Question: How can I vibrate an Xbox 360 controller?

Answer: Vibrating an Xbox 360 controller is actually quite simple. All you need to do is call the SetVibration method of the static GamePad class.

To vibrate a controller, you don’t actually need a GamePadState to work with because all you have to do is call GamePad.SetVibration(…). For our sake though, we will create a GamePadState just so that we can check if certain buttons are down and then vibrate the controller respectively. Create a GamePadState at the top of the Update method.

//The GamePad to check for input from.
GamePadState gamePad = GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One);

Now, for a simple effect, whenever you are pressing the A button, the left motor of the controller vibrates and whenever you are pressing the B button, the right motor of the controller vibrates. To do this, place this code also into the Update method.

//Create two variables to keep track of the rotation values of the
//motors.
float leftMotorVibration = 0;
float rightMotorVibration = 0;

//If A is pressed, vibrate the left motor.
if (gamePad.Buttons.A == ButtonState.Pressed)
{
leftMotorVibration = 1;
}
else
{
leftMotorVibration = 0;
}
//If B is pressed, vibrate the right motor.
if (gamePad.Buttons.B == ButtonState.Pressed)
{
rightMotorVibration = 1;
}
else
{
rightMotorVibration = 0;
}

//Finally, vibrate the motors based on their individual values.
GamePad.SetVibration(PlayerIndex.One, leftMotorVibration,
rightMotorVibration);

First we create two simple floats to keep track of the vibration value of the motors. After that we check for input. Note that we have to check if the buttons are not pressed along with if they are pressed. This is because, if the buttons were pressed and then were released, nothing ever sets the vibration back to zero. Finally, after checking for input, we call the SetVibration method of the GamePad class. The first parameter specifies the player controller to vibrate which for us was Player 1. The second and third parameters specify the amount to rotate the motors by. For us we passed in leftMotorVibration and rightMotorVibration.

If you run the project now and press A or B, Player 1’s game controller should vibrate accordingly.

Question and Answer

Hopefully, these question and answer posts will help you. If you have a question that is not answered, please post a comment and ask for it to be answered.

The SpriteFont
What are all the possible font names that you can use for a SpriteFont?

The Xbox 360 Controller
How can I vibrate an Xbox 360 controller?

Drawing 2D Textures With the SpriteBatch
How do I tint the color of a Texture2D using the SpriteBatch?



I give all the desires of my heart to my Lord. May He work in everyone's heart so that they will discover the true joy that comes with following Him. Amen.

Question: What are all the possible font names that you can use for a SpriteFont?

Answer: Microsoft has allowed almost all the font families to be used for a SpriteFont. If you are having problems though, take not that there are some standards that need to be used in order to have XNA recognize the font family name.

1. You need to allow spaces which may seem odd but is needed (i.e. the font family Times New Roman would still be entered in as “Times New Roman” and not “TimesNewRoman”).


2. Also, obviously you need to spell the name correctly. No little mistakes as every letter matters. Also, there is no abbreviating.


3. The Algerian font family is not accepted.