Setting up Input

A guide to wiring device input into Aplos Console and configuring the components that drive it.

How it works

An overview of the input components and how they communicate with one another.

Aplos Console keeps input handling deliberately decoupled: Unity's Input System supplies the raw actions, a thin set of Aplos components translate those actions into console calls, and the console never needs to know which device or control scheme produced them. Four pieces do the work:

  • AplosInputManager — orchestrates set-up. It finds (or spawns) a PlayerInput, resolves the active control scheme, and binds the matching mapper.
  • DebugInputActionMapper — one per control scheme (the built-in DebugKeyboardAndMouseInputBinding covers keyboard & mouse). It subscribes to the relevant InputActions and forwards each to the console.
  • AplosConsole — implements IConsoleInputProvider, the contract the mapper calls into, and raises open/close events.
  • UnityInputSystemAdapter — an IAplosConsoleInputAdapter that reacts to those open/close events and reroutes which input map is active.

Diagram showing the three interaction flows between the Aplos Console input components: set-up and binding, device input reaching the console, and console state routing the active input map.

The components communicate along three distinct flows:

  1. Set-up & binding. On Start, the UnityInputSystemAdapter calls AplosInputManager.StartPlayerInput(). The manager locates a PlayerInput in the scene — or instantiates the fallback PlayerInputPrefab when none exists — resolves the active control scheme, injects that PlayerInput into every DebugInputActionMapper, and calls BindInput() on the one whose SchemaName matches. That mapper subscribes its callbacks to the relevant InputActions.

  2. Device input → console. When the player triggers an action, the Input System fires InputAction.performed. The bound mapper's callback forwards it to the console through IConsoleInputProvider — SubmitPressed, NavigatePressed, AutoCompletePressed, or ToggleDebug — so the console reacts without any direct dependency on the input device.

  3. Console state → input routing. When the console opens or closes it raises OnOpenConsole / OnCloseConsole. The UnityInputSystemAdapter listens for these and calls PlayerInput.SwitchCurrentActionMap, switching to the "UI" map while the console is open and restoring the previous gameplay map when it closes, so console typing and game controls never fight over the same input.

Because each seam is an interface, any part can be swapped: implement IAplosConsoleInputAdapter (or derive from AplosConsoleInputAdapterBase) to drive a different input system, and add a DebugInputActionMapper per control scheme you want to support.

Configuring Input

How to set the input components up in a scene.

  1. Add an AplosInputManager component to a GameObject, and put an input adapter — the built-in UnityInputSystemAdapter — on the same GameObject. On Awake the manager resolves its adapter with GetComponent<IAplosConsoleInputAdapter>(), so the two must share a GameObject.
  2. Add a DebugInputActionMapper for each control scheme you support (use DebugKeyboardAndMouseInputBinding for keyboard & mouse), and list them in the manager's Debug Input Bindings field.
  3. Set each mapper's SchemaName to exactly match a control scheme name in your Input Actions asset. The manager binds the mapper whose SchemaName matches the active scheme; if none matches, a warning is logged and no input is bound.
  4. Assign your AplosCommandConfiguration asset to the manager's Settings field. Its PlayerInputPrefab is instantiated as a fallback PlayerInput when the scene has none of its own.
    Example component configurations for the Input GameObject.
  5. In your Input Actions asset, define the actions the console listens for — Submit, Navigate, AutoComplete, and ToggleDebug — and a "UI" action map for the console to switch to while its open.
    Example input action map used for the operation of the console.
  6. (Optional) To integrate a different input system, derive from AplosConsoleInputAdapterBase and implement a matching DebugInputActionMapper rather than using the Unity Input System defaults.
  7. (Optional) Add a ConsoleCursorHandler component to a GameObject in the scene to let the console manage the cursor. It listens for the console's open/close events, freeing and showing the cursor while the console is open and restoring the game's previous cursor state on close. Omit it to leave the cursor entirely under game control.