pygame get_pressed stays true

Question

I am making a game in which you move a character with the arrow keys on the keyboard. Since my laptop sometimes think that I pressed a key twice i wanted to make sure that the program waited until I released the pressed key. I use the key.get_pressed() method. The problem is that when I press a key, the action is executed, but the loop waiting for the keys to be released keeps running because the get_pressed() event thinks that i still pressed the button. Here is the code:

while ChangeRun == False: # main game loop
    for Event in pygame.event.get():
        if Event == QUIT:
            pygame.quit()
            sys.exit()

    BUTTON = -1
    if pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_UP]:
        BUTTON = 0
    elif pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_DOWN]:
        BUTTON = 1
    elif pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_RIGHT]:
        BUTTON = 2
    elif pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_LEFT]:
        BUTTON = 3
    elif pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_p]:
        BUTTON = 4
    elif pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_RETURN]:
        BUTTON = 5


    if BUTTON == 4 or BUTTON == 5:
        Execute()
    elif BUTTON != -1:
        SetDirection()

    DisplaySurface() # Displays all data on screen
    # it works until these rows:
    while pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_UP] or pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_DOWN] or pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_LEFT] or pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_RIGHT] or pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_p] or pygame.key.get_pressed()[K_RETURN]:
        pass # Keeps running because the get_pressed() method thinks one of the buttons is still pressed...

I checked what was wrong by printing all get_pressed() values. It showed that the button I pressed keeps returning true, even when i released it.

I hope it's clear and that someone could help.

So you want your character to move only once every time you press and release a key? — sshashank124
Why don't you get the key pressed in the for Event in pygame.event.get a lot easier to me, but i agree with Dominic, you set the Button to -1 each time through, so should work. — KodyVanRy

KodyVanRy KodyVanRy · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-26T13:51:28

I hope you read my comment, but personally the following is how I would do it, this is because you check for an event then check what that event was it's just a bit more full proof.

This is obviously inside your while loop.

BUTTON = -1

for event in pygame.event.get():
    if event.type == QUIT:
        pygame.quit()
        sys.exit()
    elif event.type in [KEYDOWN, KEYUP]:
        if event.key == K_UP:
            BUTTON = 0
        elif event.key == K_DOWN:
            BUTTON = 1
        #and so on

and then at the end use...

while True:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type in [KEYDOWN, KEYUP]:
            if event.key == K_DOWN or event.key == K_UP or event.key == K_LEFT or event.key == K_RIGHT or event.key == K_SPACE:
                pass
            else:
                break

This is because pygame.event.get() remove all events from the queue and so if you call it again it should have nothing unless, like Dominic said, your keyboard is broken.

pygame get_pressed stays true

1 Answers