Controller support?

Just tested roll20 on the xbox one ms edge browser and was surprised it works quite well apart from some graphics not loading :/ I think that adding controller (gamepad) support for players would help accessibility quite a bit, especially for younger and casual players who are more familiar with consoles and tablets. Easy gamepad controls would also make roll20 more intuitive for people who are turned off by the complexity of using roll20. Functionality should include buttons to switch tokens, bumper to zoom, joysticks to move and rotate tokens, and also scroll the map. Something to select macros, dice rolls and open the character sheet and journal etc... Most gamepads support mics too, so that takes care of communication. Currently the controller is used as a substitute for a mouse and it's quite clunky but I think there's a lot of potential here. 

The gamepad API is written to be used in an update-draw loop, like how most video games run (big surprise). It's not event-driven, beyond the initial event of the gamepad being connected.

That would mean my players have to get the Pro subscription then install the API right? This is not something I can convince them to do

Benjamin Quekers said: That would mean my players have to get the Pro subscription then install the API right? This is not something I can convince them to do APi is for the game creator and players would benefit from all api installed by the game creator. 

Oh cool! How long before the API is done? Can't find any info on it on google.

Since the API runs in a Node JS environment and doesn't have many functions available in browser-based Javascript, I doubt the API would make any use of it. For academic purposes, here is where you can learn more about the browser based gamepad interface for Javascript: <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API/Using_the_Gamepad_API" rel="nofollow">https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API/Using_the_Gamepad_API</a> As Brian mentioned, it would require some sort of polling loop to query the gamepad's state.

Benjamin Quekers said: That would mean my players have to get the Pro subscription then install the API right? This is not something I can convince them to do No, I'm talking about the gamepad API that the Roll20 devs would have to utilize to implement your suggestion. Stephen linked to documentation about it. The point is that writing code to use the gamepad is a significant &nbsp;divergence from how the Roll20 interface currently works: when the user clicks a button, a thing happens. With the gamepad, Roll20 would have to repeatedly ask your computer "is the A button down?" "is the A button down now?" "how about now?" This is commonly how video games work, with the game asking the system for the gamepad state every iteration of the update-draw loop. The update-draw loop is exactly what it sounds like: Update the game state Draw the game state Goto #1 Polling the gamepad is part of #1. A game running at 60fps is going to be hitting #2 60 times per second, and thus will necessarily be hitting #1 approximately 60 times per second.

Hmm ok, it's sad to hear that this can't be done easily. I'm not going to look at the academic explanations or the deep dive explanations because I understand none of it. I get that the player base here is very tech centred but that's going to put off a whole market of people who barely know how to run excel. I had thought that having a controller where the most important functions in roll20 could be called would make it easier for the casual crowd to pick up and play. In my own experience I currently find it very difficult to convince people I play physical D&D and Fate Core with to switch to Roll20. They get excited when I explain to them dynamic lighting and fog of war but once they try out the interface their eyes glaze over. Too confusing, too much stuff. We aren't from tech backgrounds and my players do not want to know what macros and "all the little boxes" are. That said, I'm sure they would be more receptive if everything important could be accessed from a controller.

if your playing local then all you need roll20 for are the maps and a projector with a flat surface you can use real tokens and everything else. or even a TV the whole point is that roll20 can be the table with a map or the whole experiences just a matter of how you want to use it.&nbsp;&nbsp;