#Joystick using C

Introduction

When trying to find some code to use my joystick through C#, I found a sad lack of articles. There were a few posts on forums with bits and pieces of code, but no solid code on how you can use it. The scenario of a 6-axis, 20+ buttoned joystick does not seem to have occured in any C# articles before - much less on CodeProject. I intend to demonstrate how to acquire and use a full 6-axis joystick, plus all the buttons availiable.

Managed DirectX

As Managed DirectX (MDX) 2.0 is not yet released and will be included in XNA, this article uses Managed DirectX 1.1, which is fully compatible with .NET 2.0. However, you will need to change a setting within Visual Studio 2005 or a Loader Lock exception will be thrown as soon as you attempt to get a device list. The setting you need to change in VS 2005 is under the Debug menu, in Exceptions. In Managed Debugging Asssitants, uncheck "Thrown" on Loader Lock. This will allow you to debug your application. Once you have downloaded and installed the SDK, you can add a reference to Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput to your project. To use Managed DirectX, you will have to download the DirectX Software Developers Kit. At the time of writing, the October 2006 SDK is the latest version availiable. You can download the SDK at the DirectX SDK website. It is about 500 MB, so if you are not on a fast connection, it could take some time.

Finding Your Device

To locate a joystick, a list of all game controllers that are attached to the system needs to be obtained; the DeviceList method does this. Once a list of devices has been found, the first controller in the list will be acquired. You could display a list of controllers to the user and allow for them to select the correct one if you wished.

to see the complete article go to

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/directx/joystick.aspx