MVP/MS: important bug report ("Enhance pointer precison" & DirectX/OGL Games)

[Falkentyne]

Greetings,

There is a bug in the Windows XP mouse driver (this bug does not exist
in win2k) with the Enhance pointer precision option.

Others have posted this bug before, but the MVP's have given feedback
which does not solve the problem, or they may not understand the
problem, because no amount of adjustments will completely fix this.

Anyway:

When mouse acceleration (Enhance pointer precision) is turned OFF in
the mouse control panel, it is NOT completely turned off. It is
turned off in the windows desktop, but *NOT* in 3D games.

Enhance pointer precision causes problems, particularly with newer
high DPI mice, and which is magnified when the windows sensitivity
slider is set low. Acceleration can be worked around, but the other
problems with E.P.P is that it causes tracking problems on newer (but
not older) mice, particularly 1600dpi mice, on diagonals. And as
above, the problem because far more apparent at a lower windows
slider.

Unchecking the "enhance pointer precision" box fixes these issues on
the windows desktop, but these settings are completely ignored in 3D
(and sometimes even in directraw) games, unless the game has a setting
for "directinput".

There are registry changes that will remove the acceleration curve
completely (so that turning on EPP will not give acceleration)--this
was done to attempt to fix the 3D game problem--however, these changes
do NOT remove the other effects of EPP...they only remove the
acceleration. The mouse filtering/interpolation and the erratic
diagonal tracking STILL occur.

(more information is at
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/pointer-bal.mspx )
On this page, notice field #7:

Field #7 DOES NOT take effect in 3D !! It only takes effect on the
desktop. Any changes to enhance pointer acceleration are _IGNORED_
completely in 3D---in games, windows XP defaults to *ON*.

If WinXP automatically had this turned off for 3D games, it would be a
-much- much better option than it is now.

People have been aware of this bug for a few years.
Why have Microsoft not done anything to fix this problem?

Please, contact MS with this issue and see if they can release a
hotfix. It would not be hard to do ; just an updated windows low
level mouse driver that would actually -REMOVE- each and every effect
of Enhance pointer acceleration in games.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Falkentyne

3D games, when started, will take control of the mouse from Windows.. more
often than not, there are adjustments within the game that will alter mouse
behaviour.. if the mouse appears erratic, then look to increase the
resources available, more RAM or better video card, and get a better mouse..

 

[Falkentyne]

Falkentyne

3D games, when started, will take control of the mouse from Windows.. more
often than not, there are adjustments within the game that will alter mouse
behaviour.. if the mouse appears erratic, then look to increase the
resources available, more RAM or better video card, and get a better mouse..

Hi Mike,

I am aware of this,
But the problem is, no matter what settings are available, you can NOT
turn off "enhanced pointer precision" within a game, unless the game
supports directinput mode. Turning off mouse acceleration inside a
game ONLY turns off acceleration from the game engine itself-- it does
NOT affect that windows is also giving the game acceleration, too!
And some of these gamers are the best players in the world--they know
what they are talkiing about. This has been talked about at length
on the CAL league professional gaming forums, at www.caleague.com

And acceleration is not the only problem; EPP can also cause tracking
issues with the newest mice.

This bug was found by a MVP back when Win XP was still in beta (I
found an old google post regarding this), but nothing was done.

As I said above, some gamers refuse to use windows XP just because of
this bug.

BTW, I have the best video card and mouse you can possibly buy.
(disregarding the x850xt-pe, which is like going from a Pentium4 3.2C
to a 3.4C):
(Razer diamondback and radeon x800xt-pe--the only mouse that can
compete is the newly released Logitech MX518 -only been out in the USA
for about a week--and yes, the Logitech has the same problem as the
razer).

Enhanced pointer precision and high DPI mice do -not- cooperate quite,
and they become completely unusable when you turn the windows mouse
slider down several notches and have the precison box ticked.