Games need low-level access to keyboard input. On Windows, there's DirectInput. But what technology do Mac OS X game developers use?
Obviously, there's enough Mac games which get keyboard input just right, without the drawbacks of the commonly known solutions:
Solution #1: Use keyUp / keyDown events
-(void)keyUp:(NSEvent*)event;
-(void)keyDown:(NSEvent*)event;
Inacceptable drawback: keyDown events are repeated based on the system preference settings for "key repeat rate" and "key repeat delay". This causes an initial keyDown event followed by a pause before it starts repeating at a rate defined by a system preference setting. This solution can not be used for continuous key events.
I wonder if the key repeat behavior can be disabled? I suppose that you could read the first keyDown key, then remember the "key with keyCode x is down" state in your class until the keyUp event is received for that key, thus bypassing the repeat delay and repeat rate issues.
Solution #2: Use Quarts Event Taps
See Quartz Event Services Reference. It seems to be sufficiently low-level.
Inacceptable drawback: requires Assistive Devices to be enabled in system preferences under Universal Access - Keyboard. While this may be on by default, there is no guarantee that it might be turned off on some systems.
I also read that Quartz event taps require the app to run as root, but found no confirmation for this.
Solution #3: macos cocoa keyboard macos-carbon