Roadmap

A roadmap for the Virtual GamePad system, detailing planned features, ongoing experiments, and future considerations.

Roadmap

Every line of code is a liability.

Before making changes, I ask myself:

  1. Is the app unusable or extremely inconvenient without this feature? How many people does it affect?
  2. Will it be easy to maintain in the long run? An app with less features is better than an abandoned one.
  3. Is it worth the time and effort to implement?
  4. Does it negatively affect security or performance?

I mostly work on this during my college breaks. (1-4 releases yearly)

Not Planned

Won’t be implemented in the foreseeable future.

  • Bluetooth as a connection mode.
  • Support for multiple clients with a single server. See this issue.

Ongoing Experiments

These are experiments to determine feasibility and potential implementation paths.
They may or may not lead to a feature in the future.

  • True Gamepad input with winrt::Windows::UI::Input::Preview::Injection::InputInjector.
  • Linux support - Both Keyboard/Mouse and Gamepad input modes.
    See tracking issue.
    Completed. Need to test some more and fix the packaging.

Planned

I want to try doing these when I have time.

  • Symmetric Key Encryption on the sockets.
    A random key can be generated on the server for each session. We already have a secure way to share the key. (The user can scan the QR code or type the key.)
    The real questions are
    1. Is it necessary?
    2. What will it cost in terms of performance?
  • Adding the two triggers to the gamepad layout.
    • Need to determine the position of the triggers on the screen. (Mobile app)
    • Handle the input on the server side. (PC app)
    • The data exchange format does not need changes.

Bonus XKCD Comic

Code Lifespan:

XKCD 2730

Surely (no one/everyone) will (recognize how flexible and useful this architecture is/spend a huge amount of effort painstakingly preserving and updating this garbage I wrote in 20 minutes) — XKCD 2730