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New Fatal1ty Gaming Mouse
steven williamson writes to tell us that Hexus has a quick look at Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel's approach to a new gaming mouse. At first glace it doesn't seem to have much to offer beyond your average optical mouse. A few of the features are a "four finger" setup with regards to mouse buttons, a mere 1600 DPI but that should be plenty for most, and an exchangeable weight to give it just the right heft.
So then why is this on the frontpage of Slashdot?
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
ampednews broke this story last month, and I'm sure it was submitted to Slashdot (the site owner even admits to wanting slashdot to break it).
So why didn't Slashdot publish it then?
Oh, and please lose those mouseover keyword thingies. They come in at about a 9.5 on the Annoy-O-Meter scale
The Logitech G5, for one, comes with a set of weights that you can add to your mouse to suit your needs.
The fatality line of motherboards from Abit comes to mind.
My wife bought me a Logitech G5 mouse for Christmas. It boasts 2000 DPI sensitivity and it can change sensitivity on the fly using 2 buttons below the wheel. you can even specify sensitivity using the included software to up to 5 settings (expanding on 400/800/2000 which works even before installing drivers/software) so everyone is happy. It also includes Teflon pads to reduce friction and a weight cartridge to further customize your controls. The only drawback I can find is the price, but a little shopping around can save a few bucks even after the shipping. No, I dont work for Logitech.
Beware the fury of a patient man
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The Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse has this feature. I have it, it's wonderful. Nice rubberized-grip, slippy bottom, comfortable feel.
There are at least two Logitech mice I'm aware of that use dual sensors: mouseman dual optical and a much newer V400 laptop laser mouse. I only had a regular mouseman optical, so I never researched what could be done with two sensors. There might be a simple software hack to do what you describe... or not, and you'd have to tear apart the poor animals to get two outputs.
Logitech isn't the only mouse maker with adjustable weights. Razer, who makes the Copperhead mouse, also sells a kit to adjust the weight of the mouse - but its funny to see that it warns that using the kit, which is supplied by them, voids the warranty.
a mere 1600 DPI but that should be plenty for most
I'd be wary of buying such a mouse for use on a Linux/BSD system. I realize, though, that most gamers use Windows. It would seem that under many circumstances, there is no way to set the speed of a mouse in xorg/xfree86. Sure, you can set the acceleration, but if you happen to have, say, a shiny new Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical (800dpi), the thing is so fast that you have to set the acceleration to be
Why is losing mouse acceleration a big deal? It means that you cannot move across the screen with a quick movement while maintaining the ability to make small movements easily. It turns out that in operating system like Mac OS X, they actually "decelerate" for very slow movements - it takes a greater distance to move one pixel. I had never noticed these things before.
This issue is already on the TODO list and in their bugzilla system submitted by someone else. The goal is eventually to have a much smarter system for mouse speed and acceleration, to suit all tastes. I hope it gets some attention (perhaps as an add-on to the new X11R7), as right now I went back to an older mouse that works with acceleration (but isn't optical).
My mouse is simply incredibly fast (and I can't imagine another reason than the doubled dpi from most mice) - plugging it into my Mac Mini showed it was much faster than a wired Logitech optical mouse, and the discrete settings Mac OS X offered for mouse speed proved either too slow or too fast. I think the bundled Logitech software allows for finer control of mouse movement, though.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan