Basic Mouse Gaming Knowledge

 

The console game controller is a standard accessory and every console comes equipped with one. It has been widely used for many years. The controller is perfect for the many games it was originally designed for.

However, in "first person shooting" (FPS) games the controller is not perfect for most players. Precise aiming with the joystick for example is difficult. Only well trained users or those with many years of experience may find it easy to attain consistency with their aiming. Still lacking in consistent precision a mid-level to pro PC mouse user’s capabilities.

Why is this so? To figure it out let us take a closer look at the joystick and gaming control. The stick on the controller is a simple mechanism that converts the "moving angle" to a digital signal by using an A/D converter.

This "angle" represents the game's "moving speed". The problem comes when the user wants to stop the movement and aim at the target. The stick needs to return to the center position in order to stop. This necessary additional movement takes time which may cause the user to pass over the targeted spot he was aiming for.

Subsequently, the player's reaction time becomes delayed from the start time he aligns the target in the cross-hairs until the finish time when his hand returns the stick to the center location. This may cause under aiming as well as over aiming. In real competition this is intolerable, one miss may result in the user being killed and losing the game. To compensate for this problem, a player often needs to stop movement ahead of the targeted spot. But, this can be a difficult task because the stick may be at a different angle (i.e. different speed) each time. Thus the "breaking distance" will be different. To be able to handle this well is not easy. It may take years to get one's muscle memory to remember and act with a conditioned reflex. Who could do this? Not everyone, that is for sure! Not everyone has the time nor wants to do such hard training day after day grinding through hours. Still the human delay in aiming with the thumb at the highest level is cause to lose against a mid-level mouse user who casually plays. Many of us naturally easily adjust our muscle memory from using a mouse for many years.

So what other options are there? Let us take a look now at the mouse. A computer mouse works in different ways than a joystick. It detects the moving distance that corresponds to natural human hand movement. Any player may get his playing performance almost instantly by switching to a mouse. Unless, of course, you are a "top end" player already.

 

FPS gaming terms:

Deadzone:

The data converted from the analog stick when it is at center is not constant. To avoid this unstable data from acting in an unexpected move, both the joystick and game reserve a slight range of motion that is not acknowledged by the game, this is the so called deadzone. The stick's mechanical deadzone is normally about ± 3 °, and the game deadzone varies from game to game. In mouse game play, the moving data is output as soon as the mouse is moved so there is no deadzone. Finding and setting up a proper deadzone value for mouse gaming is important to get the best control sensitivity and smoothness in aiming.

The deadzone will also affect the final move speed because the final moving data includes the deadzone.

If you want to learn about how to tweak the deadzone, refer to our other article about product tweaking for details.

 

Aim Down Sight deadzone

The deadzone value when switched from hip sight to aimed down sight view.

 

Deadzone type

A FPS game processes the X/Y control data in one of two ways, referred to as Square Deadzone and Circle Deadzone. The game deducts the deadzone value from the controller raw data and uses the result for controlling.

Some games deduct the deadzone value independently of X and Y, this is the so called Square Deadzone. While other games deduct the deadzone "vector value" of X and Y, this is the so called Circle Deadzone. Selecting the correct deadzone type is important. Choosing the wrong deadzone type will cause your vertical direction move to be snaking or your horizontal/oblique direction move to be jittery. Since game developers do not tell what deadzone is used in their game, the user has to find out themselves. To do this, try each type and select the one which does not have a snaking vertical movement.

The correct deadzone type is also preset in the factory profiles for many popular games so the user does not have to figure it out themselves.

 

Lift-Off

When a mouse is lifted from the tracking surface, it will not stop tracking for a small height range, this can cause an unexpected extra move. If a player wishes to stop any movement as soon as the mouse is lifted from the tracking surface, the lift-off function can be applied to force the mouse sensor to stop tracking. The lift-off height can be adjusted in the software.

 

Straight Line Correction or Angle Snapping

With a high sensitivity mouse, very tiny moves are detected. Thus a human hand can never move the mouse perfectly straight, so that when a player moves a weapon, for example, in a horizontal or vertical direction, it can end up shaky and bumpy. The straight line correction function corrects the mouse's path or track to straight.

 

Mouse Speed and Game Sensitivity

Mouse tracking data can be amplified or attenuated to the console, this is referred to as mouse speed, and it is the hardware speed. A player can adjust this speed on the fly. Every FPS game has a control sensitivity option for changing the move speed as well, this is the software speed.

Thus, the final moving speed can be affected by both mouse speed and in game sensitivity.

Recommended guideline for adjusting movement speed is:

1. Set the mouse speed as close to 1.0 as possible, this can minimize the calculation losses to get the most accurate control.

2. Then set the in game sensitivity to the value most comfortable for the player.

 

Weapon Weight Compensation

Some of the shooting games use weapons that are of significant weight, when they are moved there is an inertia effect which delays the moving. Weapon weight compensation is designed to reduce this delay.

 

Mouse pad Test

Every mouse sensor can detect its own tracking quality. The quality can be reported with a relative number when testing on a surface. A player can tell which pad is the best tracking surface for their mouse. Although every mouse sensor has this feature, only the Tuact mouse opens it up to allow the user to see it.

 

Auto fire:

Allows semi-auto weapons to be fully automatic. Also used to slower the rate of a fully automatic weapon but stabilize it for tighter groupings when holding the trigger with little to no recoil.  It repeatedly outputs trigger data per click adjustable within setup software. "Some games put regulators to limit how fast it can fire".

 

Burst mode:

When the auto fire function is enabled, burst mode can fire burst rounds on each mouse click. The rounds fired each time can be 2, 3 or 4 rounds. 

 

Full auto mode:

When Full Auto is selected, it fires continuously as long as the trigger (click) is pulled.

 

Stability Assistance:

The bullets impact point will spread out due to the re-coil force, for “stabilizing" the weapon against the re-coil force to narrow the impact for tighter groupings on the target. Stability Assistance function will assist player to restrict the impact group to be smaller. The higher factor number you set, the smaller group you get.

 

Mouse exptension keys:

Every mouse on market is equipped with Right/Left click keys, wheel roll Up/Down and middle key, some mice may have wheel tilt right/left keys, those keys are refered as standard mouse key.

On market, some game mice may have more keys on top or side that Windows OS doesn't reconize them unless you have installed its own driver. Those keys extra to the standard keys are grouped in two type: Mouse extension key and Keyboard key.

From USB technical stand point, mouse and keyboard are different device where their data package are in differernt format. The extension keys data are in the mouse data package, the keyboard key data are in the keyboard data package. Thus, the keyboard type keys can be reconized by Windows but extension keys need vendor's driver to work on your system.

Thus, when user mapping their mouse keys in Venom-X setup software, the "User's Mouse button" box is only for the extension keys and the defination boxes are for the keyboard type of keys. User have to press every keys to see what type they are and map them by drag the icon or directly inout in the defination boxes.

Many game mouse may have both extension keys and keyboard keys, so user wouldneed to deal with them in different way.

There is 3rd type of keys may equipped on mouse, this is special function keys that only for mouse internal use such as DPI adjustment or setting switch, these keys would not be mappable for game play.