Mapping Pandora Keyboard To Emulators That Don't Support Keyboards

[MiL0]

possible?

I was just looking at Zodttd's PSX videos and an on screen keyboard popped up in one of the FF videos. How much effort / patching would it take to get it so that games that make heavy use of keyboards can be controlled by the Pandora keyboard instead of the d-pad? I'm thinking it wouldn't be all that easy and there probably isn't too many games that would require it but theoretically, is it possible?

 

[Pleng]

possible?

I was just looking at Zodttd's PSX videos and an on screen keyboard popped up in one of the FF videos. How much effort / patching would it take to get it so that games that make heavy use of keyboards can be controlled by the Pandora keyboard instead of the d-pad? I'm thinking it wouldn't be all that easy and there probably isn't too many games that would require it but theoretically, is it possible?

Are you talking about games that have some kind of on-screen keyboard when entering highscores/passwords etc?

If so then there's no way to map these actions to the pandora keys.

 

[MiL0]

possible?

I was just looking at Zodttd's PSX videos and an on screen keyboard popped up in one of the FF videos. How much effort / patching would it take to get it so that games that make heavy use of keyboards can be controlled by the Pandora keyboard instead of the d-pad? I'm thinking it wouldn't be all that easy and there probably isn't too many games that would require it but theoretically, is it possible?

Are you talking about games that have some kind of on-screen keyboard when entering highscores/passwords etc?

If so then there's no way to map these actions to the pandora keys.


yes, I realise that it's not possible by default but what I'm talking about is a method for patching games/emulators on an individual basis. Something like where the emulator detects that an OSD is being displayed and then passes the control of the emulator to the QWERTY keyboard instead of the D-Pad. It would probably take quite extensive patching/detection to get it to work properly and wouldn't be worth it for most games but I was curious to know if anyone thought it was at least theoretically possible?

 

[crazedover]

yes, I realise that it's not possible by default but what I'm talking about is a method for patching games/emulators on an individual basis. Something like where the emulator detects that an OSD is being displayed and then passes the control of the emulator to the QWERTY keyboard instead of the D-Pad. It would probably take quite extensive patching/detection to get it to work properly and wouldn't be worth it for most games but I was curious to know if anyone thought it was at least theoretically possible?

I guess you've answered your own question?

 

[MiL0]

yes, I realise that it's not possible by default but what I'm talking about is a method for patching games/emulators on an individual basis. Something like where the emulator detects that an OSD is being displayed and then passes the control of the emulator to the QWERTY keyboard instead of the D-Pad. It would probably take quite extensive patching/detection to get it to work properly and wouldn't be worth it for most games but I was curious to know if anyone thought it was at least theoretically possible?

I guess you've answered your own question?


guess being the operative word!

I have no idea about such things... I'm talking theoretically from a programming point of view.

 

[kagato]

I'd say if the emulator would be displaying the on-screen keyboard, then sure; you just modify it when it's ported across to use the physical keyboard instead. (I imagine that would happen as a matter of course.)

If it's the game that's displaying the keyboard, then no. Every game would implement their keyboard in their own way; there's no common "I'm displaying a keyboard" function to detect.

 

[Blah]

Its doable (but not easy). This same issue exists on other platforms (the PC for instance) and I haven't seen any emulators that use this method, its just too much of pain in the ass. The emulator would have to have kb profiles for each game so it could detect when "keyboard mode" is being used by a game, keep track of where the cursor is, and emulate cursor movement according to layout.

The thing is, on games for platforms that don't have a keyboard, how often do you encounter a onscreen keyboard mode thingy? Probably only once or twice (highscore entering screen, savegame screen, etc) a session.

Yes there is no common "I'm a keyboard" function to detect, but it IS possible with a database and some reverse engineering gameshark-style. Is it worth it? Hell no.

 

[Snu]

theoretical? yes.

plausible? no.

it WOULD be possible for the emulator to emulate a non-existent piece of hardware, ie a keyboard - which i wouldnt think would be too difficult for someone who is capable of writing an emulator to begin with.
thats only part of it tho... you would need to hack the game into thinking there is an additional piece of hardware on the system, AND make it capable of using it... i cant even imagine how hard that would be, and how long it would take... and it would likely be an entirely different process for each game.

 

[Exophase]

I don't see enough of a point in both elaborately hacking the games and creating artificial extensions to the hardware (that must be handled by the emulator) in order to pass the new control through. Games are almost always decently designed for the controls they have, and having to enter in a name every once in a while is very far from a big deal. They didn't even bother to allow keyboard input in the PC port of FF8, and really, it didn't matter at all.

 

[Spectralist]

you would need to hack the game into thinking there is an additional piece of hardware on the system, AND make it capable of using it... i cant even imagine how hard that would be, and how long it would take... and it would likely be an entirely different process for each game.

You wouldn't need to go though all that trouble. You could do it by using ram-hacking similar to what pro-action replay or similar devices do. Figure out where and how the game stores the pertinent info then have the emulator just set the letter you tapped in memory. You'd still need to set it up specifically for each game. And some would be easier to do then others. And it would so not be worth the effort. But it would be doable, and for some games fairly easy.

I once used cheat-codes for the snes zelda game to fast-swap items without having to go into the menu by hot-keying cheat codes onto my keyboard. It's basically the same thing.

 

[crazedover]

Maybe it'd be possible to make controller macros.

 

[craigix]

Almost all console games are designed without a keybaord in mind thus will work fine with the dpad.

Where the Pandora keyboard will really improve things is in computer emulation, things like Amiga, C64, Spectrum, AtariST won't seem so stalled and clunky to use, it should be a nice easy experiecne for keyboard and joysticks, a first on a handheld.

 

[Spectralist]

And in hotkeying settings. Frame skip, vsync, layers and other graphic settings, sound settings, save & load state, reset, and, especially, turbo & slowdown, and quite possibly so much more. It practically makes me drool thinking of being able to control all those things without having to go into a menu.

 

[gruso]

And DOSBox, and ScummVM. Oh baby, yeah.

Hmm... this has put a question in my mind, which is the exact opposite to the OP's. I wonder how DOSBox will interact with Pandora's gaming controls? Perhaps if it was "tricked" into thinking they were all part of an external controller, the whole game by game keymapping headache could be done away with all together.

I know it's in good hands, so I won't get myself into a Pickle worrying about it.