get all pressed keys?

no-reply@allegro.cc (Shadowblitz16) — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 10:46:40 +0000

does anybody know how to get all currently pressed keys?

I have a function called getMouseButtons which does this..

#SelectExpand
    int  getMouseButtons()
    {
        ALLEGRO_MOUSE_STATE state;
        al_get_mouse_state(&state);
        return state.buttons;
    }

and I( was trying to make a keyboard version..

#SelectExpand
    int  getKeyboardKeys()
    {
      ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE state;
      al_get_keyboard_state(&state);
      return state.keys;
    }

the problem is ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE doesn't have a member called keys like ALLEGRO_MOUSE_STATE has a member called buttons.

no-reply@allegro.cc (MikiZX) — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 16:00:18 +0000

With ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE you have to use function called al_key_down ( https://www.allegro.cc/manual/5/al_key_down ) to read a single key.

Otherwise if the function alone is not sufficient and you would like to always have something similar to the mouse buttons variable then you will need to create an array of keys and update it yourself by reading each key. Something along the lines of:

bool pressed_key[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX];
...
al_get_keyboard_state(&kbdstate);
for (int i=0; i<ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX; ++i)
{
   if (al_key_down(&kbdstate, i))
      pressed_key[i] = true;
    else
      pressed_key[i] = false;
}

no-reply@allegro.cc (Edgar Reynaldo) — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 16:14:04 +0000

Polling is outdated, and honestly shouldn't have been included in A5. :/

The proper way to monitor the state of the keyboard and mouse is through the event system.

If you poll, you stand the risk of losing events in-between polls.

Some example code to get you started :

#SelectExpand
  1int main(int argc , char** argv) {
  2
  3//...
 ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE* q = al_create_event_queue();
 if (!q) {Bail();}
  6
 al_register_event_source(q , al_get_keyboard_event_source());
 al_register_event_source(q , al_get_mouse_event_source());
 al_register_event_source(q , al_get_display_event_source(display));
 10
 /// Some variables to track our key and mouse state
 int mx = 0;
 int my = 0;
 int mb = 0;/// bitfield
 15
 bool keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX] = {0};
 17
 /// Typical event loop
 bool quit = false;
 bool redraw = true;
 21
 while (!quit) {
    if (redraw) {
       Draw();
       redraw = false;
    }
    do {
       ALLEGRO_EVENT e;
       al_wait_for_event(q , &e);
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_DISPLAY_CLOSE) {
          quit = true;
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_KEY_DOWN && e.keyboard.keycode == ALLEGRO_KEY_ESCAPE) {
          quit = true;
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_KEY_DOWN) {
          keys[e.keyboard.keycode] = true;
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_KEY_UP) {
          keys[e.keyboard.keycode] = false;
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_MOUSE_BUTTON_DOWN) {
          mb |= (1 << e.mouse.button);
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_MOUSE_BUTTON_UP) {
          mb &= ~(1 << e.mouse.button);
       }
       if (e.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_MOUSE_AXES) {
          mx = e.mouse.x;
          my = e.mouse.y;
       }
    } while (!al_is_event_queue_empty(q));
 }
 54
 return 0;
 56}

no-reply@allegro.cc (Shadowblitz16) — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 02:10:15 +0000

can events be used in a way that I can do..
key_is_down()
key_is_held()
key_is_up ()

I would rather not have to keep my game logic in main's events

no-reply@allegro.cc (Edgar Reynaldo) — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 03:10:05 +0000

Yes.

You can use pointers, you can pass variables, you can do whatever you want.

Hint (you only need one event loop)

no-reply@allegro.cc (Shadowblitz16) — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 07:04:23 +0000

hmm ok I think I am going to go with this..

#SelectExpand
  1bool pressed_key[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX];
  2...
  3al_get_keyboard_state(&kbdstate);
  4for (int i=0; i<ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX; ++i)
  5{
  6   if (al_key_down(&kbdstate, i))
  7      pressed_key[i] = true;
  8    else
  9      pressed_key[i] = false;
 10}