Mouse

Mouse input for HaxeFlixel is provided through the FlxMouse class and is available through FlxG.mouse. It is worth noting that it extends FlxPoint.

On non-mobile targets, the mouse starts out by being visible by default. You can set the visibility via FlxG.mouse.visible.

Left mouse button

The most common use of FlxG.mouse is checking the state of the left mouse button.

override public function update(elapsed:Float):Void
{
	if (FlxG.mouse.pressed)
	{
		// The left mouse button is currently pressed
	}
	
	if (FlxG.mouse.justPressed)
	{
		// The left mouse button has just been pressed
	}
	
	if (FlxG.mouse.justReleased)
	{
		// The left mouse button has just been released
	}

	super.update(elapsed);
}

HAXE

Exactly the same logic can be used for the middle and right mouse buttons. The properties are postfixed by Middle / Right, e.g. FlxG.mouse.pressedRight.

Cursor

import flixel.util.FlxColor;
using flixel.util.FlxSpriteUtil;

// Create a white circle to use as a cursor graphic
var sprite = new FlxSprite();
sprite.makeGraphic(15, 15, FlxColor.TRANSPARENT);
sprite.drawCircle();

// Load the sprite's graphic to the cursor
FlxG.mouse.load(sprite.pixels);

// Use the default mouse cursor again
FlxG.mouse.unload();

// To use the system cursor:
FlxG.mouse.useSystemCursor = true;
HAXE

Positional data

There are two kinds of position data available:

  • World position (absolute)

    FlxG.mouse.x
FlxG.mouse.y
FlxG.mouse.getWorldPosition(); // returns x / y as a FlxPoint
HAXE

  • Screen position (relative)

    FlxG.mouse.screenX
FlxG.mouse.screenY
FlxG.mouse.getScreenPosition(); // returns screenX / screenY as a FlxPoint
HAXE

Mouse wheel

The current "delta" value of mouse wheel is provided in a simple Int property. If the wheel has just been scrolled up, it will have a positive value and vice versa. If it wasn't scrolled during the current frame, it's 0.

if (FlxG.mouse.wheel != 0)
{
	// Mouse wheel logic goes here, for example zooming in / out:
	FlxG.camera.zoom += (FlxG.mouse.wheel / 10);
}
HAXE

Flash native cursor API

AS3-Flixel used a simple Sprite to display a bitmap graphic that is synchronized with the mouse position every frame. This approach is not optimal, as it causes what is commonly referred to as "mouse lag" - the cursor sprite lags behind the actual mouse position. Depending on the game's framerate and the player's mouse speed, this can be very noticeable and thus have a negative impact on the overall experience.

HaxeFlixel leverages the flash native cursor API for better mouse cursor performance. However, there are certain restrictions to native cursors:

  • They can not exceed 32x32 pixels
  • No negative cursors are allowed, and the positive offsets are limited to the size
  • The targeted flash player version must be 10.2 or higher

Because of this, using the native cursor API is completely optional, see the section on the FLX_NO_NATIVE_CURSOR conditional.

Custom native cursors

You can use FlxG.mouse.load() for native cursors as usual, but if you want more fine-grained control, you can use the following functions:

FlxG.mouse.setSimpleNativeCursorData("custom", BitmapData);
FlxG.mouse.registerNativeCursor("custom", MouseCursorData);
HAXE

You can find more information on the MouseCursorData object here.

Use FlxG.mouse.setNativeCursor() to switch to an already registered native cursor.

Conditionals

For general information on conditionals, please refer to this page.

  • FLX_NO_MOUSE_ADVANCED

    By default, there are event listeners set up for both the middle and the right mouse button. There are two reasons for wanting to disable this:

    • it requires a minimum flash player version of 11.2
    • it removes the right-click menu of the flash-player

  • FLX_NO_NATIVE_CURSOR

    This disables the native cursor API on the flash target. For more info, check the "Flash native cursor API"-section above.

  • FLX_NO_MOUSE

    This can be used to remove all mouse-cursor-related logic from HaxeFlixel for optimization purposes, which can make sense on mobile targets, which is why it makes sense to combine this with if="mobile" in your Project.xml.