/JoyConUnityInputSystem

Primary LanguageC#

Nintendo Switch Controllers for Unity Input System

This is a prototype for Nintendo Switch controller Bluetooth support for the new Unity Input System.

At a later time, I may merge this code into https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/InputSystem/tree/dmytro/fix-1369091 or a new branch so it can become a part of the official Input System, but for now it is too incomplete.

Notes

  • It has been tested on macOS Monterey 12.0.1 with Unity 2020.3.0f1 and Input System 1.3.0.
    • No special Bluetooth handshake is done (although there is code for it in SwitchControllerHID). My computers, at least, seem to perform it automatically, but it would be great to know if that is or isn't the case for others.
  • Keep in mind that the left and right Joy-Cons are treated by Unity as separate controllers. As a result, you'll need to make sure you use the correct controller in bindings.
    • For example, the control buttonSouth exists for "Joy-Con (L)", but it is never used. Whenever you want to refer to the player pressing the "A" button, make sure the device is either "Joy-Con (R)" or "Pro Controller".
  • The Input Action editor GUI won't display the controllers when attempting to add them to a control scheme. The only workaround I found for this so far was to go into the .inputactions file and add them manually.
  • I've experienced a few strange but not (yet) reproducible issues, on occasion:
    • Even though a Joy-Con is connected, no output will appear from it in the Input Debugger. To fix this, I typically shut it off and reconnect it.
    • The Unity Editor will freeze up for a few seconds when connecting a Joy-Con.

Supported controllers

  • Joy-Con (L)
  • Joy-Con (R)
  • Pro Controller

Supported features

Input

  • A, B, X, Y on Joy-Con (R) and Pro Controller as buttonEast, buttonSouth, buttonNorth, and buttonEast respectively
  • Up, down, left, and right on Joy-Con (L) and Pro Controller as dpad
  • Triggers and shoulders, including SL and SR for Joy-Cons
  • Capture and HOME buttons
  • Minus and Plus buttons
  • Left and right analog sticks and stick presses
    • Note: Although they use the factory configuration/calibration info, they still seem to have significant drift

HD Rumble

High-band and low-band amplitude and frequency for the left and right Joy-Cons (or, in the case of the Pro Controller, the left and right sides of the controller) can be set with the SwitchControllerHID.Rumble() method.

Example:

var rumbleProfile = new SwitchControllerRumbleProfile
    {
        lowBandFrequencyL = 160f,
        lowBandAmplitudeL = 0.1f,
        lowBandFrequencyR = 150f,
        lowBandAmplitudeR = 0.5f,
        
        highBandFrequencyL = 200f,
        highBandAmplitudeL = 0.8f,
        highBandFrequencyR = 150f,
        highBandAmplitudeR = 1.0f
    };
        
controller.Rumble(rumbleProfile);

The RumbleTesting example scene and code allows you to manually set the rumble on a controller.

Gyroscope and acceleration (partial)

Once the controller's IMU has been enabled with SwitchControllerHID.SetIMUEnabled(true), it will report uncalibrated acceleration and gyroscope data. In my testing, this data isn't particularly accurate, so we should figure out how to improve it.

Player LEDs

The green LEDs on the controllers can be set with SwitchControllerHID.SetLEDs().

Example:

controller.SetLEDs(
    p1: SwitchControllerLEDStatusEnum.Off,
    p2: SwitchControllerLEDStatusEnum.On,
    p3: SwitchControllerLEDStatusEnum.Flashing,
    p4: SwitchControllerLEDStatusEnum.On
    );

Credits

The GitHub repository https://github.com/dekuNukem/Nintendo_Switch_Reverse_Engineering was used very extensively.

I was linked by GitHub user jimon/dmytro to their fork of the Input System, where they had improved Pro Controller support: Unity-Technologies/InputSystem#1471. I continued to work within my repository instead of switching to a fork of theirs, but I did use and/or adapt some of their code in this repository.