Controls#
During a stream, Halyard presents your console to the machine as a gamepad, a mouse and a keyboard at once. The buttons go to the gamepad; the touchscreen and the controller mouse drive the mouse; the on-screen keyboard types. What the game reacts to is up to the game.
Nintendo Switch#
The gamepad#
Every button and stick goes to a virtual gamepad on your machine — an Xbox 360 controller by default, which the most Windows games understand. Buttons are sent by position: the Switch's A, on the right of the diamond, is the Xbox B, also on the right. The mapping, the controller type and the stick dead zone are all in Settings › Controls › Gamepad.
Two buttons have a second role when held for half a second:
| Button | Short press | Held half a second |
|---|---|---|
| + | the gamepad's Start (Menu) | opens the pause menu |
| − | the gamepad's Select (View) | shows or hides the on-screen keyboard |
A long press of + releases the game's Start as the menu opens, so the game sees a half-second press.
The controller mouse#
Click both sticks at once (L3 + R3) to turn the controllers into a mouse, and again to go back. While it is on, the gamepad is not sent:
| Input | Mouse |
|---|---|
| Right stick (or the gyroscope) | moves the pointer |
| Left stick | the wheel |
| ZR | left click |
| ZL | right click |
| R | middle click |
Pointing with the gyroscope, which Joy-Con aims and the sensitivity are in the pause menu › Controls › Controller mouse, with a tester that shows the figures without sending anything.
The touchscreen#
By default the screen works like a laptop trackpad (relative mode): slide one finger to move the pointer. In absolute mode the pointer jumps to where you touch. The mode, the sensitivity and the scroll direction are in the pause menu › Controls.
| Gesture | Default action |
|---|---|
| Tap, one finger | left click |
| Long press, one finger | drag — the button stays down until you lift |
| Tap, two fingers | right click |
| Slide two fingers up or down | the wheel |
| Tap, three fingers | on-screen keyboard |
| Long press, three fingers | pause menu |
Every tap, double tap and long press, for one, two and three fingers, can be given another action in Settings › Controls › Touch gestures: a click, a double click, a drag, the keyboard, the pause menu, Escape, the Windows key or Alt+Tab. A double tap left on Automatic simply repeats the tap, so a single tap clicks at once.
The on-screen keyboard#
It opens over the bottom half of the screen (hold −, or tap with three fingers); the part of the picture above it still works as a mouse.
- Four pages: the letters (AZERTY or QWERTY, set in Settings › Controls › Layout), navigation keys, F1–F12 and a numeric pad.
- A key is sent when you lift your finger; slide off it to cancel.
- Shift, Ctrl and Alt stay down for the next key.
- On the AZERTY letters, hold a, e, i, o, u, c or y to pick an accented letter (your machine must use a French keyboard layout).
Games that capture the mouse#
A game that locks the pointer (most shooters) expects movement, not positions — otherwise the view spins away. Turn on Game mouse mode (pause menu › Controls, or Settings › Controls) while you play it, and off again on the desktop. Lowering the pointing sensitivity to 20–35 % makes aiming easier.
Rumble#
The game's vibration plays on the Joy-Cons or the Pro Controller. Its strength is set in Settings › Controls › Gamepad › Motor intensity, which also has a test.
PS Vita and PS TV#
The same logic, with the Vita's buttons:
| Switch | PS Vita |
|---|---|
| + | START — hold it half a second for the pause menu |
| − | SELECT — hold it half a second for the on-screen keyboard |
| A B X Y | the face buttons, sent by position |
| ZL / ZR | none on a handheld Vita — see the rear touch panel below |
| L3 / R3 (stick clicks) | only on a PS TV controller |
- The front touchscreen works exactly as on the Switch, gestures included.
- The rear touch panel can stand in for the missing buttons: turn it on in Settings › Controls › Gamepad › Use the rear panel. Each quarter of the panel can be ZL, ZR, L3, R3 or an analogue trigger that you pull by sliding. By default the top two quarters are the left and right triggers.
- There is no rumble and no gyroscope on a Vita.
- On a handheld Vita, without stick clicks, turn the controller mouse on from the pause menu rather than with L3 + R3.
Linux and Windows (development builds)#
The computer's own keyboard and mouse go straight to the machine while the stream has the focus; the pointer maps onto the picture. There is no long press to open the pause menu: it is in the developer menu bar at the top of the window (Actions › Open Shadow menu), which also sends the keys a computer keeps for itself — Windows, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Alt+Tab, Win+D. In the pause menu, the arrow keys move and a click selects.
These builds are made for developing and testing Halyard, not for everyday use.