This article is meant to be an addition to the Aiming by Raziel guide which can be downloaded via SweRTCW.com It is directed towards people who are fairly new to the game, or to people who generally have no idea whatsoever about their mouse and its' settings.
Back when
RaZieL wrote his guide, technology was not advanced enough to enable the 2000 DPI setting, nor the feature of having high polling rates. I am not however, suggesting these settings are the best for everyone. The majority of people who have played with the same settings for years, would probably not benefit from making any changes to their settings - but instead suffering a reverse effect - "hurting" your aim.
Before you start changing every single setting you currently use, pause. It is crutial you write down, or save the settings you currently use in a text-file.
All the possible changes stated in this article, can all be undone if you are not completely satisfied, which is why you need to keep note of ALL your current settings.
At the end of the day, keeping the same settings over a long period of time, is what makes you aim better... not changing your settings every other week because you had one bad game.
Okay, enough of the babble, let us get started.
1. FPS or Frames Per Second
You basically would benefit by having as much of these as possible. FPS is the speed at which your mouse will react.
Start up your ET, preferably into a high-fps map. Seta com_maxfps 43, and wiggle your mouse around. Seta com_maxfps 125, and again wiggle your mouse around. You should immidiately notice that your mouse will react a lot faster when having high FPS. You must however, try and find a suitable number of FPS, at which it will remain stable. FPS drops are normal, but you basically need to keep them as high as possible, but at the same time as stable as possible.
[Some Extra Bumcum]
*Common FPS caps: 43 / 63 / 72 / 76 / 83 / 100 / 125 / 166
*Recoil: This is FPS dependable. Having exteremly high FPS, will result in a higher recoil than having a lower FPS setting.
2. Mouserate
FPS make your mouse move, but the rate at which your mouse sends information to your computer (mouserate), will also speed up the reaction times of your mouse. It will make your aim a little bit smoother too. The best mouse port to use, is USB, not PS/2.
You can use the following program to view your current mouserate, and also change the rate of your mouse: http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1004774.
Try (if you don't have it already), putting your mouse at 500Hertz. Some may only report 450Hertz, but that is standard.
But like with FPS, more is better.
3. DPI or Dots Per Inch
You may have seen all of the new mice being released with information given such "ultra high DPI". Low profile mice may only use 200, 400 or at best 800DPI - if you have a low profile mouse, you may not need to take notice of the following section.
There is a major problem however, concerning the use of a high DPI setting in the Quake 3 engine. Join a server, and keep your crosshair focussed on the same point. Put an object next to the current placement of your mouse. Move your mouse swiftly to the other side of your mousepad or desk. Next, return it slowly to its previous position (next to the object). You will notice that your crosshair has not returned to the same point at which it started - even though it has moved back and forth exactly the same distance.
Whilst moving your mouse with a high DPI setting, it is more likely to lose data or mouse input. When you move the mouse back to its original position slowly, the engine is able to process all of the data. This results in different levels of data processed, and therefore, NEGATIVE ACCELERATION.
In an ideal situation, you want every movement of your mouse to be translated at exactly the same speed displayed on screen - no matter how fast or how slow you move it.
Do not fret... negative acceleration is not a flaw in your mouse, but simply a bug or glitch in the Quake 3 engine.
So, what should you do if you buy a new mouse? You could either set your DPI to 400, or you could change Operating System (OS) sensitivity via the control panel. The second or third notch should be fine.
Both of these ways will lower the DPI and no matter how fast you move your mouse, it will always move accurately.
http://www.xfire.be/?x=article&mode=item&id=49
4. WindowsXP noAccel
As mentioned by RaZieL in his guide, WindowsXP has an inbuilt 'acceleration-like' feature. Operating Systems like Win9X/WinNT/Win2000/Linux/Mac do not have this feature. It can be easily enable or disabled by running the following patch: http://razerblueprints.net/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=74
Make sure you reboot your computer and run the patch a second time to check if the patch has been enabled/disabled.
http://razerblueprints.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=72&topic=4788.msg%25msg_id%25
5. Monitors: CRT vs. TFT
This one is extremely complex and difficult to get a grasp of, let me try and explain...
"CRT > TFT"
...end of story. CRT monitors are the 'daddys'. Do not buy flat screens. Just like with FPS and mouserates, you want the most display refreshes you can get.
Good CRT screens can go up to 200Hertz, depending on their size and what resolution, or r_mode you play on. The ideal situation is, Hertz >/= FPS.
Teh End
This guide was meant to be as simple as possible. I have wrote and rewrote this article in the past and have always ended up with an endless clump of text full of technical bullshit and explanations no-one understands. I hope this one has and will continue to help out of few of my fellow gamers.
Overdrive, over and out.
bb ET
<3
update:
Can I be a COMPLETE bitch and ask you to move your article to a column? I want to keep the CPC guide as #1 article until the LAN, unfortunately we dont have the sticky facility on xfire, but I need to keep it visible at all times for the competitors.
Stuart "Mein Lan" Saw
The original comments can still be found here:http://www.xfire.be/?x=article&mode=item&id=602
Back when
RaZieL wrote his guide, technology was not advanced enough to enable the 2000 DPI setting, nor the feature of having high polling rates. I am not however, suggesting these settings are the best for everyone. The majority of people who have played with the same settings for years, would probably not benefit from making any changes to their settings - but instead suffering a reverse effect - "hurting" your aim.Before you start changing every single setting you currently use, pause. It is crutial you write down, or save the settings you currently use in a text-file.
All the possible changes stated in this article, can all be undone if you are not completely satisfied, which is why you need to keep note of ALL your current settings.
At the end of the day, keeping the same settings over a long period of time, is what makes you aim better... not changing your settings every other week because you had one bad game.
Okay, enough of the babble, let us get started.
1. FPS or Frames Per Second
You basically would benefit by having as much of these as possible. FPS is the speed at which your mouse will react.
Start up your ET, preferably into a high-fps map. Seta com_maxfps 43, and wiggle your mouse around. Seta com_maxfps 125, and again wiggle your mouse around. You should immidiately notice that your mouse will react a lot faster when having high FPS. You must however, try and find a suitable number of FPS, at which it will remain stable. FPS drops are normal, but you basically need to keep them as high as possible, but at the same time as stable as possible.
[Some Extra Bumcum]
*Common FPS caps: 43 / 63 / 72 / 76 / 83 / 100 / 125 / 166
*Recoil: This is FPS dependable. Having exteremly high FPS, will result in a higher recoil than having a lower FPS setting.
2. Mouserate
FPS make your mouse move, but the rate at which your mouse sends information to your computer (mouserate), will also speed up the reaction times of your mouse. It will make your aim a little bit smoother too. The best mouse port to use, is USB, not PS/2.
You can use the following program to view your current mouserate, and also change the rate of your mouse: http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1004774.
Try (if you don't have it already), putting your mouse at 500Hertz. Some may only report 450Hertz, but that is standard.
**WARNING**
Some, and only some mice can do 1000Hz. If you know little about your mouse/computer and ports, do not attempt to use 1000Hertz as you may frazzle your mouse and will be unable to restore default/previous mouse settings.
Some, and only some mice can do 1000Hz. If you know little about your mouse/computer and ports, do not attempt to use 1000Hertz as you may frazzle your mouse and will be unable to restore default/previous mouse settings.
But like with FPS, more is better.
3. DPI or Dots Per Inch
You may have seen all of the new mice being released with information given such "ultra high DPI". Low profile mice may only use 200, 400 or at best 800DPI - if you have a low profile mouse, you may not need to take notice of the following section.
There is a major problem however, concerning the use of a high DPI setting in the Quake 3 engine. Join a server, and keep your crosshair focussed on the same point. Put an object next to the current placement of your mouse. Move your mouse swiftly to the other side of your mousepad or desk. Next, return it slowly to its previous position (next to the object). You will notice that your crosshair has not returned to the same point at which it started - even though it has moved back and forth exactly the same distance.
Whilst moving your mouse with a high DPI setting, it is more likely to lose data or mouse input. When you move the mouse back to its original position slowly, the engine is able to process all of the data. This results in different levels of data processed, and therefore, NEGATIVE ACCELERATION.
In an ideal situation, you want every movement of your mouse to be translated at exactly the same speed displayed on screen - no matter how fast or how slow you move it.
Do not fret... negative acceleration is not a flaw in your mouse, but simply a bug or glitch in the Quake 3 engine.
So, what should you do if you buy a new mouse? You could either set your DPI to 400, or you could change Operating System (OS) sensitivity via the control panel. The second or third notch should be fine.
Both of these ways will lower the DPI and no matter how fast you move your mouse, it will always move accurately.
http://www.xfire.be/?x=article&mode=item&id=49
4. WindowsXP noAccel
As mentioned by RaZieL in his guide, WindowsXP has an inbuilt 'acceleration-like' feature. Operating Systems like Win9X/WinNT/Win2000/Linux/Mac do not have this feature. It can be easily enable or disabled by running the following patch: http://razerblueprints.net/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=74
Make sure you reboot your computer and run the patch a second time to check if the patch has been enabled/disabled.
http://razerblueprints.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=72&topic=4788.msg%25msg_id%25
5. Monitors: CRT vs. TFT
This one is extremely complex and difficult to get a grasp of, let me try and explain...
"CRT > TFT"
...end of story. CRT monitors are the 'daddys'. Do not buy flat screens. Just like with FPS and mouserates, you want the most display refreshes you can get.
Good CRT screens can go up to 200Hertz, depending on their size and what resolution, or r_mode you play on. The ideal situation is, Hertz >/= FPS.
Teh End
This guide was meant to be as simple as possible. I have wrote and rewrote this article in the past and have always ended up with an endless clump of text full of technical bullshit and explanations no-one understands. I hope this one has and will continue to help out of few of my fellow gamers.
Overdrive, over and out.
bb ET
<3
update:
Can I be a COMPLETE bitch and ask you to move your article to a column? I want to keep the CPC guide as #1 article until the LAN, unfortunately we dont have the sticky facility on xfire, but I need to keep it visible at all times for the competitors.
Stuart "Mein Lan" Saw
The original comments can still be found here:http://www.xfire.be/?x=article&mode=item&id=602
dat iceq, doing his nightly investigation on ppl