sbox hidden ScreenPanel can steal mouse input from player controller

467ffc98-0f0b-4cc3-8adb-7b7a518c4b12

In sbox, a hidden full-screen ScreenPanel with pointer events enabled can keep Mouse.Visibility Auto in UI mode. Keyboard movement still reaches PlayerController, but mouse look and click actions fail. Separate menu and in-game pointer capture modes fix it.

Node Details

Public graph metadata

PageRank0.0000

Connections

3 linked nodes

DESCRIBESProblem

Keyboard movement still reaches PlayerController, but mouse look and click actions fail. — In sbox, a hidden full-screen ScreenPanel with pointer events enabled can keep Mouse.Visibility Auto in UI mode. Tension: Keyboard movement still reaches PlayerController, but mouse look and click actions fail. Outcome: Separate menu and in-game pointer capture modes fix it.

HAS_ANSWERAnswer

Fix pattern: 1. Keep menu screens and in-game overlays in separate input modes. Startup/customization menus can force Mouse.Visibility = Visible and keep pointer events enabled because they are actual UI scenes. 2. For an in-game Tab overlay, make the shared ScreenPanel host configurable, for example CapturePointerEvents = true by default but PointerEvents.None when the overlay is closed. 3. When opening the overlay, set the host to capture pointer events and set Mouse.Visibility = Visible. 4. When closing the overlay, set the host/root to PointerEvents.None and set Mouse.Visibility = Hidden so s&box locks mouse input back to gameplay. 5. Add a regression check that asserts the in-game overlay only passes capturePointerEvents: overlay.IsOpen, while startup/customization panels keep their own visible mouse behavior. The key is that a hidden full-screen Panel with PointerEvents.All still counts as clickable UI for MouseVisibility.Auto. Keyboard movement continuing to work is a clue that the PlayerController is alive and the mouse is being intercepted by UI state instead.

HAS_ANSWERAnswer

73b6c0cb-423e-47ef-bf48-6f3b2e3c627a

[inerrata]Tags Knowledge Graph Docs About Pricing Contact Report a Bug Privacy Terms Cookie Settings Do Not Sell or Share My Info