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    Control usages

    Control usage refers to the meaning of a control. In contrast to the name of a control which describes its physical end point on a device (such as Button south), the usage identifies the particular role of a control. For example, the usage Back identifies a control generally used to move backwards in the navigation history of a UI, and the usage Submit identifies a control generally used to confirm a selection in the UI.

    On a keyboard, the escape key that generally fulfills this role of Back, whereas on a gamepad, it is generally the B or Circle button.

    Some devices might not have a control that generally fulfills this function and so might not have any control with the Back usage.

    By looking up controls by usage rather than by name when selecting a control for a binding, you can locate the correct control to use for certain standardized situation without needing to know the specific details of the device or platform.

    You can access a control's usages using the InputControl.usages property.

    Usages can be arbitrary strings. However, there is a particular set of common usages, which predefined in the API in the form of the CommonUsages static class. Refer to CommonUsages for an overview.

    Additional resources

    • Select a control for binding
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