Optimal mouse DPI setting for 120 hz display 1080p

[Kirayamato]

ok i am using 1.25 ingame sensitvity and 1200 dpi right now i use this in all cod games so if you have a comparison thats what i want if any of you play cod what would be the best dpi to go dont look at the sensitivity this is what i use as i play competitive and i use a qck heavy so if i need to a quick turn i can do that just want absolutely no pixel jumping what should i get it up to approximately to get that

[Chief Blur Buster]

ok i am using 1.25 ingame sensitvity and 1200 dpi right now i use this in all cod games so if you have a comparison thats what i want if any of you play cod what would be the best dpi to go dont look at the sensitivity this is what i use as i play competitive and i use a qck heavy so if i need to a quick turn i can do that just want absolutely no pixel jumping what should i get it up to approximately to get that

There's several many variables:
- The hardware factor. How good is the mouse's DPI settings. Some DPI settings are crappy (jittery, interpolated) on some mice, but not other models/brands of mice.
- The human factor. How far you like to swipe to get a 180 degree turn. How steady your hands are.

You may find that on a specific mouse, you may things most reliable at 800dpi + higher sensitivity settings, and that a different mouse that you find your use is more accurate with 1600dpi + lower sensitivity settings. Or that going even higher (on newer, higher quality sensors) produces even better results.

If your mouse is very accurate, you will generally get less pixel jumping with a slightly higher DPI simultaneously combined with lower in-game sensitivity. But this is not the case for all mice...

P.S. Acceleration turned off (both in Control Panel, and in game).

[shadman]

That is very suprising to hear you have a 1" range for that Mark..

My friend Max! Is one of the better Snipers in TF2 (best in platinum last few seasons) and I just asked him what all he uses, since his mousepad keeps getting in my way. He has a Razer Deathadder, set at 1800dpi with sensitivity really low, he has a 14" 360 (7" 180, etc).

But that is definitely personal preference, just posting it for whatever reason, but he says he notices the differences in DPI to 1800.

PS he is a huge Light boost fan, he says he can't play competitively without it, and sends his thanks!

[Chief Blur Buster]

That is very suprising to hear you have a 1" range for that Mark..

More like 1.5" range, it's just a personal preference. I'm not an elite competitive player, and more of a recreational player who plays for fun. I think most competitive snipers like to use a wide swipe for a 180 degree turn, so they can keep the accurate small movements for easy sniping. However, I'm not a sniper type player though but more of a "keep moving" type of player -- and more than 50% of my gameplay is solo (so for that, I use VSYNC ON for its 'perfect motion' effect whenever framerate=Hz).

Now, with 1920 pixels in the width of a computer monitor, that means I like using high DPI, so that I can step by single pixels. But of course, I have DPI adjustment buttons directly on my mouse, so i can easily go 7" 180, or 1" 180, in less than 1 second by pressing the programmable DPI buttons. DPI adjustment buttons are highly recommended for people who want the high DPI at some times (in some games), and low DPI at other times (e.g. desktop, different games). One press, your mouse is uber-fast, another press, your mouse is uber-slow.

My friend Max! Is one of the better Snipers in TF2 (best in platinum last few seasons) and I just asked him what all he uses, since his mousepad keeps getting in my way. He has a Razer Deathadder, set at 1800dpi with sensitivity really low, he has a 14" 360 (7" 180, etc).
But that is definitely personal preference, just posting it for whatever reason, but he says he notices the differences in DPI to 1800.

Same here. An accurate 1600-2000dpi range makes a noticeable difference in the era of strobe-backlight 120Hz gaming.

PS he is a huge Light boost fan, he says he can't play competitively without it, and sends his thanks!

Thanks! Tell him about Blur Busters Forums, too!

[Chief Blur Buster]

That is very suprising to hear you have a 1" range for that Mark..

More like 1.5" range, it's just a personal preference. I'm not an elite competitive player, and more of a recreational player who plays for fun. I think most competitive snipers like to use a wide swipe for a 180 degree turn, so they can keep the accurate small movements for easy sniping. However, I'm not a sniper type player though but more of a "keep moving" type of player -- and more than 50% of my gameplay is solo (so for that, I use VSYNC ON for its 'perfect motion' effect whenever framerate=Hz).

Now, with 1920 pixels in the width of a computer monitor, that means I like using high DPI, so that I can step by single pixels. But of course, I have DPI adjustment buttons directly on my mouse, so i can easily go 7" 180, or 1" 180, in less than 1 second by pressing the programmable DPI buttons. DPI adjustment buttons are highly recommended for people who want the high DPI at some times (in some games), and low DPI at other times (e.g. desktop, different games). One press, your mouse is uber-fast, another press, your mouse is uber-slow.

My friend Max! Is one of the better Snipers in TF2 (best in platinum last few seasons) and I just asked him what all he uses, since his mousepad keeps getting in my way. He has a Razer Deathadder, set at 1800dpi with sensitivity really low, he has a 14" 360 (7" 180, etc).
But that is definitely personal preference, just posting it for whatever reason, but he says he notices the differences in DPI to 1800.

Same here. An accurate 1600-2000dpi range makes a noticeable difference in the era of strobe-backlight 120Hz gaming.

PS he is a huge Light boost fan, he says he can't play competitively without it, and sends his thanks!

Thanks! Tell him about Blur Busters Forums, too!

[SS4]

Guess my previous post on last page went un-noticed
I'm surprised no1 mentions mouse options in the window control panel (Pointer speed and enhanced precision) as well as the 3 main types of mouse grip (Palm, Claw, Fingertip) which are crucial things for most gamers.
Maybe no1 mentioned it because its just too obvious (for some not trying to bash any1 here ) but i was surprised by how many gamers were unaware of these things . . .

[Chief Blur Buster]

Thanks for pointing it out! Yes, grip type matter a lot (palm, claw, fingertip).

ME: I'm a fingertip gripper that keeps my wrist stationary, and so I like to play most of my FPS games without moving my wrist around -- which is part of the reason why I like ultra-accurate high-DPI mice so I can flick sideways in place to turn 180. Sometimes I'll hover my wrist in the air, and sometimes resting on the mousepad (but still cupping the air above the mouse, fingertips to manipulate mouse); my palm is almost never touching the mouse. It's been a comfort thing for me -- even if not always ideal for every game.

And yes, pointer speed in Control Panel affects everything. You've got the DPI buttons, the Pointer Speed setting, and the in-game Sensitivity setting, all interacting with each other. Math rounding errors can cause a jittery mouse pointer, while adjusting all of the settings to ideal levels (for the given mouse sensor) leads to a very accurate and snappy mouse, even at high DPI's. One could write a huge book just by all the different peoples' computer mice preferences, the variety of mice (and mice-related species), and player preferences, plus game quirks.

(P.S. I try to reply to posts, sometimes I miss a few. That said, as this forum expands, feel free to help others by replying to other people for me too!)

[DeadeyeM]

Also for accuracy there is MarC Mouse Fix, i know that there is Raw Input, but in BF3-4 using Raw Input and Mouse Fix makes difference compared using Raw Input and default windows reg settings. Right now i don't use MarC Mouse Fix only Raw Input, it's just that with mouse fix my mouse gets harder to aim especially at far distance, but at close is better.

[masterotaku]

ME: I'm a fingertip gripper that keeps my wrist stationary, and so I like to play most of my FPS games without moving my wrist around -- which is part of the reason why I like ultra-accurate high-DPI mice so I can flick sideways in place to turn 180. Sometimes I'll hover my wrist in the air, and sometimes resting on the mousepad (but still cupping the air above the mouse, fingertips to manipulate mouse); my palm is almost never touching the mouse. It's been a comfort thing for me -- even if not always ideal for every game.

That's EXACTLY the way I play . My mouse is a Sharkoon Drakonia. I keep it always at 5000DPI (polling rate = 1000Hz) and lower the mouse sensitivity in-game, to keep the best accuracy. Still, games like Serious Sam 3 turn superfast even at minimum in-game mouse speed.

The thing that makes me sad is none of my gamer friends knew about mouse acceleration . I had to explain them what it was and tell them to disable it. They didn't even see a problem in Dead Space!
Same thing for Anisotropic Filtering...

[Ahigh]

One thing that some people fail to realize is that a game can actually update the game state at a rate faster than the display. If you don't understand how it can still be important to update your inputs faster than your visuals, it's an interesting exercise to understand why.

The game that is actually occurring is happening inside your brain. The computer gives you cues through both audio and visual and you form a mental image for where things are and how things get updated based on your inputs.

As someone who writes games, I can tell you that the games that I write generally update at 240hz and above no matter what the display rate is. And when it is available, I read the mouse input through USB HID device data not even the normal windows mouse routines. When you get mouse input through the HID messages that come through and all is well, you don't get a steady stream of messages for each and every millisecond. You get data when data is generated by movement with a limit of 1000 times per second. So it doesn't really tax your system at all when the mouse is not moving.

But if you imagine the raw data being a line drawn in 2d with a brush the difference between a very smooth arc and a triangulated shape where you only get samples every 16-17 milliseconds is quite different. And the difference in gameplay is also quite different with twitch movements to aim, shoot, and kill. First off, just clicking the mouse button to fire is so radically different with 16x as many possible moments when you fire with 1000hz, especially if the game programmer is doing variable time-step updated based on when your input data arrived.

It's just amazing when you understand all of this .. that you can actually program variable framerate gameplay that is so much more accurate, fluid, and fun. It does all make a difference. Every game I work on I ensure I do all of this right. And I know others in the game industry who also understand this stuff. It's sort of the black art of hard-core game programming -- the inputs -- and the update of the game state. Doing them right.

Some of these realizations were made by myself and others that I worked with. One of those others was my college roommate who went on to be the lead of COD MW2 and now TitanFall. I am certain he knows how to do update loops and input samples right based on our conversations back in the mid 90's about such things as iteration rates. And I'm sure that other games also make these realizations and program the game update loop and input samples the right way using a FIFO for the inputs and updating at intervals according to inputs or otherwise using the sample arrival time of the inputs as part of the gameplay.

And while I don't know 100% for sure for every good game what they do, I do know that you're smart to get a mouse that does 1000hz, and if you're in a good enough game, the game itself may figure out how to read the data from the mouse independently of your windows settings. Yet you should ALWAYS set your mouse rate at 1000 hz if it's an option, just in my opinion, that's how it should be.

DPI matters too for your preference, and you can ideally scale up the DPI and scale things back in the game application to compensate to have more precise data for smaller movements. But that's not even as important as the update rate in my view, more of a preference.

I hope this is a useful perspective from a game programmer. But definitely get a good logitech or razer mouse and crank up the rate is pretty much the bottom line. If you have the skill for it to matter of course. If you get 1 kill a day with the best hardware and settings, maybe you should have saved your money, though. And why not go ahead and post a message how it doesn't make a difference while you're at it to make yourself feel better.