Joystick buttons, mouses button or keyboard keys can be mapped. These bindings can be removed in code and rebound. This is especially useful in games where the user is allowed to customise their own keys or changing what joystick button or stick operates what control.

This article is more a presentation of a remapping routine rather than a step by step tutorial.

It introduces the use of the following functions:

• orxInput_GetActiveBinding
• orxInput_GetBindingList
• orxInput_Unbind
• orxInput_Bind
• orxInput_Save

The routine will allow the user to press any key or joystick button assigned to the XButton label in order to trigger a message to the console. They press the Enter key to enter remap mode. Then pressing any joystick button will make the button the new one assigned to XButton.

Starting with the input config:

[MainInput]
KEY_ESCAPE      = Quit
KEY_ENTER	= Remap
JOY_12_1	= XButton ;Joystick binding
KEY_X		= XButton ;Keyboard alternative

In the above config, the Escape key is used as the usual quit key and the Enter key is the one used to put our game into “remap mode”.

Then there are two controls mapped to XButton, JOY_12_1 which is the 12th button on your joystick controller or gamepad, and secondly, the X key.

Now to the routine itself with comments. Have a look though and I'll explain afterwards:

    /* Should quit? */
    if(orxInput_IsActive("Quit"))
    {
        /* Updates result */
        eResult = orxSTATUS_FAILURE;
    }
 
    if(orxInput_HasBeenActivated("XButton")){
        orxLOG("X Button");
    }
 
    if (orxInput_HasBeenActivated("Remap")) {
        orxLOG("Remap mode is on.");
        remapMode = orxTRUE;
    }
 
    if (remapMode) {
        orxINPUT_TYPE inputType;
        orxENUM buttonID;
        orxFLOAT value;
 
        //Get a button press. This will be the one assigned to 'XButton'
        if (orxInput_GetActiveBinding(&inputType, &buttonID, &value)) {
            if (inputType == orxINPUT_TYPE_JOYSTICK_BUTTON) { //only allow if it's a joystick button press
                orxLOG("Remapping Type: %d ID: %d Value: %f", inputType, buttonID, value); // 4 0 ?
 
                //do the remap here.
 
                //Get all inputs and buttonIDs assigned to XButton
                orxINPUT_TYPE inputTypes[orxINPUT_KU32_BINDING_NUMBER];
                orxENUM bindingButtonIDs[orxINPUT_KU32_BINDING_NUMBER];
                orxINPUT_MODE inputModes[orxINPUT_KU32_BINDING_NUMBER];
                orxInput_GetBindingList("XButton", inputTypes, bindingButtonIDs, inputModes);
 
                //unbind all existing joystick buttons bound to 'XButton'
                for (orxU32 i = 0; i < orxINPUT_KU32_BINDING_NUMBER; i++) {
                    if (inputTypes[i] == orxINPUT_TYPE_JOYSTICK_BUTTON) {
                        orxSTATUS unBindSuccess = orxInput_Unbind("XButton", i); //remove joystick binding
                    }
                }
 
                orxInput_Bind("XButton", orxINPUT_TYPE_JOYSTICK_BUTTON, buttonID, orxINPUT_MODE_FULL, -1);
                orxInput_Save("gamepad.ini");
                orxLOG("Bound to button %d", buttonID);
 
                remapMode = orxFALSE;
            }
        }
    }

First, if either Joystick button 12 or the X key is pressed, a line is logged to the console.

Next, remap mode can be entered by pressing the Enter key.

In remap mode, orxInput_GetActiveBinding is constantly called. This will get the very last input that was made whether it be a key, a mouse movement, a joystick press, etc. Here, if it was a joystick press, store it for later, and it will be used as the button to remap to.

orxInput_GetBindingList is then called which returns the entire list of bindings to XButton. There can be up to four physical inputs to a binding. orxINPUT_KU32_BINDING_NUMBER is a constant to 4.

We then loop through the entire list looking for any joystick button type input and unbind XButton from them.

orxInput_Bind is then called using the joystick button that was saved at the start using orxInput_GetActiveBinding. This is bound to XButton.

Finally, orxInput_Save is called to save the new input config section to a new file. This can then be loaded whenever your game is started.

Finally remap mode is turned off, and if you press the new joystick button that you chose, it will start to log to console instead of the previous joystick button.