Keyboard support?

dhewg · Post by **dhewg** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:39 am

There is at least one library on wiibrew.org that deals with USB keyboards. Still, nobody seems to care about getting a stable version into libogc. From a few reports on IRC it seems those libs do not yet work very well.

On top of that, ScummVM's virtual keyboard GSoC project is just around the corner, and that makes alot of more sense than a physical keyboard on the Wii imho.

ScummVM as well as libogc is open source, so if anyone feels like it: go for it

Again: if there is stable support (without new library dependencies), i'll gladly add it to the Wii port. But there are other things on my TODO list with higher priorities

brijohn · Post by **brijohn** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:45 am

Hello all,

I'm posting to let you know I have compiled a version of scummVM for the WII that does in fact offer USB Keyboard support. I've been using it recently to play my old AGI games and it is working pretty well for me.

For USB keyboard support I'm using libwiikeyboard from wiibrew.org that i have patched to properly support using interrupt endpoints. In doing so i found two usb related bugs in libogc that needed to fixed as well. Those two patches have been submitted to the patch tracker for devkitpro.

I'm posting a link that includes the prebuilt version as well as the necessary patches used to compile it.

ScummVM r36060
-USB Keyboard support
-Virtual keyboard mapped to down on the wiimote

Bossk · Post by **Bossk** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:13 am

Nice job brijohn!
I will definitely try your patches. And grab myself a wireless usb keyboard if it works

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:39 pm

SWEET!!

ErikBauer · Post by **ErikBauer** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:56 pm

Great!
Thanx a lot for the effort!!

chojin · Post by **chojin** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:18 am

Awesome

I just took my cordless desktop over to my Wii and tried some stuff. I could perfectly edit the Game Titles, although my german layout is of course not known. Maybe some setup is possible here later, e.g. together with virtual keyboard layout.
But, most important: I was able to beat the boxing coach up

It's really nice how things evolve here. USB-Storage and USB-Keyboard work like a charm. Thank you!

PS: USB-Mouse anyone?

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:31 am

Just tried out Space Quest 0: Replicated. Works great. The only problems are you can't do any Shift+number keys. ie- I can't type an "!" or "$". Also it's annoying that F7 brings up the virtual keyboard when it's also the restore game shortcut key in AGI games. Other than that it's pretty good.

brijohn · Post by **brijohn** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:59 pm

chojin: Yeah libwiikeyboard only really supports standaard US qwerty layout.

MusicallyInspired: Yeah I didn't bother to add code to handle shifting non alpha characters since i didn't think by and large the were that necessary I'll add them later tonight. Also the F7 key is mapped by the main scummvm event loop to the virtual keyboard, but it only brings up the virtual keyboard if no modifiers are pressed so if you hold shift while pressing F7 you should be able to bring up the main restore dialog for AGI games.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:53 pm

Oh, right on then! Thank you. I'd say it's perfect then. I just noticed that Shift+number keys didn't work when trying to type "Gold Rush!" in the game title label.

brijohn · Post by **brijohn** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:53 am

Alright heres the updated version.

ScummVM r36125
- Non alpha keys are now shiftable
- Changed main ScummVM trigger for Virtual Keyboard to shift+F7 (dpad down still brings up vkeybd as well)

Bossk · Post by **Bossk** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:05 am

Again, nice job!
How robust are your changes brijohn?

I know it works fine without a keyboard plugged in, but what happens when you remove the keyboard while running a game?
And when plugging it back in?

brijohn · Post by **brijohn** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:32 pm

Unplugging and replugging in keyboards should work as expected.

I do have one keyboard that sometimes fails to work after being plugged in, but since my others all seem to work i think it might be a flaky usb cable on that one.

dhewg · Post by **dhewg** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:04 pm

wow nice, i didn't see that coming

thanks alot for working on this, looks like you made some users happy!

i don't much time in this or the next week, but i'll definitely take a look then!

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:30 pm

Awesome! It works great. Thanks again so much! Now I just need a wireless keyboard...

Red_Breast · Post by **Red_Breast** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:19 pm

Oh wow.
Need I say more.