How can I ensure touch screen controls are disabled for a better player experience in my game on Windows devices?

Disabling Touchscreen Controls in Unity for Windows Devices

Ensuring that touchscreen controls are disabled in your Unity game when run on Windows devices involves a few strategic steps. This can help optimize the gaming experience for users who are using traditional input devices like a mouse and keyboard.

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Step-by-Step Process

1. Understand Input Handling: By default, Unity uses an input system that supports various devices. For precise control over input, it’s essential to configure the Input Manager or implement the new Input System Package.
2. Configure InputManager: Go to Edit > Project Settings > Input Manager. Here, you can adjust or remove touch input references to ensure they don’t interfere with your intended input controls.
3. Implement Unity’s New Input System: This package provides more granular control over devices. You can selectively disable touch input by checking the input device and crafting logic to ignore touchscreen inputs. To do this:

   using UnityEngine;
   using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
   
   public class DisableTouchInput : MonoBehaviour
   {
       void Start()
       {
           // Only enable controls for non-touchscreen input
           if (InputSystem.devices.Any(device => device is Touchscreen))
           {
               // Logic to disable touch input
               Touchscreen.current?.MakeCurrent();
               InputSystem.EnableDevice(Mouse.current);
           }
       }
   }

4. Use Windows API: If you’re comfortable interfacing with Windows APIs, you can disable touch input at a system level using native code. However, this is more advanced and should be used cautiously.
5. Testing: Run your game on various Windows devices to ensure that touch inputs are indeed disabled and that mouse and keyboard work seamlessly. Use Input.GetMouseButton, Input.GetAxis, and similar methods to fine-tune control.

Benefits

• Improves player experience by avoiding unintentional touch inputs.
• Makes the game’s interface consistent across devices.
• Potentially reduces performance overhead by handling fewer input events.