Sticky: Mouse input guide

[VaeVictis]

*if anyone has information please post it and ill add it to the first post*

GUIDE IS FOR WIN XP, OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS MAY APPLY BUT AREN'T GUARANTEED

I've seen a lot of people getting bad information about mouse input lately so I thought I would write something up to share some tips for better mouse input that I learned from a mouse input guide for CS on overclock.net

Windows Sensitivity:

This is a big problem I am seeing people talk about. YOU DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE IT FROM DEFAULT! You always want your windows sensitivity to be on the sixth notch. If you lower it, windows will actually skip input commands and render small movements absolutely useless, if you raise it windows will actually skip pixels jumping 2 or 3 per movement instead of just one. If you want a lower or higher sensitivity, change it in game, never touch your windows mouse sensitivity.

Windows Mouse Acceleration:

Windows from Win2000 and up has built mouse acceleration into the operating system. For 100% accurate mouse movement for the most consistency with your aim and the best overall performance you will need to do a couple things.

1. In control panel find your mouse settings and go to pointer options. In pointer options there should be a check box that says "Enhanced pointer precision" you want it unchecked. This will disable a large amount of acceleration and might be good enough for some people who don't care as much, but it will not disable all of it.

2. The mouse acceleration that is left over cannot be gotten rid of without a little bit of help. Attached to this post is the CPL mouse fix for WinXP. It's a small program that will edit your registry to take out ALL windows mouse acceleration in WinXP, however it will not work for any other version of Windows. For Vista and Win7 there are programs out there such as 'MarkC Windows 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix' but i won't talk about them because I honestly don't know much about them.

In Game Sensitivity

*Some one help me fill in this section not too pr0 with cvars*

R1Q2 mouse cvars (thanks to Slayer):

• sensitivity - Takes a floating point number as you sensitivity (e.g. 4.5, 2, 1.53, etc).
• m_directinput - When zero, directinput mouse is off. When one, it buffers the directinput events (this lags my mouse by like .2 seconds ). When two, it sends events immediately to the processor (I like this setting). I would strongly recommend turning it on because it gets rid of 100% of acceleration without the use of any 3rd-party drivers.
• m_filter - Averages out mouse movement, so it's pretty much only good if your desk is wooden and you have no mousepad.
• m_fixaccel - Fixes Vista's, XP's, or Win7's acceleration.
• cl_pitchspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_yawspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_anglespeedkey - Affects how quickly your mouse turns. Changing it off 1.5 makes your mouse feel weird.
• m_pitch - Affects your mouse's vertical motion. Don't set it any higher than the default of ".022".
• m_yaw - Same as m_pitch, just has to do with horizontal motion.
• m_show - Debugging purposes.
• freelook - Enables you to look up and down. Turn it on!
• lookspring - Centers your view when you jump. Turn it off!
• lookstrafe - Changes your turn keys to strafing when you move the mouse. Turn it off, but it won't have any effect since we are playing with freelook "1".
• m_forward - Adjusts your speed when freelook is off.
• m_side - Adjusts mouse strafing speed when lookstrafe is on and freelook is off.

All of these with the exception of m_directinput, m_show, and m_fixaccel work in 3.20 too.

APRQ2:




*would like to get a section about pulling rate and dpi in if some one wants to volunteer some information*
*sticky from an admin would be nice if ya think it's worth it*

[Whirlingdervish]

I don't know a huge amount about it, but I use these two utilities that Ely posted a while back to up my mouse polling rate on my optical mice, and to check the average rate to see if it's sticking.

http://dervish.tastyspleen.net/files/mousepollingfix.zip

There are two programs in there.

Mouserate.exe provides realtime checking of your effective mouse polling rate for a USB mouse.
usbmrs11.exe gives you the ability to permanently set your polling rate to the highest setting your hardware can use.

[Slayer :D]

R1Q2 mouse cvars:

• sensitivity - Takes a floating point number as you sensitivity (e.g. 4.5, 2, 1.53, etc).
• m_directinput - When zero, directinput mouse is off. When one, it buffers the directinput events (this lags my mouse by like .2 seconds ). When two, it sends events immediately to the processor (I like this setting). I would strongly recommend turning it on because it gets rid of 100% of acceleration without the use of any 3rd-party drivers.
• m_filter - Averages out mouse movement, so it's pretty much only good if your desk is wooden and you have no mousepad.
• m_fixaccel - Fixes Vista's, XP's, or Win7's acceleration.
• cl_pitchspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_yawspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_anglespeedkey - Affects how quickly your mouse turns. Changing it off 1.5 makes your mouse feel weird.
• m_pitch - Affects your mouse's vertical motion. Don't set it any higher than the default of ".022".
• m_yaw - Same as m_pitch, just has to do with horizontal motion.
• m_show - Debugging purposes.
• freelook - Enables you to look up and down. Turn it on!
• lookspring - Centers your view when you jump. Turn it off!
• lookstrafe - Changes your turn keys to strafing when you move the mouse. Turn it off, but it won't have any effect since we are playing with freelook "1".
• m_forward - Adjusts your speed when freelook is off.
• m_side - Adjusts mouse strafing speed when lookstrafe is on and freelook is off.

All of these with the exception of m_directinput an m_show work in 3.20 too.

[VaeVictis]

R1Q2 mouse cvars:

• sensitivity - Takes a floating point number as you sensitivity (e.g. 4.5, 2, 1.53, etc).
• m_directinput - When zero, directinput mouse is off. When one, it buffers the directinput events (this lags my mouse by like .2 seconds ). When two, it sends events immediately to the processor (I like this setting). I would strongly recommend turning it on because it gets rid of 100% of acceleration without the use of any 3rd-party drivers.
• m_filter - Averages out mouse movement, so it's pretty much only good if your desk is wooden and you have no mousepad.
• m_fixaccel - Fixes Vista's, XP's, or Win7's acceleration.
• cl_pitchspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_yawspeed - Doesn't appear to have much effect, though it is used in cl_input.
• cl_anglespeedkey - Affects how quickly your mouse turns. Changing it off 1.5 makes your mouse feel weird.
• m_pitch - Affects your mouse's vertical motion. Don't set it any higher than the default of ".022".
• m_yaw - Same as m_pitch, just has to do with horizontal motion.
• m_show - Debugging purposes.
• freelook - Enables you to look up and down. Turn it on!
• lookspring - Centers your view when you jump. Turn it off!
• lookstrafe - Changes your turn keys to strafing when you move the mouse. Turn it off, but it won't have any effect since we are playing with freelook "1".
• m_forward - Adjusts your speed when freelook is off.
• m_side - Adjusts mouse strafing speed when lookstrafe is on and freelook is off.

All of these with the exception of m_directinput an m_show work in 3.20 too.

the accel fix is r1q2 only aint it?

added to the first post, will change information where necessary and give credit

[Slayer :D]

Yeah, m_fixaccel isn't in 3.20.

[Arm0r]

was just about to post a request for any known mouse tweaks, thanks for the info.

[VaeVictis]

I don't know a huge amount about it, but I use these two utilities that Ely posted a while back to up my mouse polling rate on my optical mice, and to check the average rate to see if it's sticking.

http://dervish.tastyspleen.net/files/mousepollingfix.zip

There are two programs in there.

Mouserate.exe provides realtime checking of your effective mouse polling rate for a USB mouse.
usbmrs11.exe gives you the ability to permanently set your polling rate to the highest setting your hardware can use.

was thinking more about why and how to do it rather than just programs with some simple facts like ps2 mice have a pulling rate of 100hz and usb have a pulling rate of 125hz... i just would like some more reliable information to post, i dont know much about it other than my deathadder has 1000hz pulling and thats more than enough XD

[|iR|Focalor]

While we're at it, picking up and slamming your mouse down on the desk is bad. Very bad.

[[BTF] Reflex]

That depends on the mousepad you have,  qck+ steel that naym gave me seems to absorb alot of shock.


Vae,  prolly a dumb question,  but have you checked out the info Elysium posted on mouse stuff?  he talks about polling rates and cvars etc...
Might incorporate some of it here.

http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?topic=12153.msg125174#msg125174

[VaeVictis]

That depends on the mousepad you have,  qck+ steel that naym gave me seems to absorb alot of shock.


Vae,  prolly a dumb question,  but have you checked out the info Elysium posted on mouse stuff?  he talks about polling rates and cvars etc...
Might incorporate some of it here.

http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?topic=12153.msg125174#msg125174

guess i missed that i seem to be blind lately lol... should i just delete this thread? lol

just saw a lot of people lately talking about really stupid things to do with mouse input that you should never do so i figured id make a thread if there already is one, no need for this

EDIT: although.. he does say to change windows sensitivity if you want to... which is a really big you dont do that sorta thing... XD

[[BTF] Reflex]

Might incorporate some of it here.
http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?topic=12153.msg125174#msg125174

   Either one by itself doesn't have EVERYTHING.   

I have a few things to change after reading all this.  Namely upping my DPI setting.   
It's on middle setting now.  But looks like I might want to try upping it and dropping my game sens.

Was planning on tweaking my sens back up a tad anyhow,  noticed running out of room here and there.
Barely happened before I moved,  had a higher sens back then.

Keep up the constructive work