Multiple mouse pointers?

Question

Is there a way to accept input from more than one mouse separately? I'm interested in making a multi-user application and I thought it would be great if I could have 2 or more users holding wireless mice each interacting with the app individually with a separate mouse arrow.

Is this something I should try to farm out to some other application/driver/os_magic? or is there a library I can use to accomplish this? Language isn't a HUGE deal, but C, C++, and Python are preferrable.

Thanks :)

edit:

Found this multi-pointer toolkit for linux (it's actually a multi-pointer x server): http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/

Since you have selected your preferred answer, which actually does not answer the question, please publish what you will find about it. — Davide, Nov 04 '08 at 22:23
of course! the multipoint sdk does actually let you use multiple mice with multiple pointers though ;) — Jiaaro, Nov 06 '08 at 02:34
Incidentally MPX will be built-in on upcoming x.org releases. It'll take a while before all the toolkits and apps are totally smooth with it though... — bobince, Jan 22 '09 at 01:23
@bobinice very nice... looking forward to the X integration - maybe this will lead to multi-touch apps? — Jiaaro, Sep 08 '09 at 13:40

ShoeLace · Accepted Answer · 2010-02-19T00:39:53.917

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You could try the Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Software Development Kit 1.1

or the new Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Software Development Kit 1.5

and the main Microsoft Multipoint site

edited Feb 19 '10 at 00:39

answered Nov 04 '08 at 18:14

ShoeLace

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This link is broken - can someone with sufficient rep fix it? – Erik Forbes Jan 22 '09 at 01:31
it works fine for me now.. so either someone fixed it or it was just temporary. – ShoeLace Jan 29 '09 at 14:21
Note that the MultiPoint SDK only works with apps based on WinForms or WPF, since its Initialize method requires a System.Windows.Window. – Stefan Monov Apr 20 '11 at 11:38

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '08 at 23:06

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Yes. I know of at least one program that does this, KidPad. I think it's written in Java and was developed by Juan Pablo Hourcade, now at the University of Iowa. You'd have to ask him how it was implemented.

answered Oct 25 '08 at 23:06

tvanfosson

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 22 '09 at 01:06

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http://code.google.com/p/pymultimouse/ is a library using windows raw input, it worked in a test with 2 mice.

answered Jan 22 '09 at 01:06

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 25 '08 at 23:25

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You could use DirectInput with C/C++ (there's probably also bindings in other languages). You use IDirectInput8::EnumDevices() (using DX8; same function, different interface in other versions of DirectX) to get a list of all attached devices. Then, you create the devices and poll them IDirectInputDevice8::Poll(). This should almost definitely work with any number of mice, keyboards, and other input devices. MSDN has really good documentation on this.

answered Oct 25 '08 at 23:25

Adam Rosenfield

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This will not work on Windows XP, you should use RawInput instead. See here: http://jstookey.com/arcade/rawmouse/ – kshahar Nov 04 '08 at 23:40

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 26 '08 at 02:35

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I have this vague feeling that BeOS used to let one pair a mouse and keyboard and have separate active windows and inputs. Wow... that was a long time ago. I thought that it would be very interesting for "paired" programming.

answered Oct 26 '08 at 02:35

user31534

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

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See my answer here (avoid the JNI stuff): How can I handle multiple mouse inputs in Java?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Nov 11 '08 at 10:40

kshahar

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Multiple mouse pointers?

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