Missing important feature in Android!!

[Axel]

Hi guys, with the latest revamp to Android port after 2.5.0 (2.7.0 and 2.7.0.5) an important functionality was removed: onscreen keyboard on demand.

It was replaced with the mouse type icon, to switch between direct mouse, touchpad or controller, but now you can't pull the keyboard unless the game prompts you to enter text.

Some reasons why pulling the keyboard on demand is a must for some games:

- Loom CD: Need to press F9 to enable subtitles
- Indy 3 and 4: Need the numbers to fight
- Many: skip cutscenes, enter text command without a game prompt, etc.

I think the onscreen keyboard could be added as a 4th option in the interface options (control type) cycle. You could currently be in virtual touchpad control, then tap the icon until you open the keyboard, enter your command keys, then tap the icon again to switch back to virtual touchpad. That way we wouldn't clutter the interface with more icons and would still allow the keyboard to be opened at any time.

Did you guys realize about this already?

[Praetorian]

Hi guys, with the latest revamp to Android port after 2.5.0 (2.7.0 and 2.7.0.5) an important functionality was removed: onscreen keyboard on demand.

The functionality was not removed. Virtual Keyboard can be shown on demand by long-press (ie. touch-and-hold) on the icon with the control options, and then hidden by pressing on that icon again (which would have changed to the "keyboard" icon).

The change is documented here as well:
https://docs.scummvm.org/en/v2.7.0/othe ... l-keyboard

and here which is the documentaiton for the latest 2.7.0.5 (and development) -- the information on the keyboard-on-demand feature is identical.
https://docs.scummvm.org/en/latest/othe ... l-keyboard

[Axel]

Thank you very much, Praetorian. I spent a good amount of time trying to figure it out in the application and missed the documentation.

Have a great day ahead.

[LucaJones]

The removal of the onscreen keyboard on demand in the recent Android port updates (2.7.0 and 2.7.0.5) has impacted gameplay in various classic games.
Reintroducing it as a 4th option in the control type cycle would be ideal to maintain functionality without cluttering the interface.

[Praetorian]

The removal of the onscreen keyboard on demand in the recent Android port updates (2.7.0 and 2.7.0.5) has impacted gameplay in various classic games.
Reintroducing it as a 4th option in the control type cycle would be ideal to maintain functionality without cluttering the interface.

I am not sure putting the keyboard-on-demand in the control mode cycle would be better.
We used to have a dedicated icon for the keyboard -- I don't think we ever had it as part of the cycling between control modes, as it's not really a "control mode". Bringing up the keyboard-on-demand, is not supposed to switch the game control out of the current one, eg. if you were using direct mouse, it's cumbersome to start switching control modes to reach keyboard-on-demand and then, when you're done with typing, again start cyclying to reach "direct mouse" control. If we had it there, I see it as a good thing that it was removed.

So it would either be yet another extra icon on the top of the screen (which arguably would qualify as clutter), or it would be called by a shortcut -- which is basically what happens now; it's toggled with long press of the control mode icon.

The only way I can think of that this has impacted the gameplay in classic games is if the player is unaware of this change. And that is easily fixed (by asking on the forum, on discord, on irc, or reading the documentation).

However, if you have found cases where the long-press shortcut does not work or impacts gameplay negatively, please provide specific details on them so we can look into then.