Global mouse

General Discussion Other

nemecsek

in General Discussion » Other • 2 years ago

Hi everybody.

mouseX and mouseY read the mouse position when I'm over the sketch window.

Is there any way to track it even when I'm outside of the window? I mean: how to write a system mouse hook?

Thank you in advance

Alex

Replies(7)

cedrickie..

Re: Global mouse

2 years ago

check out this thread
http://processing.org/discourse/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1263445642

nemecsek

Re: Global mouse

2 years ago

There were some missing imports to fix but your hint was definitely what I searched for.

Here is the final code:

import java.awt.MouseInfo;
import java.awt.Point;
void draw() {
Point mouse;
mouse = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation();
println( "X=" + mouse.x + " Y=" + mouse.y );
}

Thank you very much Cedric!

Alex

ps: I choose this as "best answer" only to simplify the search for a solution: the prize is fully yours, Cedric!

cedrickie..

Re: Global mouse

2 years ago

ah yes, you have to import it yourself since one of the last processing updates.
the snipped was a bit older.

bepa360

Hi I've just seen this and it's really helpful indeed. I've been stuck for ages with how to track the mouse out-with the sketch window so good to see it's possible. I've been working on a small evolution of the simple drawing program that tracks your mouse movements and plots onto the sketch in the form of a line and drawing circles when you click - only problem is I can't work out how to track the mouse position outside of the sketch so you can leave it running in the background as opposed to always having it open on screen?

Below is my code, any idea how i might mix what I've written here and using the above sketch to track mouse position?

void setup() {

background(255);

size(screen.width,screen.height); // set window size

strokeWeight(.05); // set line thickness

stroke(0, 200); // black with tranparency

smooth();

}

void draw()

{

line(mouseX, mouseY, pmouseX, pmouseY);

// draw lines from where mouse is to where mouse was 'pmouse' means previous

// (x, y, x2, y2)

if (mousePressed) {

fill(255);

ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, 5, 5);

} else {

fill(0);

}

calsign

Re: Global mouse

11 months ago

Good to see that you searched for it... but have you tried anything yet?
It's very simple to implement something like that:

Duplicate the import statements...
Add the code that retrieves the mouse location:

Point mouse = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation();

Then, reference mouse.x and mouse.y instead of mouseX and mouseY...

Note that this approach won't allow you to track mouse presses.
You'll need to do more for that...

bepa360

Re: Global mouse

10 months ago

Hey thanks for this. Yeah I had in fact had a play with what you suggested before posting the comment but didn't post the tweaked code because the effect was not exactly what I was after. The line it draws does not seem to be able to connect previous point to current point, instead seems to draw a line at an angle from a random point on screen...so weird!

import java.awt.MouseInfo;

import java.awt.Point;

void setup() {

background(255);

size(screen.width, screen.height); // set window size

strokeWeight(.05); // set line thickness

stroke(0, 200); // black with tranparency

smooth();

}

void draw() {

Point mouse;

mouse = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation();

println( "X=" + mouse.x + " Y=" + mouse.y );

line(mouse.x, mouse.y, pmouseX, pmouseY);

// draw lines from where mouse is to where mouse was 'pmouse' means previous

// (x, y, x2, y2)

if (mousePressed) {

fill(255);

ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, 5, 5);

} else {

fill(0);

}

calsign

Re: Global mouse

10 months ago

I see...
Since the window is not located at (0, 0) on the screen, pmouseX and pmouseY are offset just a little bit, enough to give you that weird result.

You have to either position the window at (0, 0)... or create your own pmouse variables... you could do both...

For putting your window in the top left corner of the screen:

//Inside setup()
size(screenWidth, screenHeight);
frame.removeNotify();
frame.setUndecorated(true);
frame.addNotify();
//At the beginning of draw()
if(frameCount == 1) frame.setLocation(0, 0);

To create your own pmouse variables...
You'll need to global variables...
And at the end of draw(), assign them to be the current mouse position.
Pretty simple...

Here's your revised code with both of these changes:

import java.awt.MouseInfo;
import java.awt.Point;
int px; //Our own pmouse variables
int py;
void setup() {
size(screenWidth, screenHeight); // set window size //Note: screen.width and screen.height are deprecated
frame.removeNotify();
frame.setUndecorated(true);
frame.addNotify();
background(255);
strokeWeight(.05); // set line thickness
stroke(0, 200); // black with tranparency
smooth();
}
void draw() {
if(frameCount == 1) frame.setLocation(0, 0);
Point mouse;
mouse = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation();
println( "X=" + mouse.x + " Y=" + mouse.y );
line(mouse.x, mouse.y, px, py); //Use our special variables
// draw lines from where mouse is to where mouse was 'pmouse' means previous
// (x, y, x2, y2)
if (mousePressed) {
fill(255);
ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, 5, 5);
} else {
fill(0);
}
px = mouse.x; //Update our variables
py = mouse.y;
}

Top Reply

Response title

Attachments

New to this Portal?

Global mouse

Replies(7)

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Re: Global mouse

Statistics

Tags

Actions

Related Posts