gamepadSnapshot

Non-reactive read of the underlying Gamepad object (or null when nothing is connected at index). Use it inside a game loop that wants every button and axis each frame without a per-element subscription. Unlike the reactive accessors in pota/use/gamepad, this does not start the rAF poll on its own — it reads navigator.getGamepads() directly. Pair it with useAnimationFrame to drive the loop.

Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
index	number	Gamepad index. Default is 0.

Returns: Gamepad | null — the raw snapshot, or null if no gamepad is at that index.

Examples

Drive a position from a game loop

Polls the left-stick axes once per frame and moves a dot, with a deadzone so it sits still when centered. Reading from the snapshot keeps the hot loop free of reactive subscriptions; only the position signal is reactive.

import { render, signal } from 'pota'
import { gamepadSnapshot } from 'pota/use/gamepad'
import { useAnimationFrame } from 'pota/use/animate'

const deadzone = v => (Math.abs(v) < 0.15 ? 0 : v)

function App() {
	const pos = signal({ x: 100, y: 100 })

	useAnimationFrame(() => {
		const pad = gamepadSnapshot()
		if (!pad) return
		const [lx, ly] = pad.axes
		pos.update(p => ({
			x: p.x + deadzone(lx) * 4,
			y: p.y + deadzone(ly) * 4,
		}))
	}).start()

	return (
		<div
			style={{
				position: 'absolute',
				width: '20px',
				height: '20px',
				'border-radius': '50%',
				background: 'crimson',
				left: () => pos.read().x + 'px',
				top: () => pos.read().y + 'px',
			}}
		/>
	)
}

render(App)