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David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +02001 Linux Gamepad API
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41. Intro
5~~~~~~~~
6Linux provides many different input drivers for gamepad hardware. To avoid
7having user-space deal with different button-mappings for each gamepad, this
8document defines how gamepads are supposed to report their data.
9
102. Geometry
11~~~~~~~~~~~
12As "gamepad" we define devices which roughly look like this:
13
14 ____________________________ __
15 / [__ZL__] [__ZR__] \ |
16 / [__ TL __] [__ TR __] \ | Front Triggers
17 __/________________________________\__ __|
18 / _ \ |
19 / /\ __ (N) \ |
20 / || __ |MO| __ _ _ \ | Main Pad
21 | <===DP===> |SE| |ST| (W) -|- (E) | |
22 \ || ___ ___ _ / |
23 /\ \/ / \ / \ (S) /\ __|
24 / \________ | LS | ____ | RS | ________/ \ |
25 | / \ \___/ / \ \___/ / \ | | Control Sticks
26 | / \_____/ \_____/ \ | __|
27 | / \ |
28 \_____/ \_____/
29
30 |________|______| |______|___________|
31 D-Pad Left Right Action Pad
32 Stick Stick
33
34 |_____________|
35 Menu Pad
36
37Most gamepads have the following features:
38 - Action-Pad
39 4 buttons in diamonds-shape (on the right side). The buttons are
40 differently labeled on most devices so we define them as NORTH,
41 SOUTH, WEST and EAST.
42 - D-Pad (Direction-pad)
43 4 buttons (on the left side) that point up, down, left and right.
44 - Menu-Pad
45 Different constellations, but most-times 2 buttons: SELECT - START
46 Furthermore, many gamepads have a fancy branded button that is used as
47 special system-button. It often looks different to the other buttons and
48 is used to pop up system-menus or system-settings.
49 - Analog-Sticks
50 Analog-sticks provide freely moveable sticks to control directions. Not
51 all devices have both or any, but they are present at most times.
52 Analog-sticks may also provide a digital button if you press them.
53 - Triggers
54 Triggers are located on the upper-side of the pad in vertical direction.
55 Not all devices provide them, but the upper buttons are normally named
56 Left- and Right-Triggers, the lower buttons Z-Left and Z-Right.
57 - Rumble
58 Many devices provide force-feedback features. But are mostly just
59 simple rumble motors.
60
613. Detection
62~~~~~~~~~~~~
63All gamepads that follow the protocol described here map BTN_GAMEPAD. This is
64an alias for BTN_SOUTH/BTN_A. It can be used to identify a gamepad as such.
65However, not all gamepads provide all features, so you need to test for all
66features that you need, first. How each feature is mapped is described below.
67
68Legacy drivers often don't comply to these rules. As we cannot change them
69for backwards-compatibility reasons, you need to provide fixup mappings in
70user-space yourself. Some of them might also provide module-options that
Antonio Ospite01d08182013-12-18 08:39:10 -080071change the mappings so you can advise users to set these.
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +020072
73All new gamepads are supposed to comply with this mapping. Please report any
74bugs, if they don't.
75
76There are a lot of less-featured/less-powerful devices out there, which re-use
77the buttons from this protocol. However, they try to do this in a compatible
78fashion. For example, the "Nintendo Wii Nunchuk" provides two trigger buttons
79and one analog stick. It reports them as if it were a gamepad with only one
80analog stick and two trigger buttons on the right side.
81But that means, that if you only support "real" gamepads, you must test
82devices for _all_ reported events that you need. Otherwise, you will also get
83devices that report a small subset of the events.
84
85No other devices, that do not look/feel like a gamepad, shall report these
86events.
87
884. Events
89~~~~~~~~~
90Gamepads report the following events:
91
92Action-Pad:
93 Every gamepad device has at least 2 action buttons. This means, that every
94 device reports BTN_SOUTH (which BTN_GAMEPAD is an alias for). Regardless
95 of the labels on the buttons, the codes are sent according to the
96 physical position of the buttons.
97 Please note that 2- and 3-button pads are fairly rare and old. You might
98 want to filter gamepads that do not report all four.
99 2-Button Pad:
100 If only 2 action-buttons are present, they are reported as BTN_SOUTH and
101 BTN_EAST. For vertical layouts, the upper button is BTN_EAST. For
102 horizontal layouts, the button more on the right is BTN_EAST.
103 3-Button Pad:
104 If only 3 action-buttons are present, they are reported as (from left
105 to right): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
106 If the buttons are aligned perfectly vertically, they are reported as
107 (from top down): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
108 4-Button Pad:
109 If all 4 action-buttons are present, they can be aligned in two
110 different formations. If diamond-shaped, they are reported as BTN_NORTH,
111 BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST according to their physical location.
112 If rectangular-shaped, the upper-left button is BTN_NORTH, lower-left
113 is BTN_WEST, lower-right is BTN_SOUTH and upper-right is BTN_EAST.
114
115D-Pad:
116 Every gamepad provides a D-Pad with four directions: Up, Down, Left, Right
117 Some of these are available as digital buttons, some as analog buttons. Some
118 may even report both. The kernel does not convert between these so
119 applications should support both and choose what is more appropriate if
120 both are reported.
121 Digital buttons are reported as:
122 BTN_DPAD_*
123 Analog buttons are reported as:
124 ABS_HAT0X and ABS_HAT0Y
David Herrmann1ccd33b2013-10-08 22:48:33 -0700125 (for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +0200126
127Analog-Sticks:
128 The left analog-stick is reported as ABS_X, ABS_Y. The right analog stick is
129 reported as ABS_RX, ABS_RY. Zero, one or two sticks may be present.
130 If analog-sticks provide digital buttons, they are mapped accordingly as
131 BTN_THUMBL (first/left) and BTN_THUMBR (second/right).
David Herrmann1ccd33b2013-10-08 22:48:33 -0700132 (for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +0200133
134Triggers:
135 Trigger buttons can be available as digital or analog buttons or both. User-
136 space must correctly deal with any situation and choose the most appropriate
137 mode.
138 Upper trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR or ABS_HAT1X (right) and BTN_TL
139 or ABS_HAT1Y (left). Lower trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR2 or
140 ABS_HAT2X (right/ZR) and BTN_TL2 or ABS_HAT2Y (left/ZL).
141 If only one trigger-button combination is present (upper+lower), they are
142 reported as "right" triggers (BTN_TR/ABS_HAT1X).
David Herrmann1ccd33b2013-10-08 22:48:33 -0700143 (ABS trigger values start at 0, pressure is reported as positive values)
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +0200144
145Menu-Pad:
146 Menu buttons are always digital and are mapped according to their location
147 instead of their labels. That is:
148 1-button Pad: Mapped as BTN_START
149 2-button Pad: Left button mapped as BTN_SELECT, right button mapped as
150 BTN_START
151 Many pads also have a third button which is branded or has a special symbol
152 and meaning. Such buttons are mapped as BTN_MODE. Examples are the Nintendo
Antonio Ospite01d08182013-12-18 08:39:10 -0800153 "HOME" button, the XBox "X"-button or Sony "PS" button.
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +0200154
155Rumble:
Antonio Ospite01d08182013-12-18 08:39:10 -0800156 Rumble is advertised as FF_RUMBLE.
David Herrmann6e0fe2e2013-06-15 15:32:44 +0200157
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159 Written 2013 by David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@gmail.com>