Let's talk about mouse sensitivity

[UKCS-Alias]

Am I the only one here without a mousepad?

No, my table is too reflective hence i use one aswel

Also, my sensitivity is 4.8 with the current mouse, but it was 5.8 before (and depended on the windows settings and acceleration settings). I can dynamicly change the input dpi, but i use 1000 by default even though my mouse does support 2500 (but then again that would reduce its polling rate, for hammer going 1500 is still comfortable when editing details).

 

[seth]

My mouse supports up to 6500 DPI/CPI, but there's actually no real reason to go above 800 is most situations. It won't hurt, but I set mine back to 450 to allow me to use default windows settings (6/11) as opposed to the slow one (2/11) I was using to compensate for the extreme DPI I was using before.

 

[seth]

So I tried playing TF2 at my current CS sensitivity (15.8" 360) and the best way to describe it is that it is limiting. I have so much less mobility. Tried it at 11.4" and that's pretty good actually, might stick around there for TF2.

 

[Idolon]

I'm pretty sure I did this wrong, because I measured it with a tape measure at about 2.75"/360. My dpi is probably something more like 2,000. Oh well!

YM, are you sure that you used the correct Windows Multiplier value from the website's chart? I used "4" instead of the corresponding 4/11 value on the chart, and ended up with a very similar 0.8"/360.

 

[seth]

Wow, I'm really surprised by the number of people under 3" 360's. That's insane to me. I just tried doing a 7.9" 360 in TF2 and I can't do it. You barely move your hand, there's no control. I feel like a good sensitivity should start with you figuring out your mousepad width. I think it makes sense to use most of your mousepad. You are not sacrificing speed if you can do a 360 in length of your mousepad. That should give you all the mobility you need, while still giving you a lot more control and precision than the stuff you guys are using. Then you can just tweak from there. I don't think I will be able to go under 10" again, I now realize you lose so much precision in doing so.

 

[Yrr]

Big Mousepad, Low Sens, for dat ~aim~

(400dpi)

 

[YM]

I don't think I will be able to go under 10" again, I now realize you lose so much precision in doing so.

Are you unable to hold a pen and write letters legibly that are only a few mm across?

If you aren't able to, I can understand why you think any mouse movement under several inches is imprecise. But if you can move a standard pen to form any of the English letters on paper, then you should be able to move a mouse precisely too.

 

[seth]

Are you unable to hold a pen and write letters legibly that are only a few mm across?

If you aren't able to, I can understand why you think any mouse movement under several inches is imprecise. But if you can move a standard pen to form any of the English letters on paper, then you should be able to move a mouse precisely too.

Writing with a pen is completely different. The utensil is physical, and is the writing tip is so close to your fingers that if you move your fingers a millimeter, so will your pen. In games, you have to worry about how far something is from you, they wont always be right up against you like a pen. If you move your fingers a millimeter in-game with your sensitivity, you'll entirely skip over someone at long to medium ranges. It'd beimpossible to track someone far-ish away.

 

[YM]

My mouse is physical.
My mouse touches my fingers, when they apply even the tiniest pressure, the mouse moves. It's tracking 1800 dpi and it takes

I already conceded that my sensitivity is too high, but I did the maths:
The mouse has 4.5 dots per degree
If I can move my mouse say 1/10th mm which is definitely not a stretch, the point under my crosshair at 1024 units range would move 26 units.

After the start of the discussion I turned it down so it was 2" per full turn -> 1/10th mm movement = 13 units at 1024 range.

That's more than accurate enough for me because shotgun spread at that range is 34 units and rocket splash is 146 units.

 

[Tumby]

The best explanation I can find as to why my mouse sensitivity is "so damn high" is because I hate moving my entire hand. I use pretty much only my fingers for everything, not just videogames. Besides, I don't even have that much room to move my hand anywhere.
Also, I sometimes feel like I should crank up my sensitivity even more, but thats probably just some framerate drops slowing it down instead.

 

[Bakscratch]

90% of games I play I use max or close too on most modern games, even on consoles I use max.
Older games seem to have a much more sensitive options I've, like max on Quake is just 1 point is 360.

 

[Samniss Arandeen]

Wow, I'm really surprised by the number of people under 3" 360's. That's insane to me. I just tried doing a 7.9" 360 in TF2 and I can't do it. You barely move your hand, there's no control. I feel like a good sensitivity should start with you figuring out your mousepad width. I think it makes sense to use most of your mousepad. You are not sacrificing speed if you can do a 360 in length of your mousepad. That should give you all the mobility you need, while still giving you a lot more control and precision than the stuff you guys are using. Then you can just tweak from there. I don't think I will be able to go under 10" again, I now realize you lose so much precision in doing so.

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to go past 4"/360 ever again. You turn so slowly even with such a large movement of the hand that tracking fast-moving targets becomes a pain! What previously was just a slight pressure in my fingertips to pull my aim just a little bit over for a headshot now becomes an arm motion that involves the shoulder, a larger and less-precise muscle. Following a moving Scout has me constantly jumping over myself trying to three-point turn my fat slow Heavy to continue pumping the annoying Bostonian full of lead. Don't even get me started on twitching my aim down and right fast enough to rocket jump with any semblance of efficiency.

 

[Yrr]

ive switched sensitivies a few time from high to low and I find its pretty easy to adjust just by playing a few games with a new sens

of course, low requires a large mousepad, but when youre used to it and have the space, anything higher just feels inaccurate

 

[UKCS-Alias]

Wow, I'm really surprised by the number of people under 3" 360's.

1 thing i noticed is that the sensitivity calculator isnt as accurate as you might expect. Because i calculate a 1.4cm for a 360. i dont reach a 360 in such short distance. It takes me about 5-7cm.

It could be because i have the 'enhanced pointer precision' setting still at on where many would prob turn it off. I dont know its effect ingame on that. But since im not interested at playing on competetive levels i just cant care.

 

[DonutVikingChap]

Reading this thread has made me realize why so many people think aiming is hard in TF2...

Seriously guys, get bigger mouse mats and lower your sensitivities. The mouse mat in that KriMz video is not even that big, it's pretty standard sized for gaming mousepads. As someone who used to play with a really high sensitivity back when I had a crappy mouse and a tiny mousepad, I can say that making the switch is not that hard, and getting used to making large movements with your mouse really does pay off. I use a 13.6 in/360 sensitivity now and I actually still consider it pretty high, especially compared to what some of my friends use. I keep this sensitivity just because I play TF2 more than they do (they mostly play CS), and having different sensitivities for different games messes with muscle memory.

Also, never use anything other than 6/11 windows sensitivity since non-standard sensitivities either skip movements or skip pixels. Adjust your mouse's DPI or in-game sensitivity instead.

 

[seth]

Played a few hours in CS today on the 15.8" 360. I played pretty well and I'm surprised at how much I've adapted to this sensitivity already. I've been playing with sub 5" 360's pretty much all my life. At the end of the day, I even felt like I could crank it down a bit more and I played my last round of DM at 17.3". I used the AK all the way through and it went phenomenally well, I was able to be extremely accurate at long ranges while still maintaining enough mobility to deal with people in closer quarters. I joined late (leaders were at 9k each) and surpassed both in 30 seconds. I finished out the round - about 3 minutes - at 42:14. I have never been able to play like this before. It's incredibly satisfying to finally be working with a proper sensitivity.

 

[seth]

Just figured I'd update again, maybe spark some new conversation. I've been playing at 14.8" for awhile now and am thinking of lowering again. I'm still not as precise as I'd like to be at longer ranges and I can finally appreciate why the hell you'd want a sensitivity that puts you around an 18" 360. It's really not that difficult to get used to, but you need to be sure to keep at it for several weeks before you make your decision. You will often play well when you first switch your sensitivity, and then gradually get worse until you settle into the rhythm. As long as you have a decently-sized mousepad, slower sensitivities are the way to go.