I ordered a Wooting One specifically for Beam, and it came in yesterday, so here's a demonstration of how it performs. Here's a test lap around Hirochi Raceway in a ETK I-Series Track configuration. Realistic manual shifting mode enabled. I didn't record my best lap, which was 1:42:123, but all the times shown at the end are done on the Wooting. It serves its purpose well, being that I didn't want to lug a gamepad around. The styling resembles my old Corsair K70 quite a bit, so it was pretty easy to switch. As you can see in the video, the main advantage is not locking the brakes when braking, but the throttle and steering are not much better than a regular keyboard in my opinion.
So, for those who don't know, the Wooting One is a laser (rather than mechanical or membrane) keyboard that can be set up to have each keypress be a joystick style input, with partial keypresses. It's a quite a cool concept IMO, but certainly not for everyone. Some other advantages that I can see is setting up super light, feather keystrokes for faster typing potentially, and in games, adding some flexibility to movement in a shooter while retaining the precision of mouse aim. For comparisons sake, could you some some laps using either the Wooting in a standard keyboard config, or another keyboard? As well as on a gamepad and/or wheel? Thanks!
Out of curiosity, how to the keys feel to be pressed? On a standard keyboard (like the one I am using now) the keys kind of have a resistance point where once you hit enough pressure, they just drop. I would imagine that a board like this must have an almost linear resistance to a key press?
Thanks for that. I suppose I should have explained what it was, first. I'll record some laps after work today. There's two options you can order: Flaretech blue and Flaretech red. They are basically just optical switch clones of the corresponding Cherry MX's. I ordered the red switch version because linear switches make more sense in this application, and my K70 had Cherry reds, so I was already used to it. However, they included 4 replacement switches of each type, so I will swap WASD out and record a lap tonight to see if it makes a difference.
@Funky7Monkey the flaretech switches have a short take up distance so can't be hair triggered The resistance before just dropping is known as a tactile bump. Flaretech come in tactile clicky and non tactile variants. The non tactile variant is more akin to the smooth travel of say an Xbox thumbstick. Nasty to type on linear setups imo. Doesn't really make any additional sense for gaming, just most off the shelf linear keyboards are cherry MX red which is a linear switch with a very light spring, but it's not really any better than a brown which is a tactile switch and I've experimented with MX clear which is a heavy sprung tactile
Seems like an Xbox 360 controller would be better for driving, at least. Any other advantages in day-to-day use?
Indeed, but if you travel a lot, and don't want to carry around a game pad, the Wooting One is probably better than a regular keyboard.
Definitely inferior to a gamepad, but far superior to a digital keyboard. Last console I had was a PS3, and I didn't feel like buying an XBox controller, but I'll see if I can borrow one from my roommate for more comparisons. Switches can be swapped without desoldering which could potentially be useful if there were more types. I'm thinking about sprinkling in the spare blues the basic kit gives you in the spacebar and such. --- Post updated --- An alternative to the Wooting to check out would be Aimpad, but it's not released yet.
have you any tips after the time to an new wooting owner? Finally have my Wooting two since 22.02, mostly enjoying it, but still have some issues
