Class: InputManager ⌨️🖱️

Source: core/InputManager.js, line 44

The InputManager serves as the central hub for handling all player input within the Ironclad Engine. It orchestrates underlying input modules (like keyboard and mouse, and potentially gamepad) and provides a powerful action mapping system. This allows you to define abstract game actions (e.g., "jump", "fire", "moveLeft") and map them to specific physical inputs (e.g., the 'Space' key, the 'W' key, the left mouse button).

This abstraction makes your game code cleaner (you check for "jump" instead of 'Space') and makes it easier to implement features like remappable controls.

Lifecycle:

1. Initialize: Call initialize(canvasElement, engine) once when the engine starts.
2. Update: Call update() once per frame, usually from the main engine loop.
3. Destroy: Call destroy() when shutting down to clean up listeners.

---

Constructor

new InputManager()

Creates a new instance of the InputManager. It initializes internal states for tracking inputs and actions but requires initialize() to be called before it becomes fully operational.

Source: core/InputManager.js, line 44

---

Methods

defineAction(actionName, bindings)

Defines a game action and maps it to one or more physical input bindings. An InputBinding is an object that specifies the type of input (e.g., 'key', 'mouseButton') and the specific code (e.g., 'KeyW', 'MouseButton0').

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
actionName	string	The unique name for the action (e.g., "moveUp", "fire").
bindings	Array<InputBinding>	An array of InputBinding objects that will trigger this action.

Example:

inputManager.defineAction('jump', [
  { type: 'key', code: 'Space' },
  { type: 'gamepadButton', code: 0 }, // Example gamepad binding
])
inputManager.defineAction('moveRight', [
  { type: 'key', code: 'KeyD', value: 1.0 }, // Can provide value for axis-like actions
  { type: 'key', code: 'ArrowRight', value: 1.0 },
])