[Not a bug] Keyboard problems with 47i

[david_a]

Has anybody noted weird keyboard behavior? I've tried it on two machines, both running XP. The keyboard seems to ignore input a lot, but not actual game binds (ie, move forward, use, etc). For example, I would try to type something in the console but no letters would appear (although ~ would work). Very annoying when you try to save a game and you can't type in a name nor hit enter. On my labtop when this happened, pressing Esc also caused the window to minimize instead of exiting the onscreen menu. I tried capping the fps, but that didn't make a difference (you can type in the console when ZDoom first starts up). 47 doesn't do anything like this on either machine.

[*Viper*]

This sounds like a "stuck key" case to me. Ctrl-Esc is the shortcut for bringing up the start menu, which would cause Zdoom to minimize. This has happened to me on a lot of games. Just push the "stuck" key once (in this case Ctrl) to get it back to normal.

[david_a]

Hmm, that may have been it, but I don't see why it would let me move around with the keyboard but not type in the console. I'm not sure I can reproduce it here to try the Ctrl thing since I'm not supposed to be playing games during work, but I'll see what I can do:)

[Hirogen2]

Hey I have some similar f*ckiness problem with Windows too. Sometimes -- out of the void -- Windows thinks I am holding The Windows Key, and thus when I type an e (without alt shift or ctrl), Explorer pops up (Win-E opens explorer..., -D minizes all windows, etc.). I have to hit Ctrl+Alt+WinKey (possibly only Ctrl) to get rid of this stuckiness.
This is not a ZDoom bug, what I experienced.

[david_a]

That might be my problem, but it's just odd that the same thing happened for the first time on two computers on the same day.

[Hirogen2]

On the same day? That is possible (even hour). You never know Windows. At the same minute, that would be more questionable. I dunno what causes this key locks and I do not know how to fix it. In fact, I do not even care. I got used to it that ms is... not go(o)d.

[david_a]

I'm still not sure we're talking about the same thing, though. When this happens, can you still move the player around with the keyboard but not get any response in the console and menus?

[randi]

Lots of keyboards (but not all) have problems with sending key up/down events properly when you have more than one key pressed at a time. That is probably what is happening. (Or the contacts under one or more of your keys might be dirty and generating a key down even when they're not down).

The console and menus use normal Windows keyboard input methods, so if you have Control stuck down, all your keyboard input will be modified from what it would be without Control pressed. If you press M in the console, and it scrolls a new line, you know this is the problem. For moving the player, having Control stuck doesn't affect anything else, because Control is treated just like any other key.

[david_a]

Well, it looks like that was the problem then. One of the PC's was a labtop, which I know has serious issues with multiple keys at once. I guess it was just chance that I experienced it twice in one day using two different computers and when trying out 47i for the first time.

[Xaser]

Hey I have some similar f*ckiness problem with Windows too. Sometimes -- out of the void -- Windows thinks I am holding The Windows Key, and thus when I type an e (without alt shift or ctrl), Explorer pops up (Win-E opens explorer..., -D minizes all windows, etc.). I have to hit Ctrl+Alt+WinKey (possibly only Ctrl) to get rid of this stuckiness.
This is not a ZDoom bug, what I experienced.

So THAT's what causes that. I used to always use the windows key to go back to the desktop, but now I use Alt+Tab. No wonder it doesn't do that anymore.