Does anyone here use the g15 keyboard?

So like, as anyone who uses it knows, the potential of an LCD screen for even just raiding in WoW is awesome. Here are just a few I brainstormed in a few seconds; I'm sure there are plenty more useful things it could do that aren't related to healing:

overall ability to put addon info onto the LCD screen .
threat meter (Omen notifies you when your threat is 90% of the person above you, it would be nice to be able to see this in the LCD screen) .
ability to 'warn' you when someone has gained aggro.
health bars of raid and/or certain classes/targets.
ability of LCD screen to 'warn' you when someone has dropped below a certain percentage in health or when someone has died.
ability to display actual whispers on LCD screen.
display coordinates on screen .
Recount/Recap/SW Stats addon info on LCD screen .
sheep breakers.
range checker (broadcasts when you're too close to someone on fights that require it).
Chat Channels (private or public).
HoT/DoT/buff timers .
missing buffs .
ability to display healing/raid assignments on screen.
ability to display raid warnings/raid leader statements on screen .
ability to display DBM/BigWigs broadcasted warnings/bars on screen .
ability to display winning bids for DKP/point based loot distribution.
ability to display whispers/grats to said person who made the winning bid. (For example, our RL has a mod that says, 'Grats _____ on your [Item of Huge DKP Expenditure] for #### Points.')
estimated time to level .
quest progress (0/10 Sickly Deer Slain, 1/10 Sickly Deer Slain, etc) .
possibly minimaps with nodes or w/e if you wanted to save space on your screen and get rid of the minimap (if the screen could handle that much image processing).


That LCD screen could be made invaluable if I was able to display addon information on it. I realize this keyboard is tricky because Blizzard disallows certain functions of it. However, as you can see from the above list, being able to pull this info from the game or from the addon itself would be fabulous, to say the least.

Seriously, if they could make even a few of these things happen, I'd never use another keyboard again. Is this something legal that someone would consider doing for a service fee? Does anyone know if it's possible to pull the necessary info from the combat log on this screen (obviously the screen would show a delayed display but it would work nonetheless) or would it require something Blizzard considers illegal?

PS - I put this here since this category seems to be the one it bests fits in; please forgive me if I put it in the wrong category.

I'm 99.9 % positive that no addon can access the LCD screen of the G15. The only applications that can do so are the applications themselves, IE WoW. Blizzard would have to enable, or make it possible to show the combat log on the LCD, as well as anything else you've suggested. There is no way to interact WoW with the LCD through an addon.

I've had one since they were released, and they're great keyboards. It's a shame that Blizzard won't implement more functionality to it.

Also as far as I know, making complex macros through the G15 macro interface can get your account banned. I'm not talking about simple macros, I'm speaking more of the multiple keypress combined into 1 macro type of macros.

Ya, I don't use any macros I didn't already make in-game. I think I have a grand total of three macros anyway (flight form in/out, ping for rebirth, and tainted core, ha).


The newest beta version of the LCD software accepts lua scripts, so I thought maybe now there would be an opportunity for more efficient usage of it in conjunction with addons but, sigh, it figures. Seems like such a waste of a great feature.

Wow, I was not aware of that. I was going by what was previously told to me when I asked similar questions in regard to the LCD.

I'm glad I'm wrong! I hope with the access to the LCD, some of your suggestions can be implemented.

I'm not a coder, so I only know what I've been told by mod authors and other sources, but I hope this is possible.

Thanks for the information.

Link to Beta Page

It's a beta version released last week, so obviously it's not fully implemented yet. I am not sure if I am just totally off or just reading that wrong but part of that page says:

"Added Lua based scripting support for advanced macro programming."

If I'm reading it correctly, they are just putting support for lua-based scripts in there, not necessarily for interaction with WoW.

AFAIK from a mod perspective, WoW addons are limited strictly to only being able to read/write to that mod's associated WTF/SavedVariables.lua file. Obviously, you can also pick up like, sound files and images from the mod's directory, but you wouldn't be able to interact with say, the G15 at all.



Anyways, other than the built-in support for the keyboard that Blizzard has, I wouldn't be surprised if they put in more support for addons talking to the G15, but I can't think of any way you could pull it off right now.

According to some Slashdot story one guy already got banned for using "third-party software" on his keyboard. Dunno if he got his account back eventually.

edit: the story.

You can do stuff with the G15 that clearly falls under the Botting rule, ie. uattended play. You get caught, you lose account.

The G15 can do some stuff that is clearly not allowed. The main line lies where there is unattended game play (creating 3 mins of conjured water while you're not at the keyboard springs to mind).

I mainly use it for the bonus G-Keys which are all mapped onto special bars. I use them more often than 1-9.

As for programming the G15 from within WoW. There certainly are Interface.XML files for the keyboard, but as far as I am aware no official API yet. You could probably overwrite the layout for the displayed values though if you really want.

I deliberately bought a G11 (same as G15 without LCD) because I wouldn't even look at it I guess. Oh, and my girlfriend said it's not needed and not worth the price difference :P

But yeah, I do never look on my keyboard, why should I for the LCD - can easily display everything on the screen itself... I can't even raid anymore with unitframes at default top left.

But on the other hand the LCD might be just below the monitor if you put it right. And as said above, you'll have a really hard time to get it display stuff. My only idea would be to have an Addon write SavedVariables every second and then let a Windows app read it to display. But I'm not even sure you can write SavedVars without ReloadUI...

Mod/LCD interaction is not supported and is very unlikely to be supported, as it represents a significant hole in Blizzard's security model (you note that all you get is "Whisper from XXXX", no info about what they whispered, because if it showed what the whisper was, that's a datachannel out of the game).

Most useful thing for the LCD, at least for me, is showing Vent info on who's talking (aka who has been keying their mic for the last 2 minutes) and monitoring BG queues when I'm alt-tabbed (less of an issue now with background sound.)

I use my G15 screen for Ventrilo information

Since the Blizz voice chat sucks, i keep up whos talking on my G15 screen.

The guild requires you to login to Vent using your player name so I can look down and see who is saying what.



Its also nice to use Miranda IM and chat with friends while raiding or farming so you dont have to tab out all the time.

This really isn't what you were asking, but I have heard people using the LCD to show the name of who's talking in Vent. Not exactly WoW, but related to raiding.

I would love to see more wow related addon's myself.

Currently I only use it for Ventrilo like most others here, and also I use it to see when my que is up for bg's or arena's, so I can alt tab out.

Half of the thing you suggest are already implemented as add-ons, why would you want to display them in a tiny LCD screen waaaay away from where you should always look (ie : your screen)... Except if you have really great peripheral vision I cannot see how displaying things on a LCD monitor that you have to focus your vision on to would help in any way...

Maybe if you can switch the background lighting on/off you could make it blink to display your threat - 2x/sec at 90% and 3x/sec at 100% of tank threat for a melee

That's basically what I use it for. If they did implement more functions to it, I don't even know if I would use them. I rarely use the stat monitor on the G15 because it's not detailed enough for casters. Even if it was my stats don't change like they do on my shaman (attack power) so it's nothing I really need to monitor.

Is it true? I can't be 100% certain. If you're using the G15 for basic macros, it shouldn't be an issue. As other people have said in this thread, bot type macros, which can be programmed on the G15 are bannable offenses.

Yes, Blizzard has said using the G15 is perfectly fine, as long as you use it for functions that you can do with any other keyboard and game given functions.

WoW-Europe.com Forums -> Logitech G15 keyboards bannable ? - See post #6

You can't.

Let me repeat it.

There is no way for in-game LUA to access the LCD.

None.

In-game LUA scripts are run by the game's LUA interpreter.
You do not have access to anything outside that sandbox, be it the Operating System API or the filesystem, outside of the protected folders within the WOW installation path.

Just a slight derail:

The "perfect UI theory" states that centralizing vital information / main functions is a good thing, while keeping unimportant stuff peripherally.
Why would you want your keyboard to distract you from what's happening on the screen?

I have a G15 and i am completely clueless as to how to set it up to see who's talking on vent. Can anyone direct me to a resource that could be helpful to me?

If you're using the latest ventrilo version (the beta) it's in the options for it to use the G15.

Should be one of the last menu tabs in Setup for the latest, beta (like Nite_Moogle said) version of Vent. Option should just be a check box saying something along the lines of "Enable G15"