[Essentials Tutorial] Adding more Input keys

Marin · Oct 1, 2017

If you're a coder and overall know what you're doing, this is, in basic terms, all you need to do:
1.) Add a new constant to module Input in PSystem_Controls and give it a unique number;
2.) Find out what the hex value of your letter is (capital letter);
3.) Add it to def self.buttonToKey(button).

Because I'm sure that goes way too fast for some people, I've broken it down in-depth below.

By default, Pokémon Essentials comes with the following inputs:

Code:

  DOWN   = 2
  LEFT   = 4
  RIGHT  = 6
  UP     = 8
  A      = 11
  B      = 12
  C      = 13
  X      = 14
  Y      = 15
  Z      = 16
  L      = 17
  R      = 18
  SHIFT  = 21
  CTRL   = 22
  ALT    = 23
  F5 = F = 25
  F6     = 26
  F7     = 27
  F8     = 28
  F9     = 29

These can be found in PSystem_Controls, module Input.

In this tutorial, we'll be adding a V button to our game.

First off, you need to add it as a constant underneath all the constants we saw just now. The number you give it doesn't make a big difference; just make sure it's a unique number. Since the next free number after F9 is 30, we'll go with that. We could call the constant anything, but so we know what we're referring to when calling this V button of ours, we'll just call it V as well.
This would look as follows:

Code:

  V      = 30

We've now defined the constant, which we can later reference with Input::V

We now need to actually tell Essentials for which button it will return true. This is done in def self.buttonToKey(button).
In Pokémon Essentials v17+, this method will be small and one-lined:

Code:

  def self.buttonToKey(button)
    case button
    when Input::DOWN;  return [0x28]                # Down
    when Input::LEFT;  return [0x25]                # Left
    when Input::RIGHT; return [0x27]                # Right
    when Input::UP;    return [0x26]                # Up
    when Input::A;     return [0x5A,0x57,0x59,0x10] # Z, W, Y, Shift
    when Input::B;     return [0x58,0x1B]           # X, ESC
    when Input::C;     return [0x43,0x0D,0x20]      # C, ENTER, Space
#    when Input::X;     return [0x41]                # A
#    when Input::Y;     return [0x53]                # S
#    when Input::Z;     return [0x44]                # D
    when Input::L;     return [0x41,0x51,0x21]      # A, Q, Page Up
    when Input::R;     return [0x53,0x22]           # S, Page Down
    when Input::SHIFT; return [0x10]                # Shift
    when Input::CTRL;  return [0x11]                # Ctrl
    when Input::ALT;   return [0x12]                # Alt
    when Input::F5;    return [0x46,0x74,0x09]      # F, F5, Tab
    when Input::F6;    return [0x75]                # F6
    when Input::F7;    return [0x76]                # F7
    when Input::F8;    return [0x77]                # F8
    when Input::F9;    return [0x78]                # F9
    else; return []
    end
  end

In v16, it will look like this:

Code:

  def self.buttonToKey(button)
    case button
    when Input::DOWN
      return [0x28] # Down
    when Input::LEFT
      return [0x25] # Left
    when Input::RIGHT
      return [0x27] # Right
    when Input::UP
      return [0x26] # Up
    when Input::A
      return [0x5A,0x10] # Z, Shift
    when Input::B
      return [0x58,0x1B] # X, ESC 
    when Input::C
      return [0x43,0x0D,0x20] # C, ENTER, Space
    when Input::X
      return [0x41] # A
    when Input::Y
      return [0x53] # S
    when Input::Z
      return [0x44] # D
    when Input::L
      return [0x51,0x21] # Q, Page Up
    when Input::R
      return [0x57,0x22] # W, Page Down
    when Input::SHIFT
      return [0x10] # Shift
    when Input::CTRL
      return [0x11] # Ctrl
    when Input::ALT
      return [0x12] # Alt
    when Input::F5
      return [0x74] # F5
    when Input::F6
      return [0x75] # F6
    when Input::F7
      return [0x76] # F7
    when Input::F8
      return [0x77] # F8
    when Input::F9
      return [0x78] # F9
    else
      return []
    end
  end

These do the exact same, but in v16, it's just spaced apart.

You'll have noticed those 0x78 values and such. Those are the UTF-8 (hex) values of the actual keys that input will respond to. As you can see with Input::A for example, that doesn't literally have to be the A key. Input::A responds to Z, W, Y, and Shift, but NOT A. That's up to you to decide.

So, we need to find out what the hex value of the key you want to add is. You could google it, but Windows 10 also has a program which will tell you exactly what you need. Open up a program called Character Map.

You'll be presented with a small window which contains a lot of characters, including foreign. They're ordered by hex value (e.g. it starts at 0x21 and ends at 0xFB02 (for me; it may vary per computer)).
We want to know the hex value of V, so we'll click the capital V. In the bottom left, you'll see something like U+0056. That's what we need.

So, we have U+0056 now. The UTF-8 hex of this number is 0x56. Here are some conversion so you'll understand how it's done:

Code:

U+003A -> 0x3A
U+ABBB -> 0xABBB
U+0009 -> 0x09
U+0123 -> 0x123

We know our hex now; 0x56. We need to add that to def self.buttonToKey(button) now. We can simply copy the previous line (F9), which would become this:

Code:

    when Input::V;    return [0x56]                # V

For the when statement, make sure what you put after the Input:: is the same as whatever you defined the constant as in the first step.

That's all! You can now call it appropriately with something like if Input.trigger?(Input::V), too.

☆Rei☆ · Oct 1, 2017

Or you could do this:

Code:

Input.triggerex?("A"[0])

Where it says "A" you can use any number, upper case letter, or symbol that doesn't require you to hold in Shift to access it. (which in itself isn't a problem because a shifted character isn't a unique key)

The only other keys left would be the F2. F3, F4 and a few other keys which aren't already defined or in use. But my argument is that you wouldn't need these stray keys normally in any case.

And if you do need those keys, you could just do this instead:

Code:

module Input
  DELETE = 0x2E # The value over here is the value you get from the key mapper described in your tutorial
  # any other keys you need here
end

and then you can call

Code:

Input.triggerex?(Input::DELETE)

Matthatter03 · Oct 1, 2017

What would I do if I wanted to set a certain event to V? So when I enter V on the keyboard, if I want a specific action to occur, how would I set the action to V?

[Essentials Tutorial] Adding more Input keys

Marin

☆Rei☆

Matthatter03