Input Forge - tutorials

End-to-end walkthroughs. Requires Godot 4.7+. See the API reference for exact signatures and the examples for runnable scenes.

1. Configure your controls in the InputMap

Define your actions in Project > Project Settings > Input Map as usual (e.g. move_left/right/up/down, jump, dash).

For multiple keyboard players, bind one key per zone to each action: the Nth keyboard event of an action becomes keyboard zone N. Example - bind jump to Space (zone 0) and Enter (zone 1); move_left to A (zone 0) and Left (zone 1). Add a gamepad event (button/axis) to each action too.

To script the InputMap from code (project bootstrap or tests), use InputForgeMapWriter:

InputForgeMapWriter.set_action(&"jump", [
    InputForgeMapWriter.key(KEY_SPACE),
    InputForgeMapWriter.key(KEY_ENTER),
    InputForgeMapWriter.button(JOY_BUTTON_A),
])
InputForgeMapWriter.save()  # persists project.godot

2. Use the Input Forge dock

Enable the plugin (Project > Project Settings > Plugins). In Godot 4.7 the dock registers as a native EditorDock titled Input Forge (left, upper-right slot) that you can move and float.

Create or assign an InputForgeActionSet, pick the four movement actions, the join action, and the ordered button actions from the dropdowns (populated from your InputMap), then Apply + Save. The dock previews the per-device bindings Input Forge derives.

Screenshots above are captured from the running editor - see docs/images/README.md for what to capture.

3. Couch co-op (local multiplayer)

The core loop: a join listener hands you a device + profile; you create one InputForgeDeviceSource per device and poll it each physics tick.

var actions := InputForgeActionSet.new()
actions.move_left = &"move_left" ; actions.move_right = &"move_right"
actions.move_up = &"move_up" ; actions.move_down = &"move_down"
actions.buttons = [&"jump", &"dash"]
actions.join_action = &"jump"

var listener := InputForgeJoinListener.new()
listener.action_set = actions
add_child(listener)
listener.join_requested.connect(func(device, profile):
    var source := InputForgeDeviceSource.new(device, profile, actions)
    add_child(source)
    # Attach `source` to a player; each physics tick:
    #   var cmd := source.poll()
    #   move_player(cmd.move)
    #   if cmd.is_pressed(&"jump"): jump()
)

A complete, runnable version is in examples/couch_coop.

4. Networking (authoritative server)

InputForgeCommand streams compactly: a move vector, a held bitmask, and per -button wrapping 8-bit press counters. On the server, InputForgeNetworkSource turns counter deltas back into press edges and drains one press per button per tick, so an isolated press survives a dropped packet.

# server side, per remote player:
var server := InputForgeNetworkSource.new()
server.action_set = actions
# each packet (use an ordered channel, e.g. unreliable_ordered):
server.apply(move, held_mask, counters)   # counters: PackedByteArray
var cmd := server.poll()                    # reconstructed edges

Keep the action set to at most InputForgeActionSet.MAX_BUTTONS (32) when streaming. A runnable, narrated demo (including a recovered dropped press) is in examples/netcode/netcode_demo.gd.

5. Rebinding and persistence

Use InputForgeRebindCapture to capture the next key/button/axis, then persist with InputForgeBindingsStore:

var capture := InputForgeRebindCapture.new()
add_child(capture)
capture.key_captured.connect(func(keycode):
    profile.keyboard[action] = keycode
    InputForgeBindingsStore.save_profile(device, profile)
)
capture.arm(device)   # disarm() to cancel

InputForgeBindingsStore.load_profile(device, defaults) layers stored overrides on top of the derived defaults at load time.

6. Device prompts / icons

The default InputForgeIconProvider returns text labels ("KB0", "P1", ...) and a ready-to-add prompt Control. Subclass it to inject your own art:

class_name MyIcons extends InputForgeIconProvider
func texture_for(device: InputForgeDeviceId) -> Texture2D:
    return my_art_for(device)  # return null to fall back to a text label