Using ButtonWithOneModifier without triggering another action using the same binding?

Hi,

Been using as of late the new package, and it is an absolute joy to use.

I have only really encountered one issue (aside from maybe fleshing out the documentation farther).

Let's say I have 2 actions:

actionA uses a button with a press interaction.

actionB uses a ButtonWithOneModifier the modifier is assigned to some stick direction,
but the button is assigned to the same binding and interaction as actionA.

Now whenever I trigger actionB, actionA triggers right after B.

Now I have in my game's logic a way to bypass this,
but I don't want to manage in the game code state's on if an action performed event should do it's logic or not.

Is there a way using only the InputSystem to not cause actionA to perform right after actionB?

Thanks!

 

One way I have gotten around this issue is to define a custom composite like ButtonWithOneModifier, but with a bool that negates the modifier when set to true. With this setup, you can use that composite for both actions, so that one action can produce a non-zero value only when the modifier is pressed, and the other only when the modifier is not pressed. Here's a link for defining custom composites: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/c...14044167.1563642269#writing-custom-composites

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

Though i'm still contemplating if this would be the best course of action.

 

What I ended up doing was to override the Keyboard layout and add a new inverted synthetic control that returns 1 if no modifiers are pressed and 0 if any of them are. Then I can just use the standard "Button with One Modifier".

When I don't want a modifier pressed, I set the Modifier path to "<Keyboard>/noModifier".

It's only set up to work with the keyboard modifiers, but it's good enough for me until an official solution comes out.

Code (CSharp):

1. #if UNITY_EDITOR
2. using UnityEditor;
3. #endif
4. using UnityEngine;
5. using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
6. using UnityEngine.InputSystem.Controls;
7. using UnityEngine.InputSystem.Layouts;
8. using UnityEngine.InputSystem.LowLevel;
9.  
10. #if UNITY_EDITOR
11. [InitializeOnLoad] // Make sure static constructor is called during startup.
12. #endif
13. [InputControlLayout(stateType = typeof(KeyboardState), isGenericTypeOfDevice = true)]
14. [UnityEngine.Scripting.Preserve]
15. public class KeyboardEx : Keyboard
16. {
17.     /// <summary>
18.     /// A Button control that returns the opposite of the pressed state.
19.     /// If the button is pressed, returns 0.0 and if not pressed, returns 1.0.
20.     /// </remarks>
21.     [UnityEngine.Scripting.Preserve]
22.     public class InvertButtonControl : ButtonControl
23.     {
24.         ////TODO: wasPressedThisFrame and wasReleasedThisFrame
25.  
26.         public override unsafe float ReadUnprocessedValueFromState(void* statePtr)
27.         {
28.             return base.ReadUnprocessedValueFromState(statePtr) > 0f ? 0f : 1f;
29.         }
30.     }
31.  
32.     /// <summary>
33.     /// An artificial inverted combination of <see cref="leftShiftKey"/>, <see cref="rightShiftKey"/>,
34.     /// <see cref="leftCtrlKey"/>, <see cref="rightCtrlKey"/>,
35.     /// <see cref="leftAltKey"/>, and <see cref="rightAltKey"/> into one control.
36.     /// </summary>
37.     /// <value>Control representing a combined left and right shift, control, and alt key.</value>
38.     /// <remarks>
39.     /// This is a <see cref="InputControl.synthetic"/> button which is considered pressed whenever the left and
40.     /// right shift, control, and alt keys are not pressed.
41.     /// </remarks>
42.     public InvertButtonControl noModifier { get; private set; }
43.  
44.     protected override void FinishSetup()
45.     {
46.         base.FinishSetup();
47.  
48.         noModifier = GetChildControl<InvertButtonControl>("noModifier");
49.     }
50.  
51.     static KeyboardEx()
52.     {
53.         const string json = @"
54.    {
55.        ""name"" : ""KeyboardEx"",
56.        ""extend"" : ""Keyboard"",
57.        ""controls"" : [
58.            {
59.                ""name"" : ""noModifier"",
60.                ""layout"" : ""DiscreteButton"",
61.                ""usage"" : ""Modifier"",
62.                ""offset"" : 0,
63.                ""bit"" : 51,
64.                ""sizeInBits"" : 8,
65.                ""synthetic"" : true
66.            }
67.        ]
68.    }";
69.  
70.         InputSystem.RegisterLayoutOverride(json);
71.     }
72.  
73.     // In the Player, trigger the calling of our static constructor
74.     // by having an empty method annotated with RuntimeInitializeOnLoadMethod.
75.     [RuntimeInitializeOnLoadMethod]
76.     private static void Init()
77.     {
78.     }
79. }
80.  

 

Yeah, unfortunately ATM it's down to workarounds. We have this on the list as a high priority item. The fact that actions will indiscriminately consume input instead of figuring out priority among them is a source of problems in a couple areas. Unfortunately, the needed change here won't happen for 1.0 but I'm sure it'll be one of the first things that'll get picked up after.

 

Any news on that issue ?

 

Nothing in the way of implementation yet but it'll get worked on soon.

 

This has been an issue for me as well as my game has a lot of key combinations. For example F to do one action, and Shift+F to do the opposite action. I've temporarily worked around it with some messy input code to block input from one of the actions for a frame but this is quite ugly and not sustainable as the user needs to be able to create their own custom combination keybinds.

Next time I'm working on input, I'll have a look through the workarounds posted here, but this is a very relevant issue for me.

 

Is this fixed? I'm facing this issue atm

 

Same here

Using Input System 1.1.0 preview 2, I did find an "InvertProcessor" and to test setup one Action with ShiftKey+DeltaMouse and the Other with (Inverted-ShiftKey)+DeltaMouse.
Both actions however trigger when pressing shift, so the "Invert" seems to be ignored (probably it only works inverting binding-values, not for inverting input-modifiers).


I also could not get the "<Keyboard>/noModifier" example to work. Added the example script into a .cs file in my project, but the "noModifier" keyboard mapping does not appear.

 

+1

 

Yeah, it appears to be ignored. That's a real bummer and hopefully easier to fix than a total overhaul. I have a hard time envisioning logic that can detect if a modifier is down but not if a modifier isn't down && this invert processor flag is set.

 

I also have this problem as well. I'm making a fighter game, and while I have no problem with Keyboard scheme because it doesn't use any modifier, The gamepad scheme uses the modifier to differentiate the normal attack and special attack by pressing the Left shoulder and its respective button. So any progress on this problem?

 

High priority over a year now... @Rene-Damm any news?

 

Hello everybody! I have been working on a solution to this issue and I just got around to publishing my personal solution on github for everyone to use. You can set up combos with unlimited modifiers (each one being negatable). Here's the link: TRS6123/AginerianInput (github.com). Hope you all find this useful!

 

Hi, Could you help me please? I know it has nothing to do with this, but do you know why this error happens?

 

@josenajarqs Is the PlayerInput script enabled?

 

thanks for your answer! what I want is to remmap my keys from the menu (in another scene) the code works fine for me when I test it with my player (not prefab) in the "Gameplay" scene, but when I drag my player (the prefab from the "Gameplay" scene) to the menu code, I get this error: Cannot switch to actions "menu" input is not enable. I have this code in the Menu

Code (CSharp):

1. [SerializeField] private InputActionReference jumpAction = null;
2.         [SerializeField] private PlayerController playerController = null;
3.         [SerializeField] private TMP_Text bindingDisplayNameText = null;
4.         [SerializeField] private GameObject startRebindObject = null;
5.         [SerializeField] private GameObject waitingForInputObject = null;
6.  
7.         private InputActionRebindingExtensions.RebindingOperation rebindingOperation;
8.  
9.         private const string RebindsKey = "rebinds";
10.  
11.  
12.         public void StartRebinding()
13.         {
14.             startRebindObject.SetActive(false);
15.             waitingForInputObject.SetActive(true);
16.  
17.             playerController.PlayerInput.SwitchCurrentActionMap("Menu");
18.  
19.             rebindingOperation = jumpAction.action.PerformInteractiveRebinding()
20.                 .WithControlsExcluding("Mouse")
21.                 .OnMatchWaitForAnother(0.1f)
22.                 .OnComplete(operation => RebindComplete())
23.                 .Start();
24.         }
25.  
26.         private void RebindComplete()
27.         {
28.             int bindingIndex = jumpAction.action.GetBindingIndexForControl(jumpAction.action.controls[0]);
29.  
30.             bindingDisplayNameText.text = InputControlPath.ToHumanReadableString(
31.                 jumpAction.action.bindings[bindingIndex].effectivePath,
32.                 InputControlPath.HumanReadableStringOptions.OmitDevice);
33.  
34.             rebindingOperation.Dispose();
35.  
36.             startRebindObject.SetActive(true);
37.             waitingForInputObject.SetActive(false);
38.  
39.             playerController.PlayerInput.SwitchCurrentActionMap("Gameplay");
40.         }
41.     }
42. }

And this is in the PlayerController

Code (CSharp):

1.   [SerializeField] private PlayerInput playerInput = null;
2.         [SerializeField] private CharacterController controller = null;
3.  

 

everything works fine, i use the same menu script in the scene where the game starts and drag my ObjectPlayer to the script, remap my keys and everything works fine, but in the menu scene when trying to drag my PlayerPrefab to the script and try remapping the keys the same error appears, Cannot Switch action "menu" is not enabled

 

=))))))))))

Maybe you need one more year to work on it...

 

Fantastic, thank you for your effort!

Hi, would this work with Keyboard composites as well? Like Up/Down-arrow composite + a negated modifier key?

 

@bjornsyse Thanks for your appreciation! As for your question, if you duplicate the axis binding, set one binding to the Up Arrow, and set the other binding to the Down Arrow with the Invert Processor, you should get the desired result.

 

Hi

Hmm, I never thought about like that. I though we had to engage the positive/negative variables and do the calculation like in the other composites (AxisComposite) for example. Have you tried your suggestion? I couldn't get it to work over here. Might be missing something.

 

Hi again. In the meantime, I ended up using the script provided by @_s_e_r_ in this thread (

AxisModifierComposite 

) but modified it by adding this boolean flag to check for an Inverted state of the modifier key. That is, whether the state of the modifier key NOT being pressed should gate the action in question.

Code (CSharp):

1. public bool invertModifier;
2.    
3.     // This method computes the resulting input value of the composite based
4.     // on the input from its part bindings but gated by the modifier key.
5.     public override float ReadValue(ref InputBindingCompositeContext context)
6.     {
7.         float baseValue = base.ReadValue(ref context);
8.        
9.         if (!invertModifier)
10.         {
11.             if (context.ReadValueAsButton(modifier))
12.                 return base.ReadValue(ref context);
13.             return default;
14.         }
15.  
16.         if (!context.ReadValueAsButton(modifier))
17.             return base.ReadValue(ref context);
18.         return default;
19.     }
20.    

Works well for me.

 

@bjornsyse Admittedly I didn't try my suggestion until today and I see that the inverted axis binding won't work as expected. I just submitted changes to the git repo to fix the issue. It now works well on my end.

 

Just hit this issue as well. Hopefully there's a planned solution (or workaround).

 

Rene-Damm , what's the status here please? This is a big issue for us as an ISS customer.

 

I haven't tried this recently, so I don't know if this has been fixed or not yet, but this issue was a deal breaker for me a almost exactly a year ago and caused me to switch back to the old input system and Rewired for an input solution.

 

@Rene-Damm Is there any status update with this? This is pretty large break if you want your users to set their own arbitrary custom key binds... Or just having modifiers on such any action. Such as Q (Drop one item), Shift-Q (drop item stack), Ctrl-Q (drop half item stack) … Currently we could work around this knowing the main action and only allowing to change the modifier & action independently. Though this is really FAR from ideal, especially since it breaks if the user just wantonly assigns a random button to 1 & another to Shift-1...

 

Just ran into this issue as well, would be great to get it resolved. @Rene-Damm

 

@Rene-Damm any update on the issue?

 

It's been over 16 months since there's been any word on this from Unity. Can we get an update.
Input system is kind of a joke with such a fundamental flaw.

 

This is a huge issue imo. There's no point to a button with modifier if it triggers the underlying non modifier actions.
I tried to use trs6123's git solution but it didn't seem to show up in my ui.
The invert component makes sense to use on the modifier to set it to always on that way you can set other actions to not trigger on a modifier press.
Can't believe something so simple that needs to be fixed has been ignored for over a year when its considered a "high priority issue"

 

@NeonTheCoder I just updated my repo to fix the issue with custom modifiers not showing up in UI after entering playmode. Turns out calling InputSystem.RegisterXXX more than once for the same type unregisters it, which is very likely a bug on Unity's side.

 

There's a working first implementation. Needs some more work and there's also some surrounding issues that need solving (like ensuring that for shortcuts specifically, the order of keypresses is respected). But looking promising. We do consider this one of the higher-priority missing things.

 

@Rene-Damm So how exactly does this solution work? Which Unity version will I need, and which version of the new InputSystem?

 

<ah doh... mixed up my tabs in the initial post and posted the wrong thing here>

While the managed changes have landed, the native changes haven't made it out yet. They're making their way through the merge queues but takes a bit to hit the various release trains. I'll post here when the native changes have made it.

 

wow, didn't expect such issue to be present in a system that have been here for a while. Also stumbled upon the situation when action with modifier is being called alongside with action without one (if they use the same button). I would really appreciate some... input on it

 

Any news on this end, or are we still waiting for a solution? I'm on 1.1.1 and as far as the package manager will show my that's the latest yes?

However documentation shows a 1.2 version (https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.inputsystem@1.2/manual/index.html) . How do I get that one? (i'm on Untiy 2021 branch), and does that version have any updates to remedy this issue?

 

I find it strange it was released in this state at all. The modifiers are essentially useless due to this and should not currently be in the package.

 

If you are looking at this in the future. Create a script in your editor folder and look through nickleplated's solution. This works only for PC but it works wonderfully. Thanks @nickleplated

 

I'm currently wrestling with this issue and am curious about how a fix is progressing. Any update?

 

@Rene-Damm could you please update us a bit? Please read the comments in this thread, this is a bit absurd for such things to take this much time without clear communication.

I think we would really appreciate some info about the resolution or suggested (working) workarounds.

 

Does anyone know if there is an update on this or if the 1.3 version of the input system has fixed this problem?

 

Still a known limitation in the docs for 1.3

 

FYI: they almost got it working in October, but then for some reason backed out:
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/InputSystem/pull/1405

 

> I find it strange it was released in this state at all. The modifiers are essentially useless due to this and should not currently be in the package.

Have to agree with this one, it's such a strange design decision to even support modifiers at all if they can't be distinguished from the non modified key.

Why would someone create a modified keybinding if the original key was unbound? It's just needless extra work for the player.

 

I have a solution on github that solves this common issue, and even lets you use unlimited modifiers. I use it all the time, and all previously reported bugs have been fixed for a while.
TRS6123/AginerianInput: This package extends the functionality of Unity's New Input System! Includes binding composites with unlimited modifiers, negatable modifiers, and normalizing mouse input based the size of the screen. (github.com)

 

A two year old thread, a reportedly "high priority" issue, still not resolved, and now being ghosted by the dev team.

@Rene-Damm it has been three months since pull 1405 was moved back to WIP, and it has not been touched since. What is the status of the native code changes that were apparently working their way through the system. Please don't let this be yet another forum thread that is left to die without resolution.

 

This one is not blocked on native code changes. PR 1405 was just about to land when we discovered a number of issues with it that we overlooked initially.

It's not landing in 1.4 but it's alive. There is some exciting stuff brewing and this one is going in.