How to simulate mouse cursor movement in C++ - c++

Question

I'm creating a program on my spare time and I'm trying to simulate mouse cursor movements.
I'm trying to make it so that when I start my program it'll move my cursor from [x,y] to [0,0] (which is the top-left corner of my screen).
Is there anyway to do this without having it teleport?
Here is what I have so far for my mouse cursor movement program:
POINT p;
GetCursorPos( &p );
double mouseX = p.x;
double mouseY = p.y;
SetCursorPos(0, 0);
Any way to actually see my mouse being moved instead of just teleporting to [0,0] instantly?

Answer 1

You will need to gradually progress your mouse a little bit at a time. Consider, for example the following pseudo-code function:
def moveMouse (endX, endY, stepCount, stepDelay):
GetCurrentPosTo(startX, startY);
for step = 1 to stepCount
currX = startX + (endX - startX) * step / stepCount
currY = startY + (endY - startY) * step / stepCount
SetCurrentPosFrom(currX, currY)
DelayFor(stepDelay)
endfor
enddef
This calculates the current position (within the loop) as some fraction of the journey from (startX, startY) to (endX, endY), adjusting for the number of steps you wish to take.
So using a stepCount of 100 and stepDelay of ten milliseconds, the mouse cursor would smoothly move over the period of a second.
There could be other possibilities such as moving the cursor at a specific speed rather than taking a specific time, or specifying a minimum speed and maximum time to combine both methods.
I'll leave that as an extra exercise. Suffice to say it would involve the same method of moving the cursor a little at a time rather than just setting its position to the final value immediately.

Answer 2

Heres my little concoction from around the web!
It spins the mouse, and rather fluidly, in an Archimedean spiral from the center of the screen outward. You can also mess with the math in the loop, specifically the `cos()` and `sin()` functions to get it to do different movements. Purely for educational purposes only.
Enjoy :)
#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>
void moveMouse(int x, int y){
int count = 800;
int movex, movey;
float angle = 0.0f;
// set mouse at center screen
SetCursorPos(x/2, y/2);
// begin spiral! :)
for(int i = 0; i <= count; i++){
angle = .3 * i;
movex = (angle * cos(angle) * 2) + x/2;
movey = (angle * sin(angle) * 2) + y/2;
SetCursorPos(movex, movey);
Sleep(1);
}
}
int main(){
int Height = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYSCREEN);
int Width = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN);
moveMouse(Width,Height);
return 0;
}

Answer 3

You will have to call SetCursorPos multiple times with coordinates first close to your point, then gradually closer to (0,0). Without some intentional delay it will just appear to happen instantly anyway, so keep that in mind.

Answer 4

Try this code I used to debug inputs.. I put it where it runs every frame. Get the mouse position, and set the mouse position. Your mouse should not be moving or the math is wrong..
{
POINT pos;
GetCursorPos(&pos);
INPUT input[1];
memset(&input, 0, sizeof(input));
int left = GetSystemMetrics(SM_XVIRTUALSCREEN);
int top = GetSystemMetrics(SM_YVIRTUALSCREEN);
int width = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN);
int heigth = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN);
// 0x1000 because 0 to 0xffff is not 65535, its 65536.
// we add 0.5f to the location to put us in the center of the pixel. to avoid rounding errors. Take it out and your mouse will move up and to the left.
POINT Desired;
Desired.x = ((float)(pos.x - left ) + 0.5f) * (float) (0x10000) / (float) (width);
Desired.y = ((float)(pos.y - top) + 0.5f) * (float) (0x10000) / (float) (heigth);
// move to new location
input[0].type = INPUT_MOUSE;
input[0].mi.dx = Desired.x;
input[0].mi.dy = Desired.y;
input[0].mi.mouseData = 0;
input[0].mi.dwFlags = MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE | MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE_NOCOALESCE | MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE | MOUSEEVENTF_VIRTUALDESK;
input[0].mi.time = 0;
SendInput(1, &input[0], sizeof(INPUT));
}