= Input Management =

[[TracNav(TracNav/TOC_Coding)]]

This page describes how various user input (keyboard, mouse or joy stick) is being processed. Our goal was to develop a generic implementation that allows to use the input in many different and independent ways. As an example it should not matter to a program whether a mouse button or a key has been pressed. [[br]]
In order to capture input in the first place, we decided not to reinvent the wheel and use a cross platform library instead: [wiki:OIS]. It provides all the features we need to steear a 3D game.

== Wiki articles ==
|| Name || Description ||
||      ||             ||
|| [wiki:InputHandler] || Actual input processor base classes ||
|| [wiki:InputManager] || Input preprocessing and distribution to states ||
|| [wiki:InputState]   || Redistribution to InputHandlers ||
|| [wiki:KeyBinder]    || Maps keys to commands ||
|| [wiki:OIS]          || Object Oriented input library ||
|| [wiki:InputBuffer] || Stores text input stream like ||

== Capturing and distributing the input ==
We get input events from the OIS library in the form a function callback realised with inheritance. The class (and object at the same time) responsible for this task is the [wiki:InputManager]. It initialises the OIS components and input devices and takes care of the so called [wiki:InputState InputStates]. These again, act like input managers themselves in a way, just a lot smaller in implementation.[[br]]
The general idea behind this concept is the fact that input distribution is heavily dependent on what is currently running. Simple examples are the console (only captures text), a GUI menu or the orxonox level itself.[[br]]
These InputStates can then hold [wiki:InputHandler Handlers] that are thought to be fixed when everything is set up. These Handlers do the actual job. For instance the [wiki:KeyBinder] gets an input event and then maps it to an executable command in the form of a string. That command is then passed to the [wiki:CommandExecutor].[[br]]
So much about the overall concept. Read more in the corresponding sections, mostly classes though.[[br]][[br]]

[[Image(Input:Distribution.png)]]