Simple Input Interface for XNA

Download demo - 21.2 KB

Introduction

As input is an important part of every game, it should not be difficult to use. C# provides a great feature - event handlers - which have not been used in the XNA framework to handle input. This class, CInput, will enable event handlers for XNA.

Using the code

All you have to do to use this code is add the Input.cs file to your project, create an instance of CInput, and call its Update function in the game.

//Excerpts from Game.cs

namespace YourGame
{
    public class YourGame : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
    {
        //The variable holding a reference to the input system

        VisualIllusions.CInput Input;
        
        //Constructor

        public YourGame()
        {
            //Create the input device

            Input = new VisualIllusions.CInput();
            //Add any event handlers here or in the initialize function

            Input.OnMouseDown += new 
              VisualIllusions.CInput.OnMouseDownDelegate(Input_OnMouseDown);
        }
        
        //Update the game

        protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
        {
            //Update the input

            Input.Update();

            base.Update(gameTime);
        }
        
        //A function called by an event

        void Input_OnMouseDown(VisualIllusions.CInput.MouseButtons b)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.Print("A mouse button was pressed: " + 
                                           b.ToString());
        }
        
        [...]
    }
}

The class is quite simple to use, and you should be able to integrate it into your project easily by taking a look at the sample project.

Points of interest

I am currently working on GamePad support and a binding class to make it easy to dynamically bind actions to specific keys. This binding class will be serializable so that everyone can configure his/her own set of keys.