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Is it possible to plug in a USB keyboard into my laptop and get two people to use the two keyboards to control two separate players or does the input from keyboards all combine?

I'm asking in reference to Overcooked, but I imagine the answer would be the same for a lot of local co-op games.

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Yes, you can use two keyboards for two players, provided that each player's key mappings don't overlap with each other, otherwise there would be problems.

The same can be said for other local multiplayer games, co-op or not.

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  • If I'm using multiple keyboards with different mappings, does it still count towards the same n key rollover?
    – Aequitas
    Sep 12, 2016 at 6:16
  • @Aequitas Rollover is largely a hardware factor and comes down how the keyboard is designed. However there is a bug in Windows that effectively limits USB keyboards to 6KRO and that may or may not count separately for each keyboard. Since most keyboards are hardware limited to at most 3KRO, two USB keyboards would be normally be limited to a combined 6KRO either way. Also note that most laptop keyboards use an internal PS/2 connection and PS/2 keyboards aren't affected by this bug.
    – user86571
    Sep 12, 2016 at 6:43
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Games (typically) will only see a single keyboard, as presented by the system. Therefore, you cannot use multiple keyboards with the same bindings.

In most (but not all) cases, keyboard events are handled and mixed by the operating system, not by the game. Unless the game has direct hardware read support (some do), the OS supports it, and are built to support this multi-keyboard infrastructure, the game will only ever see the single "keyboard."

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Just adding on to the above answers, you can map the original keys to new keys using key mapping apps like Sharpkeys for example. As long as the keys don't overlap, each player can play on his/her own "entire" keyboard, instead of having to play on one side of the keyboard even though he has the "entire" keyboard to himself.

For example player 1's mapping can be mapped to

move -> WASD
pick up -> backspace
action -> enter
sprint -> ]

Player 2's mapping can be mapped to

move -> up,down,left,right
pick up -> z
action -> x
sprint -> c

Just remember to turn off the Sharpkey mapping after you are done. Hope this helps someone.

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