Bind keyboard and mouse input events dynamically

Hi ,

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to bind your input axis and action events in runtime, as in most of today's game , we have the option of customizing keyboard input. So , here I am assuming that you have one datatable imported which contains the following columns :

1>Action 2>DefaultInput 3>Input

Action is the column which contains the event name , DefaultInput contains the default value the event is bound to(this column is useful only when you hit the RESET button in your key customization menu) , and Input column contains the current input value , which is the value user has saved most recently. You can modify this Input column in your widget class on key pressed event , however , that is a story for another day.

Lets move on to our playercharacter class. Include these three namespaces.

1.  include "Runtime/Engine/Classes/GameFramework/PlayerInput.h"
2.  include "Runtime/Engine/Classes/GameFramework/InputSettings.h"
3.  include "Runtime/CoreUObject/Public/UObject/UObjectGlobals.h"

Now in your constructor , initialize your datatable , whcih you have to define in the header file

static ConstructorHelpers::FObjectFinder KeyBoardBindingTable_BP(TEXT("DataTable'/Game/DataTables/KeyboardConfig.KeyboardConfig'"));  
KeyBoardBindingTable = KeyBoardBindingTable_BP.Object;

Now , in your SetupPlayerInputComponent method inside your playercharacter, add the following lines

 
    check(InputComponent);
    const UInputSettings* InputSettings = GetDefault();
    int rowindex = 1;
    while (true)
    {
        FKeyBoardBindingTable* LookUpRow = KeyBoardBindingTable->FindRow(FName(*FString::FromInt(rowindex)), TEXT("Look Up"));
        if (LookUpRow)
        {
            if (LookUpRow->Action == "Move Forward")
            {
                const FInputAxisKeyMapping axismapping(FName("Move Forward"), FKey(FName(*LookUpRow->Input)), 1);
                ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(axismapping);
            }
            else if (LookUpRow->Action == "Move Backward")
            {
                const FInputAxisKeyMapping axismapping(FName("Move Forward"), FKey(FName(*LookUpRow->Input)), -1);
                ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(axismapping);

            }
            else if (LookUpRow->Action == "Move Left")
            {
                const FInputAxisKeyMapping axismapping(FName("Move Right"), FKey(FName(*LookUpRow->Input)), -1);
                ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(axismapping);
            }
            else if (LookUpRow->Action == "Move Right")
            {
                const FInputAxisKeyMapping axismapping(FName("Move Right"), FKey(FName(*LookUpRow->Input)), 1);
                ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(axismapping);
            }

            else
            {
                const FInputActionKeyMapping actionmapping(FName(*LookUpRow->Action), FKey(FName(*LookUpRow->Input)), false, false, false, false);
                ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddActionMapping(actionmapping);
            }
            rowindex++;

        }
        else
        {
            break;
        }
    }

    const FInputAxisKeyMapping turnaxismapping(FName("Turn"), FKey(FName("MouseX")), 1);
    ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(turnaxismapping);

    const FInputAxisKeyMapping lookupaxismapping(FName("LookUp"), FKey(FName("MouseY")), 1);
    ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->AddAxisMapping(lookupaxismapping);

    ((UInputSettings*)InputSettings)->SaveKeyMappings();

    InputComponent->BindAction("Jump", IE_Pressed, this, &ACharacter::Jump);

    InputComponent->BindAxis("Move Forward", this, &AForgottenLegionCharacter::MoveForward);
    InputComponent->BindAxis("Move Right", this, &AForgottenLegionCharacter::MoveRight);
    InputComponent->BindAxis("Turn", this, &APawn::AddControllerYawInput);
    InputComponent->BindAxis("LookUp", this, &APawn::AddControllerPitchInput);

That's it. Now every time , you are going to hit "Play" in your editor , the input column will be read from your datatable and saved in your config file , which you can verify by going to Project Settings->Input section.

Enjoy.