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gamepad: Clarify range and direction of axes

It would be easy to assume that all APIs that reference
SDL_JOYSTICK_AXIS_MAX work the same way, but they do not: triggers
generally use the full signed 16-bit range in the lower-level joystick
API, but are normalized to be non-negative by the higher-level gamepad
API.

We also never said explicitly which direction is positive here.
Experimentally, it's right (X), down (Y), and pressed (triggers).

Resolves: https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/issues/8793
Signed-off-by: Simon McVittie <[email protected]>

(cherry picked from commit 059fb560ba98df5668e1cf1c88560b3156e0fb66)
Sam Lantinga 1 year ago
parent
commit
d3c21666de
1 changed files with 10 additions and 3 deletions
  1. 10 3
      include/SDL_gamecontroller.h

+ 10 - 3
include/SDL_gamecontroller.h

@@ -613,7 +613,9 @@ extern DECLSPEC void SDLCALL SDL_GameControllerUpdate(void);
  *  and are centered within ~8000 of zero, though advanced UI will allow users to set
  *  or autodetect the dead zone, which varies between controllers.
  *
- *  Trigger axis values range from 0 to SDL_JOYSTICK_AXIS_MAX.
+ *  Trigger axis values range from 0 (released) to SDL_JOYSTICK_AXIS_MAX
+ *  (fully pressed) when reported by SDL_GetGamepadAxis(). Note that this is not the
+ *  same range that will be reported by the lower-level SDL_GetJoystickAxis().
  */
 typedef enum
 {
@@ -702,8 +704,13 @@ SDL_GameControllerHasAxis(SDL_GameController *gamecontroller, SDL_GameController
  *
  * The axis indices start at index 0.
  *
- * The state is a value ranging from -32768 to 32767. Triggers, however, range
- * from 0 to 32767 (they never return a negative value).
+ * For thumbsticks, the state is a value ranging from -32768 (up/left)
+ * to 32767 (down/right).
+ *
+ * Triggers range from 0 when released to 32767 when fully pressed, and
+ * never return a negative value. Note that this differs from the value
+ * reported by the lower-level SDL_GetJoystickAxis(), which normally uses
+ * the full range.
  *
  * \param gamecontroller a game controller
  * \param axis an axis index (one of the SDL_GameControllerAxis values)