1<HTML 2><HEAD 3><TITLE 4>Joystick</TITLE 5><META 6NAME="GENERATOR" 7CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+ 8"><LINK 9REL="HOME" 10TITLE="SDL Library Documentation" 11HREF="index.html"><LINK 12REL="UP" 13TITLE="SDL Reference" 14HREF="reference.html"><LINK 15REL="PREVIOUS" 16TITLE="SDL_JoystickEventState" 17HREF="sdljoystickeventstate.html"><LINK 18REL="NEXT" 19TITLE="SDL_NumJoysticks" 20HREF="sdlnumjoysticks.html"><META 21NAME="KEYWORD" 22CONTENT="joystick"><META 23NAME="KEYWORD" 24CONTENT="function"></HEAD 25><BODY 26CLASS="CHAPTER" 27BGCOLOR="#FFF8DC" 28TEXT="#000000" 29LINK="#0000ee" 30VLINK="#551a8b" 31ALINK="#ff0000" 32><DIV 33CLASS="NAVHEADER" 34><TABLE 35SUMMARY="Header navigation table" 36WIDTH="100%" 37BORDER="0" 38CELLPADDING="0" 39CELLSPACING="0" 40><TR 41><TH 42COLSPAN="3" 43ALIGN="center" 44>SDL Library Documentation</TH 45></TR 46><TR 47><TD 48WIDTH="10%" 49ALIGN="left" 50VALIGN="bottom" 51><A 52HREF="sdljoystickeventstate.html" 53ACCESSKEY="P" 54>Prev</A 55></TD 56><TD 57WIDTH="80%" 58ALIGN="center" 59VALIGN="bottom" 60></TD 61><TD 62WIDTH="10%" 63ALIGN="right" 64VALIGN="bottom" 65><A 66HREF="sdlnumjoysticks.html" 67ACCESSKEY="N" 68>Next</A 69></TD 70></TR 71></TABLE 72><HR 73ALIGN="LEFT" 74WIDTH="100%"></DIV 75><DIV 76CLASS="CHAPTER" 77><H1 78><A 79NAME="JOYSTICK" 80></A 81>Chapter 9. Joystick</H1 82><DIV 83CLASS="TOC" 84><DL 85><DT 86><B 87>Table of Contents</B 88></DT 89><DT 90><A 91HREF="sdlnumjoysticks.html" 92>SDL_NumJoysticks</A 93> -- Count available joysticks.</DT 94><DT 95><A 96HREF="sdljoystickname.html" 97>SDL_JoystickName</A 98> -- Get joystick name.</DT 99><DT 100><A 101HREF="sdljoystickopen.html" 102>SDL_JoystickOpen</A 103> -- Opens a joystick for use.</DT 104><DT 105><A 106HREF="sdljoystickopened.html" 107>SDL_JoystickOpened</A 108> -- Determine if a joystick has been opened</DT 109><DT 110><A 111HREF="sdljoystickindex.html" 112>SDL_JoystickIndex</A 113> -- Get the index of an SDL_Joystick.</DT 114><DT 115><A 116HREF="sdljoysticknumaxes.html" 117>SDL_JoystickNumAxes</A 118> -- Get the number of joystick axes</DT 119><DT 120><A 121HREF="sdljoysticknumballs.html" 122>SDL_JoystickNumBalls</A 123> -- Get the number of joystick trackballs</DT 124><DT 125><A 126HREF="sdljoysticknumhats.html" 127>SDL_JoystickNumHats</A 128> -- Get the number of joystick hats</DT 129><DT 130><A 131HREF="sdljoysticknumbuttons.html" 132>SDL_JoystickNumButtons</A 133> -- Get the number of joysitck buttons</DT 134><DT 135><A 136HREF="sdljoystickupdate.html" 137>SDL_JoystickUpdate</A 138> -- Updates the state of all joysticks</DT 139><DT 140><A 141HREF="sdljoystickgetaxis.html" 142>SDL_JoystickGetAxis</A 143> -- Get the current state of an axis</DT 144><DT 145><A 146HREF="sdljoystickgethat.html" 147>SDL_JoystickGetHat</A 148> -- Get the current state of a joystick hat</DT 149><DT 150><A 151HREF="sdljoystickgetbutton.html" 152>SDL_JoystickGetButton</A 153> -- Get the current state of a given button on a given joystick</DT 154><DT 155><A 156HREF="sdljoystickgetball.html" 157>SDL_JoystickGetBall</A 158> -- Get relative trackball motion</DT 159><DT 160><A 161HREF="sdljoystickclose.html" 162>SDL_JoystickClose</A 163> -- Closes a previously opened joystick</DT 164></DL 165></DIV 166><P 167>Joysticks, and other similar input devices, have a very strong role in game playing and SDL provides comprehensive support for them. Axes, Buttons, POV Hats and trackballs are all supported.</P 168><P 169>Joystick support is initialized by passed the <TT 170CLASS="LITERAL" 171>SDL_INIT_JOYSTICK</TT 172> flag to <A 173HREF="sdlinit.html" 174><TT 175CLASS="FUNCTION" 176>SDL_Init</TT 177></A 178>. Once initilized joysticks must be opened using <A 179HREF="sdljoystickopen.html" 180><TT 181CLASS="FUNCTION" 182>SDL_JoystickOpen</TT 183></A 184>.</P 185><P 186>While using the functions describe in this secton may seem like the best way to access and read from joysticks, in most cases they aren't. Ideally joysticks should be read using the <A 187HREF="event.html" 188>event</A 189> system. To enable this, you must set the joystick event processing state with <A 190HREF="sdljoystickeventstate.html" 191><TT 192CLASS="FUNCTION" 193>SDL_JoystickEventState</TT 194></A 195>. Joysticks must be <A 196HREF="sdljoystickopen.html" 197>opened</A 198> before they can be used of course.</P 199><DIV 200CLASS="NOTE" 201><BLOCKQUOTE 202CLASS="NOTE" 203><P 204><B 205>Note: </B 206>If you are <SPAN 207CLASS="emphasis" 208><I 209CLASS="EMPHASIS" 210>not</I 211></SPAN 212> handling the joystick via the event queue then you must explicitly request a joystick update by calling <A 213HREF="sdljoystickupdate.html" 214><TT 215CLASS="FUNCTION" 216>SDL_JoystickUpdate</TT 217></A 218>.</P 219></BLOCKQUOTE 220></DIV 221><DIV 222CLASS="NOTE" 223><BLOCKQUOTE 224CLASS="NOTE" 225><P 226><B 227>Note: </B 228>Force Feedback is not yet supported. Sam (slouken@libsdl.org) is soliciting suggestions from people with force-feedback experience on the best way to design the API.</P 229></BLOCKQUOTE 230></DIV 231></DIV 232><DIV 233CLASS="NAVFOOTER" 234><HR 235ALIGN="LEFT" 236WIDTH="100%"><TABLE 237SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" 238WIDTH="100%" 239BORDER="0" 240CELLPADDING="0" 241CELLSPACING="0" 242><TR 243><TD 244WIDTH="33%" 245ALIGN="left" 246VALIGN="top" 247><A 248HREF="sdljoystickeventstate.html" 249ACCESSKEY="P" 250>Prev</A 251></TD 252><TD 253WIDTH="34%" 254ALIGN="center" 255VALIGN="top" 256><A 257HREF="index.html" 258ACCESSKEY="H" 259>Home</A 260></TD 261><TD 262WIDTH="33%" 263ALIGN="right" 264VALIGN="top" 265><A 266HREF="sdlnumjoysticks.html" 267ACCESSKEY="N" 268>Next</A 269></TD 270></TR 271><TR 272><TD 273WIDTH="33%" 274ALIGN="left" 275VALIGN="top" 276>SDL_JoystickEventState</TD 277><TD 278WIDTH="34%" 279ALIGN="center" 280VALIGN="top" 281><A 282HREF="reference.html" 283ACCESSKEY="U" 284>Up</A 285></TD 286><TD 287WIDTH="33%" 288ALIGN="right" 289VALIGN="top" 290>SDL_NumJoysticks</TD 291></TR 292></TABLE 293></DIV 294></BODY 295></HTML 296>