Is there some sort of secret? No matter what sensitivity my mouse is set to I seem to get stuck when turning. On a controller I can turn completely in a circle, but not with a mouse unless i’m missing something. I’m willing to accept that I might be an idiot. But seriously how to people do it? It just feels so unatural. Sorry if this is a dumb question, because I think it’s a dumb question too.
This question fills me with sorrow.
Are you using mouse only? On my controller I usually use both analog sticks to move and turn the screen at the same time which allows quick rotation if necessary. Same applies imho to mouse and keyboard. I use the mouse to turn the screen and wasd to turn my character which at least for me leads to the same result.
deleted by creator
I use a mouse and keyboard for everything except gaming. I hate using my phone. I use to play basic keyboard and mouse games when I was a kid but it’s been a very long time. I actually started my game tonight and after adjusting my mouse sensitivity it’s easier than I thought. Hitting left shift with my pinkey to run kind of sucks but oh well. Still slightly cumbersome but I think I can get used to it. I’d still rather use a controller if given the option but I think I can manage. Thanks!
deleted by creator
Definitly PC for the win. I have several controllers. The game I’m playing is mouse and keyboard only sadly. I get it, indie game developers have limited resources to work with. I’m forcing myself to use mouse and keyboard and its going better than I thought it was. The game is good so far.
deleted by creator
Might try a low stakes, low stress first person puzzle or platformer. Was playing Faraway: Puzzle Escape a few weeks ago. It’s mouse look, WASD movement, no jumping, and no deaths or timers. Gentle gameplay, relaxing music, the puzzles are difficult enough to be interesting, but easy enough that I played the whole thing in one sitting between lunch and dinner…and I didn’t feel tempted to throw anything.
I got Faraway 1&2 off Amazon prime games, think they might still be available.
My thinking is that it’ll get you used to how to move around without being aggravating, and without adding too much complexity to the movement.
Or play Portal.
Get a good mouse with some extra buttons and it makes the whole experience a lot nicer. And remember you can usually change any keybindings you dont like. My mouse has two extea thumb buttons and theres some games where ill use one for sprint or dash, although left shift feels pretty natural after you get used to it for a while. The biggest difference with mouse is turning like you said, its not like a conteoller where you can just hold it to the side and then release to ‘reset’. Regardless of your preferred sensitivity tou have to get used to ‘resetting’ the mouse yourself by pucking it up and recentering it. But once you get used to that it feels way more responsive and accurate than controller aiming imo. I got a steamdeck a couple years ago and its largely replaced my pc for gaming but theres still times where i wish i had a mouse, even with the touchpads.
I use a controller on PC for some game types now
I’ll use a controller if I’m emulating a console game(obviously.) The only PC games I use a controller for is strictly driving a vehicle in GTA5 and Cyberpunk, or racing games. WASD isn’t pressure sensitive, and it does my head in trying to feather the throttle to take a corner, or creep past an enemy so my companion can shoot them from the window. Just makes more sense to use a controller for that. Also too broke to buy a decent wheel and pedal setup.
deleted by creator
I have a 3bitDo SNES style controller. I barely use my computers for emulation these days though. I’ve got a plug-in/clip-on phone controller, and my phone is beefy enough to do everything up to the switch. Obviously some games and systems run better than others, but I mostly play PS1/2 with some 3/DS and SNES occasionally. I own the actual hardware for all of those, and for 3ds and ds they’re portable. It is a bit of a faff lugging around multiple handhelds though…
deleted by creator
When I moved from Canada to the UK, my now wife and I had our very first actual fight. She didn’t understand why I wasn’t willing to give away or sell off my game collection. I have NES, SNES, N64, OG Xbox, 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, Vita, GB-DMG, GBC, GBA, DS and 3DS. With a load of games for each one. It was when she was helping do research on reasonable value for all of them for insurance to ship it all she finally got why I wasn’t willing to sell it and try and rebuild the collection over here.
deleted by creator
Yeah, a lot of people don’t seem to understand just how valuable our retro game collection can be.
The monetary values were what convinced her…but
A lot of people think it’s just about holding onto the past, but it’s more than that. Not to mention the fact that the games you really loved for the consoles you really loved can hold very deep sentimental value that you shouldn’t be forced to give up.
I couldn’t give a fuck about the money. Some of those consoles were gifts from now long dead relatives. Some of the games I have memories of playing with friends who passed away, or we drifted apart. That collection is like a story, every game in it has held a special place in my life. Be it having a session with my younger siblings on a week night, trying to be super quiet because dad told us to go to sleep 2 hours ago. Or trying to beat Masa and Mune in chrono trigger with Brandon every day after school, handing the controller back and forth. Or having our little minds blown that we had to physically switch the controller to beat Psycho Mantis.
It’s a huge part of who I am, and when I said I would rather stay in Canada than ditch my collection? It hurts that she only understood when she found out what it was “worth.”
We’ve had long chats about it since, and she gets it now. Took a while though…
Everything they said but first start by playing some solitare first, it was included in early windows to teach mouse skills
I’m actually pretty good at Solitare. It’s fun.
No play Balatro
I played that too. Good shit.
- Disable mouse acceleration in the OS and in the game
- Enable raw input
- Decide on a grip for your mouse, your options are claw, palm, or tip. Which type of mouse you have will kind of dictate that choice for you at some level
- Download CS GO and an aim practice map
- Adjust the sensitivity until you start hitting shots semi-regularly. You should be able to do at least a 360 on a single mouse pad, some people prefer a higher sensitivity. You’ll have to decide between using more wrist or more elbow.
- Memorize the DPI and in-game sensitivity you used, use it for mouse-sensitivity.com and try playing a very different game from CSGO with those settings.
Odds are the best settings for CSGO will be less sensitive than the best settings for open world RPGs, ultimately it’s your call and depends on the games you play, but once you have a setting, stick to it for a few different games, then adjust as needed.
Turn off mouse acceleration in windows, it’s called enhance pointer accuracy or something stupid. Set your mouse DPI to 400 or 800 in its software and get a decent sized mouse pad, Adjust your in game sensitivity to the point a natural arc of your arm does a full 180. After that it’s all practice
There’s aim trainer games to practice mouse speed and accuracy.
Practice
While it’s true that experience is the only way to ‘get used to’ something, having the right settings can minimize the effort of it. It should almost be as effortless as pointing at something with your finger.
You will have to go into the settings and adjust your sensitivity to what matches your personal proprioception. The best way I know to do this is to open up the game and then pick a point to look/aim at (if it’s a first-person/OTS third person) or a point on the screen to put your cursor if it’s something with a static camera. Place your mouse/reticle on that point. Then swing it out for a loop/heart/star shape and try to snap your view right back to the same point based on where it would feel natural. Don’t readjust to get there if it’s not at the spot, just note where you are actually aiming compared to the target. If you go past it, sensitivity or acceleration is too high. If you don’t get there, it’s too low. If you are off to either side on a perpendicular line, (e.g. you come from straight to the side and end up too high or low) that’s you, and that will just have to come with experience. .
Try to keep the mouse centered in your mousing area. The aiming motions for the mouse are shorter, snappier throws rather than the long and slow arcs of an analog stick.
So move the mouse to your aimpoint, then pick up and recenter. I find that a full “flick” for me should go about 360 degrees. You can also check for mouse acceleration settings, this increases the rotation of your view based on how fast you move the mouse. Good for games where action is coming in from all sides, but it can cause some problems with precision and consistency.
There’s no real secret other than to just play games and get used to it. FPS may or may not be the best choice for this. You could also play other games like strategy or city builders instead.
My sensitivity is so if I drag my mouse straight to either side, I’ll do about 7 or 8 full spins by the time I get to the end of my mat.
Thats crazy how much the preferences differ. I do like 2 spins with my big ass mousepad.
I don’t like to have to do that swing move that streamers and other hardcore gamers use. I like to use as little arm movement as possible
Its only an issue if you play like 8+ hours every day. For small movements most people use their wrist and that fucks your joints if you do it enough. That is one of the reasons for why pro players do it.
From left to right i do a 180 lol depends what kind of games you play
If you can’t turn in a circle with your mouse, your sensitivity is too low. Crank it up until you can do a 360 comfortably without lifting it and repositioning. I have no idea why this advice suddenly became “lower the sensitivity and just use your whole arm across your whole desk” but, that shit sucks. Especially if you don’t have room.
It’s a good idea to disable acceleration and, when possible, use RAW input for the mouse so it moves 1:1 with your hand. You can do this in most competitive heavy games, and you might want to also disable acceleration (mouse smoothing) in Windows’ own settings.
Accuracy. When the slightest twitch makes me spin its way harder to consistently hit targets, especially small ones at a distance. Slower is better for sniping, faster works if you’re rocking shotties. A buddy of mine plays so much quake he has macros that adjust his mouse speed upon switching weapons so it adjusts accordingly, and it really makes a huge difference.
lower the sensitivity and just use your whole arm across your whole desk”
Carpal tunnel avoidance
I have no idea why this advice suddenly became “lower the sensitivity and just use your whole arm across your whole desk”
Because that’s how you get the greatest level of precision.
Not really. Long time ago I was used to a mouse with ~3000 dpi and after a few years I was extremely precise with it. Also faster, obviously.
Yes, really. Speed /= precision.
Did you miss the “extremely precise” part? So no, not really.
No, I didn’t miss anything. “Precise” is relative term. Whatever skills you developed increasing precision can be applied and further improved with a lower DPI over a larger area.
This is how M+KB natives feel on controller.
You will get used to it if you keep playing, but it might never feel natural unless you use it exclusively for a while.
I’m a trackball + keyboard user so mouse + kb and controller both feel sort of almost right but somehow wrong to me
Also some genres lend themselves better to one or the other. I prefer controller for platformers and fighters, but prefer TB + KB for almost everything else
Trackball gang! There’s dozens of us. Dozens!
Your numbers are growing! I’ve met one of you in the wild 10 years ago!
Also some genres lend themselves better to one or the other. I prefer controller for platformers and fighters, but prefer TB + KB for almost everything else
Yeah, I agree. I use a controller for platformers, fighting games and racing games. Also sometimes action RPGs- I’ve played Dark Souls with both input methods.
My only absolutely hard line is using a controller for any kind of shooter. I just can’t, and trying is a very frustrating experience.
For the most part, it’s just like how you learned to be good with a controller: experience. The more you use the mouse the better you get. You brain just learns that this amount of movements equals roughly this distance moved on the screen.
For a lot of people, disabling mouse acceleration helps with precision. By default there’s an acceleration curve, so you move the mouse faster and the cursor goes even faster, disabling it makes it so the cursor tracks the mouse precisely. It can make it harder to do a 360 though, as acceleration can help get the speed needed. Dial in your sensitivity settings to where it feels comfortable for aiming, because if you make the sensitivity too much for the 360 it’ll be really hard to aim with any sort of accuracy.
There’s a rhythm game called Osu! if you want to stress test your mouse accuracy.
Practice/getting used to it
Also since you are learning try low sensitivity + moving your arm instead of high sensitivity + wrist movements
