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.. _joystick-support:

Joystick Support
================

Note: I have been told that these instructions are inaccurate. - Josh

While Panda3D has mouse and keyboard support, it is best to look to the open
source community for joystick support. Pyglet is a Python library with
joystick and gamepad support that may be used; the relevant modules can be
extracted from the Pyglet source code. The advantage is that pyglet is pure
Python and can be used without pulling in heavy C++ modules such as SDL.

Alternatively, Pygame is an open-source module that contains joystick support
that may be easily included into a Panda3D application. This is not
recommended since Pygame is relatively big and pulls in C++ modules such as
SDL. Pygame may be found at `http://www.pygame.org <http://www.pygame.org>`__.

After downloading pygame, simply import the modules as you would any Panda3D
module.



.. code-block:: python
    
    import pygame



Once pygame is imported, it needs to be initialized. Also, when the program is
through with using pygame, it should be exited cleanly.



.. code-block:: python
    
    pygame.init()
    pygame.quit() 



Also, the joystick should be initialized. It too has a quit function.



.. code-block:: python
    
    joystick.init()
    joystick.quit()



From here, it is possible to get the axis information of the joystick as well
as the state of the buttons.



.. code-block:: python
    
    # Consume PyGame events.
    # This seems superfluous, but it is necessary.
    # Otherwise get_axis and get_button don't work.
    for e in pygame.event.get(): pass
    
    joystick.get_axis(<Axis>)
    joystick.get_button(<Button>)



These are the primary functions for the joystick, but there are a number of
other functions available for joystick support. This can be found at the
pygame website.