I am about to pick up a new computer today, complete with a Logitech G15 keyboard. I primarily play Team Fortress 2, though certainly not exclusively. I believe I can use Fraps to report on the frame rate of any game I'm playing. Any other cool programs I can use with my G15?
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1While this is a good question, I still find it entertaining that people want little things to show up on their keyboard, when they should be looking at the monitor. I personally use a Das keyboard and as such never look at it.– Daniel HuckstepJul 17, 2009 at 23:01
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@darkhelmet: Generally when you're playing a full screen game (assuming a single monitor) there's nowhere for a clock etc. (except with mods like for WoW).– RossJul 18, 2009 at 0:04
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Exactly, you want your game data on the monitor. The display on the keyboard is to show you other stuff like: clock, what track is playing in winamp, who is talking on Teamspeak/Vent, etc.– U62Jul 18, 2009 at 0:22
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Most of the time I find that stuff doesn't matter when I'm playing a game, but to each their own.– Daniel HuckstepJul 20, 2009 at 1:10
6 Answers
As a former citizen (captive?) of the World Of Warcraft, the most useful function of the LCD was the Ventrilo display (built into any recent version of the application) that listed the names of people who were talking. Very handy when playing a fullscreen game.
For TF2 there is a custom display that you can use to show your current class, kills, deaths, etc.
The G15 Wikipedia page has a pretty good list of supported apps and links to plugins that you may need.
Honestly? I have a G15 now and I've never used the screen in TF2. I couldn't find anything worthwhile for it other than the built-in clock module. The side keys are handy but only use 1 bank, rather than the 3 available. Nothing that couldn't be handled by an unused key on the keyboard though.
If you play WoW, or some sort of RTS/RPG that requires you to have a full in-depth overview of the game, with all the usual keyboard tricks then this is a good keyboard (my stepdad plays WoW with it and uses the key banks a lot). For casual gaming you probably won't use much of the features though (but the media keys are handy to have - not uncommon though).
If you're a night owl the 2 levels of keyboard backlighting are useful - it can be very bright but there's a dimmer mode.
As far as typing goes it's a pretty sturdy keyboard. Standard layout - and perhaps you can find a use for the G1-G6 special keys in your editor if you're a programmer. If the keyboard comes with the PC then take it, if you're paying extra you might be wasting your money for things you don't need though.
I use a program called LCD Miscellany.
This keeps an eye on my CPU temps, download/upload speeds, memory etc. and I often use the G15 media display to skip tracks and listen to music whilst playing TF2.