How do I add joystick support into OpenGL?

Question

I want to add joystick support into an openGL application.

Is there any class that can help me?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

OpenGL is a graphics API. It has no notion of input devices.

Need more info for a better answer such as platform. On Windows there are many options for handling input. Depending on what you want to do that is. Google for more info. But a start would be simple input handling via the Win32 API. This all presumes you use Windows of course.

Answer 2

OpenGL does not provide direct access to the joystick as it is only a graphics library.

For joystick support we will need to know what platform you are targeting.

For example, on Windows you would likely use DirectInput.

Answer 3

As mentioned in other answers, OpenGL is only a graphics rendering API. It doesn't even know how to open a window, not to mention how to handle mouse or keyboard input; something else must do it for it.

If you want a cross-platform I/O wrapper for OpenGL which also provides joystick support, take a look at SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer. It may scare you at first, but it's still easier than writing I/O and windowing stuff for a single platform, not to mention writing a wrapper for each platform out there (SDL covers many of them).

So, take a look at SDL.

Answer 4

Some GLUT implementations have: glutJoystickFunc