Script keypresses in game

emma-makes

I'm trying to automate a number of moves with a python script to control my character in game (lr-gambatte). As RetroPie/Emulationstation do not rely on X11, most libraries to emulate a virtual keyboard input don't work.

The following python3 script (using uinput, https://github.com/tuomasjjrasanen/python-uinput) works in the emulationstation menu, but doesn't in game (lr-gambatte).

Does anyone have an idea, how to send/emulate keystrokes via a python script that is started via SSH? I'm not opposed to switching the script language.

import time
import uinput

def main():
    events = (uinput.KEY_LEFT, uinput.KEY_DOWN, uinput.KEY_D)

    with uinput.Device(events) as device:
        time.sleep(1)
        device.emit_click(uinput.KEY_LEFT)
        time.sleep(0.2)
        device.emit_click(uinput.KEY_D)
        time.sleep(0.2)
        device.emit_click(uinput.KEY_DOWN)
        time.sleep(0.2)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

mitu

Your script is simulating a virtual keypad/gamepad, but RetroArch may be ignoring the device if it's not properly registered with udev as a keyboard.

Run udevadm info -q all /dev/input/eventX, where /dev/input/eventX is your device's path, and see if it has ID_INPUT_KEY=1 or ID_INPUT_KEYBOARD=1.

You can take a look at https://pypi.org/project/ubox360/ to see a more fleshed out example of simulating an Xbox 360 controller.

emma-makes

@mitu Interesting! Thank you very much for your feedback! I'll check how the library emulates the keyboard!

My fallback is a microcontroller to emulate the keyboard, if the software portion is too complex.