🎮 @benev/tact

from keypress to couch co-op

npm install @benev/tact

tact is a toolkit for handling user input on the web.
customizable keybindings, multiple-gamepad couch co-op, ready-made configurator ui, efficient networking, mobile virtual thumbsticks.

🎮 tact basics

import {
  Devices, KeyboardDevice, PointerDevice,
  makeIntentsResolver, makeActionsResolver,
} from "@benev/tact"

1. setup your game's keybindings

   const bindings = {
     running: {forward: "KeyW", jump: ["and", "ShiftLeft", "Space"]},
     gunning: {shoot: ["or", "pointer.button.left", "gamepad.trigger.right"]},
   }

2. create your devices (which provide raw input samples)

   const devices = new Devices(
     new KeyboardDevice(),
     new PointerDevice(),
   )

3. make your resolvers

   const resolveIntents = makeIntentsResolver(bindings)
   const resolveActions = makeActionsResolver(bindings)

4. run your resolvers, read your actions

   import {cycle} from "@e280/stz"
   
   cycle(function myGameTick() {
   
     // 🧙‍♂️ samples get resolved into compact intent tuples, good for networking.
     const intents = resolveIntents(Date.now(), devices.samples())
   
     // 🧙‍♂️ actions are your ergonomic accessors for values.
     const actions = resolveActions(intents)
   
     // 🧙‍♂️ okay, now check your actions.
     actions.running.forward.value // 1.0
     actions.running.forward.pressed // true
   })

🧙‍♂️ wizardly tips

1. for networking, you should encode intents as Uint8Array for better efficiency down the wire.

   import {encodeIntents, decodeIntents} from "@benev/tact"
   
   const intents = [[1, 0.7853981633974483]]
   
   console.log(JSON.stringify(intents).length)
     // 22 — yikes
   
   const bytes = encodeIntents(intents)
   
   console.log(bytes.length)
     // 6 — noice
   
   const intents = decodeIntents(bytes)

2. you can normalize bindings

   import {normalizeBindings} from "@benev/tact"
   
   const bindings = normalizeBindings(appBindings, susBindings)

   this clones your app bindings and cherry-picks any compatible user bindings. useful when loading from localStorage, so changes to your schema don’t break things.

👼 https://benev.gg/