Slashdot Mirror
Discussing Logitech's New Gaming Mice
Paul writes "Logitech had a busy day announcing three new products designed for gamers. The company introduced the Logitech G15 keyboard, G5 and G7 G-Series gaming mice. TechSpot had a brief talk with Erik Charlton, senior product-marketing manager at Logitech, who shared a few ideas and details on Logitech's newly announced products."
The story of a keyboard is fine, but pictures are worth more. See the G15 keyboard here.
John
The article mentions a built in display - configured by the player to show in game information or data from an outside application.
Two questions:
1 - Who really looks at their keyboard that much during a game session?
2 - How are they pulling data from a game engine? Is this assuming that developers will build software for this keyboard system for major releases? That seems presumptive.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
.. I owned a Logitech mouse.. and it literally caught fire when I played too much Unreal Tournament w/ it. If I ever get back into serious gaming.. I'm gonna blow up one of these.. damn.. been a while since I got excited about a mouse.
_Vishal www.squad9.com
A Razer Chameleon and an Elumix Black. Was going to go with the Logitec Mouse....but the Razer looked nicer and IMHO the buttons were easier to get to.
http://www.razerzone.com/
http://www.eluminx.com/product.asp?pid=5
Both seem to suit me just fine.
"God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. "
They support screaming fast 20g moves up to 45 inches / second...and even higher, depending upon the surface.
Will they support 20G impacts when I throw the damn thing against the wall after I am fragged by a LAN hacker for the n-th time?
Screw the Logitech keyboard, I want to get my hands on this...
I REALLY hope this isn't vaporware.
from ExtremeTech. It's fairly comprehensive. Read it here : http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1847008 ,00.asp
Notice the perfect 10 score.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
This gets a lot of discussion on Slashdot and other sites of similar ilk. We're oft told that the reason we don't see a keyboard and mouse with a console is that both of these things benefit from the desk that they typicaly sit on.
You're right - for a FPS or a strategy game, a mouse and keyboard are, by far, the best interface (yet).
I just wonder how true that bit about the desk being necessary really is. I've played with gyro mice (expensive, yes, but mostly because they're a niche product) and have pretty much always been able to use a keyboard on my lap -- so why don't we see more keyboard/mouse interfaces becoming available for the couch environment?
MSFT is supposed to be playing the XBox 360 as a home media device -- perhaps a keyboard will become standard issue with that.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
Pictures of the g5 mouse
And guess what, it's shaped for right handers only. You'd think that it'd be possible to invert the casing, and produce a mirrored device for the 15-20% or so of the target market who can't use a right-handed gaming mouse. (I can handle it for general use, but I need my primary hand for precision work)
Still, looks like I'll be buying the new razer copperhead when it comes out shortly, similar features but suitable for lefties.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
Bear in mind that the Optimus keyboard is expected in 2006 and is yet only at prototype stage.
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As discussed earlier on Slashdot: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07
Yeah the optimus will be great for playing Duke Nukem Forever on.
From the writeup on the new mice:
"The low weight of the mouse allows fast moves and zero inertia[....]"
In other words, they've quietly developed an inertialess mouse. The biggest physics breakthrough ever, and they're wasting it on a stupid gaming mouse. Quick, somebody call NASA!
The average age of a gamer is 30.
And porn surfers don't need a two-handed keyboard.
John
Don't miss the Full-Sped USB!
"The G7 and G5 are Logitechs first computer mice to leverage full-speed USB. "
Now checking on http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm , we find that
"Full Speed" refers to USB 1.1, while High-Speed (Or "Hi-Speed") refers to USB 2.
So Logitech are bragging about their USB 1.1 mice?
b3 4phr41d 0f my 4bov3-4v3r4g3 c0mpu73r kn0wI3dg3!
MadDwarf
If you ever watch golf on TV you've seen all the ads for the new technology. If you've ever seen anybody golf with the latest equipment you'll know it doesn't make any difference at all. I think gaming equipment is exactly the same.
Except for perimiter weighted irons, metal woods and graphite shafts, golf technology hasn't really progressed very much since Arnold Palmer first began playing professionally. New balls and club technology will maybe gain you a few yards off the tee.
With computer mice, scroll wheels and optical sensors were the huge breakthroughs. Laser is nice, but is not nearly as much better than optical as optical is better than a ball mouse. More buttons are ok, but often hard to reach at critical times. Tilt wheels are more gimmick than anything except for people with very wide documents. Wireless is not usually particularly useful, but some people like it.
So what is it that these new Logitech mice bring to the table that will revolutionize gaming? Would you gladly trade your scroll wheel for any one of these features? Probably not. Will you get more kills in FPS games? More items in MMOGs? More 'coffee' in GTA:SA? No, no and no.
The next revolution in pointer control may be when you don't need to use an imprecise limb for movement. Maybe contact lenses that point the cursor to where you focus your eyes. For mice, once you get it tracking well (optical/laser) and you cramp all the useful buttons where they are easily reachable (LMB, wheel, RMB), you have pretty much hit the limit.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
I hope the keyboard doesn't have the f**ing f-lock.
Whoever invented disabling the function keys by default on new keyboard should just die.
The only reason I'm not buying a keyboard from www.pckeyboard.com is due to lack of USB support (I find most converters are problematic).
I think the new keyboard looks like complete crap.
I will never let go of my 1982 IBM Model M in favor of some 2005 ball of plastic that weighs less than animals I have killed with the Model M.
Keyboard: http://www.clickykeyboard.com/
You can smash this keyboard with both hands, your head, and anything else and it will always work. Resists Sodas, coffee and cat hair very well too!
As for mice, I really am in love with the Razor Diamondback http://www.razerzone.com/, you can change sensitivity on the fly with the roller while holding down any button you chose. Plus it has a LOT of buttons, 2 on each side. Regardless if you use them all or not, it's nice to have them there, unlike the Logitech mouse here which has 1 (!!!) side button. Obviously they are NOT researching games very well!
It seems like they increase the resolution with every generation while sadly neglecting the maximum speed.
:)
The MX510 (800 cpi) is able to track up to about 3.4 m/s, the MX300, too (with raised USB polling rate at 400 cpi). The Razer Diamondback (1600 cpi) has a maximum speed of about 1.4 m/s, very probably as much as the MX518 (same or similar sensor, I couldn't measure it, yet). The article talks of about 45 ips (1.14 m/s) in those 2000 cpi mice...
I can't think of any good shooter player who would actually benefit from a resolution higher than 800 cpi but I know there are many who like to move their mouse faster than 1.4 m/s.
Raising the resolution by sacrificing maximum tracking speed is very easy: They can just scale the chip down and/or change the optics. It seems that they don't like to make a chip more complex (MX300, A2020 was the last big upgrade).
This is bad news for the gamers who got used to their MX510's speed and don't find anything else than "Ultra Gamerz 4000 dpi" with a max speed of 1 m/s when they need a replacement in a few years. Maybe someone clever will invest in a few MX510 and make a lot of money.
A 3D rendering of a product concept can hardly be considered a prototype. They are in concept stage.
The first rule of gaming: Look at the screen not the keyboard.
However with logitechs new brilliant design you would be able to see your health decresing while you'r looking the the key you program to run your move forward macro.
Your complaint about the F-Lock key stirred up my own longtime irritation with it. It's the only thing I dislike about my MS Natural Multimedia Keyboard.
Realizing how many others were bothered by this prompted me to Google "F-Lock key" and discover this wonderful little registry hack. Note that there are several versions -- be sure to use the right one.
This works! A quick 30-second test of F5-Refresh and PrtScn image pasting have yielded perfect results. My function keys now behave like function keys regardless of the status of the [F] LED.
Now if only this worked when trying to hit F6 during SATA driver initialization in WinXP setup, and F2-activated BIOS access.
Did anyone read what the marketing department put on the LCD console?
Xerious: He's at the bunker.
Scum: I'm on it.
Xerious: Rally at me after.
Jesus tap-dancing Christ, who comes up with this stuff? I suspect it's the same people who wrote the FPS X-Files episode...