Author Topic: Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming  (Read 3396 times)

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Offline ViciousXUSMC

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« on: Wed, 18 January 2012, 02:18:01 »
So I tried to learn Colemak about 6 months ago, I got about 80% of it memorized and was pretty good with it, but ultimately dropped it because I needed my speed for work and I had issues using both keyboard layouts at the same time.

I am actually about to get back into it again but had one major concern.

How do users of alternative layouts like Colemak or Dvorak deal with things like games that are designed around QWERTY, some of them may not allow rebinding of keys and then if you have to use QEWRTY for the game and you go to type a message your going to mess up.  Same goes for phones where your stuck on QWERTY is it a problem to use both like that for you or can you still retain QWERTY use but get full speed and dedication to the alternative layout.

I feel its be great at one or the other or good at both, and I want to be great as I am happy to have a fast typing speed, and thats probably one reason it was hard for me to stick with Colemak was the huge loss of speed.

Offline dorkvader

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 18 January 2012, 09:08:35 »
I use a full-QWERTY keyboard for gaming. Before I had that, I would just switch the layout in windows before starting the game. Many games don't seem to bother with the windows keyboard layout anyway. The only time I have to actually worry about the keyboard layout is when I'm typing console commands, saving files, or naming items, so it's not a big deal for me. The QWERTY legends help out a lot for when I need to do that.

Offline pyro

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 18 January 2012, 10:26:12 »
Most games I play either recognize the layout or ignore it altogether ( = they read the scancodes of the keys and not the characters these codes are translated into by Windows). I've never gone as far as switching to QWERTY for gaming, but remapped keys ingame or just accepted the unconvenience.

Offline Playtrumpet

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 18 January 2012, 12:14:12 »
Like pyro said, some games recognize the codes, some the letters. A simple shortcut to switch back and forth from your layout to QWERTY eliminates any issues.
Dvorak

Offline Tony

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 19 January 2012, 00:31:38 »
I'm a Colemak user. For games have fixed binding keys, I switch to Qwerty to play them. For typing, I only use Colemak.

For switching hotkeys, go to Control Panel ->Regional Settings ->Keys.

Keeping both layouts slows down your speed in both layouts since your fingers get confused.

When I reached 25wpm in Colemak I started to use Colemak full time. After 6 months I reached old Qwerty speed.
« Last Edit: Thu, 19 January 2012, 00:39:13 by Tony »
Keyboard: Filco MJ1 104 brown, Filco MJ2 87 brown, Compaq MX11800, Noppoo Choc Brown/Blue/Red, IBM Model M 1996, CMStorm Quickfire Rapid Black
Layout: Colemak experience, speed of 67wpm

Offline boli

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Alterntiave Layouts + Gaming
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 22 January 2012, 03:32:40 »
Luckily I haven't encountered a game that totally ignores Colemak (for typing a message), but then again I don't play much in Windows. In Mac OS X it took a while to get StarCraft 2 to work properly, it only semi-worked before that: the keyboard was Colemak for typing, but hotkeys were QWERTY. Changing to grid layout in SC2 worked to make them Colemak, even though the buttons had the wrong (QWERTY) label.

I'm currently playing Skyrim in Windows, and as with many other Windows games, its hotkeys are QWERTY. I don't care though because I can still for example chat with friends (steam chat) using Colemak.

Also, my iPhone still uses QWERTY, which is OK, because I can't touch type on a touch screen anyway. Hunting and pecking QWERTY is the thing I do naturally when I look at the keyboard (which usually has QWERTY labels). Same thing of other people's keyboards.

As for speed, you will get back to your pre-switch speed, but it may take a while. It took me almost a year (OTOH after 3 weeks I was at half speed already, which was more than good enough for everyday use).
« Last Edit: Sun, 22 January 2012, 03:38:40 by boli »
Keyboard: Kinesis Ergo Advantage (two LF editions with red Cherry switches, one regular with brown switches)
Keyboard layout: basically Colemak, with some remapping to end up with my custom Kinesis Advantage layout
Typing test profiles: typeracer.com / hi-games.net / keybr.com