Onscreen Controller Keyboard

[Greendogo]

This thread is for discussion of the onscreen keyboard to be used in Gamepad GUI mode.

Here is a picture of the original XBox Morrowind keyboard:


Anyone having a better visual implementation of this ... widget?... should speak up here!

Here's the issue on the tracker for this feature: https://bugs.openmw.org/issues/3985

[thrawn05]

As a long time lurker, having just spent a half hour setting up a Roku with on screen keyboards, I'm compelled to at least ask for a QWERTY layout option. Even though I'd be using a controller and not a keyboard my mind is still looking for the letters in the QWERTY format.

That is all. *goes back into the shadows*

[Greendogo]

How about something along these lines?

Spoiler: Show

[thrawn05]

How about something along these lines?

Spoiler: Show

That would work for me.

[Chris]

How about something along these lines?

Spoiler: Show

On-screen controls like that are actually handled by the OS, which gives a common control applet for all games on a given console or "smart" device but also tends to look out of place (it's not in the same visual style as the game). SDL has a function to bring up on-screen keyboards when text input is needed, but I think it only works for systems that have an applet like that. If it doesn't, something needs to be made manually, so why not theme it like the game?

[Greendogo]

I was mainly posting that for layout purposes; I agree it should be themed to fit the game's style.

The original engine's keyboard was a horrendous mess compared to modern on screen keyboards.

[hazelnot]

Can an engine-side on-screen keyboard that's themeable by the game work?

[Greendogo]

What do you mean?

[drummyfish]

QWERTY

There should definitely be an option to switch between different layouts. I think the default should be ABC though as it's country-neutral and in my opinion even better when you're using cursor instead of fingers to type (being used to QWERTY practically means having a muscle memory for it, not visual memory).

[AnyOldName3]

I tend to type faster on on-screen QWERTY keyboards than alphabetical ones. Even though typing is muscle memory mostly, I interact with QWERTY keyboards more often than the alphabet but split at certain points to make it fit a grid instead of being one long list.

Other alternatives are something like the steam controller keyboard (where the sticks each represent a half-keyboard and clicking a stick enters the letter that that stick is positioned over) or where the left stick selects ranges of the alphabet and the right stick picks a specific letter from the range.