Gamepad - aleslab/Psychtoolbox-3-aleslab-fork GitHub Wiki

result = Gamepad(command [,arg1] [,arg2])

Gamepad reads the state of any USB game controller. Gamepad was
previously named "JoyStick", the name has been changed to agree with the
USB Human Interface Device (HID) terminology.

Gamepad provides built-in help. For usage, enter "Gamepad" alone on the
command line.

As initialization of Gamepad takes significant time, you should call it
once at the beginning of your script before entering the trial loop.
After plugging/unplugging or replugging of any USB devices you *must*
call Gamepad('Unplug') or clear all, so Gamepad can recognize the changed
hardware configuration at next invocation. Actually, a clear all is
recommended, as Gamepad('Unplug') doesn't work reliably on non-OSX systems.

The subfunctions for state queries of axis, button and hat state are
optimized for low execution time -- suitable for time critical parts of
your trial loop. All other functions, e.g., for query of the number of
buttons etc. are not optimized, so they shouldn't be called in time
critical parts of your loop.

If you need ultra-fast queries, check the help for 'GetButtonRawMapping',
'GetAxisRawMapping' and 'GetHatRawMapping' for a slightly inconvenient,
but superfast way to query device state.

LINUX: ______________________________________________________________________

Gamepad uses the Screen() mex file and its mouse query functions.
On Linux, gamepads and joysticks are treated as a special type of
mouse/pointing device with multiple extra axes and buttons. If your
GamePad is not recognized, you may need to install the optional joystick driver.
This driver has different names, depending on the version of the distribution
you are using, or more specifically on the version of X-Server installed. You
can find the X-Server version via "xdpyinfo | grep version" in a terminal:

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS original installs or upgrades, ie. without the optional HWE
hardware enablement stack installed, will come with X-Server version 1.18, so
this should work:

"sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-joystick"

If your X-Server is of version 1.19 or later, because the HWE is installed, you
will need this instead:

"sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-joystick-hwe-16.04".

You may also wish to install a custom joystick configuration file
to customize the mapping and behaviour of buttons and axis, and if the
Joystick also operates as a mouse or not.

An example configuration file with installation instructions is
available in the Psychtoolbox/PsychContributed folder under the name
"52-MyLinuxJoystick.conf".

OSX: ________________________________________________________________________

GamePad uses the PsychHID function, which provides a universal
interface to USB HID devices, including keyboards.

On OS X Gamepad is an .m file but provides built-in help to match the
behavior of Gamepad on other platforms where it is a mex file.

WIN: ________________________________________________________________________

Gamepad is not yet supported on Windows. WinJoystickMex() in the
Psychtoolbox/PsychContributed subfolder may serve as a temporary
replacement.
_____________________________________________________________________________

See also: PsychGamepad, PsychHID