Keypress stuck

[Piken]

I have Multi box running on 2 computers. Everything is working perfectly except for one thing. If i press a key down and mouse over to my other PC the key stays pressed down till i come back to the other PC and again press and release the key. Is there a way to get around this? I'm 2 boxing and i want to be able to switch back anf forth very fast and not have to worry about my keystrokes bleeding.
I was thinking if there was a way to broadcast only the key releases that it would fix the problem, but I havent seen any way to do this so far. I scoured the forums as best i could but only found 1 mention of this problem and no suggested solution to it.

[Xzin]

Are you running a USB keyboard?

USB keyboards allow for multiple keypresses at the same time. Not sure if you could use that to your advantage here though - but PS/2 and USB differ slightly in how they send keys.

But all keyboards send data in a KEYDOWN, KEYUP manner. So sending KEYDOWN and then never sending KEYUP (because you moved to another screen) is why it is doing what you see here. You cannot just send KEYDOWN or KEYUP - the sysetm needs to "see: the matching pair (unless you rewrote the entire OS's keyboard communications routines).

Which is why I use hardware only - because software has quirks like this. It would be possible to modify the sourcecode to detect a situation like this and send the correct KEYUP code when you moved screens - but I don't use multibox so I really can't say how to go about doing this.

[Runiat]

But all keyboards send data in a KEYDOWN, KEYUP manner. So sending KEYDOWN and then never sending KEYUP (because you moved to another screen) is why it is doing what you see here. You cannot just send KEYDOWN or KEYUP - the sysetm needs to "see: the matching pair (unless you rewrote the entire OS's keyboard communications routines).

Is that all it takes? Hmm.. I could probably get some of my dad's co-workers to fix that for me.. if I had a billion $ or so :P

Just a thought, though. Would it be possible to modify the keyboard driver to ignore KEYUPs, and instead automatically make a KEYUP whenever recieving a KEYDOWN? I mean, it'd be kinda tricky to re-enable the modifiers, but isn't this basicly what a G15 does?

[Xzin]

I am sure it is possible.... but then you could not be able to press control alt delete, or control f1 or anything that required KEY1DOWN, KEY2DOWN, KEY2UP, KEY1UP.

[Runiat]

Yeah.. exceptions would start getting truly tricky..

Possibly connect a 2nd keyboard (one of the costumizable ones) on a second driver for modifier keys?

Or how programmable is X-keys?

[Xzin]

I don't mean to sound like a naysayer - I am ALL FOR thinking outside of the box. But I would consider either figuring out a software method (change the program to not move if KEYDOWN is pressed - this may prove to be quite a larger programming challenge than it might appear at first glance) or consider another alternative. For example, buy 2 wireless keyboards. Set them to the same frequency. Broadcast on one and both get the data, no matter what your mouse is doing.

Would that work? You can get el cheapo keyboards for $10 - $20.

X-keys, however, are not wireless.

[Runiat]

Well yes, 2 wireless keyboards would be my choice, too, but seeing as that's been said about a hundred times on these forums already I figured I'd come up with an alternative.

Oh and as for hard programming jobs that's why I'd need to convince my dad's coworkers to help as they're used to it.. one of them actually wrote a driver for his graphic card in the blind because he couldn't find any.. now THAT's some serious programming. Another was one of the first to make a program that automatically go to the point where a compiler found a bug, unlike the existing system where it'd just fail.

[Piken]

I ended up using my n52 to "fix" it. I made a button that quickly turns broadcasting on and spams through all the movement keys. I also changed it so only the movement keys and a few others are able to be broadcast. This button now also doubles as a stop follow button that i can use while on either screen and i also made a matching "quick broadcast" autofollow button.

My end goal is to be able to quickly switch back and forth and play 2 toons as well as most people play just 1.

[Xzin]

Nice work! Very creative! I like it!