Simple and efficient way to detect the InputDevice currently being used

I couldn't find in the current API (0.2.10-preview) a simple and efficient way of detecting the input device that the player is currently using. I want to do that so I can update my UI accordingly displaying, for instance, "Press start" instead of "Press enter" when using a gamepad instead of a keyboard.

I could query all the devices every frame for any interaction made with them but I consider that solution not very scalable or efficient. Maybe we could have something as a InputDevice.current (as we have a Keyboard.current and Gamepad.current) and that would point to the last used input device.

 

I don't believe there's any such API but go take a look at InputUser (https://github.com/Unity-Technologi...system/InputSystem/Plugins/Users/InputUser.cs) It is what it sounds like, you can associate multiple devices to a single user and get the current device (with some jank). I haven't used it much (unless you consider PlayerInput as counting), but it's worth a look.

Also,

InputSystem.onEvent

. I'm not 100 percent on how it works but you can get whenever a device is used. I don't know if it processes noisy controls though.

 

Yup, I'd second a similar feature. I use it not only in the intro screen, but in our game you can just start using another input and it simply adapts runtime, by changing prompts and control scheme. I'd love to keep this feature. So getting a device(s) binding that last affected the action would be nice. Seems not ambiguous at least for non-continous actions.

 

@jonas-echterhoff

I'm attempting to do this in a bit of a simpler way than using the callbackcontexts.

However, I tried go through all the devices and my devices are always null. Is this a bug?
The error "no devices found!" from the code below is called constantly.

When I use the CallbackContext I am capable of getting the device that calls the function.

I think it would be nice if the controlSchemes had a isLastSchemeUsed boolean. In my opinion it doesn't matter that there could be more than one player, the fact that it was the last device used still holds true. A similar for devices would be cool too.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
3.  
4. public class Inputer : Singleton<Inputer>
5. {
6.     public static Controls Control;
7.     public static InputDevice LastUsedDevice { get; private set; }
8.  
9.     void Awake()
10.     {
11.         Control = new Controls();
12.         Control.Enable();
13.         Control.Player.Enable();
14.         Control.UI.Enable();
15.     }
16.  
17.     private void Update()
18.     {
19.         double smallestUpdateTime = double.MaxValue;
20.         if (Control.devices != null)
21.         {
22.             foreach (var d in Control.devices)
23.             {
24.                 Debug.Log("running devices check: " + d.lastUpdateTime + " device name: " + d.name);
25.                 if (d.lastUpdateTime < smallestUpdateTime)
26.                 {
27.                     smallestUpdateTime = d.lastUpdateTime;
28.                     LastUsedDevice = d;
29.                 }
30.             }
31.         }
32.         else
33.         {
34.             Debug.LogError("no devices found!");
35.         }
36.     }
37. }

I think I've set up my control schemes and devices correctly because in this window they seem to be properly set up

 

Any luck here?

 

Man I desperately need this… no update on this, uh…?

 

I'm using InputDevice.displayName to check this (from InputSystem.onActionChange), but it sucks to rely on strings for comparisons, and the documentation doesn't tell what strings this property can return.

Edit:
Here are some return strings I've found so far:
Mouse -> "Mouse"
Keyboard -> "Keyboard"
Xbox-like controllers -> "Xbox Controller"

I don't have other gamepads to test to find more strings, but based on what I got on my Xbox-like controller, I believe the other controllers should display these names found in the binding section of an Input Action Asset: