> Changed: Controller inputs are accepted even when PICO-8 is not the foreground application

PLEASE change this back. This is totally counter to how apps are supposed to work in a windowing environment. If an app doesn't have focus, the whole point is that it's not the one receiving input.

This is causing problems for me already because I can't safely pause a PICO-8 game while I play something else that uses a controller.

+1

Second this.

There might be some niche use case though. Maybe an opt-in option?

... or make it optional, @Felice. By default yeah it shouldn't. But with an obscure POKE it could be enabled. I'm not sure I just don't like the idea of removing it entirely. There are some programming languages like Blitz that can read keystrokes even if the window is not focused.

Yeah it's totally fine if it's something you opt into, but it shouldn't be the default and it absolutely should NOT be mandated like it is in 0.2.4b.

@zep, please do a hotfix on this, it's seriously broken, don't let this fester for a year while you work on PicoTron. That's just not fair to us.

not fair to assume he is maliciously ignoring this complaint.
and pico8 is clearly the priority from all the lexaloffle consoles and games

@merwok

Who said anything about malice? I think zep is one of the most even-keeled people I've met. Don't project emotions onto me, please.

FYI I specifically requested this feature so it was probably added in response to my thread (?) but my idea was definitely that it would be opt-in, not default behavior :)

@kittenm4ster
Yeah, as mentioned above, I think features like this are fine as long as they're opt-in. I imagined there were use cases like yours.

This just bit me today—I couldn’t figure out what was going wrong! Absolutely agree it should be opt-in.

I don’t think it should be a POKE; it should be a user setting, not something controlled by a cart.

Alright no problem -- it's now optional (and off by default) for 0.2.4c. I have to admit I thought "who's going to be running a PICO-8 cart in the background while they are using the controller for something else?". Lack of imagination.

@Felice -- fwiw, there's a lot of overhead in releasing an update, so I generally can only justify doing hotfixes when there are severe show-stopping bugs, and even then only when there aren't other pressing things going on. It's perhaps inadvisable to juggle so many projects as a solo developer, but these are the side effects and PICO-8 wouldn't exist in the first place otherwise ¯\(ツ)/¯

Wouldn't it be better to pause the game and block input when 1. a game is running and 2. PICO-8 is not the focused window?

There are cases where you'd want to leave the cartridge running when not in focus -- e.g. listening to background music or defragging your PICO-8.

@zep

May I suggest that, if there's that much overhead in the process of releasing an update, then your current project ought to be to find a way to streamline that process.

You've been talking about creating a new game development platform/ecosystem in Picotron, where other creators can make and publish full games or apps or whatever. If you can't update a simpler platform like PICO-8 with any kind of regularity or timeliness, that's going to turn into a much bigger problem with Picotron.

Sorry, but I'm going to keep hammering on this point.

Fully agree, @zep. Please take your time. I think most of us would rather have an outstanding release later than a premature one now.

I love your work but you know this. :)