fix for rpgmaker vx ace player always going left

for a while, i've been having a problem where on the computer i usually use, i can't play rpgmaker vx ace games, because no matter the game, the player character would always go to the left of the screen. pressing arrow keys wouldn't do anything to fix this - i could go up if i pressed up, but that was it.

on another computer, i didn't have this problem, so i just assumed there was something weird about my computer & left it at that.

however, i figured out the issue.

i mainly use a surface pro 9, & the issue with this computer is that it has a touchscreen, which makes it an input device.

apparently, rpgmaker vx ace really doesn't like having multiple input devices - it gets confused & seems to interpret the non-keyboard input as pressing left even when not actually inputting anything.

turning off the touchscreen input in device manager made rpgmaker vx ace stop making the player character go left & i could use the arrow keys to move around again!

however, this turns off my touchscreen, which is less than ideal... but fine enough for a short period of time.

rpgmaker vx ace is old so i guess at the time they didn't really anticipate computers with more than one type of input device lol.

just sharing this here in case it helps somebody else who wants to play an rpgmaker vx ace game but can't stop going left! 👈