Accessing wacom tablets from a background process (exclusive mode)?

Question

One nice ascpect about MIDI is that one can route it explicitly to some app - unlike regular input devices like your run of the mill mouse or keyboard.

Is there a similar way to use a Wacom pen tablet exclusively with one app that doesn't even have a visible window resource (Windows 10)? I'd like to repurpose it as a jog dial for video editing and need to intercept the device data in order to simulate specific key presses or mouse movements.

Here is what I'm currently working with:

• https://github.com/Wacom-Developer/wacom-device-kit-windows/tree/master/Wintab%20ScribbleDemo
• https://developer-docs.wacom.com/intuos-cintiq-business-tablets/docs/wintab-reference#logcontext

The scribble demo works fine out of the box. Setting g_penMovesSystemCursor = false makes the system cursor ignore the tablet, but only as long as the demo's window is in focus. I want the system cursor to always ignore the tablet input and the demo to always receive the wacom events.

Answer 1

Well, I guess this answers it:

How can my application have exclusive access to all tablet pen events?

You must force your application to be the front-most (foreground) app.

https://developer-docs.wacom.com/intuos-cintiq-business-tablets/docs/wintab-faqs#how-can-my-application-have-exclusive-access-to-all-tablet-pen-events

Bummer. Such a simple and useful thing for an input device, and it's not supported.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem - needing to get pen data from the tablet even when there were other windows in the foreground. The solution is very simple - create a timer in the same window and call the WTOverlap function when it fires. Something like that:

case WM_TIMER: WTOverlap(CurrentCtx, TRUE); break;

P.S. Timer interval 20 ms.