Joystick CHOP

Summary

The Joystick CHOP outputs values for all 6 possible axes on any game controller (joysticks, game controllers, driving wheels, etc.), as well as up to 32 button, 2 sliders and 4 POV Hats.

It handles game controllers connected to the gameport or USB ports, including the 3D Connexion mouse. You can have several devices attached, and any number of Joystick CHOPs in a project per device.

Before you use the game controller on your computer, calibrate them using Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Gaming Options -> Properties.

The main two outputs, the X-axis and Y-axis are output through channels called xaxis and yaxis. The other four axes are output through channels with similar names.

The range of the values for each channel is 0 to 1. For any axis, a value 0.5 is considered "centered". A value of 0 is given if the axis doesn't exist.

For any button, a value of 0 means the button is up or doesn't exist. A value of 1 means the button is pressed.

POV Hats behave like an X and Y axis. A POV axis only has 3 values though, 0, 0.5 and 1.

joystickCHOP_Class

Parameters - Control Page

Joystick Source source - This menu will list up to 4 game controllers currently attached to the computer presented to the operating system as Player 1 through Player 4. The selected game controller is the one the CHOP reads data from. If set to 'Default', the CHOP will adopt the first game controller it finds.

Axis Range axisrange - ⊞ - Select between and axis range of 0 to 1 or -1 to 1.

• [-1, 1] negoneone -

• [0, 1] zeroone -

X Axis xaxis - The name of the channel that records the X-axis position of the game controller.

Y Axis yaxis - The name of the channel that records the Y-axis position of the game controller.

Invert Y Axis yaxisinvert - Inverts the Y axis.

Z Axis zaxis - The name of the channel that records the Z-axis position of the game controller.

X Rotation xrot - The names of the channels that record the X-rotation axis position of the game controller.

Y Rotation yrot - The names of the channels that record the Y-rotation axis position of the game controller.

Invert Y Rotation yrotinvert - Invert the rotation direction around the Y axis.

Z Rotation zrot - The names of the channels that record the Z-rotation axis position of the game controller.

Slider 1 slider0 - The name of the channel that records the position of the first slider on the game controller.

Slider 2 slider1 - The name of the channel that records the position of the second slider on the game controller.

Button Array buttonarray - The names of the channels for the buttons on the game controller. This CHOP can handle up to 32 buttons.

POV Hat Array povarrray - The names of the channels for the POV Hats. This CHOP can handle up to 4 POV Hats. The channels a POV hat is split up into are POVHatName_X and POVHatName_Y.

POV Hat State Array povstatearray -

Connected connected - Creates a channel that reports the state of connection of the controller.

Axis Dead Zone axisdeadzone - This value defines how much of the area in the center of the joystick is considered 'dead zone'. When a joystick axis is in this dead zone it is considered to be centered. This value applies to all normal axes and rotation axes. This value is a percentage that defaults to 7%.

Parameters - Channel Page

This sets the Sample Rate and the Extend Conditions.

Sample Rate rate - The sample rate of the channels, in samples per second.

Extend Left left - ⊞ - The left extend conditions (before range).

• Hold hold - Hold the current value of the channel.

• Slope slope - Continue the slope before the start of the channel.

• Cycle cycle - Cycle the channel repeatedly.

• Mirror mirror - Cycle the channel repeatedly, mirroring every other cycle.

• Default Value default - Use the constant value specified in the Default Value parameter.

Extend Right right - ⊞ - The right extend conditions (after range).

• Hold hold - Hold the current value of the channel.

• Slope slope - Continue the slope after the end of the channel.

• Cycle cycle - Cycle the channel repeatedly.

• Mirror mirror - Cycle the channel repeatedly, mirroring every other cycle.

• Default Value default - Use the constant value specified in the Default Value parameter.

Default Value defval - The value used for the Default Value extend condition.

Parameters - Common Page

Time Slice timeslice - Turning this on forces the channels to be "Time Sliced". A Time Slice is the time between the last cook frame and the current cook frame.

Scope scope - To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page.

Sample Rate Match srselect - ⊞ - Handle cases where multiple input CHOPs' sample rates are different. When Resampling occurs, the curves are interpolated according to the Interpolation Method Option, or "Linear" if the Interpolate Options are not available.

• Resample At First Input's Rate first - Use rate of first input to resample others.

• Resample At Maximum Rate max - Resample to the highest sample rate.

• Resample At Minimum Rate min - Resample to the lowest sample rate.

• Error If Rates Differ err - Doesn't accept conflicting sample rates.

Export Method exportmethod - ⊞ - This will determine how to connect the CHOP channel to the parameter. Refer to the Export article for more information.

• DAT Table by Index datindex - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the index of the channel in the CHOP.

• DAT Table by Name datname - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the name of the channel in the CHOP.

• Channel Name is Path:Parameter autoname - The channel is the full destination of where to export to, such has geo1/transform1:tx.

Export Root autoexportroot - This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.

Export Table exporttable - The DAT used to hold the export information when using the DAT Table Export Methods (See above).

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the Joystick CHOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Common CHOP Info Channels

• start - Start of the CHOP interval in samples.

• length - Number of samples in the CHOP.

• sample_rate - The samplerate of the channels in frames per second.

• num_channels - Number of channels in the CHOP.

• time_slice - 1 if CHOP is Time Slice enabled, 0 otherwise.

• export_sernum - A count of how often the export connections have been updated.

Common Operator Info Channels

• total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.

• cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.

• cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.

• cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.

• cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.

• warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.

• errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.

TouchDesigner Build: Latest\n2021.100002018.28070before 2018.28070

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a series of numbers) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and many other applications.

A custom interactive control panel built within TouchDesigner. Panels are created using Panel Components whose look is created entirely with TOPs.

samples-per-second of a CHOP. Each CHOP in your network has a sample rate, whether it is used or not. The overall timeline has a "frame rate", which is the number of animation frames per second, generally your monitor display frequency.

A Time Slice is the time from the last cook frame to the current cook frame. In CHOPs it is the set of short channels that only contain the CHOP channels' samples between the last and the current cook frame.

A parameter in most CHOPs that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator.

Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP Viewer is on. The current value of a channel can be exported to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter's value. See Parameter.

An Operator Family that manipulates text strings: multi-line text or tables. Multi-line text is often a command Script, but can be any multi-line text. Tables are rows and columns of cells, each containing a text string.

The location of an operator within the TouchDesigner environment, for example, /geo1/circle1, a node called circle1 in a component called geo1. The path / is called Root. This path is displayed at the top of every Pane, showing which Component's network you are currently in. To refer instead to a filesystem folder, directory, disk file or http: address, see Folder.

Parameters in TouchDesigner are an operator's settings (numbers, menus, flags, strings, paths) which the user can alter. Parameters for any operator can be opened by right-clicking on the operator and selecting "Parameters..." A currently selected operator's parameters can be viewed in a Network Editor by pressing the keyboard shortcut 'p'.

TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The Path is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.