:
  108. BTN_DPAD_*
  109. Analog buttons are reported as:
  110. ABS_HAT0X and ABS_HAT0Y
  111. (for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
  112. Analog-Sticks:
  113. The left analog-stick is reported as ABS_X, ABS_Y. The right analog stick is
  114. reported as ABS_RX, ABS_RY. Zero, one or two sticks may be present.
  115. If analog-sticks provide digital buttons, they are mapped accordingly as
  116. BTN_THUMBL (first/left) and BTN_THUMBR (second/right).
  117. (for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
  118. Triggers:
  119. Trigger buttons can be available as digital or analog buttons or both. User-
  120. space must correctly deal with any situation and choose the most appropriate
  121. mode.
  122. Upper trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR or ABS_HAT1X (right) and BTN_TL
  123. or ABS_HAT1Y (left). Lower trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR2 or
  124. ABS_HAT2X (right/ZR) and BTN_TL2 or ABS_HAT2Y (left/ZL).
  125. If only one trigger-button combination is present (upper+lower), they are
  126. reported as "right" triggers (BTN_TR/ABS_HAT1X).
  127. (ABS trigger values start at 0, pressure is reported as positive values)
  128. Menu-Pad:
  129. Menu buttons are always digital and are mapped according to their location
  130. instead of their labels. That is:
  131. 1-button Pad: Mapped as BTN_START
  132. 2-button Pad: Left button mapped as BTN_SELECT, right button mapped as
  133. BTN_START
  134. Many pads also have a third button which is branded or has a special symbol
  135. and meaning. Such buttons are mapped as BTN_MODE. Examples are the Nintendo
  136. "HOME" button, the XBox "X"-button or Sony "PS" button.
  137. Rumble:
  138. Rumble is advertised as FF_RUMBLE.
  139. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  140. Written 2013 by David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@gmail.com>