Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Discussions about UT99
Post Reply
anachronton
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:06 pm

Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by anachronton »

Hi there, fellow UT fans! I have a strange problem with my mouse sensitivity in UT GOTY Steam version: after every few seconds sensitivity suddenly spikes up for a moment. My mouse is Logitech G502. The problem probably ain't hardware related because it persists when I change to my old G5, and I don't have this problem when playing other games. The problem seems to be related to custom unrealtournament.ini which I used years ago (saved it up along modified opengl files) and am using again because default ini doesn't look or feel comfortable.

If no one has any idea which setting needs to be changed to solve this issue then maybe you can share some links so I could download and try out different unrealtournament.inis - was always interesting to test out different feels of mouse sensitivity.

Thanks!
User avatar
Dr.Flay
Godlike
Posts: 3347
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:26 pm
Personal rank: Chaos Evangelist
Location: Kernow, UK
Contact:

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by Dr.Flay »

First you'll need to update your UT (oh and disable mouse acceleration in windows)
Get the beta renderers from the bottom of http://www.oldunreal.com/utpatches.html
Then use this guide http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=373
Laptops with variable speed CPUs tend to play havoc on the old games timing.
User avatar
papercoffee
Godlike
Posts: 10443
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:36 am
Personal rank: coffee addicted !!!
Location: Cologne, the city with the big cathedral.
Contact:

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by papercoffee »

I noticed another odd thing ...
My old PC was a single core and I copied the complete UT install to a external HDD. Now do I have a dual-core laptop and I play UT from this external drive and I didn't got this speed issues.
Is it because UT still "think" there is only one core?
I know that all specs of your current PC is written into the .ini during the install.
JackGriffin
Godlike
Posts: 3774
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:53 pm
Personal rank: -Retired-

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by JackGriffin »

This is something that you'd need a wormbo-level coder to answer definitively but I can offer some anecdotal evidence. Your 'current' pc speed is recorded somehow by the engine on installation but it can also poll the processor speed on subsequent start-ups. I *think* it locks the processor speed when you do the "What video renderer do you choose" section of installation. This means if you skip this part, like if you copy a UT folder onto the hard drive WITHOUT installing then it polls the speed each time when you start the game.

Again, that part is just conjecture but it is surely the cause of the OP's mouse issues. Well, it could be porn too. (no kidding) You might want to run a malwarebytes scan just to see if something is chunking along in the background you may not know is there.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
User avatar
Dr.Flay
Godlike
Posts: 3347
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:26 pm
Personal rank: Chaos Evangelist
Location: Kernow, UK
Contact:

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by Dr.Flay »

When you installed on the 32bit single core, the CPU speed was constant, so during the low CPU usage of installation, your CPU speed was recorded at full speed.
UT sets it in stone then.
Your current setup now inherits the old setting, but it will be more sensible than the possible low speeds like 800MHz being recorded.

When the game runs it tries to compensate for the difference in speed. When the difference is big, it gets flaky.
With variable-speed CPUs, this is why people recommend locking your windows power option to max power during install, or run something CPU intensive at the same time.
User avatar
papercoffee
Godlike
Posts: 10443
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:36 am
Personal rank: coffee addicted !!!
Location: Cologne, the city with the big cathedral.
Contact:

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by papercoffee »

Dr.Flay wrote:When you installed on the 32bit single core, the CPU speed was constant, so during the low CPU usage of installation, your CPU speed was recorded at full speed.
UT sets it in stone then.
Your current setup now inherits the old setting, but it will be more sensible than the possible low speeds like 800MHz being recorded.

When the game runs it tries to compensate for the difference in speed. When the difference is big, it gets flaky.
With variable-speed CPUs, this is why people recommend locking your windows power option to max power during install, or run something CPU intensive at the same time.
But as I said ...it has no speed-up issues. Till now is everything working fine without any problems.
Was just wondering why exactly.
UT99.org

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by UT99.org »

billybill wrote:you didn't reply yet, maybe you solved it. I would start off disabling mouse smoothing. Do this offline, because some settings like this one do not save properly in online play. 'Direct input' is a good idea for any modern mouse. Lastly older operating systems like windows xp you'll need something like CPL mousefix. By what you said I would instantly think it's the smoothing, a setting designed for ancient track-ball mouses to get a boost when moved quickly. In short it is a setting that overrides the number you enter by changing sensitivity every time you move the mouse, and it's something that if the game was released in this day and age would never be enabled by default. Bad ini file
User avatar
Dr.Flay
Godlike
Posts: 3347
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:26 pm
Personal rank: Chaos Evangelist
Location: Kernow, UK
Contact:

Re: Mouse sensitivity spikes?

Post by Dr.Flay »

Dr.Flay wrote: but it will be more sensible than the possible low speeds like 800MHz being recorded.
This is why yours is fine.
The speed of your old PC will not have been that low (I assume ?), so the difference is small.
Same for me. My new 64bit is about the same speed as my XP box, but just has 3 more cores.

UT's ability to drop visual quality and effects, depending on how close to your desired frame rate, probably has a lot to do with this, as it is also trying to adjust the running speed.

For those that cannot tame the CPU power options before installing, then installing on an old PC and copying it over is actually the best option, and what I often recommend :tu:
Same goes for anyone struggling to setup a virtual box solution.
Post Reply