Capturing mouse position outside of browser window?

Question

One major barrier to creating immersive experiences in the browser (using WebGL and similar) is the set of limitations placed on mouse control.

For instance a first per

Answer 1

A hint :

 function thumb_mouse_down(e) {
                       e.target.setCapture();
                       return false;
                   }

 function doc_mouse_up(e) {
                        e.target.releaseCapture();
}

Answer 2

setCapture() does the trick. A working example is here.

Answer 3

To answer your question, no, you can't get mouse events from outside the window (including its position).

There is the Mouse Lock API, which is designed specifically for the case you describe. It locks the cursor to the current window. Support is virtually non-existent right now, but one day..!

Answer 4

That really seems like a far bigger security issue than allowing the developer to reposition the cursor. The answer is no, there's no such thing. And there probably won't ever be one. Sorry!

Update: I was, of course, talking about the capturing outside the window that would be a problem. It's very likely that there will ever be an API that locks the mouse, maybe after asking the user's permission. As nickf pointed out, they're already working on it -https://www.w3.org/TR/pointerlock/

Original defunct link - http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/webevents/raw-file/default/mouse-lock.html