Keys on YOUR keyboard are either ‘pressed’, or ‘not pressed’.
But THIS is an analogue keyboard that can measure HOW far its keys are pressed down.
You can see this here- the further I press a key down, the more of the keyboard that
lights up.
Like some huge RGB jelly!
So if nothing else, analogue will at least provide keyboards with extra lighting patterns,
which may help in the brutal on-going armsrace for the rainbowyest keyboard possible.
But I don’t care about that.
Much.
So this video will investigate the differences that analogue keys will bring to games- I
feel I’m treading new ground here, so I’ll probably miss several clever things you can
do with it.
Like, get this- you can ignore analogue completely if you want to, making it behave like a standard
digital keyboard that’s either on or off!
Why would you want to do that?!
Well, you could then use this keyboard’s analogue feature to control the actuation
point- that is, how far down a key has to be pressed before it is activated.
If set to 3.6 mm, it has to be pressed almost all the way down before the key is triggered.
If it’s set to 1.5 mm then a key is triggered almost immediately after pressing it- which
may help if you’re looking for ways of reducing key latency.
And found that scripts didn’t work for you.
But what about in games?
Obviously, very few are designed with analogue keyboards in mind… but most DO support controllers!
And they’ve had analogue for a while.
Fortunately, this keyboard’s software lets you disguise it as a controller and I was
able to get it working in all sorts of games.
Driving simulators are the prime candidate for analogue controls.
The accelerator and steering wheel aren’t intended to either be ON or OFF.
They’re meant to be tickled and teased and with gentle pokes and prods.
To demonstrate how powerful this can be, I loaded up Dirt Rally and transformed my hardcore
rally driver into a senile citizen.
…And it works in Global Offensive as well.
I simply enabled controller support, typed ‘exec controller.360.cfg’ and disabled
WASD from the keyboard bindings.
This would then be remembered even after restarting CS:GO and on official servers.
And here’s the result- the lighter I press the button, the slower I move.
Analogue has 255 different states of ‘on’, which nicely gives it enough for every unit
of speed you can move in CS:GO.
But it’s so sensitive there’s no way you can keep it held down the same amount for
any period of time.
This was my problem with analogue buttons.
It’s very hard to push it down JUST the right amount.
I would typically press harder than required to ensure that my key press registered in
the first place, after which I found it was easier to slowly let go until the desired
point had been reached.
Even then my finger’s exerted force would drift over time.
Although you might think that a smooth sliding button would benefit analogue, I like some
kind of tactile feedback, perhaps in the form of a series of kliks to indicate how hard
you’re pressing.
The Wooting One keyboard comes in both red and blue switches.
I had a red model but it comes with 4 extra switches of both.
I ended up using it as a red keyboard with blue WASD keys as I found the blue’s initial
‘click’ better to identify the start of the analogue feedback.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if future analogue keyboards have a new custom switch type to
aid with tactile feedback further.
What did help was an option in the Wootility control panel that gives you complete freedom
over the key press.
Alternatively, you could use the presets.
You could set it to SLOW, which would dedicate most of the key’s travel to slower speeds.
Or you could set it to AGGRESSIVE, which does the opposite.
OR you can set it to ‘INSTANT’, which effectively cuts analogue’s 255 values down
to just 2.
So as long as the key is partially pressed, you’ll be walking at whatever speed the
HALF ON value is set to.
This happens to be particularly useful for CS:GO, in fact.
Because if you configure it correctly, this HALF ON value will allow you to move at a
speed different to any that the backwards plebs on their digital keyboards can move
at.
There’s a magical cut-off in CS:GO.
If you’re moving more than 135 units a second then the footstep sound kicks in.
The walking speed for every weapon is, of course, below this amount.
But if you configure the analogue keys correctly, you can silently run at 134 units a second
with any weapon and not make a noise!
This is what it looked like in the control panel to be just under the footstep cut-off-
the same value worked for every weapon.
Here’s how much of a speed increase you can expect to see with each weapon, compared
with the walking speed which is 52% of your running speed when holding that particular
weapon.
Bear in mind that it requires a steady finger to keep the movement button held down half
way so as to not trigger the footstep cut…on?
And here’s a real world example, comparing the AWP’s walking speed with an analogue
half-run.
You can see the analogue gets you to your destination faster, and silently.
The Negev would have been even more impressive but that would be unrealistic since nobody
uses it.
Alternatively, you could set the half-on key speed to a lower value.
Below that of the walking speed, even.
Why would you do this?
Because below 34 % of the running speed, there’s no movement inaccuracy!
You can move at 1/3 speed and still be able to shoot straight.
Here’s the AK47, if firing when walking normally.
And here it is with a custom analogue walk speed.
This looks like a HUGE advantage, until you remember you could just crouch and fire and
get the same accuracy benefit.
Analogue walking does still yield some benefits- notably being able to see over cover, as well
as accelerating more quickly, making movement feel more responsive.
Unlike the silent walking speed, this better accuracy config isn’t quite so easy as it
will change depending on which weapon you have drawn, not to mention how many movement
keys you have pressed and so on.
Right now there are 3 ‘analog profiles’ available in Wootility, but their roadmap
suggests this may eventually be made to be unlimited, so it would be possible to quickly
flick between modes depending on the weapon you’ll be fighting with that round.
These are by no means the perfect, optimal settings, merely a few I tested that would
give the user of an analogue keyboard an advantage of some kind.
As this technology matures I’m sure we’ll see other ways in which this could be helpful.
I went beyond WASD to see if there were other controls that benefitted from analogue, but
alas, I didn’t find any.
What about the keyboard’s latency?
Fortunately, I didn’t have to go through the tests myself since on Twitter, Sunjun
Kim used a much more scientific testing method and found it to be 10 ms, or 4.2 ms with beta
drivers which, although still in beta, I’ve been told will be incorporated into the public
firmware once and for all, after it has been tested extensively by the community and they’ve
had a chance to make it more stable.
In conclusion, although analogue is nothing new, it is for a keyboard.
It lets you do things that a traditional keyboard won’t, some of which may even give you the
slight edge in certain situations.
To be able to move at whatever speed you like COULD make it harder for enemies to target
you, but then I don’t know how much harder you’d be to shoot compared to just the start-stop
nature of a traditional digital keyboard.
However, it certainly gives you a faster ‘silent walking speed’ with certain weapons, as
well the option to walk and shoot accurately at the same time.
This video was made to test analogue buttons rather than to be a keyboard review, but I
will say thank you to the guys over at Wooting for providing me with their Wooting One keyboard.
It’s the product of a successful kickstarter campaign.
They’ve openly talked about their successes and failures, even showcasing a roadmap of
upcoming bug-fixes and features that they’re working on.
They’ve got a spreadsheet listing the games they’ve tested and how analogue-compatible
they are, as well as a guide specifically for CS:GO.
And there’s a full-sized Wooting Two that’s being released on Kickstarter at the end of
the month- for you accountants out there who want a splash of RGB in your lives.
I’d say that there is value to be had from using analogue in CS:GO, but I think the main
appeal of this keyboard is for pioneers who want to dabble with new technology.
To experiment with different configs – of which the Wooting One has many- and to see
how it affects the experience in their favourite games.
As for me, I thought it would be a shame to only test it in CS:GO so over on 2kliksphilip
he tests some other games to see what kind of difference analogue will make to them.