Introducing Dynamic Input Textures: a new feature for controller icons

[iwubcode]

While it's been out for a little while on the dev side, with the progress report released, Dynamic Input Textures is finally pushed out with the beta Dolphin!

I thought this would be a good place to keep general questions and comments about the feature. I updated the first post with basic information.

[Venomalia]

The function is really great. I have made a small test pack,
for Mario Galaxy 1+2, Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime 3 + Trilogy and Skyward Sword.
With support for Keyboard & Mouse, DualShock4, Xbox One, Joy Con and Pro Controller.

Is it possible to split the JSON file into "default_host_controls" and "output_textures"?
Is there a way to mirror the textures?

DynamicInputs

[iwubcode]

(12-13-2020, 10:04 AM)Venomalia Wrote: Is it possible to split the JSON file into "default_host_controls" and "output_textures"?
Is there a way to mirror the textures?

Glad you like it! At the moment the answer to both of your questions is 'no'. But more updates are planned, so that might change.

Just curious, what do you need the mirroring capability for?

[Terg500]

This feature seems pretty cool for simple gamepads, but I can already see the pain in creating textures for keyboards since there are so many different language versions of keyboards out there. When I press the key next to the 1 on my German keyboard I have ^ and °, a US keyboard is completely different, a Spanish one is different, an Italian one etc. Combine that with games like Metroid Prime 1,2,3 that use multiple textures for one button and you'll be working at least 5 years on this. lol

[iwubcode]

(01-04-2021, 10:26 PM)Terg500 Wrote: This feature seems pretty cool for simple gamepads, but I can already see the pain in creating textures for keyboards since there are so many different language versions of keyboards out there. When I press the key next to the 1 on my German keyboard I have ^ and °, a US keyboard is completely different, a Spanish one is different, an Italian one etc. Combine that with games like Metroid Prime 1,2,3 that use multiple textures for one button and you'll be working at least 5 years on this. lol

Yeah it would take a while for sure!

But I wouldn't consider it much more difficult than doing it for a normal texture pack? You can support one language or multiple. The difficult part would be the creation of all the keyboard icons but that's no different than a normal pack. While the tool currently doesn't have a preset for keyboard bindings, you could rather easily do the emulated mapping with the tool and then use a script to generate the JSON for the various keyboard key to image mappings. Of course, a creator can decide to support however many keys they want and other users can assist.

It makes me wonder if Dolphin could have a mode that generates the keyboard key image from a base image and a system font (+ other metadata)? Not sure how feasible that would be but if possible that would certainly improve the workflow for the keyboard case. Let me know if you have any other ideas!

[Venomalia]

(12-16-2020, 04:05 PM)iwubcode Wrote: Glad you like it!  At the moment the answer to both of your questions is 'no'.  But more updates are planned, so that might change.

Just curious, what do you need the mirroring capability for?

some games have mirrored or rotated textures like Metroid.

The following improvements would also be nice.

-They should always have a higher priority than a texture pack.
-A way to overlay textures instead of overwriting them.

   

[iwubcode]

(01-16-2021, 11:27 AM)Venomalia Wrote: some games have mirrored or rotated textures like Metroid.

The following improvements would also be nice.

-They should always have a higher priority than a texture pack.
-A way to overlay textures instead of overwriting them.

Yeah, priority is currently determined alpha-numerically. I've thought about how to add priority support, just it's not available yet. You can set the generated name, so you can set to something like "z GAME NAME Input Textures". By default it is "<gameid>_Generated" which should be higher priority than a default <gameid> texture pack.

I really like the overlay feature, that's a great idea.

I'll think about the mirroring request That's the first I've heard of a game needing that support.

At the moment I'm trying to finish up some other Dolphin tasks but I have a lot of ideas in mind for this feature! Please let me know if you come up with any other ideas

[Venomalia]

(01-16-2021, 02:22 PM)iwubcode Wrote: Yeah, priority is currently determined alpha-numerically.  I've thought about how to add priority support, just it's not available yet.  You can set the generated name, so you can set to something like "z GAME NAME Input Textures".  By default it is "<gameid>_Generated" which should be higher priority than a default <gameid> texture pack.

I really like the overlay feature, that's a great idea.

I'll think about the mirroring request  That's the first I've heard of a game needing that support.

At the moment I'm trying to finish up some other Dolphin tasks but I have a lot of ideas in mind for this feature!  Please let me know if you come up with any other ideas

That would be really nice.
The mirroring is not so important. I have made a specification list with new ideas that I think are very iimportant for the next version.
All changes are in red with examples. These changes would make some things much easier.

Anyway thanks for this great feature!

[Ratso]

Hi guys, a fella made a really great texture set for Donkey Kong Country.
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-wii-fhd-donkey-kong-country-returns-hd-textures-mod-v1-4
But I can't seem to figure out how to get it to replace the number 1 with a Y or even a start button
Picture is enclosed.

Any help would be great, I guess it has something to do with what I choose as the XBOX key?
Not sure, but I am not sure if he seems to have the same file structure as was described in the Dynamic Input Textures SpecificationV2.
Thanks in advance.

[iwubcode]

(01-18-2021, 05:23 AM)Venomalia Wrote: That would be really nice.
The mirroring is not so important. I have made a specification list with new ideas that I think are very iimportant for the next version.
All changes are in red with examples. These changes would make some things much easier.

Anyway thanks for this great feature!

Thanks for your suggestions. I am not sure I want to introduce the style folder layout because it doesn't allow for future enhancements (all the json is at the device level) and looks kinda strange when you have a single texture. It is also a drastic change in terms of spec. I do like its simplicity, though that's less important as I expect most will be using the tool to create these packs. I'm still thinking about it.

However, I had a similar idea where you mark both an 'emulated key' and a 'host key' with a 'tag'. That tag can be used to denote a "pressed button" for instance. Then we can introduce tag only controls which would allow us to handle the stick icons or other icons that are device specific but lack a specific emulated key.

(01-31-2021, 01:56 AM)Ratso Wrote: Hi guys, a fella made a really great texture set for Donkey Kong Country.
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-wii-fhd-donkey-kong-country-returns-hd-textures-mod-v1-4
But I can't seem to figure out how to get it to replace the number 1 with a Y or even a start button
Picture is enclosed.

Any help would be great, I guess it has something to do with what I choose as the XBOX key?
Not sure, but I am not sure if he seems to have the same file structure as was described in the Dynamic Input Textures SpecificationV2.
Thanks in advance.

This pack does not have any DynamicInputTexture support and would need to be updated to support it. The v2 above is a suggestion by a user, for the actual spec look at the first page.