Optical vs Laser

Mouse preferences

  • Optical w/ mousemat

    Votes: 57 35.2%

  • Optical w/o mousemat

    Votes: 15 9.3%

  • Laser w/ mousemat

    Votes: 76 46.9%

  • Laser w/o mousemat

    Votes: 14 8.6%
  • Total voters
    162
M

Mansize_tissue

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 1, 2007
Messages
2,501
What does everyone prefer (for gaming, that is): Optical or Laser mice?

Also, how many of you guys use mousemats?
 
I'd probably prefer a laser, but I still have an older optical that works fine for now.
 
I prefer laser but I don't care about laser/optical that much either way.

As for mousemat, I prefer to have one, and a generic one does the job just fine.
 
Personally, i can't see how a mousemat can make that much difference. The problem with laser mice is that they simply don't work on some surfaces, which is a bummer. I've also found, with my laser mouse, that it's pretty jumpy in games and not too accurate. For example, when playing Oblivion and "sniping" with a zoomed-in bow, it's really hard to aim without it moving about everywhere. With an optical mouse, however, i didn't have this problem. I just don't know if i buy a more expensive optical mouse, like a Logitech G5, whether it'd be any better than the experiences i'm having at the moment.

Another problem i've found with laser mice is that, due to the ub0r-ness (can't think of a better word) of the laser, when you try to lift the mouse up and move it (if you need to quickly manoeuvre a gunship in BF2142, for example) it still tracks and you don't actually get anywhere.

All of this has kind of put me off laser mice; are my experiences simply restricted to the particular (cheap) laser mouse i own or are laser mice, in general, more difficult to control and less accurate than optical mice?

Thank you for your replies, by the way. ;)
 
Mansize_tissue said:
Personally, i can't see how a mousemat can make that much difference. The problem with laser mice is that they simply don't work on some surfaces, which is a bummer.
Click to expand...


With my mouse, If I use any surface that is too shiny/reflective it doesn't work.

Mansize_tissue said:
Another problem i've found with laser mice is that, due to the ub0r-ness (can't think of a better word) of the laser, when you try to lift the mouse up and move it (if you need to quickly manoeuvre a gunship in BF2142, for example) it still tracks and you don't actually get anywhere.
Click to expand...

I guess I never actually lift my mouse up, ever. :S

Mansize_tissue said:
All of this has kind of put me off laser mice; are my experiences simply restricted to the particular (cheap) laser mouse i own or are laser mice, in general, more difficult to control and less accurate than optical mice?
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that laser were superior to optical mice.
 
is there a huge difference between optical and laser for casual people? i guess not
 
Lasers track a little better but tend to be picky about what surfaces they read off of.

I have the copperhead with a 2000dpi laser sensor and it reads off my icemat original very well, which is supprising for a glass mouse mat.
 
Razer Diamondback + Razer Mantis Speed mat = Best I've ever used

I noticed a nice performance boost when I added the mat.
 
Been using an optical mouse for years now. As far as a mousemat, most of the time I use one unless the desk that I'm using is nice and smooth, then I'd prefer just to use the mouse right on the desk.
 
I use my G5 at max sensitivity for regular desktop work; I have a hard time tolerating anything else other than other gaming mice (or even the MX518 at its max sensitivity).

In games I'm pretty deft with the G5 and can quickly drop sensitivity when sniping or whatnot, but I've been trained to have pretty stable hands. :)

Is there any software trickery I can do in *nix to make my mouse move even faster? I love twitching like 2cm and moving clean across a 1680x1050 desktop.
 
movax said:
Is there any software trickery I can do in *nix to make my mouse move even faster? I love twitching like 2cm and moving clean across a 1680x1050 desktop.
Click to expand...

If you find any, let me know. On my laptop (when I'm not using a mouse) I wish the touchpad was more sensitive. I'd love to know of a way to tweak it.
 
I had been using my MS Intellimouse optical since 2001 until yesterday. I have been demoing mice in stores but never liked the feel until I tried the Razor Copperhead yesterday. I went home with it.:D 2000 DPI is too sensative for me right now so I have it toned down to 1600. I have polling set at 1000hz but I have no idea what this is. I'm still getting used to it but so far I love it.
 
Sobek said:
I had been using my MS Intellimouse optical since 2001 until yesterday. I have been demoing mice in stores but never liked the feel until I tried the Razor Copperhead yesterday. I went home with it.:D 2000 DPI is too sensative for me right now so I have it toned down to 1600. I have polling set at 1000hz but I have no idea what this is. I'm still getting used to it but so far I love it.
Click to expand...
I had the same impression about the Copperhead; just a bit too sensitive. The Diamondback's 1600 DPI is just right for me.
 
I use an optical with no mousepad, plenty sensitive for me. I'm using an Intellimouse 3.0(something like that). Had it for almost 3 years, its just starting to die. Have to give it a slap everyonce in a while so it keeps up. I'm curious as to whether I should go laser or another optical next time around.
 
I'm using a Logitech Mx310, which is just an optical, without a mouse mat. However, I do have a Logitech Mx400 and a Rat Padz that I am going to switch to once I upgrade my comp. I'll see then if there is a difference, but as for now and the past few years, an optical w/o a mat has worked just fine for me.
 
My MX 518 optical with a mousemat seems to do the job just fine. I imagine I can die just as fast with any mouse. ;)
 
Check out this review http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1265679

Surprising results:

Mice ranked by Perfect Control (m/s) Meters per second
50191-results_perfectcontrol.png
 
I have a G5 on a ratzpad... I couldn't tell a difference from my 8 yr old microsoft optical whatsoever... I think it's all in everyones head.... seat of your pants meters.
 
Totally optical (with mousepad). I'm a very low sense player, and I have tried several laser mice, theres just none that don't skip at low dpi settings. :)

Good ol' MSIE 3.0 ftw...
 
Gigamo said:
Good ol' MSIE 3.0 ftw...
Click to expand...
Yep. Even though mine is over five years old and has some wear on the left and right buttons, it still works as good as the day I bought it. Beware of the newest MSIE 3.0 mouse as many people are reporting that they have quality issues.
 
biohazard_nz said:
Check out this review http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1265679

Surprising results:

Mice ranked by Perfect Control (m/s) Meters per second
50191-results_perfectcontrol.png
Click to expand...

That review is a load of rubbish, the person doing it was using low and high sensitivity mice and moving them across the mousemat at equally high speeds and reading stuff like the malfunction speed.

The whole point of a high sensitivity mouse is that you dont need to move the mouse in massive exadurated movements, you can just use it off the wrist while keeping your arm still.

The results he gives, especially the conclusion is just a load of rubbish, the numbers mean nothing, assuming idential use across all mice is like assuming a forumla one car is going to spend most of its time at 20mph stuck in traffic or that a mini is going to be doing 150 mph around a race circuit.

The copperhead is an awesome mosue, and I've used enough high quality mice in my time to tell the difference, thats the only explination why it ends up so low down on that chart.
 
I'm not a huge fan of the Copperhead; just not my style. I LOVE my G5 though (with the Ratpadz XT). I enjoy being able to switch easily between sensitivities within games and such. 1600 dpi is my "normal" setting.
 
MX518, best mouse ever. Was gonna go G5, but they robbed me of a thumb button.
 
mx510 optical + simple mousepad
My cheap mousepad just makes it feel smoother. Plus, it's easier on the teflon feet than some other surfaces.
 
I couldn't tell a different between the two as I said earlier... I must be missing something... I use to be relatively successful in cpl competition when I was a little younger, so I can appreciate any improvements.. and I really failed to see any.
 
Here's a more recent version of that comparison chart posted earlier:

It's interesting to see that the Razer Deathadder now tops the board.
 
Frosteh said:
That review is a load of rubbish, the person doing it was using low and high sensitivity mice and moving them across the mousemat at equally high speeds and reading stuff like the malfunction speed.
Click to expand...

No mouse has ever been designed specifically for fast or slow movement. That only comes out in the marketing spin after the mouse is launched and has been shown to have some shortcomings. When the Razer Viper came out, it tracked piss poorly when moved fast - so Razer marketed it exclusively as a high sensitivity user mouse. 6 months later, the newly released Diamondback had no such provisional statements in regards to its usage. Now we have the current crop of laser mice, and it's only been since the deathadder was released that we've seen an admission that the copperhead simply won't track very well at higher speeds. Before the deathadder was released, the age-old "patches will make it all better" was used via the constant firmware updates.

That benchmark graph was excellent because it gave hard evidence that backed up what a lot of people had been experiencing since the G5/G7/copperhead were launched. The entire top-half of the graph is composed of LED-based mice, many of which are 1600+dpi, yet none of which have ever had to be marketed as strictly for high-sensitivity users to skirt around any technical shortcomings.
 
Are optical mouse generally more accurate than laser mice, then?

I don't really understand how high DPI on mice are useful; what's the advantage over, let's say, 2000dpi compared with 1200dpi?
 
hughJ said:
No mouse has ever been designed specifically for fast or slow movement. That only comes out in the marketing spin after the mouse is launched and has been shown to have some shortcomings. When the Razer Viper came out, it tracked piss poorly when moved fast - so Razer marketed it exclusively as a high sensitivity user mouse. 6 months later, the newly released Diamondback had no such provisional statements in regards to its usage. Now we have the current crop of laser mice, and it's only been since the deathadder was released that we've seen an admission that the copperhead simply won't track very well at higher speeds. Before the deathadder was released, the age-old "patches will make it all better" was used via the constant firmware updates.

That benchmark graph was excellent because it gave hard evidence that backed up what a lot of people had been experiencing since the G5/G7/copperhead were launched. The entire top-half of the graph is composed of LED-based mice, many of which are 1600+dpi, yet none of which have ever had to be marketed as strictly for high-sensitivity users to skirt around any technical shortcomings.
Click to expand...

Sorry but marketing is irrelevant here.

The simple fact of the matter is people get higher DPI mice because they want to increase the sensitivity of the mouse without losing accuracy. There is NO POINT in getting a copperhead if you're going to use it in 600DPI mode and then flick it across the desk at 100 meters a second, that's retarded.

Higher sensitivity equipment always needs to be used a with a little more care, it's no different with mice. You dont use highly sensitive equipment to measure extreme changes, and you dont use highly inaccurate measurments for tiny changes.

It's like trying to use some kitchen scales to weigh a lorry, or using a lorry weight machine to measure how much sugar you need for a sponge cake.

You're holding multiple pieces of equipment, designed for different users, all the to same standards which is a load of rubbish. Yes the copperhead tracking craps out at very high movement speeds but this is not a natural way to be using this particular mouse, if you're using it at this speed theres no point in getting it in the first place because the additional accuracy is being wasted, if you want to use a sensitivity where you have to move the mouse across the desk at light speed then get a lower accuracy mouse which is more suited for that, 2000 DPI is a lot, most people using the copperhead are doing so because they want 2-3cm per 360 degrees not 100cm per 360 degrees.
 
So I'm looking at getting either the DeathAdder, or the new two-side button G5, and I'm a medium to high sens gamer. I like the features of the G5 better, and the only advantage of the DeathAdder is that I can move it really fast and it will track well, so I think there's no reason for me not to get a G5. I have a IE 3.0 right now and the only thing I'm worried about is I do pick up my mouse now and again and I don't want the laser to track. I also have a custom Func Archetype with mostly black, some white, and gray, so will a G5 laser mouse track well?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top