DirectInput vs WndProc input
Author
Hi guys.
I was wondering, what is it that makes DirectInput better than the normal Win32 input(Window Proc)?
Is it faster or more efficient?
How can we test which is better?
DirectInput hooks your window procedure, so it's (in that sense) worse than Win32. For most input I'd just use Win32 messages directly, unless you need joysticks or something. You might also consider RawInput, depending on what you need.
Quote:Original post by FirecoreOnly if you need to. I.e. for high-DPI mouse input. I wouldn't go using it for keyboard input of GUI-style mouse input.
in that case ill learn RawInput.
Author
Quote:Original post by Evil SteveQuote:Original post by FirecoreOnly if you need to. I.e. for high-DPI mouse input. I wouldn't go using it for keyboard input of GUI-style mouse input.
in that case ill learn RawInput.
Well the only reason I want DInput is for my game. I dont really need it for GUI input. I mean, I'll want my game to have fast input and output.
Quote:Original post by FirecoreTo be honest, if you're only doing it to reduce latency, I wouldn't bother with DirectInput. It's no faster than Window messages for what you're doing; your input system will only be ticked once per frame, so any lag will be the same really.Quote:Original post by Evil SteveQuote:Original post by FirecoreOnly if you need to. I.e. for high-DPI mouse input. I wouldn't go using it for keyboard input of GUI-style mouse input.
in that case ill learn RawInput.
Well the only reason I want DInput is for my game. I dont really need it for GUI input. I mean, I'll want my game to have fast input and output.
You should only be using DirectInput if you need high-DPI mouse input, and you've already determined that window messages / Win32 functions aren't precise enough (Since they give results in pixels at the highest resolution).
Author
Sorry for ressurecting this old post, but i thought this would be a good post to add my question to.
I was just curious whether GetAsyncKeyState a viable alternative to WM_INPUT?
I was just curious whether GetAsyncKeyState a viable alternative to WM_INPUT?
DirecInput was better for game controls because of its lower latency (at least marketing said so) and because of buffered input (you can detect when the player pressed the fire button even if the press was shorter than a single frame).
DirectInput also allowed you to really capture mouse deltas (instead of the ugly but common technique of resetting the mouse to the center of the screen each frame and then measure how far it has wandered off in order to get deltas) and to use the windows and menu keys for game controls.
DirectInput utterly failed for text input. Conversion of keys to ascii characters is not too hard, but implementing french accents or even IME input for east-asian languages is only really possible using the WM_CHAR messages.
I wrote all of this in past tense because right now, Microsoft is replacing DirectInput with XINPUT. It's inferior to DirectInput, but it works identically on gaming consoles. I'm very unhappy with this step Microsoft took, but it seems like DirectInput is in maintenance mode and no longer recommended technology.
-Markus-
DirectInput also allowed you to really capture mouse deltas (instead of the ugly but common technique of resetting the mouse to the center of the screen each frame and then measure how far it has wandered off in order to get deltas) and to use the windows and menu keys for game controls.
DirectInput utterly failed for text input. Conversion of keys to ascii characters is not too hard, but implementing french accents or even IME input for east-asian languages is only really possible using the WM_CHAR messages.
I wrote all of this in past tense because right now, Microsoft is replacing DirectInput with XINPUT. It's inferior to DirectInput, but it works identically on gaming consoles. I'm very unhappy with this step Microsoft took, but it seems like DirectInput is in maintenance mode and no longer recommended technology.
-Markus-
Quote:Original post by Firecore
Sorry for ressurecting this old post, but i thought this would be a good post to add my question to.
I was just curious whether GetAsyncKeyState a viable alternative to WM_INPUT?
GetAsyncKeyState works if you just need to know what key was pressed, like moving the character when the arrow key is pressed. But for anything where the user has to say, type their name into a box, you'll want to use WM_CHAR instead so that you get full multi-language support and expected keyboard behavior.
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