46 replies to this topic

[Nocturne]

• Title: Customizable Controls Example
• Description: How to map keys and use an ini to save them...
• GM Version: GM7pro / GM8pro
• Registered: Yes (Should be compatible with GM6 and GM7Light)
• File Type: gmk and ini files (zipped)
• File Size: 0.31mb
• File Link:
• File Link GM8:

Additional Info
This example is an introduction to customizable controls and basic use of ini files and is recommended for intermediate users. It is for anyone who wishes their game to have a user defined keys menu and should work in GM6 and GM7light but I have not tested it so it may be that GM7pro is necessary.

There are two objects (one for mouse and another for keyboard, they are both basically the same, only the way of selecting the keys to map changes) which use arrays to define the keys and then save the values to an ini file. The ini file must always be located in the same directory as the game file.

Before starting to modify this please open the ini file in a text editor to see how it is structured, then read through all the codes and comments to make sure you understand everything.

This can be merged into any game (delete everything except the keyboard_object that you want to use and the scripts) but will need modifying to adapt to your needs. Pay particular attention to the arrays and drawing options...

Thank you for downloading this and as always, no credit is necessary but would be apreciated! Oh, and please comment if you download this...

Nocturne

EDIT: Kvegas83 has provided an optimised (and easier to change) script here... Thank you!

Edited by Nocturne, 08 April 2011 - 08:13 AM.

[tamper2]

Very nice tutorial.
Built very well, and well commented.
Very easy to understand and follow comments.
Only mistake I've seen, is for saving into ini, you used Backspace instead of Escape.
Overall really good,
Tamper

[Nocturne]

Thanks tamper2... I really apreciate the comments! Oh, and I used backspace so that anyone who didn´t want to save to the ini could press escape and exit the program without changing anything.

[Diptoman]

Hmm, I already figured how to do keyboard mapping, the only problem was that I couldn't find out a way to actually show what key is assigned for which action, except for the long and tedious method of writing each keycode (like you have done in this).
Oh, well! Just thinking if there was any other method...
But I can always copy the keycodes from here . So yeah, this was helpful in a way.

You have commented well enough making it easy to understand as well (Only applies to people who actually want to understand rather than copy-paste stuff). Should be very much useful for many. Good work.

Edited by dmsuper, 23 January 2009 - 06:39 AM.

[Nocturne]

Thanks dmsuper! I respect your replies in all topics and it´s nice of you to comment...

I actually made a quick program in GM to write all the key codes to a file after a keypress then started in the upper left of the keyboard and pressed every key one at a time. It was the only way I could think of to get the numbers... The boring part was then putting all that info into a script with key names as well! At least the work hasn´t gone to waste and other people can benefit from it...

Thanks again!

[Nocturne]

200 downloads and 2 replies? C´mon guys a bit of respect...

Edited by Mark13673, 19 February 2009 - 10:31 AM.

[Obj_Control]

This is very useful. I never really bothered learning how to write .ini files, but now I know. There was plenty enough comments to help me understand how it works, and I think the methods were very good. Except, a few times, I see you writing a whole code 10 times, instead of using if statements to change a value, then writing the code once.

This is going to help me a lot in my next game, and I hope I won't lose it. I may finish the list of keys, and I may not, but if I do, I'll post it here for others.

Thanks for making the tutorial.

8/10

[daman123125]

I agree with obj_control.
This is very well documented. I already knew how to make customizable controls, but this will be of great use to people who didn't know this yet.

[Nocturne]

Thanks guys! Nice comments... and as for the code, obj_control, you are right that the draw event can be optimised with a switch statement and a for loop, but as I want this to be used by anyone I thought that it would be easier to change the drawing positions etc... if I laid out the code in the simplest form possible... And feel free to add to the key list... I left some out as I felt that they were problematic or unnecessary but I suppose I should have put a complete list for the end user to choose from...

[samthetrue]

Very well documented. As a beginner, this has taught me many things about saving information as well. Thank you very much, I hope to learn more from your other examples, and I'm off to download and study them right now



Keep up the good work!
Sam

[Batch]

Haha, I took about 2 hours "decompiling" all this info into something that I could understand! Yay! Now it works lol. If you wanna see this in action, click on my support bar in my sig and check out v2.75. Love this example! Thanks Mark!


-CubinJ

[safwat1995]

Great example. well done

[frankpiet]

Good example. This will help a lot of people.

[ShadowKirby10]

Example is straight forward, Nice work, and yes it works great on the pro edition too

[iluvfuz]

Cool, this can teach people about ini reading/writing, arrays and loops.

[Pymann]

It requires pro for GM7 not sure about GM6
I have GM6 Registered on one computer GM7Lite on another cuz it won't accept the registration code I gave it.

[kvegas83]

hey Mark... made a little modification to your code, making it obsolete to have to create a whole other program to show you the keycodes. Here's the new KeyMapCheck script, though it's formatted a bit differently and has a few differences in what keys can be mapped. It also prevents the need to constantly assign Mapping to true.

//GET LAST KEY PRESSED AND CORRESPONDING CODE
//IF KEY IS NOT LISTED, IT IS CONSIDERED AN INVALID ENTRY

Mapping=true;

switch keyboard_lastkey{

case vk_control:	name="Ctrl";break;
case vk_tab:		name="Tab";break;
case vk_space:	  name="Space";break;

//ARROW KEYS
case vk_left:	   name="Left";break;  case vk_right:	  name="Right";break;
case vk_up:		 name="Up";break;	case vk_down:	   name="Down";break;

//NUMPAD
case vk_numpad0:	name="Num0";break;  case vk_numpad1:	name="Num1";break;
case vk_numpad2:	name="Num2";break;  case vk_numpad3:	name="Num3";break;
case vk_numpad4:	name="Num4";break;  case vk_numpad5:	name="Num5";break;
case vk_numpad6:	name="Num6";break;  case vk_numpad7:	name="Num7";break;
case vk_numpad8:	name="Num8";break;  case vk_numpad9:	name="Num9";break;

//LETTERS
case ord('A'):	  name="A";break;	 case ord('B'):	  name="B";break;
case ord('C'):	  name="C";break;	 case ord('D'):	  name="D";break;
case ord('E'):	  name="E";break;	 case ord('F'):	  name="F";break;
case ord('G'):	  name="G";break;	 case ord('H'):	  name="H";break;
case ord('I'):	  name="I";break;	 case ord('J'):	  name="J";break;
case ord('K'):	  name="K";break;	 case ord('L'):	  name="L";break;
case ord('M'):	  name="M";break;	 case ord('N'):	  name="N";break;
case ord('O'):	  name="O";break;	 case ord('P'):	  name="P";break;
case ord('Q'):	  name="Q";break;	 case ord('R'):	  name="R";break;
case ord('S'):	  name="S";break;	 case ord('T'):	  name="T";break;
case ord('U'):	  name="U";break;	 case ord('V'):	  name="V";break;
case ord('W'):	  name="W";break;	 case ord('X'):	  name="X";break;
case ord('Y'):	  name="Y";break;	 case ord('Z'):	  name="Z";break;

//UNCHARTED KEY
default:			Mapping=false;break;
}
if Mapping		  code=keyboard_lastkey;

[Nocturne]

Thanks for taking the time to do that! I should have done so myself (I´m much more experienced now with GML) as I also realised that the code could be optimised in more or less the same way a while back... Just never got round to it! The only addition I would make is adding in vk_shift....

Anyway, thanks again and I will add a mention into the first post...

[kvegas83]

Thanks for taking the time to do that! I should have done so myself (I´m much more experienced now with GML) as I also realised that the code could be optimised in more or less the same way a while back... Just never got round to it! The only addition I would make is adding in vk_shift....

Anyway, thanks again and I will add a mention into the first post...

Hey, glad to have helped! I really like this example, its helped me alot.

[Nocturne]

BUMP!