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Teh koola's calibration article!!!11

Aight I opened my mouth so I might as well say everything while im at it, this is the/a  mouse calibration tutorial/article w/e im writing so all u can hit ut up with headshots. Before I begin I should state that I learned some of this info from gaming forums and a fps player named raziel through his rare aiming tutorials. Also I might say obvious stuff that makes me look stupid but thats ok. Here we go.

There are two types of ways that people use the mouse, high-sens" and "low sens", both with their disadvantages and advantages. First I'll explain the types, then ill explain general mouse stats, and then ill explain how this translates into advantages and disadvantages.

The high-sens player usually takes the role of shock-trooper, the high sensitivity allows the player to turn around instantly, and perform manuvers quicker then lowsens. They keep a better view of their immediate surroundings and generally stick to the splash weapons.

The low-sens player is the opposite, they play best the role of sniper. The advantage comes to the low-sens player in this field because at longer distance the target takes on fewer pixels. Hitting these few pixels is very difficult when your mouse is set on high sens.

USB 2.0 has a refreshrate of 125hz, now remember this isn't a constant, it varies and as raziel has said can drop to 4hz under circumstances. It means that your mouse gets LAG!!!11 I cannot find a usb sampler tool for osx, but I will tell you that it does indeed drop because I have tested this on a peecee. Lesson 1: hook up ur mouse to its own usb port.

dpi, sensitivity, acceleration
You know what dpi(cpi for u tech nazis) is. You know that your mouse has a default dpi. You know how sensitivity works, but you need to understand that it works by a software method. You don't flip a register in the mouse that changes its mode, you tell the OS that you want it to add to or remove/ignore an amount of movement that the mouse sends. Now u can understand that acceleration works the same way. Now, both are bad, because they make it harder for you to move your mouse to a target except in rare situations.

You have heard the precision argument that everybody is throwing around on the 64-bit cpu topic. Now, the values that are sent from the mouse to your computer are a set of 'unsigned char' values, this is how it is in most mice. unsigned char is a programming data type that holds 8bits of data. 8bits can store a range of values from 0-255 for integers only. Your computer monitor is set at a resolution. Your mouse sensitivity is a value that is multiplied by the sent mouse values to create a new position. The thing is, if the result is a fraction, its rounded! Which means your mouse might move one pixel more/less then its supposed to each time it sends in a new coordinate! Guess what the mac os x sensitivity values are?

In Apple>system preferences>mousepane or whatever the values from left to right(skipping the first notch, I couldn't figure it out) are

.125
.3125
.5
.6875
.875
1
1.5
2
3

So picking 5 of the options can yield rounded coordinates!

Some games just use the OS mouse settings, ex warcraft 3, but *I think* UT uses its own settings. There is a programming interface called the HID Manager, in really basic terms its the piece of code that accesses the connected devices. OSX uses this separately, and when UT2k4 starts it uses it separately. Basically means that the mouse settings of OSX won't stack on top of ut2k4.
Lesson 2: Don't use acceleration, run your mouse at default sensitivity. In OSX default sensitivity is the 7th notch over. In UT the value is 1.28. Also check 'reduce mouse lag'. What this does is forcefully poll the mouse more often to get a updated mouse position. The reason it is a checkbox is because this causes overhead(read: reduces your fps)



Ok keep going or stop? The rest doesn't really mean anything it just suggests that the player use low-sens and shows how low-sens suits todays technology more, and highlights the real benefits of mice that can support high sens. Also I didn't proof read. On top of that this is just configuration of equipment blahhh blaaaaahh blah. See every1 at the fragoff tonight.

INTERMISSION:
http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=do … amp;id=493
http://www.reversecode.com/dl/raziel.avi part of^^
http://www.own-age.com/vids/video.aspx?id=3612

PART 2


HIGH-SENS
High-sens has several disadvantages. It's affected greatly by friction, dirty tracking surfaces, and at extremes an issue called pixel compensation.

A lil story to explain pixel compensation. Your mouse picks up every movement, down to the vibrations from the fan in your PSU. An algorithm is applied to determine whether it was actual movement or something to ignore. This algorithm is not 100% effective so when you set your mouse to high high sens, you will notice that the cursor moves extra pixels sometimes. This is not an issue in most mice.

The friction and dirty surface problem is solved by glide-tape- a tape applied to the bottom of mouse feet that is very smooth, and gaming mousepad--more on this later.

LOW-SENS
Low-sens has the issue of lag/buffer-overrun, and some mouses are too slow to support its speed. This is the case with the black apple pro mouse, and logitech mx500. What happens is if you move it too fast in one direction it thinks its moving the opposite.


Now the majority of players in the world are lowsens, including the pro fps players. Fata1ity the number one male fps player is lowsens. But Kornelia(no 1 female) is high-sens! I like kornelia cuz im high sens 2 <3. Truthfully lowsens is dominant in mice right now, because thats the majority of existing technology, 800dpi and less. For pixel perfect accuracy at high sens at a high resolution you need a high dpi mouse, >800..

Why a high dpi mouse for high sens and low for low sens? Remember when I talked about sensitivity, I said it is done by a software method. By using low sensitivity you choose to ignore an amount of movement sent from the mouse. By using high sens you add and amount to move the cursor more. The mouse operates at a default setting, which is its dpi. So say we have a 400dpi mouse and a 800dpi mouse. The 400dpi achieves 800dpi movement through software, which means it skips a pixel to move at the speed of 800. 800dpi moves at its speed hitting every pixel, its twice as accurate for the given speed.

The way high-sens players survived with low-sens mice back in the day was to reduce the game resolution.

Low-sens uses up to the default dpi of the mouse which is usually 800, or they increase the resolution.



MOUSEPADSZ0rz and silly stuff
Really basic here, the reason "gaming" mousepads are used over conventional is because the patterns on conventional mice are <800dpi with varied intensity. Makes it harder for the sensor to recognize movement(duh). U can print-off a noise pattern from PS, but paper is kindof translucent so you get into issues of stacking it with other paper and taping to the desk...I tried it lol.

High sens players usually stick to the metal mats because they have low friction(causes problems when you are starting to move mouse and stopping it). Low sens like clothpads because of stoping friction.

I would recommend a "gaming" mousepad because of friction but also it helps with memorization and reflex shots. Every movement is over a consistent surface = consistent cursor movement.

There is however a common aiming technique that eliminates the problem of friction. Basically you move your mouse in a straight line at a constant speed and hit the enemy while the mouse is in motion. This stops the distortions from friction as you slow down/speed up.

Remember if you know your enemies sens to use it against them. Saying they are in the middle is the best because it is the place where the problems of the two sens converge. If they are high sens keep your distance(harder for them to hit individual pixels), lowsens get really close combat(harder for them to turn around). This only works vs the non-calibrated mouse general noob though. The matchup of high-sens vs low-sens is equal assuming both sides are using properly configured equipment.


Srry didnt proof read again lev

edit: appended ut pixel perfect sensitivity setting.

UNREAL TOURNAMENT PIXEL PERFECT SENSITIVITY FORMULA>

H = horizontal resolution
A = angle of rotation

A = arctan(2/H) //do this in degree mode

(A*4114.285714*)/360 = pixel perfect sensitivity setting.

This also assumes a FOV of 90 . Increasing the pixel count means that you have to lower the distance moved to hit each pixel, If i were to make an  analogy it would be like walking on a tiled floor, if the tiles are shrunk, you have to reduce your stride to step on each one.

edit: checked whether osx + ut sens settings stack, and they do :\. For the formula above to work you have to set OSX mouse sens to 7th notch from the left.

Last edited by koola (2005-03-05 12:18 pm)