PyGame does not accept events when 3+ keys are pressed simultaneously

Question

I am developing a simple game in PyGame ... The booster flies and shoots.

---

Question: Why does pygame stop issuing keyboard events when keys can be pressed at the same time?

About key manipulation: The program has a number of variables, such as KEYSTATE_FIRE, KEYSTATE_TURNLEFTetc.

• When an event is executed KEYDOWN, it sets the variable KEYSTATE_*to True.
• When an event is executed KEYUP, it sets the same variable to False.

Problem: If you press UP-ARROWand at the same time LEFT-ARROW, pygame will NOT emit an event KEYDOWNwhen clicked SPACE. It depends on the keys. When I press letters, it seems that I can contain about 5 of them before pygame stops highlighting KEYDOWNevents for additional keys.

Verification: In my main loop, I simply printed out each event received to verify the above behavior.

Code: For reference: here is a (rough) way to handle key events at the moment:

while GAME_RUNNING:
    FRAME_NUMBER += 1
    CLOCK.tick(FRAME_PER_SECOND)

    #----------------------------------------------------------------------
    # Check for events
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        print event

        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            raise SystemExit()

        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_UP:
            KEYSTATE_FORWARD = True
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_UP:
            KEYSTATE_FORWARD = False

        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_DOWN:
            KEYSTATE_BACKWARD = True
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_DOWN:
            KEYSTATE_BACKWARD = False

        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_LEFT:
            KEYSTATE_TURNLEFT = True
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_LEFT:
            KEYSTATE_TURNLEFT = False

        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_RIGHT:
            KEYSTATE_TURNRIGHT = True
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_RIGHT:
            KEYSTATE_TURNRIGHT = False

        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_SPACE:
            KEYSTATE_FIRE = True
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.dict['key'] == pygame.K_SPACE:
            KEYSTATE_FIRE = False

    # remainder of game loop here...

To click this sequence:

• a (down)
• s (down)
• d (down)
• f (down)
• g (down)
• h (down)
• j (down)
• k (down)
• a (up)
• s (up)
• d (up)
• f (up)
• g (up)
• h (up)
• j (up)
• k (up)

Here is the result:

• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 30, 'key': 97, 'unicode': u'a', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 31, 'key': 115, 'unicode': u's', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 32, 'key': 100, 'unicode': u'd', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 33, 'key': 102, 'unicode': u'f', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 30, 'key': 97, 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 31, 'key': 115, 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 32, 'key': 100, 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 33, 'key': 102, 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 36, 'key': 106, 'unicode': u'j', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(2-KeyDown {'scancode': 37, 'key': 107, 'unicode': u'k', 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 36, 'key': 106, 'mod': 0})>
• <Event(3-KeyUp {'scancode': 37, 'key': 107, 'mod': 0})>

---

Is this a common problem? Is there a workaround? If not, what is the best way to deal with multiple key issues when using pygame?

Answer 1

, - , ? , . , .

, , .

- SPACE , .

Answer 2

, ( , ) . , . "-", , .

( ) / .

Answer 3

. 3 .

Answer 4

This can be very keyboard dependent. My current keyboard without a name only supports two keys pressed at a time, often a pain in games.