SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall(3)

💖 SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall(3) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the SDL3 FUNCTIONS manual — yes, that manual — and today's main character is SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall. sit down, hydrate, let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall — generate ball motion on an opened virtual joystick. that's it. that's the whole job. slay. 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_joystick.h>

bool SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall(SDL_Joystick *joystick, int ball, Sint16 xrel, Sint16 yrel);

look at that signature. iconic. no notes. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so first things first, and this is the part that bites people: the values you set here do NOT get applied right away. they wait politely until the next call to SDL_UpdateJoysticks. 😭

and you can call SDL_UpdateJoysticks yourself, or you can let it happen indirectly through a bunch of other SDL APIs — including, but not limited to, these ones:

• SDL_PollEvent
• SDL_PumpEvents
• SDL_WaitEventTimeout
• SDL_WaitEvent

so if you're sitting there like "why is my ball not moving bestie" — it's probably that. the vibe is set, the update just hasn't dropped yet. ✨

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🎀 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🎀

• joystick — the virtual joystick on which to set state. this is your joystick, your baby, your main character. 👑
• ball — the index of the ball on the virtual joystick to update. yes it's a number, no it's not the whole joystick, it's which ball. 🔥
• xrel — the relative motion on the X axis. side to side, babes. ↔️
• yrel — the relative motion on the Y axis. up and down, bestie. ↕️

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💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

returns true on success or false on failure. 🫶

and if you get a false? do not panic, do not spiral — call SDL_GetError() for more information. she will tell you what went wrong, she always does. 💀

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🌈 THREAD SAFETY 🌈

it is safe to call this function from any thread. any. thread. go wild, no cap. 🔥

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⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

this function is available since SDL 3.2.0. so if you're on something older than that... yeah, she's not there yet. 🙈

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💅 SEE ALSO 💅

the whole virtual joystick friend group, fr fr:

• SDL_SetJoystickVirtualAxis(3)
• SDL_SetJoystickVirtualButton(3)
• SDL_SetJoystickVirtualHat(3)
• SDL_SetJoystickVirtualTouchpad(3)
• SDL_SetJoystickVirtualSensorData(3)

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lowkey obsessed with how simple this one is. set the ball motion, update the joysticks, live your truth. periodt. 💖

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and that's the page!! brought to you by Simple Directmedia Layer, running on SDL 3.4.18, and this absolute baddie of a manual page is SDL_SetJoystickVirtualBall(3). mwah, bye bestie 🧚✨🍓