Trackpad / Gyro smoothness

[Wally the Whiffopotamus]

Hi all -- I'm hoping to get feedback on how smooth your trackpad and gyro is when panning in an FPS.

The issue I'm having, is that no matter what Mouse setting I use, I need to nearly max out the trackpad smoothing to pan side to side smoothly. This *does* increase latency, which is an issue in FPS games. However, I need to be able to track targets in a smooth continuous motion, like a mouse. The jitter at the default settings doesn't work well. Note I've tried various trackball/acceleration settings, and have played with the in-game sensitivity (lowering it and maxing out the controller profile) to no avail. Is this normal for everyone? Just a symptom of dragging your thumb across plastic? Any solutions would be great. And just to be clear, setting to something like Mouse Joystick is smooth, so it's definitely not judder from the game that I'm seeing.

On top of that issue, I've also noticed some panning judder/stutter when using the Gyro. It's mostly smooth at the lowest smoothness setting, but there will be little jerks when panning. Is this also a typical experience? I haven't played around with the Gyro as much as the trackpad.

Thanks for the help.

[cammelspit]

Well, I for one have not experienced any of what you are discribing unless the game is older like GTA3 and there I had to set the sensitivity all the way down in game and crank it nearly max in the setting and it smoothed it out. Like greased glass. What game are you using and is it Jmouse or genuine mouse mode?

Another tip is once you have your target in sight and you are using only the track pad, you can roll your thumb slightly to fine tune your aim that way.

[Wally the Whiffopotamus]

Black Ops 3 specifically, but I've tested it across other FPS games, such as Borderlands 2, CSGO, Painkiller, etc. The courser definitely does not track smoothly unless I have smoothness at like 90%+. And this is with Mouse-only mode. Jmouse is smooth because it tracks like a joystick. However, I can't get used to that hybrid solution.

So you're saying, in a FPS game (please test for me) with smoothing completely off or very low, when you slowly track from side-to-side it's not jittery for you?

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Jyouzu:

Black Ops 3 specifically, but I've tested it across other FPS games, such as Borderlands 2, CSGO, Painkiller, etc. The courser definitely does not track smoothly unless I have smoothness at like 90%+. And this is with Mouse-only mode. Jmouse is smooth because it tracks like a joystick. However, I can't get use to that hybrid solution.

So you're saying, in a FPS game (please test for me) with smoothing completely off or very low, when you slowly track from side-to-side it's not jittery for you?

Not unless I have had too much coffee. :P another thing that might be helpful to you is using the vertical sensitivity scale or just using a slower tracking mouse setup all together. I have use BL2 and I own painkiller so I will spend a few minutes this afternoon fiddling about to see if there are any tips I can send your way. Also a lot of people like using very slow tracking modes and sensitivities and using low trackball friction so you can just play mostly with short little swipes and stop by tapping the pad. Others like turning trackball mode off completely and cranking it high on the sensitivity. I prefer the former and then have a vertically limited low movement speed gyro to zero in after acquiring my targets. this is mostly how I did this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGDHZKuwtew

Just keep in mind you prolly haven't even scratched the surface of the kinds of customization you can do. If there is a kind of set up you want to try just do it, you may actually prefer it. Either way I will test a few games out and see what I can do.

[Wally the Whiffopotamus]

With trackball mode, it does smooth out once my finger is off the trackpad. So if I sweep it's smooth until it stops. But when I track back and forth (or have my thumb on the trackpad) the input is jittery compared to a mouse. Lowering the sensitivity doesn't help, as the overall input is still not smooth.

If you're not seeing it then I think either my trackpad isn't working properly or I'm extremely sensitive to the jitter after using an extremely high DPI mouse (I'm also sensitive to frame-jitter at anything other than refresh-rate-locked fps, like 90fps on a 60hz screen). It's not the end of the world to crank up the smoothing, but was just hoping there was something I was doing wrong or something wrong with my controller...

If you get around to more testing I'd appreciate the feedback. I'll see if I can make a video capturing what I'm referring to.

[cammelspit]

I recorded a few different modes I was testing out. I have only JUST set up BL2 with the SC so tweaking hadn't been done. Does anything in this look like what you are experiencing?

https://youtu.be/lSn1OBA9Me8
PS its 3:20PM and its still processing if you try and view it right away. :)

[cammelspit]

I also just uploaded one of painkiller. I am a bit jerky here but thats just me. It does showcase a bit more of my process.
https://youtu.be/selECNYYfP0

Originally posted by FromVideoDiscription:

I haven't opened this game before this and haven't played in several years. Even then it was only for an hour or so. This is my process, playing through the first level or two to dial in the right pad BEFORE I add gyros to my configs. Personally I am much better using the gyros in conjunction with the right pad in stead of right pad alone. I also have the tenancy to limit vertical movement on the right pad and keep most up and down look and fine tuning movements to the gyros.

[Drakelstorm]

I can reproduce this issue while using the pad on the desktop. Put your finger anywhere on the pad and keep your finger still the cursor will still move(jitter) a little.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Th1rte3n:

I can reproduce this issue while using the pad on the desktop. Put your finger anywhere on the pad and keep your finger still the cursor will still move(jitter) a little.

Well, that's because your thumb is not perfectly round and it is truly impossible to keep your thumb still. From what I read this is not what the OPs problem was. It was jittery movement when in game. On desktop try just slightly rolling your thumb without moving it and you will see why this is a thing. If you use a light touch you wont get any more that 1 pixel movement when holding your thumb still.

If this is the problem OP then I completely misunderstood what the problem actually was. The "track back and forth" wording made me think it was while moving. As a rule, if you are holing your thumb still on the pad and you get any appreciable "jitter" then you are just gripping the controller too tightly or your touch force is too strong.

One of the biggest problems I see id people gripping it with the XBOX death grip. I find a looser arm also seems to help a lot, especially with gyros. When you do use gyros, try to keep the controller either level or a slight downward tilt forward as a resting position.

Originally posted by Jyouzu:

I'll see if I can make a video capturing what I'm referring to.

Now I really want to see what is actually happening on your screen when this happens to you, please do make a recording if you can.

[Wally the Whiffopotamus]

My issue isn't what thirteen is referring to. For example, I'm talking about a consistent sweep from left to right, and instead of seeing smooth tracking on the screen, it's jittery almost like you'd see with an older laser mouse. I've been out and about but will record a video tomorrow.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Jyouzu:

My issue isn't what thirteen is referring to. For example, I'm talking about a consistent sweep from left to right, and instead of seeing smooth tracking on the screen, it's jittery almost like you'd see with an older laser mouse. I've been out and about but will record a video tomorrow.

Thats great! after I see it I will try and reproduce if I can. With my video, did you see anything like what you were seeing at all?

[Wally the Whiffopotamus]

It was a bit hard to tell TBH. I'll take a closer look. What do you use to record while using the steam controller? Fraps kills the overlay and Shadowplay is coming out extra choppy

[cammelspit]

Well, I recently upgraded to a hand me down GTX660 so shadow play is the only thing my modest PC can handle at full quality. I used DXtory for one or two videos but without GPU hardware acceleration I cant use any of em TBH.

[thaAMAZNblue]

Please someone help me, how do you DISABLE the gyro??

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by thaAMAZNblue:

Please someone help me, how do you DISABLE the gyro??

Just don't use it. If you have it on then go to the gyro config and under control type select none.

[Scuzlbut]

I realise this is pretty bad "necro", but hey, someone might find this useful and I'm too lazy to search for related threads... :)

It sounds like OP has both the trackpad and the gyro running at the same time. That seriously messed with me too until I realised what was happening. I'm guessing OP's gyro activation is bound to touching the trackpad. Anytime he tries to hold his thumb on the trackpad, the gyro kicks in. Since he's still trying to aim with the pad, he'll be sending minute movements to the gyro... which will cause the jitter. You have 2 systems competing to control the cursor. If anyone else is having this issue, try binding the gyro activation to something other than the mouse pad.

Me, on the other hand... My gryo works beautifully when I'm using my desktop, but is jittery as hell when I'm on my laptop. Tried the gyro in BL2 on both systems. BL2 uses the cloud for game settings like controls, so shouldn't be any difference there. No idea what the issue is. Both systems are Win10 and more than meet min spec requirements.