Looking for gaming mouse recommendations.
I'm looking for a new gaming mouse and I'm having trouble finding a good one. Currently I use a Razer diamondback. I think the left button is starting to wear out. It is an ambidextrous mouse with two additional buttons on both sides. That is my preferred layout.
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Right now with my diamond back, while playing Deus Ex:HR, my thumb controls forwards and backwards via the right side button, the right button is cover, left is fire, and the left side buttons control interact and reload. I'm hitting most of those buttons at the same time during heavy fire fights.
However maybe I can get use to it.
Yes. My right arm is mostly paralyzed. About all my right are is good for is hitting the space bar.
Something to consider, once again, no real world experience with them, but I've seen these programmable gaming keypads with a left thumb stick that I assume can replace mouse movement (like the right stick on a dual stick gamepad), but I'm not 100% sure. Hard to say how practical that would be as a solution to your specific needs, but perhaps something to consider.
I've actually read some conflicting info on it. (par for the internet).
Some say its actually eight way full analog and it controls very similar to your right control stick in shooters, others say its a crap controller for shooters. I'm sure you give up certain precision with a stick no matter what, but if it worked similar to a good right analog stick then it may make a really interesting single handed playing option, especially when you factor in the programability, macros and such.
I found another mouse option in the SteelSeries Xai. It meets all your criteria, I'm not sure how it stacks up against the Razer model listed earlier. They look really similar.
The Saitek CCU software has the option to use the stick for aiming but I'm not sure about the G13, wasn't even working as an analogue stick on release, just as a d-pad.
And here's the authoritative: it's a D-pad. Period. I've owned an n52te for years, and an n50 before that.
It is not analog in any way whatsoever on the n52te. The people claiming it is are on some really good drugs. I mean really good. Like, they need to hook me up. Seriously. There is no analog anything on the n50 or n52te. Not even the scroll wheel. Everything is a switch.
I would not pair the G13 with your condition. I have periods where I can't use either my right or left arm at all (unless I want to be in literal blinding pain,) and none of the pads are even remotely ambidextrous, and the ergonomics are generally torturous despite the claims that "people are doing it wrong." For extended use, only the n52te's layout doesn't murder your fingers. The G13 and Saitek CCU were designed by maniacs or something. G13 has too much north-south reach involved; you'll overextend to hit the LCD buttons and tuck-under to hit G15 and G19-G22. The Saitek CCU is about as ergonomic as a brick - which is amusing since that's what it looks like. Your choice for button 21 is heel of the palm or tucking your thumb way under - neither is sane or ergonomic. 12-14 are less bad, but the slider mode button up in the top left? Forget on the fly. And 15 and 16 are a pain in the neck due to contrary action (sideways and down respectively) and being on top of the joystick, meaning you'll be hitting it with your thumb a lot.
I'm hesitant on Steelseries, because of their insistence on their insistence on "counts per inch" to prevent comparison to DPI. (Their claims that DPI has nothing to do with mouse movement is honestly, wrong. DPI can be legitimately used to express the number of dots measured by the sensor per inch traveled.) That said, mechanically it looks to fit the bill. However, I can't say whether or not it does electronically WRT drivers and programmability. (And I have no clue whether it's an 1800DPI equivalent or a 3000DPI equivalent either.)
That is interesting because I too was having a heck of a time finding a straight DPI rating for the Xai. I can understand it from a certain marketing perspective. The need for a sensor that does over 5000 DPI is highly debatable, it does get to be a meaningless number at some point, still, I agree with you, if I'm going to spend $90 on a mouse, I want to know I'm getting one of the better sensors on the market. I just don't know on that model.
Mhm. Well, let's pretend CPI and DPI are directly comparable. That would make Steelseries' low end more 'accurate' than Razer's top end. But we already know that that's ridiculous and a half.
Especially when Steelseries' "top end" WOW gaming mouse "Legendary Edition" claims three completely different measures: Frames Per Second (3600), Inches Per Second (130), Counts Per Inch (3200). Now here's the problem: the numbers there? DO NOT MATCH UP. If "FPS" is 3600 and "IPS" is 130 and "CPI" is 3200? Well, hey, guess what? 130 inches at 3200 counts = 416,000 counts @ 8 bits = 3,328,000 bits per second. For a mouse? Except you can only do one 8 bit signal for movement every 1ms which means your maximum possible movement bits per second is 8,000. That's 8 bits every 1ms where 1000ms are in 1 second. (You can't stack multiple movement signals; only multiple TYPES of signals.) It's no prettier with their silly "FPS" number.
Therefore, MATH FAIL MUCH? You can see where the 5,001 CPI claim is, well, pretty dang absurd when you do the math, ain't it? And to just further confuse the issue, the Ikari claims 6500 "FPS" and only 1600 "CPI". Guess that's one way to do it - the Groupon way! Finances^WSpecifications not good enough? Make up your own numbers out of whole cloth!
Most of the reviews have said that they're also very sensitive with regards to mousing surface, and that the buttons are not software programmable to specific keystrokes. So that's potentially going to be an issue; I would research it further before pulling the trigger on any of those. Nobody's had much bad to say about them beyond software complaints; generally solid from the hardware side, not glitchy or anything. I would do further research into the software well in advance though. That will definitely be a deal breaker in most games.
http://steelseries.com/products/mice/steelseries-sensei