Fix for jerky mouse look/input

[ghiaman]

Well - this is my first post, but seaching the forums, this issue didn't seem to come up much.

I found that the mouse input (looking around etc.) was VERY jerky in HL2. At first I thought it must be just a framerate problem but after a lot of testing I realized that it was how HL2 was processing my mouse input. I'm a pretty hardcore FPS gamer, and have never seen this problem as bad before. I did see "jerky" input referred to a few time in reviews, but nobody had any fixes suggested.

Symptom: No matter if m_filter was on or off, or even playing with the sensitivity, looking around, especially small moves were very jerky. As a test, I bound the turn verbs to keys and turning via the keyboard was butter smooth. I also enabled the joystick and set it to look mode (I can never imagine actually playing that way!) and again turning was butter.

I then started digging into the config variable and through a bunch of testing found that by turning sensitivity way up, turning m_pitch and m_yaw way down, and then tweaking the mouse acceleration, I transformed my mouse input to be basically as smooth as any other game.

Here's my final related settings in my autoexec:

sensitivity "20"
m_pitch ".004"
m_yaw ".004"
m_filter "1"
m_side ".8"
m_forward "1"
m_customaccel "1"
m_customaccel_scale ".8"
m_customaccel_max "0"
m_customaccel_exponent "1.2"
m_mouseaccel1 "2"
m_mouseaccel2 "0"
m_mousespeed "1"

The difference for me is night and day. Anyway - hope that might help anyone else who might be having similar problems.

BTW - my specs - not that they had much impact on this particular item: P4 2.8, 1 GB, ATI 9800Pro etc....

Edit:

PS. if you are running Logitech's mouseware drivers, make sure you "Disable acceleration in games" in the properties under motion or it will really mess with things....

 

[cold_stare]

I'm using a Bluetooth wireless Intellimouse Explorer and am experiencing some choppage in game-play. If I remember correctly, it occurs when I'm scrolling from side-to-side, and now that I think about it, the mouse might just be the culprit. What type of mouse are you using?

 

[ghiaman]

A Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2150,CONTENTID=5006

I know it's not quite as responsive as a wired mouse or trackball, but given my computer chair have always been lazyboy in the reclined position, an arm mounted trackball is a must - keyboard on lap etc. (used to use the Logitech wired thumb trackballs for years).

When I first had the jerky problem in HL2, I went back to D3 and a few other games to make sure I hadn't messed something else up, but they were fine. I also plugged in a wired trackball and it was also jerky so I know it wasn't some kind of wireless lag or something.

This tweaks make the game a ton more playable for me.

BTW - the sensitivity is not limited to 20, you can go much higher and turn down the m_pitch and m_yaw even further. I tried all kinds of combinations and now got it real smooth.

 

[ghiaman]

A bit more tweaking - after playing for a while getting into nastier firefights, I found the accuraty much better, but the accelaration was to high for when things got into a frenzy (I end up facing too far one way). Tuned it down a bit and got it where I really like it:

m_pitch ".004"
m_filter "1"
sensitivity "20"
m_side ".8"
m_yaw ".004"
m_forward "1"
m_customaccel "1"
m_customaccel_scale ".9"
m_customaccel_max "0"
m_customaccel_exponent ".6"
m_mouseaccel1 "2"
m_mouseaccel2 "0"
m_mousespeed "1"

I'm sure everyone's settings might vary, but I can tell you it is well worth the time to tune them to your liking....

 

[cold_stare]

Could you save me a few minutes of searching and tell me what folder the cfg would be in? A file name would be even better though....