HTML5 XBOX Controller in Firefox Nightly

HTML5 XBOX Controller in Firefox Nightly(weblog.bocoup.com)

29 points by boazsender 14 years ago | 11 comments

wtallis 14 years ago |

The explanation of the analog stick axes needs clarification: "For example, the XBox wired controller has 4 axes (top to bottom, left to right, and two diagonals.)" What's a diagonal axis, if not a linear combination of the vertical and horizontal axes?

At minimum, for an Xbox-style controller, you should be seeing a vertical and horizontal axis for each of the two analog sticks, and an axis for each of the two analog triggers. From an original Xbox controller, you should also have six analog buttons (though they are usually treated as standard binary buttons).

Other than that, this looks pretty cool. Perhaps in a few years, we'll see stuff like this combined with WebGL to make an open-source, cross-platform gaming environment that goes way beyond the current crop of 2d Flash games.

unwind 14 years ago | |

Agree, the quoted sentence made absolutely no sense to me either. I wonder if it's a misunderstanding on the part of the article author(s), or if it's communicated that way by Mozilla, too.

I had a look at https://wiki.mozilla.org/JoystickAPI and it simply says "unsigned long axis: axis number being moved", without examplifying for a known device. Didn't continue digging to the actual implementation.

wccrawford 14 years ago | |

Even sillier, I'm pretty sure it has 5 axes.

Left Stick X and Y, Right Stick X and Y, And another Axis used for the 2 triggers.

Yeah, I know how silly that sounds for the triggers, but that's how it works.

wtallis 14 years ago | | |

That does sound odd, since it's possible to detect the state of the triggers independently. The configuration utility for the Xbox Controller driver that I use allows me to map any of the physical axes to the virtual axes X, Y, Z, Rx, Ry, Rz, and Slider, so I guess that's roughly what's supported by the Windows input APIs. I don't really know how it's reported by the controller, though, other than the fact that it isn't standard USB HID.

iam 14 years ago |

1) It's a general joystick api, not just xbox.

2) You can't actually use an xbox controller with a computer (and hence with firefox) anyway without a USB cable. You could use a 360 controller, but not the first Xbox.

drivebyacct2 14 years ago | |

Xbox 1 controllers are just USB. You only need an adapter. Microsoft made them for a while for Final Fantasy. If you just cut the end off a controller and a usb cable, the wires inside are even properly color-coded.

someperson 14 years ago | | |

I'm fairly sure you need a separate driver for controllers from the original xbox (http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html)

USB xbox 360 controllers don't need any installation last I checked.

jimminy 14 years ago |

Yes. I was waiting for this, this is something I really wanted for one of my side projects.

cultureulterior 14 years ago |

Anyone know if there a tablet pressure/tablet pen direction api in browsers yet?

imjk 14 years ago |

Cool stuff you guys are doing over there at bocoup.