LAN with Multiple ZDoom Windows?

[Kaal979]

How is it possible to start a LAN coop or
similar with only one system and monitor?
Just imagine one of the new widescreens
and two peoples whod love to play coop on it!
And is this especially possible with ZDL?

[wildweasel]

The problem with this approach is that only one ZDoom window can be active at a time, because nearly all operating systems only recognize input from one window at once. So unless you like taking turns moving the two players around, no, this is a bad idea.

[edward850]

Also you
Do not
Have to start
A new line
Every few
Words.
It is very
Annoying to read
Posts phrased in this
Format.

[Kaal979]

But how about two gamepads - werent this a simple way?

[wildweasel]

But how about two gamepads - werent this a simple way?

No, because ZDoom will not recognize input if it is not the active window. It doesn't matter what device you're controlling it with.

[Kaal979]

But .. but its too cool to be untrue!

[wildweasel]

But .. but its too cool to be untrue!

Then talk to the people at Microsoft or Apple and complain to them. It's part of the operating system and it won't change.

[SyntherAugustus]

It would be nice if Zdoom was coded to support this. Modern games like Borderlands and even Doomsday Engine support this sort of thing.

[mallo]

This is a request that has been requested many, many times. I believe there is a reason why it wasn't listened to yet.

[wildweasel]

Thing is, in order to support this sort of thing, I think the entire input handler would need to be rewritten, and I'm not sure anybody feels like doing that.

[GooberMan]

Uh, it's just a flag in DirectInput/XInput to allow background input.

No idea about non-Windows platforms though.

[edward850]

Do you mind telling me what this flag is? I actually tried this before and literally could not find it.

[GooberMan]

I was literally looking at this code last night at home for an unrelated thing, and it's gone from my head.

Let me Google...

For Direct Input devices, you have SetCooperativeLevel.

XInput should just work if you poll it while the window isn't active.

[edward850]

XInput should just work if you poll it while the window isn't active.

Oddly enough, no. With ZDoom at least, XInput only seems to have updated events only when the window is focused. Obviously there must be a flag for this somewhere because Borderlands already seems to do this.

[GooberMan]

We do it here too.

XInputGetState must be returning some kind of useful information in this case. Alternately, XInputEnable might be called on focus/defocus by ZDoom somewhere.