Knowledge Base » How to enable a game controller

Aside from using the keyboard and mouse, you can also use a game controller. Currently, the game controller supported by the Untold Engine is the Steelseries Nimbus controller.

For your convienience, the Untold Engine provides several files that you can use as a reference. Two of these files that you should refer to while enabling the game controller are:

• GameViewController.mm
• GamePadController.mm

To enable the controller, set the following method to true in the viewDidLoad method in the GameViewController file:

//If using the keyboard, then set it to false. If using a controller then set it to true
director->setGamePadControllerPresent(true);

The GamePadController class will be enabled once the engine detects the controller. This class will notify the engine whenever you press a button or move the joystick.

The snippet below shows how you can rotate a character by moving the joystick.

//...other actions here

// Action detected on mouse

case U4DEngine::padRightThumbstick:
                
        if(controllerInputMessage.inputElementAction==U4DEngine::padThumbstickMoved){
                           
           //Get the joystick position/directions

           U4DEngine::U4DVector3n joystickDirection(controllerInputMessage.joystickDirection.x,controllerInputMessage.joystickDirection.y,0.0);
            
            //The following snippet will determine which way to rotate the model depending on the motion of the thumbstick
            float joystickMovMagnitude=joystickDirection.magnitude();
            
            joystickDirection.normalize();
            
            U4DEngine::U4DVector3n axis;
            
            U4DEngine::U4DVector3n upVector(0.0,1.0,0.0);
            U4DEngine::U4DVector3n xVector(1.0,0.0,0.0);
            
            //get the dot product
            float upDot, xDot;
            
            upDot=joystickDirection.dot(upVector);
            xDot=joystickDirection.dot(xVector);
            
            U4DEngine::U4DVector3n v=pPlayer->getViewInDirection();
            v.normalize();
            
            
                //if direction is closest to upvector
                if(std::abs(upDot)>=std::abs(xDot)){
                    //rotate about x axis
                    
//                            if(upDot>0.0){
//
//                                axis=v.cross(upVector);
//
//                            }else{
//                                axis=v.cross(upVector)*-1.0;
//
//                            }
                }else{
                    
                    //rotate about y axis
                    if(xDot>0.0){

                        axis=upVector;

                    }else{

                        axis=upVector*-1.0;
                    }
                    
                }
            
            
                //Once we know the angle and axis of rotation, we can rotate the model using interpolation as shown below
                float angle=1.0*joystickMovMagnitude;
                
                float biasAngleAccumulator=0.90;
                
                angleAccumulator=angleAccumulator*biasAngleAccumulator+angle*(1.0-biasAngleAccumulator);
                
                U4DEngine::U4DQuaternion newOrientation(angleAccumulator,axis);
                
                U4DEngine::U4DQuaternion modelOrientation=pPlayer->getAbsoluteSpaceOrientation();
                
                U4DEngine::U4DQuaternion p=modelOrientation.slerp(newOrientation,1.0);
                
                pPlayer->rotateBy(p);
            
       }else if (controllerInputMessage.inputElementAction==U4DEngine::padThumbstickReleased){
           
           
           
           
       }
    
    break;