Touch v.s. click on Apple TV remote

Solar2D Apple TV and tvOS
21

Thanks for the update 2838. We are working on ‘relativeTouch’, and think this will make it easier to consistently determine the direction and length of swipes. 

system.getInputDevices() still returns an empty table {}.

The buttonZ for a light tap works, but unlike Apple tvOS, it does not report x and y axis values, which we need to use it as a directional controller. Can you add this in an update?

Thanks,

Studycat

22

Hi,

Any progress on these two issues?

  1. system.getInputDevices() returns an empty table {}.

  2. buttonZ reports no x and y values

Thanks

Studycat

23

No updates yet.

24

As a note for #1, system.getInputDevices() should work. Can you put that code chunk behind a timer.performWithDelay()? It may need a frame or two to initialize.

25

I’ve released an update to my game using buttonZ.  Thanks for implementing.  Now just waiting for local storage, gamecenter, and storekit and I’ll be in synch with my iOS version.

26

We  had to remove the Up/Down/Left/Right events from the touch pad as they were generating too many events. For instance if you swipe down, and were not exactly 180 degrees, you would also get left and right events which made trying to a grid impossible.

The proper way is to use the Axis event. There is another thread about this: 

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/60509-apple-tv-remote-swipes-return-multiple-key-values/

I posted some code from one of our engineers that mimics - y axis only button control in that thread.  As far as game play moving players around the screen can also be done with axis events.

Rob

27

See your other thread.

28

I am getting axis events. I’m talking about tap events. I want to detect when the remote trackpad area is tapped (not clicked and not swiped). Try jet pack joyride and other games. You’ll see you don’t have to click the remote. A tap and click behave the same.

29

Do you get an axis event if you just touch the pad?

30

Nope.

31

I opened up case #44518 for this.  Hopefully it’s something that will be considered a priority since almost all other apps respond to tap.

32

Here is some stuff to ponder while Engineering look at this.

Touch events: with iOS, they are absolute. That is the .x. and .y you get from a touch event maps 1:1 to your content coordinates on the screen. On tvOS, touch is relative. We will have to create a special “relativeTouch” or “tvOS” touch event and this is going to take time.

Tap events: tap events have no concept of “is the pad being touched or not”. It would only generate the one tap event upon completion of the user lifting their finder. If I understand correctly this won’t help you either.

At this point, it’s in engineering’s hands.

Rob

33

Any update on this?  Still would like to be able to treat a tap like a click.

34

Gotta agree with funkyvisions, 

Given the popularity of super casual games and 1 button game play  it is very important to have the tap event for the apple Tv. Most of the featured games on the apple tv store are 1 button games, where you often just have to tap to play. Since most 1 button games are fast paced games, clicking the button gives a laggy feel…

35

Can I get someone to create a feedback request for this at http://feedback.coronalabs.com and get it voted up?

Thanks

Rob

36

feedback requested created at http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/suggestions/12420582-tap-detection-apple-tv-remote

I understand this is a basic feature that the Corona SDK tvOs should have but anyway, vote it up! Thanks Rob and @funkyvisions

37

I agree this is a basic feature. However keep in mind that we are still “beta” with Apple TV. There are rough edges that need smoothed out. The remote handling is one of those things. We know the remote needs work. We also have to make it fit within the Corona ecosystem too. It’s different enough to pose a good challenge for us.

Rob

38

We have improved tvOS remote interaction that didn’t make it into the public release. Keep an eye out here in a week or so.

39

Hi,

We’re working on making the remote interact as close as possible to the way it does in the tvOS menu. 

We’ve encountered some difficulties.

  1. Taps don’t get reported. (in the system menu, tapping anywhere the remote will move the focus one space in that direction)

  2. We want to try absolute positioning mode but system.getInputDevices() returns an empty table {} :(. So we can’t.

  3. When swiping, the axis normalizedValues are quite inconsistent for longer swipes. For example, some long swipes give a max axis value of 0.6, others get closer to 1.0, even though the swipes were very similar to each other. 

Hopefully this list will help you identify what needs fixing. If you need any more testing done, or need some sample code, please let us know.

Look forward to an update! 

Thanks,

Studycat

40

Any news on the improvements Michael?

Thanks!