SDL Smoother movement in game - c++

Question

I have got a small problem with my game.
It is not a big deal but I'd love to sort this out.
So this is my input processing function:
void MainGame::processInput()
{
SDL_Event evnt;
while (SDL_PollEvent(&evnt)) {
switch (evnt.type) {
case SDL_QUIT:
_gameState = GameState::EXIT;
break;
case SDL_MOUSEMOTION:
break;
case SDL_KEYDOWN:
switch (evnt.key.keysym.sym) {
case SDLK_RIGHT:
player.movePlayer(1);
break;
case SDLK_LEFT:
player.movePlayer(2);
break;
}
}
}
}
and it works just fine, but as you can probably imagine, when I press an arrow key, it moves once (calls the player.movePlayer(); function once) then pauses for a fraction of a second and then continues to read input.
I don't really know how to word it but I hope you know what I mean.
You can also see this effect when you hold any letter in word.
Let's say you press W, it will display the first W instantly and then remaining ones after a fraction of a second something like that:
w wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
I really don't know how to explain it.
So the question is, is there a way to read the raw input from the keyboard so the function will be called continuously straight away?

Answer 1

I often use code like this:
bool keyboard[1<<30]; // EDIT: as noted in the comments this code might not be the most efficient
and in the event loop
while (SDL_PollEvent(&evnt)) {
switch (evnt.type) {
case SDL_QUIT:
_gameState = GameState::EXIT;
break;
case SDL_MOUSEMOTION:
break;
case SDL_KEYDOWN:
keyboard[evnt.key.keysym.sym] = true;
break;
case SDL_KEYUP:
keyboard[evnt.key.keysym.sym] = false;
break;
}
step();
}
and the step function:
void step() {
if(keyboard[SDLK_RIGHT]) player.movePlayer(1);
else if(keyboard[SDLK_LEFT]) player.movePlayer(2);
}