Unable to bind specific key

Guides UI and Macro
1

After latest patch, i am unable to bind my ½ key.

This is while, the key works perfectly fine, even in the in-game chat. While it works there, i’m still unable to bind the key. With and Without add-on’s, meaning even the blizzard keybinding interface will not recognize the button. Which also means, while it’s bound from before, those binds don’t work.
This is while, it was working (and still bound) beforehand.

What have i tried, to do myself:

1st: Updated firmware of my Steel Series Apex 150 Keyboard.
2nd: Deleted both WTF and interface folders, letting the game create new ones.
3rd: Tried with 0 add-on’s loaded, game will still not recognize my ½ key.

I run Danish keyboard layout, which caused no issue previously.
Tried swapping to US keyboard layout, game will still not recognize this specific key pres (binding wise).

Latest ticket idea done.
I have now, tried what you suggested. Deleting WTF, Interface and Cache folder. This was done, at the same time. Opening up the game and letting it create new folders.

I have also tested, binding the ½ key in HoTS, This works fine.

i have also, tried running the scan and repair tool inside the blizzard launcher. No errors found.

I have tried, deleting them both (bindings-cache.old and bindings-cache.wtf) inside the WTF->Account>Accountname->Ravencrest->Character name. Trying to force the game to start recognizing the key press. Nothing changed.

SO.

I have now figured out the issue, except… That is not a final solution. Changing app input (keyboard) to strict US layout, where the ½ key does not produce ½ but ` when pressed. This makes me able to bind the key AND use it.

This is, a useless solution. As my keyboard… does not match the US strict layout. Why ? would this suddenly happen? This issue, arrived after the patch.

The bug report made says:

After the latest patch, i’m unable to bind(and use) the ½ key. Only when swapping to US keyboard layout and it produces ` instead of ½, i’m able to bind and use it. This is a non solution. I run Danish keyboard layout, so even if i want to bind the specific key, that renders my layout incompatible with my actual Keyboard.

2

I highly suspect the problem (and solution) here, are on the Keyboard-software side, not in WoW itself.

Wow-specific profile in keyboard software ?

My first guess, based on your explanation is that perhaps your keyboard-software supports “profiles” for specific programs/games ? Ifso then maybe the newer/updated wow is either no longer recognized as wow (or wasn’t before and now is).

Or more genericly (as i’m not familiar with your brand’s keyboard software), maybe the game is now tied to a different profile than it was before, and linking it back up with the right profile would restore the functionality you’re used to.

Restore keyboard layout/language

Either way, as you’re already aware, i wouldn’t recommend switching the keyboard layout or language input settings, to anything other than what you really want to use, that’s the wrong way to go.

Anyway, as for a more generic approach to working around the problem:

BACKGROUND (Chat)

There are 2 different systems related to keyboard interaction in wow.

The first system relates to places where you can type/input text (such as the chatbox), and it accept all sorts of characters, the behavior there is mostly determined by your OS, the keyboard layout and language choices and the like. Wow itself doesn’t really factor in that much.

This system isn’t giving you any problems, so we can ignore it.

BACKGROUND (Keybindings)

Keybindings however, are a different system, and work very differently. They deal with keypress-events that have certain keycode numbers pre-assigned to particular keys.
There’s only a limited amount of keycodes, and the basic (oversimplified) idea is that most of the keys you’d find on a classic US keyboard, have one keycode each, but more modern key don’t, non-US keys don’t, and neither do modifier keys like shift/ctrl/alt.

Whenever you press a regular key, this system notifies WoW that a KeyUp or KeyDown event happened (that is, whether you pressed or released a button), which keycode (like, 77. which might refer to the M-key), and which combination of modifiers (Alt, Shift and/or Ctrl) was being held down while you pressed the key.

Now, your keyboard/mouse software may be able to receive all sorts of fancy/extra information from the keyboard, through their proprietary protocols. But it can’t relay that information (through your OS) to regular programs like WoW. It can only pass on information that fits within that limited frame of keycodes that every application has standardized on.

The Problem

Specifically to your issue, the “½-key” effectively does not exist, it has no assigned key code (in the US layout anyway). The way you (or the manufacturer) work around this, is the same way people get around it when using a mice with more than 5 buttons.

The Work-around

You tell your keyboard/mouse-software to report the “½-key” as some other key(code) that is supported. Either:

  • A supported key, that isn’t present on your keyboard. (some keyboards dont have keys like F11, F12 or the Backtick/Tilde key you mentioned ~). In this case you could tell your keyboard software that the ½-key should act as (for example) ~-key and you’re sorted.
  • A supported key, that you don’t use. If you ordinarily never use your F8 key in wow, because it’s inconveniently placed, you could tell your keyboard software that the ½-key should act as F8-key and you’re sorted.
  • If neither of the above are possible (or desirable), you could use modifiers (Alt, Shift and/or Ctrl) . You could tell your keyboard software that the ½-key should act as CTRL+SHIFT+4 and you’re sorted.

Of course, you’d expect your keyboard software to do this stuff by default for a reasonably boring key like ½ (unlike for proper custom keys like M1-type keys), and it sounds like it indeed used to, but currently it does not (it seems).

Actually, looking at a screenshot for Nordic keyboard layouts, the place of the ½ key there, in the place of the US Backtick/Tilde key, makes me suspect that the ½-key should under the hood send the same key code as that key, so perhaps you can tell the keyboard software that, for wow('s profile), ½ means backtick.

http://www.farah.cl/Keyboardery/A-Visual-Comparison-of-Different-National-Layouts/#da

1 Like
3

Use AutoHotkey to bind it to something else and gg.

4

The work around, works. Thank you.

5

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.