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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2218 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Installed the new factorio and noticed how bad my mouse is for the fast and precise clicking needed. Worse, my mousepad actually shifts around when I move fast.

Are there any pro gamers on the motte who'd like to share their mouse and pad setups?

I went for a maximalist mousepad. It's essentially a deskpad that's also a mousepad, comfortable to rest on and pretty good for gaming.

Artisan mousepads are very popular in the aim community. They're pricey, but the quality is good. And in terms of mice, the current trend is for ever lighter, smaller models. The zerømouse is an extreme example, but it's indicative of the general trend. Mouse preference depends entirely on your needs. Unless you’re playing aim-intensive movement shooters, there’s absolutely no reason to get a 26-gram gaming mouse. That said, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is regarded as a good all-around mouse. At 63 grams, it's still lighter than most mice out there, and I think it will work great for most people and most use cases.

The aim community?

The core of any FPS game is mouse control. You need to react quickly, flick your crosshair onto the enemy's head, and shoot before they shoot you. All else being equal, the player with better aim will always win.

With the rise of games that demand this kind of precise aiming (eg., Overwatch and competitive Fortnite), a demand for synthetic aim trainers also emerged. The goal of these trainers is to improve your "raw" aiming abilities, that is, hand-eye coordination and fine muscle control, skills that can transfer from one FPS game to another.

In aim trainers like KovaaK’s or Aimlabs (the two most popular), you choose from a variety of scenarios, each designed to target a specific aspect of your aim. In one scenario, you stand in a greybox room and shoot static balls that appear on those grey walls. In another, you shoot moving balls, still in that same grey room. Three, four, five balls. Or you track those balls instead.

The choice of scenario depends on the aim mechanic you’re trying to improve. Training routines for Dynamic vs. Static clicking or Precise vs. Reactive tracking, for instance, will vary greatly.

It's like targeting a muscle group in the gym.

The idea is to use an aim trainer as a tool to help you get better in the actual game that you're playing. But a subset of people will just never leave the aim trainer. They enjoy grinding these benchmarks for hours on end, trying to beat their own high scores. It's addicting.

It is somewhat comparable to those who get very good at solving Leetcode problems, but struggle with applying these skills practically.

This is the aim community.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wD-WRSD3LmQ&t=50

Logitech thumb track ball. Its faster and more precise than any 'arm flailing' mouse. There is however a substantial learning curve and adjustment period when switching, up to 6 months before you're better with it than a normal mouse, which turns a lot of people off. I've been using one since 1997. For a classical mouse, any good corded optical one is fine and you don't need a pad for these at all if you have a good desk surface. If you have to have cordless then avoid bluetooth if you can (this is good general advice, bluetooth is terrible tech). A lot of competitive players also use a small armature that holds the mouse cord up and away from the desk surface so it doesn't get in the way. Here's a popular example: https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Gaming-Mouse-Bungee-RC21-01560100-R3U1

What's wrong with Bluetooth?

it operates on a pretty crowded/noisy band of the wireless spectrum. For example, if you're using a bluetooth mouse on a modern desktop computer, it's very likely that your USB3 ports are interfering with the bluetooth signal whenever they're active https://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/327216.pdf

Not to mention microwave ovens.

Somebody really needs to write a history about how a small chunk of unregulated spectrum set aside for microwaves ended up containing all the stuff we actually use.

Is the entire rest of the spectrum just camped? I think we're missing big chunks of 5ghz wifi spectrum because it was licensed to some satphone operator who never even used it(?)

Yeah, it’s pretty congested. There’s a ton of stuff we want to broadcast.

I was going to say that going higher in frequency is more expensive due to requiring faster sampling, but then I realized I don’t know the receiver architecture. Do they just down convert everything to baseband?

Either way, there’s definitely historical reasons to want those tasty lower frequencies.

G502 and a pretty large mousepad.

Logitech G502x wireless is nice mouse (using it to play factorio in fact). I use a large Razer mouse pad.

I'm pretty basic but I have a Mira-M mouse and a SteelSeries QcK mousepad

The Mira is super lightweight and really basic in terms of buttons but for the games I play its perfect. Two side buttons, clickable scroll wheel, middle button for adjusting DPI. All re-programmable with the software. Braided cable which is nice and long. Only complaint is that stuff can get inside due to the honeycomb design but its pretty easy to just blow out. If you've never had a mouse this light it can feel kind of toy like at first but it feels perfectly natural to me now. I should add that it's been a couple years since I bought the mouse so I'm not sure about availability.

Not much to say about the mousepad, but I've never had slipping issues.

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