Forums » Bugs

VO doesn't "grab" the mouse pointer on Android 2.3.

Dec 09, 2011 abortretryfail link
This might be a bit of a niche case.
Just for shiggles I paired my bluetooth mouse to my phone and tried flying with it in VO. It works.. sort of. The game doesn't seem to "grab" the mouse pointer like it does on Windows/Linux/Mac so you can only steer until the pointer hits the edge of the screen.

This device is so totally unsupported:
Motorola Droid (Mk1)
CyanogenMod 7.1 (Android 2.3.7-based)
Dec 10, 2011 yodaofborg link
Doesn't grab the mouse from an Asus Transformer either, but it's more to do with the way Android implements mouse. Mouse movement is interpreted as touch screen events. Or something like that.
Dec 10, 2011 incarnate link
It is currently impossible to completely grab the mouse on Android, or to implement a "mouselook" like we do on PC (or how every FPS is played). This is an unfortunate situation that we hope will be improved someday, but have no solution for at the moment. We're not the only ones who have tried, and we've spoken directly to Google about it (Input Framework team at Android), without much success.
Dec 10, 2011 abortretryfail link
Ah well, I figured it wouldnt hurt to post about it anyways. :)
Jan 10, 2012 XL2K5 link
Did Google say it's impossible? Or they just didn't answer? If the problem is on android's side, could they tell us what needs to be changed (so that at least we could ask the authors of custom roms or programs for rooted devices to implement those changes). It would help a lot for a few games and programs! And the community could work on it so that you don't need to waste ressources on that. Thanks!
Jan 16, 2012 incarnate link
It's on Android's side, due to how pointing-devices are handled when they hit the screen edge. One major chip company has filed a bug about it, and told me they're going to implement a solution of some kind. But, I don't know when that will be ready, or if/when Google will choose to integrate the change into the mainline OS. It really needs to be in the main OS before game companies can spend the time to support it. Custom roms are great, but don't have the market share to justify the development costs for specialized support.