"Currently, the only way for a gamepad to be used as input would be to
emulate mouse or keyboard events"
I'm wondering if it's in scope for this spec to also address the
situation where a UA *does* already do this natively (for instance, IE
on Xbox One) - analog stick moving an on-screen mouse pointer, d-pad
firing cursor event.
A few precedents that may be worth looking at:
- Pointer Lock API http://www.w3.org/TR/pointerlock/
- Opera's spatial navigation on TV browsers, which can be
preventDefault-ed if the website/app wants to handle d-pad input (mapped
to cursor keys already, mind) on a remote control
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/functional-key-handling-in-opera-device-sdk-based-tv-browsers/#prevent-default
- Boxee's (discontinued) API to explicitly switch browser into different
modes (cursor, keyboard, player)
http://developer.boxee.tv/JavaScript_API#Browser_Modes
There's an argument that this should be left completely up to the UA,
and that users should switch the UA into different modes. However, at
the very least it would be nice then to have a way for a site/app to
*signal* that it can handle direct gamepad input.
Thoughts?
P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
