Left or Right Ctrl Button?

[Nathan]

Is there a way to know if the user pressed the left or the right ctrl key on their keyboard. I need to be able to do different things depending on the ctrl left and ctrl right keys being pressed.

Try this method. It uses DirectInput so you must include the Type Library. If you do not have the Library, I can send it to you.

Make a Form with a Timer called Timer1 and Insert the below code into the Form.

Dim dx7 As New DirectX7
Dim state As DIKEYBOARDSTATE
Dim iKey As Integer
Dim dinput As DirectInput
Dim keys(255) As String
Dim dev As DirectInputDevice

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Timer1.Interval = 50
    Set dinput = dx7.DirectInputCreate()
    Set dev = dinput.CreateDevice("GUID_SysKeyboard")
    dev.SetCommonDataFormat DIFORMAT_KEYBOARD
    dev.Acquire
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
    dev.Unacquire
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
dev.GetDeviceStateKeyboard state
For iKey = 0 To 255
    If state.Key(iKey) <> 0 Then
    End If
Next

If state.Key(29) <> 0 Then Print "Left CTRL"
If state.Key(157) <> 0 Then Print "Right CTRL"
DoEvents

End Sub

[Nathan]

Thanx!

[Chris]

Here is another way you can do it too.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal nVirtKey As Long) As Integer
Private Const VK_LCONTROL = &HA2
Private Const VK_LSHIFT = &HA0
Private Const VK_RCONTROL = &HA3
Private Const VK_RSHIFT = &HA1

Private Sub Form_Load()
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
If GetKeyState(VK_LCONTROL) < 0 Then
    MsgBox "Left Control Key is press"
ElseIf GetKeyState(VK_RCONTROL) < 0 Then
    MsgBox "Right Control Key is press"
ElseIf GetKeyState(VK_LSHIFT) < 0 Then
    MsgBox "Left Shift Key is press"
ElseIf GetKeyState(VK_RSHIFT) < 0 Then
    MsgBox "Right Shift Key is press"
End If
End Sub

[Edited by Chris on 06-22-2000 at 10:50 PM]

Using Chris's method is better because you do not need to include the Type Library or initialize any events.

However, the DirectInput can access 255 different keys which is better for gaming.

[Vince McMullin]

Can u make this run from an executable that doesn't have the focus and a direct-x game is running on top of it?

Yes, the DirectInput method will work if your App doesn't have the focus. Chris's method will only work for Windows NT so I cannot test that out, but I'm pretty sure it will work as well.

[Vince McMullin]

When the game is loaded it won't work, I'm guessing the game is resetting the dinput access.

But there is a cheat program out for the game that uses Hotkeys and it works fine, so I'm really baffeled by this.

The code works with any other application running on top of my program except for this game.





Could the cheat program have some Dinput hacks for this game? Or is there an actual way to do this?



I spent hours coding message stuff thinking this hotkey issue wasn't that big but now I find it is......... ?