New mouse time for me

[Dorkenstein]

Does anyone use steelseries mice? And what is the advantage of a laser mouse over an optical? I will think of more questions later. Thank you.

 

[corkyg]

Lasers are another form of optical - just capable of greater accuracy. I have one laser and 3 opticals - the laser is a joy.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Ah I see, thanks.

 

[xTemperfiedx]

For some reason though they recommend you buy the Optical for FPS and the Laser for RTS/MMO (For the Ikari that is)

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Lasers are another form of optical - just capable of greater accuracy. I have one laser and 3 opticals - the laser is a joy.

Lasers are not more accurate, they're just more precise - and this only allows for over inflated DPIs which doesn't do anything for improving accuracy or precision within a game, only speed. In fact, because it often increases speed so much, it often reduces accuracy, which is why the mice offer functions to change your DPI on the fly.

Originally posted by: Temperfied
For some reason though they recommend you buy the Optical for FPS and the Laser for RTS/MMO (For the Ikari that is)

This is partly because of what I mentioned above. In FPS games, there are a lot of players who like to have a low sensitivity mouse so that their cursor moves slow and they can get it precisely where they want to in order to improve accuracy (headshots for example, the head is a small target, you need high precision/accuracy).

If you have a 4000 dpi mouse like I do, unless you set the in game mouse sensitivity almost all the way down, when you nudge the mouse your cursor is going to go flying. Trying to get it to land on a small target is going to be much harder than it should be vs. if it was set to 400dpi. However, because 400dpi is 10x slower than 4000dpi, you need to whip the mouse extremely fast in order to get it to where you want it before you start the precision movements where you hone in on your target to make the shot.

This is where we've had some pretty big problems with lasers in the past (and still to this day). If you have your laser mouse set low and you make a very fast movement, the laser will malfunction as it will not be able to keep up tracking the surface it is moving over. This malfunction leads to skipping and/or harmful acceleration issues, and you ultimately end up aiming at something you don't want to be.

Even newer mice such as the G5 suffer from this. Even the G9, while slightly improved, is still flawed. Razer's Lachesis was supposed to be the first laser mouse that was supposed to be able to handle the abuse often put into older optical mice by such FPSers, however the Lachesis has been plagued with problems common of Razer mice when they introduce new technology (note, I have the Lachesis, however I also appear to be one of the 'lucky' ones that has a unit that works as it should).

So, because they recognized current technology doesn't allow for a be-all/end-all solution, and that they weren't capable of trying to pioneer such technology, SteelSeries opted to produce two versions of the Ikari.

 

[Sheninat0r]

bunny, what you say has a good point, but why couldn't someone with a laser mouse just get an in-between DPI value and a corresponding mouse sensitivity? Especially with the Ikari, which lets you set DPI down to the single unit, you could just tweak the sensitivity and DPI until you can get accurate movements without over-moving or flinging the mouse about.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

because modifying the DPI on the fly is a lot slower...

also, when you configure the on the fly DPI settings for the mouse, you usually only have a few values to toggle between, you might not be able to jump to the perfect setting...

FPS games are often very reflex based. It is far more beneficial to have your mouse so you can quickly flick it and then slow down to get the precision aim. Whereas what you're suggesting would involve mentally recognizing you need the mouse to go fast, translating that to physically switching the DPI, then physically moving the mouse, recognizing that the DPI you currently have set is not suitable for precision movement, taking time to adjust it down, then moving the mouse to hone in with your aim on your target. That's not just impractical, its nigh impossible to do so and gain any sort of advantage.

Besides, having the option to change the DPI (outside of specialty scenarios that I've already mentioned in my previous post) is mostly a novelty IMO. I'd much rather learn the ins and outs of how my mouse opperates at ~1000dpi than to toggle it to different values such as 2000 and 4000 or 500 and 250 and have to learn the nuances of each of those lesser resolutions. If I'm used to 1000 and have it on 2000 because I'm wanting a higher sensitivity to make it easier to check my 6, if I a situation comes up where I need to quickly hone in a on small target, I'll probably over shoot it because I'm used to 1000 even though I know I'm on a higher sensitivity. Its a situation where I want my developed instincts to work for me as much as possible, I want to make sure I'm not over-thinking things that shouldn't require extra attention.

 

[corkyg]

OK - we're into a semantics area - when I say "accurAte" it is synonymous with "precise." In my Enlgish language lexicon, precision begets accuracy.

And, I agree with your erudite and pedantic comments.

 

[octopus41092]

Well, I used to think that gaming mice were all a hype and were pointless. However, after buying the Razer Lachesis, I can say it really does help A LOT. The Lachesis is 4000DPI but I don't actually ever use that much. I usually just stick it at 2000DPI. Another thing about mice is, I don't think that its the actual precision or anything that makes it better, but its how well it slides across on my desk which makes it a lot easier and a lot more accurate.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: corkyg
OK - we're into a semantics area - when I say "accurAte" it is synonymous with "precise." In my Enlgish language lexicon, precision begets accuracy.

And, I agree with your erudite and pedantic comments.

But it is not the same thing.

Lasers are more 'precise' in how they work which is why they can produce such drastically higher DPI counts, but because of how it is translated in use as an interface device, this increased 'precision' means nothing for improving accuracy or precision of the user, in fact it can actually hurt it.

When you move a 4000dpi mouse one inch it makes 4000 counts and the computer will then convert that to a cursor movement of 4000 pixels. This is not like dpi with something like a printer, the 4000 dpi mouse is no more accurate or precise per inch of screen space (where it actually matters) than a 400 dpi mouse. In practice, because it is 10 time more sensitive per space moved, you'd need machine-like dexterity to be as accurate or precise as when using 400 dpi if you want to use each mouse to quickly place the cursor on a specific pixel - thus higher dpi really only offers is increased cursor speed and/or reduced mouse movements.

The only setting that truly increases a mouse's accuracy is an increased polling rate. Setting the mouse to be polled @ 1000Hz vs. the standard 125Hz means updates of mouse movement are being reported 8 times more often resulting in a better translation of where/how you move your mouse to where the cursor moves on screen.

Of course it just so happens that the first mice to offer driver side polling rate changes happened to be laser mice, however there is software that does exist that can change the polling rate for the entire system (generally considered unwise as some USB peripherals do not respond well to overclocked USB rates) but there also exist some that can change the polling rate dependent upon the mouse plugged in, allowing you to safely run older mice at higher polling rates (or mice that do not offer polling rate adjustments on their own, or mice you simply do not care to install drivers for).

 

[LOUISSSSS]

what is this mouse going to be used for?

 

[Dorkenstein]

FPS games.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

razer copperhead will probably suit u best.
it takes a bit to get used to (about 2 hours of use,) but it is so smooth and light on its feet.
the rubberized body never lets ur hand slip with fast movements and sweat doesn't make ur mouse slippery.

other mice i've used: g7, mx510, mx518, ms optical, mx revolution
game: cs:s. Cod4
final choice: copperhead

 

[Dorkenstein]

Is the Logitech G9 any good?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

never tried, but that'd be the 2nd mouse i get after the razer copperhead for fps gaming

 

[bunnyfubbles]

There's almost no reason to go with a Copperhead over a DeathAdder unless you're left handed. But even then I'd recommend the Diamondback 3G over the Copperhead for such a scenario (however I'd recommend you look into a program like Port Specific USB Overclocker for increasing the polling rate to 500 or 1000Hz)

 

[dino26]

Deathadder rocks..... 1800dpi 1000polling rate smooth as butter! and a lot cheaper than some of the other gaming mouses out there....I paid $35 for mine.