Trigger input events without focus on the game window

Hello everyone,

I'm using the newest version of the Input System (v0.9), XR Legacy Input (v2.0.4) and I want to trigger my input events without having the focus on the game window.

When the users are playing in VR, I want to do some other task on the PC but players are loosing the focus from the window and no input are triggered anymore.

Does it exist any checkbox or option to force the Input System to listen inputs (from Oculus Touch ou Vive controller) when I'm not focusing the game ?

Thank you by advance

 

I really hope not. Any Unity game could be used as a keylogger.

 

Bumping this instead of creating a new thread: is there a toggle for this? Wasn't able to find one in InputSettings, some users find it annoying to have the game respond to inputs while minimized.

 

When "Run in Background" is enabled in the player settings, devices that are capable of collecting in the background while the app is in the background (devices such as keyboards and mice are not and on some platforms, no input collection in the background is supported) are expected to keep reporting input. This includes XR devices.

If no input on XR devices is coming through with "Run in Background" enabled, please file a ticket with the Unity bug reporter.

 

We do use XR, but when the app is in the background it is also picking up keypresses/mouse input. I'm on preview-3 right now (we're currently running a public alpha, so not in a position at the moment to upgrade) so it's possible this has already been fixed. I can check the changelog, and maybe do a quick update, then file a bug report.

EDIT: Updated to 2019.3 and preview-6, is no longer an issue.

 

Can I *make* my custom device be run in background? My colleague made me a little Debugging software, where i click a button and send a tcp message to my game, sorta like an external controller. It triggers all the correct functions, including Queueing a new input event for my custom device. But its not being picked up, since I was out of focus when clicking the button.

Edit: It seems to be working how I want it in a build. What is the issue with the development runtime?

 

I'm running into the same problem in Unity -- I want to simulate input for NPCs in my game server (running in Unity), whether or not the Game View is selected.

However, when I'm testing locally in the Unity editors (1 editor for client, 1 editor for server),
My NPCs (server-controlled) stop moving when I click off the Game View in the server's Unity editor, and the InputAction is reading a value of 0...
This is.. upsetting.



Is there any way to make my input simulating code NOT rely on the Game View?
This code below runs on Update, and only works when Game View is selected:

Code (CSharp):

1. Keyboard npcKeyboard = ...; //Created with InputSystem.AddDevice<Keyboard>() and pairing to an InputUser
2. using (StateEvent.From(npcKeyboard, out InputEventPtr eventPtr)) {
3.     npcKeyboard.rightArrowKey.WriteValueIntoEvent<float>(1, eventPtr);
4.     InputSystem.QueueEvent(eventPtr);
5. }

 

Okay.. I looked at:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/c...ne_InputSystem_InputDevice_canRunInBackground

and Application.runInBackground,

and we still can't create a virtual device that runs in the background.
My device's canRunInBackground C# property just reports false and I wish I could change it.

 

Okay unfortunately it's not possible.
BUT, I believe they want to implement this in the future, because:

I found a //TODO comment in the develop branch of the source code of InputDevice.cs from the InputSystem repository!

At the time of writing this forum post, the //TODO comment says:
////TODO: finer-grained control over what devices deliver input while running in background
//// (e.g. get gamepad input but do *not* get mouse and keyboard input)