Software

The GMMK 2 does what GMMK PRO should have from the start with support for open-source QMK and VIA firmware customization tools. I did check against a couple of QMK configurators, and Glorious just put out its own QMK firmware on Github, but do not have enough experience with VIA to confirm how well the GMMK 2 plays there. Regardless, in the market this keyboard is a part of, having a first-party software solution is crucial. This is Glorious Core, which we have seen before, and I had a pre-release version made available to me, though there should be a version 1.1.25 or newer available on this page now. The installer is part of an archived folder on the product page. Installation is simple enough and asks for ~500 MB storage space, and it actually takes exactly what it asks for, too. It is lightweight otherwise, which will please users, no doubt.


With the keyboard connected to my PC, Glorious Core took a couple of seconds to recognize it. Given the launch coverage here, there was no available firmware update, so I got to examining the software as it pertains to the GMMK 2 right away. As with my previous time with Glorious Core, I was left mostly impressed. It scales well with high DPI displays and has fully functional maximize and minimize buttons—things many still struggle with when it comes to peripheral software solutions. I can also see Glorious has addressed one of my complaints from before by adding helpful cue tips that can be brought up as needed or hidden if already familiar with the settings. Some user experience tweaks are still needed for Glorious Core to be on par with competing mainstream drivers, including moving menu items to a central location rather than having them on the side with limited space, expanding the sub-menus underneath to be nested rather than in a single column, highlighting the changes made on the virtual keyboard for remapping, revamping the macro editor for better editing tools, and so on.

Above is a walkthrough of customizing the GMMK 2 in Glorious Core. You can select one of three profiles on the home page or the keyboard-specific section, and I do appreciate the settings being large and clear enough. There are three menus as it pertains to the GMMK 2, with the Lighting menu opening up a plethora of preset lighting effects to choose from on the right, including static, dynamic, and reactive effects. We see options for each, including brightness and speed as appropriate—note that the speed on the virtual keyboard is way faster than on the actual one. The choice of RGB color is also present, including from a color palette or by manually setting the R/G/B brightness level in a 0 to 255 range—256 steps for each color, which totals the 16.8 M colors per LED. Configuring the side lighting separately requires you to click on the per-key sub-menu where you can select them even if the virtual keyboard does not explicitly show them. There are also three layers to choose from for each customization setting, which works well for the second menu that is all about key binding. Here too do we get several preset options, including a single key or keystroke, media playback, volume control, mouse strokes, OS shortcuts, and a macro recorder. The third tab is still a waste of space, albeit slightly improved from before since there is more than just the polling rate option—sorry, no 8 kHz polling here. The addition is a weird input latency option that feels redundant in the presence of polling rate. Why someone would want a higher input latency than 125 Hz, which is 8 ms, is also beyond me.