Keyboard layout: missing keys

[hexaae]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I guess I need to explain how DirectInput works (or how I think it works, it is weird as usual)

Perhaps during 9x era it was "direct", now it is completely virtual. VirtualDirectInput is perhaps better word today

Ok, when application asks for directinput keyboard, it only gets one (even if there are multiple real keyboards). I am not sure how it decides which kind of directinput keyboard you get in this case (maybe it merges both layouts?) but in your case some driver or directinput itself guesses wrong.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...03(VS.85).aspx

[Toni Wilen]

What? It is GUID_SysKeyboard that is used by WinUAE. Nothing new there.

[hexaae]

I can't understand what's the meaning of:
Note If the computer has more than one mouse, input from all mice is combined to form the system device. The same is true for multiple keyboards.

"merging" 2 or more layout is crazy IMHO...

However the prob is that with WUAE I can't choose some keys (e.g. 0x56: '<' near the Z key). If layouts are merged should show MORE keys, not less than 1 layout... am I wrong? Is DI buggy?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by hexaae

I can't understand what's the meaning of:
Note If the computer has more than one mouse, input from all mice is combined to form the system device. The same is true for multiple keyboards.

"merging" 2 or more layout is crazy IMHO...

Yes, it is very annoying. At least multiple mouse can be handled separately quite easily with rawinput (XP or newer) but multiple keyboard is more complex (and annoying) to handle properly.

However the prob is that with WUAE I can't choose some keys (e.g. 0x56: '<' near the Z key). If layouts are merged should show MORE keys, not less than 1 layout... am I wrong? Is DI buggy?

Some keyboard driver or directinput. WinUAE only reports what directinput tells.

[hexaae]

I've found that also DosBox emulator doesn't detect those keys!
I tried to uninstall HP Keyboard driver using Vista's default PS/2 driver but those keys are still unavailable...

Someone has solved this problem with these HP laptops???

[hexaae]

Maybe I've found an interesting discussion about DI's problems, but I'm not expert nor I've ever coded for Windows...
http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...opic_id=468513

http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...ply_id=3074105

http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...opic_id=519794

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by hexaae

Maybe I've found an interesting discussion about DI's problems, but I'm not expert nor I've ever coded for Windows...
http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...opic_id=468513

http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...ply_id=3074105

http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...opic_id=519794

Yes, for "normal" keyboard input DirectInput is wrong choice but for example it is near-perfect for emulators because you always want raw keycodes and you DO NOT want any keyboard layout conversions.

WM_CHAR (normal Windows messages) is totally unusable because you can't read any special keys. (at least without side-effects)

WM_INPUT works but I am not ready to drop keyboard directinput support just yet (they won't work simultaneously)

[hexaae]

I've found a flawlessly solution to solve the problem without drawbacks! :-)

My system had 4 keyboard drivers installed:

• Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard with HP QLB
• Tasti di tastiera controllo remoto Microsfot eHome (=remote control)
• Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR (?)
• Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109 (????????????)

Since I noticed WUAE showed 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109' when using -rawkeyboard I had the idea to remove it from Device manager. To be exact I manually changed (=forced installation) the driver for it to be generic 'HID compatible device' (this left just the first 3 keyboards and created another generic HID device in the HID node list) and.... it worked!!
Now all emulators give me back the correct keys, and WUAE also works without -rawkeyboard (now shows 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR') with all keys available, also <, ì, è, + etc. correctly mapped as I see on the keyboard!

All in all it seems it was a wrong driver device detection adding an unexistant keyboard to the list, that merged in the whole virtual keyboard used by DirectInput and caused all the troubles!
Phew... I couldn't find a better solution, and the system runs fine, including the 2 remote controller and HP Quicklaunh buttons so it's all right!

Thank you again Toni for your infinte patience that has driven me in the right direction!
And thank you for WUAE that in this strange case geve me the clue to solve a HW/driver problem as well

PS
Simply uninstalling 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109' was not enough as Vista automatically would have found and reinstalled this keyboard!