Long Key Hold Bug

Hi,

when holding down a key continuously such as "spacebar" or "alt", Teamviewer sends this as repeaded single key press command.

A proper key hold command transmissio would be crucial for working with Apps such as Photoshop / Autodesk Maya / Autocad etc.

Works without a problem in **Third Party Product**, so seems to be technically possible,

Would be great if that could be fixed!

Thanks a lot and best regards

Adrian

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GeryGreyhound

we simply haven't designed and don't intend to design the software for remote gaming.

Not only gaming is when this would be important, but in several graphic design, video editing and other similar applications.

For example: in Adobe After Effects long pressing spacebar enables dragging the viewport with the mouse, one press of spacebar starts a RAM preview (rendering and playback of the actual sequence). When I use After Effects with TeamViewer, every time I try to drag the viewport with space, it rapidly starts and stops and starts and stops... a RAM preview, while you can drag the viewport cca 1 pixel away until you don't release and press again the spacebar, which is pretty frustrating.

In Cinema 4D all camera controls are possible with a key being hold pressed (1: pan, 2: zoom, and 3: rotate) while dragging the mouse, and these very basic and essential controls are unusable via TeamViewer. These are like the steering wheel in a car, not off-road use or anything extreme.

chireaver

Sure would be nice to be able to long press keys. It shouldn't be hard to send a key down event on a press, and a key up event on release of that key....instead of spamming that key press constantly. Just don't send anymore key events after the initial press of a given key until after it has been released.

Scotty

Hi Wickage,

Tomer1 is correct that this is not a latency issue. It is because of how we engage the windows API.

We are remote support software and as such the program is designed to be as lightweight as possible.

However even if we did change the method, this still would not function acceptably to work with games which is why no one has created a decent service like this already.

Not to mention binding a mouse as a games controller would immediately become the next issue you would face as this interface is a lot more complicated.

@Tomer1
To be honest, I find it a bit unfair that you blame "Lazy Developers" for the issue when we simply haven't designed and don't intend to design the software for remote gaming.

It is like calling the designer of a sports car "lazy" for not giving the car enough clearance and no 4WD for off-road use. It simply was never intended for that.

Considering our target market are commercial users and we only offer it as a complimentary product to personal users, designing the software for sub-par remote gaming and introducing large chunks of arbitrary coding irrelevant to business users would probably not be a smart move on our part.

I hope this clarifies the issue for you.

-Scotty

Tomer1

Ok I understand the reasons why you would consider this extra functionality unnecessary as TeamViewer is indeed not a service designed for gaming.

I’m sure you’re aware of this but long pressing a key is a functionality that isn’t necessarily needed in gaming I personally as a creator and developer need this kind of functionality in some programs to properly and effectively interact with the UI .

A touch screen can’t replace a mouse and keyboard but it can get closer to giving the possibilities that a keyboard and mouse can. I wouldn’t say it’s a deal breaker but I find it really annoying to spam press keys to do simple tasks. Hope you would re consider this topic. It is definitely a limit of TeamViewer .

Thanks you for your response Scotty .

tomesh

I am a software developer and I use the vim editor and associated plugins for IDEs. vim uses apha keys for navigation, so for example, I use the "j" key to go down in the file. For this reason, I would like teamviewer to support repeated keys.

lgeffrion

I have this same issue. Immensly crucial

csakanal

Same problem here when navigating 3D programs like Softimage, Houdini!

cosstef

Same problem here, although I found a work-around for this problem

try SHIFT+SPACE long pressing to move the image ( in photoshop ). Press Shift before Space, then keep both long pressed

Good luck!

furegato

I also need this to work with Houdini, Nuke, After Effects
My company bought the software just to find this limitation...
We constantly use continuous pressed keys in our environment of work.
Can we have it?
At least as an option for paying members only? (since aparently you guys are trying to avoid gamers in your service)
Cheers!

ray_k

This is a must have feature, even if it's a toggle button i.e. Enable Continuous Key Press.

I need this for various DCC applications for 3d animation as well as game/application development from within Unreal Engine 4. Basic camera lateral navigation in UE4 is **bleep** through teamviewer.

Please add this feature, it is pretty much unusable for what I do.

willy_west

I'd just like to say this isn't just gamers.

Holding the spacebar is crucial in almost all Adobe programs.

Scotty

Hi Tomer1,

You can add this to our ideas board as a feature request if you would like.

I would recommend you give any examples of commonly used software that needs it to make sure it isn't passed over as "Gaming" though. (Just an honest recommendation)

-Scotty

cepcep

Your program I always use to communicate with the family when she is away from me, in particular with my little son who is happy with me to play simple online games through the browser. So, just "WASD" there and need. It's a pity that your program does not allow me to be closer to my son in this regard. But thank you so much for everything else.

Вашу программу я всегда использую для связи с семьей, когда она вдали от меня, в часности с моим маленьким сыном, который рад со мной играть в простые онлайн игры через браузер. Так вот, как раз "WASD" там и нужен. Жаль что Ваше программа не позволяет мне быть ближе к моему сыну в этом плане. Но огромное спасибо, за все остальное.

Null

I had made 6 AHK [Auto Hot Key] scripts that allowed me to play 3D games remotely. The scripts placed on the remote computer were for jumping and walking, but the script for resetting the cursor position was placed on the local computer. With these scripts, the movement will be consistent, but there will be an input lag of 100ms.

Here are the scripts:

For forward-walking:

w::
Send {Up down}
Sleep 100
Send {Up up}

For backward-walking:

s::
Send {Down down}
Sleep 100
Send {Down up}

For strafing right:

d::
Send {Right down}
Sleep 100
Send {Right up}

For strafing left:

a::
Send {Left down}
Sleep 100
Send {Left up}

For jumping:

Space::
Send {0 down}
Sleep 100
Send {0 up}

For resetting the cursor position(Beware: You will have to set the center of the game screen yourself, as it varies on where you placed the window. Also, this must be placed and run on the local computer, not on the remote one.) This can be toggled by pressing CTRL+Q. Due to AHK's input processing, when trying to toggle this off, it might not work the first time, so try pressing CTRL+Q multiple times.

^D::
CoordMode, Mouse, Screen
MouseGetPos, MouseX, MouseY
if toggle := !toggle
 gosub, MoveTheMouse
else
 SetTimer, MoveTheMouse, off
return
MoveTheMouse:
MouseMove, <XCOORD INTEGER>, <YCOORD INTEGER>, 0
SetTimer, MoveTheMouse, 50
return

Before running all of the scripts, set the game's controls for Forward-walking to the UP-Arrow key, Backward-walking to the DOWN-Arrow key, Strafing right to the RIGHT-arrow key, Strafing left to the LEFT-Arrow key and Jumping to the key 0. Then when playing the game from the local computer, just use W,A,S,D and SPACE as usual.

You can find AutoHotKey on https://autohotkey.com/. I hope that this helped.

Fooopa

I'm having the same issue. Super annoying. The only thing I found which seems to be the same issue (in another context) is this....

https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Linux/bug-ctrl-any-key-types-the-key-repeatedly/td-p/27034

So apparently they are working on it. FIngers crossed it gets fixed soon.

smckenna

I am not a gamer, but I am also experiencing keyboard delays when typing on the remote computer. I never noticed these delays when using the Windows client, but I recently got a MacBookPro and I'm experiencing keystroke delays when using TeamViewer for Mac connecting to a Windows 10 host.

Thanks.

payala

Not sure if this is the same issue, but I'm a developer, and just being in a text editor and pressing up, right, left or down arrows to navigate through the code is a pain.

The key repetition rate is very low, and the cursor keeps moving after I release the key. Pretty invonvenient.

spyroman16

I use Unity software, for example, and I need this feature also.

csakanal

**Third Party Product** do the job Go and try that!

n-ate

This happens for me on windows over lan. It's not related to any specific device.

The funny thing is when I hold a character. It initially sends the key to the client about every 300-500 ms, but then eventually seems to send 20+ times a second after holding for 2 or more seconds.

Patchm00

What's interesting is the regular keys (including WASD) have this issue but the keys to the right (HOME/END etc and the number keypad, do not have this issue (for me)

Nadin1

Hello @Fooopa,

Thank you for your message.
I am sorry, but the described issue is expected behaviour at the moment.
Although you are pressing the spacebar key long, TeamViewer gets the command pressing and releasing the spacebar repeatedely from the system and transfers this command to the remote device.
Anyway I will forward this issue internally. But I can not say if or when there will be a solution.

Best,
Nadin

derflow

+1 for a solution for this.

We're a design Studio using mostly Cinema 4D and After Effects and neither the spacebar nor the hotkeys 1, 2, 3 (this is used inside C4D to navigate the viewport, e.g. hold 1, click left MB and move the mouse) get translated correctly. Most other remote control software does this correctly (but has other flaws, hence we're using TV) so there must be a way to get those commands across?

Thanks in advance!

Tomer1

It's not about delay it's about the send keys method . Team Viewer sends individual key press for etch time you press a key on the keyboard this is easier for the developer. I don't know what method they use for controlling the system but in Windows you can send keys with the Sendkeys class at winForms or when accessing the WIN32 API if they access the win32 API they can definitely send key down and key up input to the system so they should have no problems technology speaking , but they are probably too lazy to add support for that in their apps because the mobile keyboard only sends them key presses so they'll have to implement their own mobile keyboard . This is the result of lazy developers not delay internet connection or Windows problems they have the method there they can access it they are just lazy to build their UI to use it.

chris83

We really need this sorted, has anyone from TV officially responded to say it's being looked at?

For those of us working in Adobe CC programs, such a seemingly minor issue causes a frustrating amount of distruption and slow down in productivity.

The hand tool work around is okay, but just not good enough.

Hackney

Trying to work from home using Houdini and Adobe products, the long key press issue is a real pain. Teamviewer isn't cheap, should really work properly. Will investigate alternatives when subscriptions are due.

Hass_Inseinc

Please fix this soon TeamViewer, it's really frustrating and slows down work flow massively.

MeyerAdrian

+1 here

Should really be fixed

JeanK

Hello @MeyerAdrian,

Thank you for your message and welcome to the TeamViewer Community! ?

I could not reproduce this issue on a test device: When holding down a key continuously such as "spacebar" or "alt", Teamviewer sends it correctly as a long key hold.

Could you please try to disable hardware acceleration on your devices and try again? We explain how to proceed here: Disable hardware acceleration

Best regards

Jean

T1M

@cosstef Great workaround! Thanks.