How is it that we have 540Hz, 4k, and OLED displays, mice with 20k DPI and sub 2ms latency times, graphics cards capable of 100 TFLOPS, console controller compatibility, VR, etc. etc... and we're still basically using the same binary, on/off keyboard input scheme?
The mechanical keyboard space has exploded recently. People over in r/MechanicalKeyboards are paying $300 for high-end keyboards that look amazing, sound cool, and feel great, but which have 2005 technological limitations such as one connection method. Full disclosure, I happen to own a couple of said keyboards and I love them, so not knocking it. Meanwhile, in the GAMERZ XXXXTREME segment of the market, Razer is busy innovating by cramming more LEDs and malware into their keebs, and little else.
Wooting, as far as I know, has been the only game in Analog Town for years now. Their selection is limited and they're struggling to keep up with orders. Why haven't bigger players gotten into this yet? Is it a lack of demand? Wooting's waitlist seems to dispute that.
The Lekker switches they use not only allow for variable input, but also allow adjustment of actuation points. So you can literally decide how sensitive each key will be to pressure without having to swap switches, which would seem solve not one but two shortcomings of traditional keyboards when gaming.
I realize that many gamers who'd want pressure-sensitive input are solving that problem with console controllers, but there are still many games which are commonly played with kb+m that would benefit, such as any RPG that allows you to operate a vehicle. Certain strategy games like Factorio that use WSAD to drive cars and tanks are especially annoying with only on/off key presses. It would also be great for menu navigation instead of the now-ubiquitous long-press.
I realize that we'd also need buy-in from game developers, but the PC gaming community has been able to effect changes with the right amount of interest.
So, in your opinion, is this a stupid concern? Are analog keyboard switches a niche novelty that wouldn't benefit your play style?
Hi,
I saw the finalmouse keyboard reveal and I thought about how many more keyboards are there which are analog.
I found two, other than a wooting keyboard and finalmouse centerpeice:
Ace pad tech-https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=4262 which is just $100
Fluz keyboard- https://fluxkeyboard.com/ which is basically a finalmouse keyboard without 8khz(unreleased)
and there is probably a pulsar keyboard this year which they teased in their 2023 mice preview video.
Anyone know anymore?
Are mechanical keyboards just for gamers?
Since gamers were among the first to re-embrace mechanical keyboards, you’ll find many models on the market designed to appeal, at least in part, to gaming. For example, you’ll see many mechanical keyboards that offer programmable RGB lighting and either onboard macro programmability or customization software or both.
That said, there are plenty of mechanical keyboard models that cater to everyday users. These tend to feature wireless connections and less flashy designs.
If you are a gamer and you’re looking for something that covers all your bases, I think it’s hard to beat my recommendation for the best gaming keyboard, the SteelSeries Apex Pro.
Why get a mechanical keyboard?
Mechanical keyboards — those chunky, clicky retro throwbacks to the computing days of yore — have long been popular with gamers who appreciate their durability, responsiveness and configurability and those who learned to type on a typewriter and like the familiarity. Over the past few years, a host of smaller makers have introduced more versatile, fashionable, quieter and just plain friendlier models, making it possible for more people tired of ever-thinner membrane keyboards to enjoy the comfortable typing feel and myriad customization options of mechanical models
Are mechanical keyboards loud?
Most mechanical keyboards are going to be noisier than membrane or scissor-switch keyboards, but they vary widely in just how loud they are — and the switches don’t tell the whole story.
That said, clicky switches like the Cherry MX Blue and many similar models are just going to be too loud for the average office environment and will likely bother people on Zoom calls if you like to take notes during meetings or classes. Linear and tactile switches (Red and Brown and their relatives) are quieter, and non-contact switches like opticals and Topre switches are quieter still, but the overall construction of the keyboard makes a huge difference in the apparent volume.
If you’re looking for the quietest mechanical keyboards, you’ll want to check out gasket-mounted models, in which the plate the switches are mounted on is sandwiched between pads made of a vibration-absorbing material, which also absorbs sound. Gasket-mounted keyboards like the Keychron Q series are significantly quieter than any other mechanical keyboards I tested and are going to make everybody happier if you’re working in an open-plan office, at home or in any environment where you might bother others.
And whatever you do, don’t even think about using a buckling spring keyboard like a classic IBM Model M or a Unicomp if you’re not alone or working or living among other keyboard enthusiasts (and maybe not even then). Anyone else will be looking for an opportunity to toss it out the window, sweet vintage-typing feel or no.
I've been considering ordering a Wooting 60HE; an analog keyboard that comes with a feature called "rapid release" or smth like that. Basically the instant you start to lift your finger off of a pressed key the keyboard registers the key as unpressed. With traditional mechanical keyboard switches you'd have to lift the key all the way back up to the actuation point for it to register as impressed, which takes a few extra milliseconds.
For most things this probably won't make a big difference, but I suspect it would make figure 8 strafing easier, since the latency from your finger starting to lift up and the key releasing is effectively as close to 0ms as you can get as of now. Biggest issue I think a lot of people might run into while figure 8 strafing is accidentally pressing keys before others are released.
Since lurches are registered when a key is pressed, and since a lurch will check what keys are being pressed when altering your momentum, holding a key down for too long as you start pressing the next key might give you an unintentional diagonal lurch or worse.
What do you guys think?
I doubt it helps that much, if it did everyone would be using it, if your looking to push your KD up by 0.1 then it may help but aim, positioning and movement will always win
Tldr: nah, doubt it
pure marketing. it doesn't improve anything latency wise and is same pseudo-improvement as are 80€ ethernet cables.
Proper monitor with low non-grey transition latency + stable network with good location + periphery devices that you feel comfortable with are all you need.
Buy a mechanical keyboard with nkey rollover and a heavy frame, some low travel switches and you'll see 100 times more benefit from that.
Hello everyone,
I'm a keyboard & mouse player since 2015 and last month I've been told about the analog keyboard Wooting TwoHE. I was fascinated by the possibility of the keys having a pressure sensitivity and I decided to buy it. As of now I'm one of the few semi-pros who actually tried this keyboard for Rocket League and I can tell you it shows one huge issue at the moment, which I genuinely hope some developer could find a fix for.
HOW DOES AN ANALOG KEYBOARD WORK:
With an analog keyboard, you can map each key to function like a controller input—Windows will recognize them as Xbox 360 controller signals. Any keys emulating analog triggers or sticks will respond based on how hard you press them: the harder the press, the stronger the input. If you want more details, I recommend looking up Wooting’s Lekker Switches. For Rocket League, this is the setup I'm currently using.
ISSUES:
Rocket League struggles when handling input from both a controller and a mouse simultaneously. Specifically:
USING A CONTROLLER + ANY MOUSE MOVEMENT OR INPUT CAUSES CONSTANT FRAME DROPS. Video showing the FPS drop
There’s also a smaller performance hit when combining digital keyboard input with analog input.
I’ve found that several other players, including pros, have experienced this same issue. I’ve tested the Wooting keyboard in other games like Trackmania, and there were zero problems—everything works flawlessly. Since analog keyboards are gaining popularity, especially for their potential in precise control, Rocket League could really benefit from proper support.
WORKAROUND TO STOP THE FRAME DROP:
ReWASD Method – I ran some tests and found that one way to avoid framerate drops is to emulate both the keyboard and mouse as a single Xbox 360 controller using ReWASD (as shown at the end of my video). My only concern is that ReWASD is also capable of running macros, which might raise questions about its legitimacy—even though I’m only using it for input remapping to fix a compatibility issue. This method could help many players who want to use analog keyboards without performance loss.
NEW (RECOMMENDED - thanks to Patroid): Download Bakkesmod (a popular Rocket League customization tool) along with the plugin Custom Overlay 2.0. This plugin lets you replace Rocket League’s default UI overlay with a custom one. Since the framerate drops are caused by the game constantly switching between the KBM and controller overlays, this mod disables that UI switching altogether—effectively stopping the frame drops. I recommend checking the description of this plugin for a better setup (this way you can use it in freeplay aswell, otherwise you won't be able to enter the main menu from freeplay unless you restart the game.)
TL;DR:
Analog keyboards—especially Wooting’s—are becoming more popular thanks to their pressure-sensitive switches that emulate controller input. However, Rocket League has compatibility issues that cause FPS drops when using analog input alongside mouse movements.
Two known fixes:
Use ReWASD to map both mouse and keyboard to the same controller (potential gray area).
Recommended: Use Bakkesmod + Custom Overlay 2.0 plugin to stop UI-related frame drops safely.
My fingers stumbled onto a G915 at Best Buy the other day, and the awesome switches made me decide it's time to replace my massive full-sized Razer Blackwidow v2 with a new, smaller board. I've selected a set of boards that could be ideal, but it's really hard for me to decide between them:
Low profile
Logitech G915 TKL (tactile switches)
Razer Deathstalker Pro (clicky purple switches)
Keychron K7 RGB (tactile brown switches)
Fnatic Streak 65LP
Corsair K70 Pro
Analog
Wooting 60He
Razer Huntsman v2 analog
Steelseries Apex Pro Mini Wireless
I wish I could all try them side-by-side, but I don't know where I would even be able to. Some things to keep in mind are:
I mainly play FPS games (mainly Overwatch)
I like tactile buttons and want to stick to them for the low profile boards, but I am willing to switch to an analog keyboard if it makes a big difference
Based off of reviews, I think the Deathstalker is probably a better pick than the G915 TKL
The Keychron and the Deathstalker are hard to pick between, since the Keychron has my favorite form factor (65%), but I'm worried about the switch quality of it relative to the Deathstalker
I don't know anything about how the Fnatic Streak and Corsair K70 switches and can't really compare them well
Having programmable keys like macro keys on my Blackwidow would definitely be cool, especially to launch certain programs
I like having arrow keys on my keyboard.
It's not obvious to me that analog keyboards are going to be significantly more advantageous, although I think the programming that's possible with the Wooting makes it really cool. I wish there was a low-profile, tactile, 65% Wooting keyboard, that'd be the dream.
What do you guys suggest I go with?
This is really interesting because I wanna know if it's viable and if it is, is it actually good for stuff like speed? I don't think this will be useful for any other stuff other than speed.
The keyboard this switch is from is called the Wooting 60HE. Here is the link to the keyboard: https://next.wooting.io/wooting-60he
The TLDR is that I'm going to keep it, but it's pretty much a waste of money.
When I heard about the analog keys, I was curious. The concept seemed to be a game changer. Then I heard the keys in a YouTube video, and tried to cancel my order. That didn't work out. I'm pleased to say that the keys are not as bad as I feared. They are louder than I was hoping for, but the analog mechanism gives them a good resistance. They don't crash into the bottom of the stem as roughly as I was expecting, which is a relief.
Unfortunately, that's about all the nice things I have to say. The superthin font on the keycaps lets very little light through. Combined with them being black (which absorbs light) and the lighting effects might as well not exist. At least not with the room lights on. They are exceptionally boring. I threw on a set of mercury keycaps, and that makes the colors pop much nicer.
Actually making use of the analog keys though... it's pretty pointless. In order for them to actually act like analog keys, the game you're playing needs to believe you're using a controller. That brings with it other controller baggage, such as aim assist. Want to type in chat? Forget it, your WASD is a joystick so you can't use those letters. "Your entence ill look like thi." I ended up creating two profiles so I can turn the joystick mode on and off, but that's pretty annoying. Worse, some games try to switch between keyboard and controller mode based on your inputs. For example, testing out in Borderlands 2, joystick mode would work fine normally. But if I were to crouch, the game switches to keyboard mode and my WASD begins to operate in binary mode until I stop crouching. It'll do things like show me an Xbox "X" button instead of my actual action key of E. The game has to believe through and through that you're using a controller for this to work, and... well that's not the PC way.
The analog keys end up not bringing anything to the table. It still works like a normal keyboard and I like it more than the BlackWidow, so I'm going to keep it. But I wouldn't buy it again and I don't recommend you do either. It's a waste of money. Just get a normal keyboard because this one doesn't bring anything meaningful to the table.
I'm still confused about the whole keyboard/steering/ice drama as I was taking a break from TM when the whole thing went down. I'm still not sure if it's just community rankings that reject them or if your account could face a ban if you use them. If one was to use an analog keyboard without using it to explicitly lock steering is it still allowed? And are custom controller sensitivity curves off-limits too?
I'm thinking about getting a Wooting 2 HE as my next board and don't want to get slapped with a ban. I don't plan on using the custom curves in TM asides from setting my actuation point higher.
Anyone know where I can buy analog keyboard switches? I want them for my arrow keys.