Detecting Input Without Window Focus (Listen For Input In The Background)

[Baggef]

Is it possible to detect input while the window is not focused?

I've tried using love.window.hasFocus(), and it did update while the window did not have focus.

Code: Select all

function love.update(dt)
	if love.window.hasFocus() == false then
		print("No Focus")
	end
end

But detecting input while in the background doesn't seem to work with hasFocus()

Code: Select all

function love.update(dt)
	if love.window.hasFocus() == false and love.keyboard.isDown('k') then
		print('k')
	end
end

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[zorg]

No, it's not possible through regular means.
(Edit: It's not completely impossible, but achieving it requires os-specific lower level workarounds)

[raidho36]

SDL is a gaming-centric framework and games are not meant to capture input while in background. Implementation-wise, SDL polls input from a window, if it loses focus then there's no input events.

[pgimeno]

The whole concept of focus is about where to send input events, isn't it?

Imagine you are typing in an editor, then change window to a web form, and what you type in the web form is typed in the editor. [EDIT: Or that you press F1 for help in one application, and every other open application opens the help.]

It is possible for certain applications to receive certain inputs when not focused, for example a music player in the background can receive multimedia keys, but as raidho implied, SDL is not prepared for that.

[zorg]

I faintly remember someone saying that you can still detect joystick/gamepad stuff even when unfocused though, if not keyboard/mouse.

[pgimeno]

Probably this:
https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=85417

The OP asked about key events specifically, though.