Jeff, have you looked into how the driver software that comes with the mice interacts / overrides / affects the “Enhance pointer precision” setting in the basic Windows driver?
For instance, Logitech SetPoint (I have an MX1000) has settings for selectable acceleration. None, Low, Medium, and High. All 4 of these behave entirely differently depending on whether the “Enhance pointer precision” setting is enable in the control panel, not to mention that each one has it’s own slider for pointer speed! It makes one wonder if the two are counteracting each other, or the opposite, exaggerating.
I would have thought that when one installs an “advanced” mouse driver, it would disable the basic mouse driver settings in the Windows control panel to avoid this confusion and overload of possible settings combinations.
How did your testing fare using the MS and Logitech software along with the basic Windows settings?
Talking about mice…
Windows OS has an option “snap to”…to automatically move the mouse to the default button.
I use this feature, but sometimes I have a little problem: my intention is to click a certain button, but because a pop-up/dialog box/confirmation request window/etc appears just before I want to click, the mouse automatically moves to that window, so I click there even if not this was my plan. Do you know a way to set the OS to ignore the click on a window if this click comes too early for a human being to be able to see that window and to decide to click on that window. I mean, if a click comes after less that (let’s say) 250 milisec the window appeared, that click is ignored.
I’m always in search of the perfect mouse, but I find so few. I’ve been with my Logitech MX1000 for awhile now and really like it - but the wirelessness kills me. It isn’t the weight, it’s the flaky reception the rf gets for some reason. I guess my keyboard try is below desk level and so if my desk gets messy, or my cat lies down too close to the receiver, all of a sudden things get jerky.
The problem is, I’m now addicted to the three thumb buttons. Mapped to a couple expose modes and my dashboard, it’s reflexive. Sigh. The search continues.
What I’ve always wanted to see was either a mouse or a keyboard with an integrated mini-joystick like those found on Playstation controllers, or even smaller.
There are times when I want precision (e.g., sniping in an FPS) and times when I want to be able to very quickly move with no precision (e.g., rotating a sluggish turret, where a mouse requires you repeatedly pick up the mouse and move it to get to the desired target).
I’ve tried using a joystick to the side of my mouse and switching to it quickly when I need to move in “turret mode”, but that’s also very tedious.
I’d love a small integrated joystick to fill this gap – has anyone ever seen something like this?
non-linear response scared me away from EPP option: i was afraid it would continuously vary the ratio of response to my speed giving me no linearity whatsoever making it so that i was unable to be the primary actor, only able to respond to whatever the instantaeous ratio was. your graphs, with two inflection points, makes me much more comfortable with the notion assuming they are accurate, but i still somewhat lean towards fixed response on principle.
then again my primary is a overclocked trackball set to twitch and my secondary is a fairly slow clit.
Thank you for mentioning the bit about Macs, with the link to the other guy’s article on Macs and mice. I’ve been playing around with a Mac here at work and couldn’t figure out why the mouse was so crappy feeling compared to all of the Windows machines in the lab. Now I feel better knowing about the name and the concepts for this experience (the whole mouse acceleration ballistics thing).
I’m using the Sidewinder right now, and I must say this has been the best mouse I’ve ever owned so far. It was on sell for $50 at Circuit City so I couldn’t pass it up. The Sidewinder is great for my large hands. It’s wide enough to accommodate every finger including the pinky. As far as I can tell the only major failing would be the lack of customization for all the buttons. I’m sure that some persons outside of Microsoft will eventually fix that problem soon enough.
I do notice after I enable enhance pointer precision, I get smoother pointer from my Logitech Marble Mouse. However, enhance pointer precision not staying checked after each reboot. Every time I need to go to Control Panel to activate it after every PC reboot or start PC.
How do I enable this feature all the time.
since nobody seems to have made this remark yet: if you are playing fps games (or in fact any computer game that requires a mouse), you defenitely do not NOT NOT NOT!!! want to turn the mouse acceleration on. the reason is that with mouse acceleration you can never predict where exactly your cursor/crosshair will be pointing after a fast movement of the mouse. without enhanced mouse acceleration you can generally rely on the fact that a movement of n units on over the mousepad will always be a movement of x * n units on the screen, thus allowing you a much more fast and/or precise aiming.
This is good writen in the blog.if this mouse is more interesting and best when you are a convert in a glass body with a colorful like a toy. Thank you.
This is good writen in the blog.if this mouse is more interesting and best when you are a convert in a glass body with a colorful like a toy. Thank you.
I just switched to the Sidewinder and i think its great.I like how it feels in the hand. hope to try out the G9 to but cant guarantee that i`l like that better as you said its an problem of the fit in the hand and not performance. And good review. sorry for the bad english
