yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
Now this is interesting - if I'm understanding correctly, they're actually mimicking screen finger touch inputs by reading from a generic usb touchpad device and telling the game that it's a person's finger on the screen.

If I understand correctly according to this Android dev page, this is considered (check at the VERY bottom) an "Indirect Multi-Touch Pointer Gesture", so the game is, more or less, looking for a mouse or touchpad device to read motions from (TouchpadAsPointer).

Now, according to THIS link input devices are configured and read by the system as .idc files in the following directories:

/system/usr/idc/Vendor_XXXX_Product_XXXX_Version_XXXX.idc

/system/usr/idc/Vendor_XXXX_Product_XXXX.idc

/system/usr/idc/DEVICE_NAME.idc

/data/system/devices/idc/Vendor_XXXX_Product_XXXX_Version_XXXX.idc

/data/system/devices/idc/Vendor_XXXX_Product_XXXX.idc

/data/system/devices/idc/DEVICE_NAME.idc

A quick sweep of my FXP/CM7 Xperia Play shows that NONE of those directories exist for me, and I couldn't find a single .idc file anywhere on my device (I did not do a recursive search, just spent about 5 minutes checking subdirectories in likely locations).

The closest I came was in /system/usr/keylayout/ there were a few .kl files, which seem to control mapping the buttons and dpad to keyboard commands, so that games which read standard keyboard inputs will recognize those controls.

So this leads me to believe that what is missing is one of those .idc files which tells the system that the Xperia Play touchpads are not just game controls, but generic mice-like touchpads, so that games which use standard inputs (in other words, games which weren't intended solely for the Xperia Play's touchpad as the non-touchscreen gameplay interface) will also work. It's a redundancy thing.

Now, this is just a theory: what I need is for someone with a rooted stock rom to check that directory list and see if any of those directories exist on their rom, which directories exist, and if they contain any .idc files.

IF SO - zip them all up (by directory, with directory names) and either PM them to me or post them here, and I'll toss them into my FXP rom to see whether or not it fixes the problem with EA and Gameloft games.

Thanks!

PS. So why exactly would these companies do this rather than use SE libs? Basically, they're (and by extension, SE, I suppose) treating the touchpads as...touch pads, like on a laptop. This makes a lot of sense, since by having the game just read "touchpad" events, rather than Xperia Play/SE Lib events the game will work with other generic pointer devices in case some kind of Xperia Play clone comes out in the future, etc. Hell, it might have just been a debugging thing so that QA could just play the games on PCs emulating ARM instead of having to give each one of them an Xperia Play, and load builds, etc.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Primax12:
Sadly I can't find any of those *.idc files.

I'm running DarkForest RC2, wich is based on stock, so I suppose they should have been there.

I'm still looking for one of those files in an other directory.
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
Do touchpads in Gameloft or EA games work for you?

Does you rom even have any of those idc directories? Are there any files in them if so?

FXP doesn't even have those directories.
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
Yes they do.

I think Sony implemented something into their ROM that handles the touchpads, meaning they do not need a .idc file.

.idc is touchscreen/touchlayout config, and can be used in Gingerbread, but as I said, SE added something to the stock ROM meaning that we do not need to use an IDC but the ROM itself figures out the touchpad input.

But for ICS, Android 4.0, .idc configuration files are compulsory, so you need to have them, so maybe if we get cyanogenmod 9, touchpads will work.

I think FreeXperia are holding back on CM9 for us, because our device is kind of unique and they might be waiting till we get official 4.0 before offering it to us. If CM9 had fixed touchpads I am sure it would take off.

Keiran
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
Could the stock rom have some kind of .so lib that CM does not that handles the pads directly?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Primax12:
Yes, all the games, wether from EA, Gameloft or any other companies work with the touchpads. That's the only reason I'm still on stock roms.

And there are no "devices" directory under /data/system, and neither "idc" directory under /system/usr/.

At least with ADB root Shell I can't find or see any of them!
[Xperia Play Android Development] fma965:
+1 - there are no files matching that list.
[Xperia Play Android Development] haverdaden:
Xperia Play r800i

My vibration doesn't work. I'm using the X-Play R800i

android-version 2.3.7

kernel: 2.6.32.9-FXP defer@blaze #6

Mod: cm 7.2.0-RCO-Xperiaplay-r800i-Kang

Version: GWK74

i have wiped everything and re-flashed the rom. Still doesn't work.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Mogul345:
I am currently running the stock 2.3.3 ROM. I used Root Explorer, couldn't find any of those paths. Neither of these folders exist:

/system/usr/idc

/data/system/devices

Searched for *.idc from both /system & /data, no results either. So it doesn't look like Sony is following spec. Figures..grr.

Solid analysis. Reading further, I found this here:

So, i suspect Sony has done something out of spec in the Play's build of Android to not require these files. Otherwise these default configurations would be getting loaded instead, and we'd probably be reporting incorrect behavior even stock. Which brings me to this thought - any way we can inspect currently loaded or in-use .idc files by Android? ADB command perhaps?
[Xperia Play Android Development] jerpelea:
FXP103 released
[Xperia Play Android Development] Leraeniesh:
So is FXP103 CM7.2.0, or CM9 Alpha?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Magnumutz:
Touchpads working?

How about HD video recording?
[Xperia Play Android Development] RublJow:
Where is The changelog?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Mogul345:
It's at the bug tracker site. See first page, or FXP's signature for a link.

Which, if I'm reading it correctly, states that all devices have CM9 Alpha. I hope someone can confirm this. As that would be sweet.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Leraeniesh:
Ill DL and see the changes.

EDIT: Its not ICS
[Xperia Play Android Development] Mogul345:
Ahh, nuts. Figured it was too good to be true.
[Xperia Play Android Development] nickholtus:
ics is cm9

It is not yet released but it isn't monday yet

i think next week it will be released

i see it is already released for some other devices (today)

the pro have ics now so i think play is the next!
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
What about 101 and 102? They were labeled as 053 and 054. :p
[Xperia Play Android Development] Leraeniesh:
Not to mention it will take even longer for CDMA support.
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
Can anyone take a logcat of the bootup of a stock ROM and post it? I'd like to compare it to the bootup of a CM7 Rom. It'll probably be a bit ugly and large to compare to, but it seems like the next step, as I'm guessing there has to be something loaded at boot on stock rom that handles the touchpads that CM7 is failing to do (like some kind of sony library).

Didn't SE provide CM with wifi drivers or something else to help them get CM working on the Xperia line? If so, has anyone contacted them again about this issue to see if they can provide some kind of assistance with it? It seems like they're amenable to dealing with the custom rom community, so it can't hurt to ask, right?

---------- Post added at 05:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ----------

If I'm applying an update to FXP from week to week and/or switching over from CM7.1.0 do I need to go into fastboot and flash the kernel, or does booting into recovery and applying update.zip all that's necessary? I've been wondering about that.

And how does the SEMC 4.x.x rom fit into everything? The instructions on the front page say that's necessary, but I don't see where/how it's necessary in any capacity.
[Xperia Play Android Development] DeanBoro:
CM7.2 RC0

[ALL]

- latest cm 7.2 fixes

CM9.0 RC0

- alpha for all except play devices

greatt so looks like were waiting longer.
[Xperia Play Android Development] HearthC0re:
This update screws up my wifi. Can't seem to get any connection. Any ideas?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Primax12:
I can take a logcat from my device if you still need it, but I don't really know how.

Wich command should I run and when?

I tried "adb logcat -d > logcat.txt" before and after the device is booted, but I don't know if it's ok.
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeWCuLTKiNG:
104 says all devices I hope that's coming soon. I so want to try it. I'm confused by the touchpads. it says fixed so what's not working? ill stick with stock rom if I have to, but cm would be so much better.
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
GSM device config is up! (zeus): https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_semc_zeus/tree/ics

and for the CDMA's (zeusc): https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_semc_zeusc/tree/ics <- no source up yet but repo has been created!

also the common (zeuscommon) repo is set up (repo for devices that use the zeus board in common: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_semc_zeus-common/tree/ics
[Xperia Play Android Development] DeanBoro:
so what exactly does this meen :P?
[Xperia Play Android Development] nickholtus:
i think cm9 for play.

this are some fixes:)
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
It means we have a device tree, all we need now is a vendor tree, and something tells me that FXP are working on that.

---------- Post added at 03:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------

It means we can almost compile ICS for the Play
[Xperia Play Android Development] gavin-phelan:
Those this mean hes working on ics for us :-P

https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_semc_zeus/branches
[Xperia Play Android Development] spikey68:
Hi folks. I am picking one of these up on wednesday and i plan to pimp them and sell on bnib and pimped. What't the best rom/radio etc combi?
[Xperia Play Android Development] jerpelea:
yes

we are working on porting cm9 sources to zeus but for now there are wome bugs and we need to fix them
[Xperia Play Android Development] nickholtus:
@FXP let me guess you can't get it in portrait?

wifi and bluetooth are easy fixes (we did that in cm9 arc port to play)

only problems we have are orientation and data, camera
[Xperia Play Android Development] gavin-phelan:
Good geuss ehh ;)
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
Problems -

My guesses:

camera - almost EVERYONE has had problem with the camera on ICS

data - semc RIL needs to be compiled for ICS, and to my knowledge the non-play RIL does not work properly.

maybe some other stuff.

Still though, you know what you are doing FXP, so I will leave you to it.
[Xperia Play Android Development] jerpelea:
orientation and touchpads and proper bt were the easy part

wifi is now on the list :)
[Xperia Play Android Development] nickholtus:
FXP i can't get orientation working on my rom?

what have you changed to get it working?

And when is cm9 going to be released?
[Xperia Play Android Development] jerpelea:
dont ask for ETA
[Xperia Play Android Development] nickholtus:
ok,

but how did you fix orientation?
[Xperia Play Android Development] DeanBoro:
FXP what are the touchpad file location?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Nhialor:
Fxp wanna start of by saying thanks and enquire about touchpads. Any updates? Binary said he was looking at it
[Xperia Play Android Development] HearthC0re:
I think i'm gonna revert back to FXP54 for this reason, if noone can help me resolve this..

Am exited for our CM9 Alpha though :)
[Xperia Play Android Development] :
Can someone help me?

at stock .42 my voice search is fully working - but on cm7 when i say anything they cant listen it oO

whats the problem, i try to overwrite the cyanogenmod app with the stock 2.3.4 app but it still does not work...

hmm
[Xperia Play Android Development] Magnumutz:
Why does nobody answer about the touchpads inquiries?

Are they really working on EA games?

P.S.: My previous phones got really warm when i was using 3G data on CM builds, does that happen here as well?
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
Nope, and not sure.

Keiran
[Xperia Play Android Development] jerpelea:
FXP104 released
[Xperia Play Android Development] sonicfreak360:
Before anyone asks

Change log:

- latest cm 7.2 fixes

- more ram reclaimed (don't forget to flash kernels)

Copied from bugtracker link in 2nd post
[Xperia Play Android Development] savage24x:
What's broken on CDMA and how is the performance?
[Xperia Play Android Development] mehdi.moha:
thank you :)

it still doesn't support touch pad

waiting for full touch pad support version
[Xperia Play Android Development] sonicfreak360:
It's a daily driver for me!
[Xperia Play Android Development] savage24x:
Darn... I need that. I play the default games.
[Xperia Play Android Development] sonicfreak360:
This rom is supported on the latest version of Rom Manager!
[Xperia Play Android Development] nscxp2005:
How is the ROM Supported on ROM Manager?

In ROM Manager it doesn't have a recovery to flash.

Just looking for some clarification.

All the best,

NSCXP2005
[Xperia Play Android Development] sonicfreak360:
Basically, the latest update let's you tell it that you have clockwork, and it will allow you to use the actions such as nandroid backups without checking for clockwork support!
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
Nice. CWM was utterly useless for this device, good to see we can do something with it now. :)
[Xperia Play Android Development] crono141:
What phone model do you tell it that you have? There are no Xperia's in the list.

EDIT: Nevermind. Grabbed the latest Rom Manager update and it has an "unsupported device" option
[Xperia Play Android Development] :
Does GoogleVoiceSearch work?
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
I installed this over my old ~45ish install and voice search works for me.
[Xperia Play Android Development] :
Great.. will test it - when it work, i will use this nice fxp build!

Edit // Voice Search still doesnt work! -.-
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
Hmm. What happens when you try and use it?
[Xperia Play Android Development] neil_swann80:
It wasn't installed on mine. I had to redownload from the market.
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
One thing I've noticed in the 104 build over 054 is that I am unstable at 1.6ghz. Had to back down to 1.5
[Xperia Play Android Development] :
I speak anything to it like "search facebook" or "facebook" and it doesnt listen it!

Have tried a redownload from the market but it have still the same issue.

On all stock firmwares its working fantastic! Oo
[Xperia Play Android Development] savage24x:
Any estimate when gamepad will be supported?
[Xperia Play Android Development] AtomicKoala:
It is supported, and works perfectly for plenty of games. For others it doesnt.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Magnumutz:
I think he meant touchpads...
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
Okay, let me explain at least what I know.

First of all, the touchpads DO work, take Minecraft for example, the touchpads work fine, and are implemented correctly. The problem is that some games don't work with the touchpads.

I think that the reason that some games don't work with the touchpads is because there are two methods to detect touchpad input, the way that has been built into CM7, and the way that hasn't, of course both ways are built into the stock ROM.

The first way is used by minecraft, so it works in CM7.

The second way is TouchPadAsPointer IIRC and is (an easier) different way to detect touchpad input. I believe that this function is in the semc framework, but we do not have the source, so cannot integrate into CM7 easily. This is why games that use the TouchPadAsPointer method (FIFA 12 for example) do not have working touchpads on CM7.

Right, we have working touchpads for some, and none working for other games, and this is the way it will have to be.

Before asking when the touchpads will be fixed, go read the one rule of cyanogenmod.
[Xperia Play Android Development] AtomicKoala:
And I replied likewise.

I wish people would stop giving out about the touchpads, the devs know, let them focus on CM9 for now.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Mogul345:
Glad you steered this back to a technical discussion. I feel like I have seen TouchPadAsPointer in a logcat file once. But it makes sense - it's likely a proprietary layer of code used to redirect touchpad motion events into touchscreen motion events.

Reading this document again, I found this:

So I'm willing to bet that Android configures the touchpads as a touch pad device, the touchscreen as a pointer device, and that TouchPadToPointer converts MotionEvents raised by the touchpads to MotionEvents that appear to be raised by the touchscreen. This would allow developers to map touchpad events to an already developed touchscreen interface rather easily.

The question becomes, would Sony ever release that code (I doubt it), or can we use the precompiled binaries from a stock ROM (More likely IMO)? I know people have mentioned previously that if they install the semcframework somehow, things will work till a reboot, but something was blocking doing it on startup. Perhaps if we try and tackle the startup issue, we can solve the problem?
[Xperia Play Android Development] Magnumutz:
Yeah, sorry, didn't know that you knew :D
[Xperia Play Android Development] neil_swann80:
Unfortunately the "other" games tend to be some of the best ones designed for the Play.

I'd rather have a fully functional CM7 on my Play, than CM9 without full touchpad support. But we're all different I suppose.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Logseman:
I was the one who pointed out the TouchpadAsPointer method. As far as I've seen it is only used in Gameloft games.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Atarii:
Does the service menu work on CM7 (*#*#7378423#*#*)? If you enter that and goto Service Tests -> Touch pad test, you can test the ROM is receiving input from the touchpads correctly. If this displays correctly, it would indicate a problem in the next layer, the communication between the ROM and apps.

If that service mode doesn't work on CM7, it might be worth looking into porting it over (/system/app/ServiceMenu.apk on stock ROM)
[Xperia Play Android Development] Nhialor:
I dunno if its used in gta/each games but they don't work on cm.
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
GTA is a weird specimen. Since it is completely broken on CM7, physical buttons included, except for circle which mimics the back button.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Logseman:
That's because Circle is hardwired to be "Back".
[Xperia Play Android Development] NeoandGeo:
I know that. But I think that GTA is the only game where none of the hardware buttons work as intended, at least with all the apps/games I've tried.
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
It seems like all we need to do is figure out how/where the system is enumerating the touchpads as pointers. I tried looking up the .idc files (see earlier in the thread) but they don't exist, so it's *not* using the touchpads as IDCs (which may only apply to USB devices).

Somewhere in the SEMC rom or SEMC framework it's loading some kind of driver for the touchpads that tell the system that it's a pair of mice or whatever. It sounds 99% like that's occurring in the SEMCFramework.apk since loading that does fix the issue and there's no .idc files for the touchpads otherwise.

So yes - can we get someone with more knowledge on the issue to weigh in as to why the SEMC framework can't load on startup in CM7? Could that be tied to the phone's identification - the same reason some Xperia Play apps in the marketplace on CM7 say they won't work/aren't available for your phone even though it's an Xperia Play app? It seems like somewhere in CM the phone is being identified (possibly through a checksum or md5 of the kernel/rom/firmware?) as not being an Xperia. Whether or not this is intentional security by SEMC or just a missing string or identifier would be good to identify.

I have a feeling if we track the source of this down, it'll also allow the SEMC framework to load on boot, and the dominoes would fall into place.

I hope this helps - if anyone has any further ideas or things I can research please let me know, but I'm not entirely sure how/where a phone is identified by the market. It's obviously not by the model number alone, since my phone's model # identifies as R800i in the About section. Although technically my phone is an R800a - could this difference be a source of problems? I doubt it, but it's always worth investigating.

Has anyone run a logcat on the startup of SEMCframework.apk - does that give us any clues? And/or has that been compared against the logcat of an attempt to load SEMCframework.apk on bootup? Is it throwing an error message of some kind, and if so, what is it?

Thanks!

---------- Post added at 01:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

So in reply to my very own stuff:

I did some google searching and found this changelog entry by Jerpelea. It details how in the .mk file the device is now identified as a Zeus instead of an Xperia Play. Granted that's just a makefile for compiling, but it looks like it might also change the device ID in the About tab - dunno if that can/will affect getting the proper framework loaded?

This was just committed 2 days ago and hasn't made it into a released build yet. Is it possible this would affect/fix the ability of the semc framework to load?
[Xperia Play Android Development] mehdi.moha:
thank you freexperia team :)

i just wanna to say , touch pad still is not working , on all my PSXperia games !!!!

also it getting CRAZY on some games, like dead space , for excample :

i touch left ==>it going up

i touch down==> it going left ...

i think supporting touch pad completely is very important for all gamers . so , we will waiting for full touch pad support version .

thank you for your hard working :)
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
What is does is fix the device name for ICS, this might fix RIL.

As it is for ICS, I don't think it will effect anything on CM7.

Sent from my R800i using MIUI
[Xperia Play Android Development] illuminerdi:
It's part of the CM7 changelog, and is listed as part of the Gingerbread branch, so I don't think this is an ICS-specific fix, Keiran, and should be built into FXP105 as they've been building all the CM 7.2.0 changes into each new FXP build.
[Xperia Play Android Development] Mogul345:
Interesting. Gameloft is a reasonably large dev studio though, they might actually have contact with Sony on device support, and be leaking debug level items to the logcat in production builds (like HTC did with IQAgent). In any case, it's the most we've got so far.

Which leads me to another thought, I think I'm gonna go poke around Sony's developer site. I wonder if they publish their custom API's for devs to consume. It could bring more insight.
[Xperia Play Android Development] KeiranFTW:
Okay.

However, I think the only problem it will solve is "unsupported device" error in the market.

Sent from my R800i using MIUI