Good Anti-Ghosting Keyboards?

2010-05-25 05:00:49 pm

Hey folks. Most PC FPS gamers are probably familiar with 'ghosting', even if they haven't heard the term. It refers to the annoying way that keyboards won't accept certain combinations of simultaneous keypresses (usually you need to press four or five at once to confuse the keyboard, but depending upon the keyboard sometimes there'll even be combinations of three that don't work), resulting in either one or more of the keys not working, or in the Motherboard speaker bleeping in pain. This issue typically comes up when, say, attempting to use some keyboard command while crouching and moving diagonally in an FPS.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend good anti-ghosting keyboards that they've personally used and liked. Please specify how you've used the keyboard (i.e. Played with WASD? Played with arrow keys? How many surrounding keys were being used?) and what, if any, ghosting you experienced. Ideally, I want a keyboard that will allow any five keys around WASD or the arrow keys to be pressed simultaneously, and which is laid out nicely and feels natural to use (i.e. no small keys, flat keys, keys in unusual positions, or oddly shaped keys). Being reasonably cheap would be good too but I'd rather pay more than compromise on the keyboard.

Anyone got a recommendation?

Thread title:

Hey folks. Most PC FPS gamers are probably familiar with 'ghosting', even if they haven't heard the term. It refers to the annoying way that keyboards won't accept certain combinations of simultaneous keypresses (usually you need to press four or five at once to confuse the keyboard, but depending upon the keyboard sometimes there'll even be combinations of three that don't work), resulting in either one or more of the keys not working, or in the Motherboard speaker bleeping in pain. This issue typically comes up when, say, attempting to use some keyboard command while crouching and moving diagonally in an FPS.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend good anti-ghosting keyboards that they've personally used and liked. Please specify how you've used the keyboard (i.e. Played with WASD? Played with arrow keys? How many surrounding keys were being used?) and what, if any, ghosting you experienced. Ideally, I want a keyboard that will allow any five keys around WASD or the arrow keys to be pressed simultaneously, and which is laid out nicely and feels natural to use (i.e. no small keys, flat keys, keys in unusual positions, or oddly shaped keys). Being reasonably cheap would be good too but I'd rather pay more than compromise on the keyboard.

Anyone got a recommendation?

bimanc

2010-05-25 06:03:58 pm

Lay waste to everything...but I still love SDA!

Not an expert in this, but "gaming keyboards" are made because of this. They are heavily overpriced, but you can press a lot of button at the same time (10 or more). I can't recommend any, though.

quadrazid

2010-05-26 03:07:00 am

Svart Lyser Tronen

One way to test your keyboard is to press both SHIFT-keys and type: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOGS

I'm using Logitech G11 which can type the full sentence. And I never had any ghosting problems with this playing with WASD in Half-Life and Quake, all keys in the surroundings had binds that I used)

ExplodingCabbage

2010-05-26 05:02:25 am

HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPS OER HE LA DOGS

Fuck, my keyboard sucks.

Looked up the G11, keep finding pictures of two very different-looking keyboards both being labelled as G11's. Does your G11 look like this (looks awesome, me want) or like this (with the strangely-shaped enter key and curious absence of the backslash key next to the left shift)? To make things even more confusing, the pictures section for the product on amazon.co.uk contains pictures of both, so I dunno which they're selling.

Meh, I'll have to try and find one in a physical store and buy it face to face to make sure I get the right one. Thanks for the recommendation.

quadrazid

2010-05-26 05:57:30 am

Svart Lyser Tronen

I have the one with strangely-shaped enter key, but I would recommend the other one.
I miss the key between left-shift and Z. In FPS games i rather have an extra button there then above Enter. It's probably the exact same functionality.

And obviosly some macrokeys which is useful at times Smiley

d_arnold07

2010-05-26 06:27:43 am

Quote from ExplodingCabbage:

HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPS OER HE LA DOGS

Fuck, my keyboard sucks.

you think your keyboard sucks, my wireless microsoft keyboard got this: 'TE UIC RWN JUS VER TE LAY DGS'

Note the disappearing fox

Inexistence

2010-05-26 06:50:31 am

Yes, Inexistence is a word.

Quote from ExplodingCabbage:

Looked up the G11, keep finding pictures of two very different-looking keyboards both being labelled as G11's. Does your G11 look like this (looks awesome, me want)

The one you mention there is the Logitech G15. I have one of my own, my brother got it free at a Lan :D. It's a really great keyboard, I have no problems with it. It seems to support around 10 keys at once, which I'm sure is the limit that you'll manage to press :P. I've never had any problems with it, the macros on the side are very useful, though I haven't used them for speedrunning (Actually, used them to test something, which helped a lot!), though you don't exactly need 18 macro keys, with 3 modes, so in a way you have 54 macro keys :P.

Mine's in Swedish though. The Z and the Y are swapped around! And the punctuation is all different, but obviously it still considers the keypresses to be normal Cheesy

[quote="ExplodingCabbage"]
Looked up the G11, keep finding pictures of two very different-looking keyboards both being labelled as G11's. Does your G11 look like [url=http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/computing/images/logitechg11-218-85.jpg]this[/url] (looks awesome, me want)
[/quote]

The one you mention there is the Logitech G15. I have one of my own, my brother got it free at a Lan :D. It's a really great keyboard, I have no problems with it. It seems to support around 10 keys at once, which I'm sure is the limit that you'll manage to press :P. I've never had any problems with it, the macros on the side are very useful, though I haven't used them for speedrunning (Actually, used them to test something, which helped a lot!), though you don't exactly need 18 macro keys, with 3 modes, so in a way you have 54 macro keys :P.

Mine's in Swedish though. The Z and the Y are swapped around! And the punctuation is all different, but obviously it still considers the keypresses to be normal :D

Kabuto

2010-05-26 07:25:55 am

Quote from d_arnold07:

you think your keyboard sucks, my wireless microsoft keyboard got this: 'TE UIC RWN JUS VER TE LAY DGS'

Note the disappearing fox

Got exactly the same with a Dell RT7D50 USB keyboard ("TE UIC RWN JUS VER TE LAZ DGS"; Z and Y are swapped because it's a german one)

Carcinogen

2010-05-26 07:32:29 am

THE QUICK BROWN FO JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOGS

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWYZ

{}:"<>|!@$%^&*()_+~

The only 3 keys it doesn't seem to work with are X, 3, and /.

Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000. Just an el cheapo keyboard I picked up at Office Depot.

Hattori HANZo

2010-05-26 07:41:23 am

contraddicted

Quote from quadrazid:

One way to test your keyboard is to press both SHIFT-keys and type: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOGS

HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPS OER HE LA DOGS <= Logitech DiNovo Bluetooth Keyboard, not made for gaming anyway, German layout

TE UIC RWN JUS VER TE LAY DGS <= Dell standard Keyboard with smart card reader, 10 bucks on ebay, British layout
If this would perform better, it would been worth a buy.

quadrazid

2010-05-26 07:56:22 am

Svart Lyser Tronen

G15 is a G11 with a display IIRC

Quote from Carcinogen:

THE QUICK BROWN FO JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOGS

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWYZ

rofl, you do realize that all characters are included in the sentence? Grin

Smilge

2010-05-26 09:07:48 am

THKBNFJSTHLAYDG

ShadowWraith

2010-05-26 10:05:34 am

.

"HE QUIC BROWN OX UMP OVER HE Z OG"

Hm.

moooh

2010-05-26 12:32:31 pm

Exoray

"TEQUICKBRONOXUMSOVERTEAZYOG"

Lack of spaces but enough so you can still prononunce the whole word it creates Smiley

Kryal

2010-05-26 12:40:18 pm

from red to blue

THEQUICKROWFOXJUMPSOVERTHELZYDOGS

yeah, not too great, wait a sec, when did this turn into a how good/shit is your keyboard thread? used by laptop keyboard, couldn't do the spaces, that'll REALLY help when playing half-life.