Remove gamepad face button requirement (redundant security policy)

[davey3000]

At present, input from non-face buttons on a connected gamepad are ignored until a face button is pressed. This security restriction seems unnecessary for windows that have access to Node.js, and could cause confusion to the user when they first start the application. I would like to suggest that this restriction be removed for windows that can access Node.js.

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[davey3000]

I believe the required change in Chromium is to remove all references to ever_interacted_with_ from the files:

chromium/src/content/renderer/gamepad_shared_memory_reader.h chromium/src/content/renderer/gamepad_shared_memory_reader.cc

In particular, the section of code that implements the "press face button to connect" security policy on gamepads appears to be the following code near the end of gamepad_shared_memory_reader.cc:

if (!ever_interacted_with_) {
  if (GamepadsHaveUserGesture(gamepads)) {
    ever_interacted_with_ = true;
  } else {
    // Clear the connected flag if the user hasn't interacted with any of the
    // gamepads to prevent fingerprinting. The actual data is not cleared.
    // WebKit will only copy out data into the JS buffers for connected
    // gamepads so this is sufficient.
    for (unsigned i = 0; i < WebKit::WebGamepads::itemsLengthCap; i++)
      gamepads.items[i].connected = false;
  }
}

Note that this is untested.

[bored-engineer]

Is this issue dead? I would still like to see this merged, or at least a response as to why not.

[ghost]

ditto, I would like to see the face button press requirement removed too otherwise, does anyone know of a way to tell chromium a face button has been pressed via node if a gamepad is detected as being physically connected to the PC? therefore bypassing the required user interaction to press a face button everytime they start my app...

[skaughtx0r]

I'd like to see this issue resolved also as we had problems on a device that has joystick axes, but no buttons, so the gamepad is never activated.

[gavrochelegnou]

Hi, This would be a great feature for me too. I currently have to code and display a message saying "please click a button before moving" in my app where clicking a button should be the last action (a validation) and not the first ...

[gavrochelegnou]

For the record you could star and comment this issue in chromium to have a flag or permission to allow gamepad detection without user interaction.

[ghost]

The Chromium status says "WontFix", so will this not be resolved?

I also encountered the issue with RPG Maker MV, which now uses NW.js for the games. I kept pressing the directional buttons and nothing happened until I pressed a face button.