198 lines
7.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
198 lines
7.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
---------------------------
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Linux Gamepad Specification
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---------------------------
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:Author: 2013 by David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@gmail.com>
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Introduction
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Linux provides many different input drivers for gamepad hardware. To avoid
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having user-space deal with different button-mappings for each gamepad, this
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document defines how gamepads are supposed to report their data.
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Geometry
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~~~~~~~~
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As "gamepad" we define devices which roughly look like this::
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____________________________ __
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/ [__ZL__] [__ZR__] \ |
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/ [__ TL __] [__ TR __] \ | Front Triggers
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__/________________________________\__ __|
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/ _ \ |
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/ /\ __ (N) \ |
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/ || __ |MO| __ _ _ \ | Main Pad
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| <===DP===> |SE| |ST| (W) -|- (E) | |
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\ || ___ ___ _ / |
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/\ \/ / \ / \ (S) /\ __|
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/ \________ | LS | ____ | RS | ________/ \ |
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| / \ \___/ / \ \___/ / \ | | Control Sticks
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| / \_____/ \_____/ \ | __|
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| / \ |
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\_____/ \_____/
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|________|______| |______|___________|
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D-Pad Left Right Action Pad
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Stick Stick
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|_____________|
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Menu Pad
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Most gamepads have the following features:
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- Action-Pad
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4 buttons in diamonds-shape (on the right side). The buttons are
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differently labeled on most devices so we define them as NORTH,
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SOUTH, WEST and EAST.
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- D-Pad (Direction-pad)
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4 buttons (on the left side) that point up, down, left and right.
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- Menu-Pad
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Different constellations, but most-times 2 buttons: SELECT - START
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Furthermore, many gamepads have a fancy branded button that is used as
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special system-button. It often looks different to the other buttons and
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is used to pop up system-menus or system-settings.
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- Analog-Sticks
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Analog-sticks provide freely moveable sticks to control directions. Not
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all devices have both or any, but they are present at most times.
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Analog-sticks may also provide a digital button if you press them.
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- Triggers
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Triggers are located on the upper-side of the pad in vertical direction.
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Not all devices provide them, but the upper buttons are normally named
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Left- and Right-Triggers, the lower buttons Z-Left and Z-Right.
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- Rumble
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Many devices provide force-feedback features. But are mostly just
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simple rumble motors.
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Detection
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~~~~~~~~~
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All gamepads that follow the protocol described here map BTN_GAMEPAD. This is
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an alias for BTN_SOUTH/BTN_A. It can be used to identify a gamepad as such.
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However, not all gamepads provide all features, so you need to test for all
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features that you need, first. How each feature is mapped is described below.
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Legacy drivers often don't comply to these rules. As we cannot change them
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for backwards-compatibility reasons, you need to provide fixup mappings in
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user-space yourself. Some of them might also provide module-options that
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change the mappings so you can advise users to set these.
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All new gamepads are supposed to comply with this mapping. Please report any
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bugs, if they don't.
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There are a lot of less-featured/less-powerful devices out there, which re-use
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the buttons from this protocol. However, they try to do this in a compatible
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fashion. For example, the "Nintendo Wii Nunchuk" provides two trigger buttons
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and one analog stick. It reports them as if it were a gamepad with only one
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analog stick and two trigger buttons on the right side.
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But that means, that if you only support "real" gamepads, you must test
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devices for _all_ reported events that you need. Otherwise, you will also get
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devices that report a small subset of the events.
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No other devices, that do not look/feel like a gamepad, shall report these
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events.
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Events
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~~~~~~
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Gamepads report the following events:
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- Action-Pad:
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Every gamepad device has at least 2 action buttons. This means, that every
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device reports BTN_SOUTH (which BTN_GAMEPAD is an alias for). Regardless
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of the labels on the buttons, the codes are sent according to the
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physical position of the buttons.
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Please note that 2- and 3-button pads are fairly rare and old. You might
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want to filter gamepads that do not report all four.
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- 2-Button Pad:
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If only 2 action-buttons are present, they are reported as BTN_SOUTH and
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BTN_EAST. For vertical layouts, the upper button is BTN_EAST. For
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horizontal layouts, the button more on the right is BTN_EAST.
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- 3-Button Pad:
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If only 3 action-buttons are present, they are reported as (from left
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to right): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
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If the buttons are aligned perfectly vertically, they are reported as
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(from top down): BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST
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- 4-Button Pad:
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If all 4 action-buttons are present, they can be aligned in two
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different formations. If diamond-shaped, they are reported as BTN_NORTH,
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BTN_WEST, BTN_SOUTH, BTN_EAST according to their physical location.
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If rectangular-shaped, the upper-left button is BTN_NORTH, lower-left
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is BTN_WEST, lower-right is BTN_SOUTH and upper-right is BTN_EAST.
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- D-Pad:
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Every gamepad provides a D-Pad with four directions: Up, Down, Left, Right
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Some of these are available as digital buttons, some as analog buttons. Some
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may even report both. The kernel does not convert between these so
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applications should support both and choose what is more appropriate if
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both are reported.
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- Digital buttons are reported as:
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BTN_DPAD_*
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- Analog buttons are reported as:
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ABS_HAT0X and ABS_HAT0Y
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(for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
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- Analog-Sticks:
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The left analog-stick is reported as ABS_X, ABS_Y. The right analog stick is
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reported as ABS_RX, ABS_RY. Zero, one or two sticks may be present.
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If analog-sticks provide digital buttons, they are mapped accordingly as
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BTN_THUMBL (first/left) and BTN_THUMBR (second/right).
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(for ABS values negative is left/up, positive is right/down)
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- Triggers:
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Trigger buttons can be available as digital or analog buttons or both. User-
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space must correctly deal with any situation and choose the most appropriate
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mode.
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Upper trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR or ABS_HAT1X (right) and BTN_TL
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or ABS_HAT1Y (left). Lower trigger buttons are reported as BTN_TR2 or
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ABS_HAT2X (right/ZR) and BTN_TL2 or ABS_HAT2Y (left/ZL).
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If only one trigger-button combination is present (upper+lower), they are
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reported as "right" triggers (BTN_TR/ABS_HAT1X).
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(ABS trigger values start at 0, pressure is reported as positive values)
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- Menu-Pad:
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Menu buttons are always digital and are mapped according to their location
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instead of their labels. That is:
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- 1-button Pad:
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Mapped as BTN_START
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- 2-button Pad:
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Left button mapped as BTN_SELECT, right button mapped as BTN_START
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Many pads also have a third button which is branded or has a special symbol
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and meaning. Such buttons are mapped as BTN_MODE. Examples are the Nintendo
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"HOME" button, the Xbox "X" button or the Sony PlayStation "PS" button.
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- Rumble:
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Rumble is advertised as FF_RUMBLE.
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- Profile:
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Some pads provide a multi-value profile selection switch. An example is the
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XBox Adaptive and the XBox Elite 2 controllers. When the active profile is
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switched, its newly selected value is emitted as an ABS_PROFILE event.
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