Cannot play games on Mac OS X - mouse problem

Hi,

I can't speak for the other utilities, but I CAN say that Mousefix does NOT just alter the movement speed. If you think that, then you have not bothered to read and understand the documentation that comes with this utility.

If Mousefix doesn't work for you then it's probably because the APIs that it uses have now been removed from OS-X. It still works ok on my PPC Mac, but if you have an Intel Mac then this could explain the difference. Again, if you read the documentation that comes with Mousefix then you would see that the "future" removal of these APIs from OS-X is mentioned.

I have absolutely no idea why Apple would remove these APIs and make life so difficult, but it seems that that is their intention.

This being the case then it would seem that the only option would be to use a completely new mouse driver. I understand the Microsoft Intellimouse driver for the Mac is a free download (presumably from microsoft.com); maybe this is worth a go.

Personally, I'm waiting for the Mac to be better supported by OpenBSD (if it ever is) and then I'll be using that instead 🙂

regards,

Rich.

I'm dealing with this exact same issue, and will probably return the system if I can't find a fix. For me, just moving around the desktop is a complete pain.

Microsoft's drivers do NOT work. I think in the past they may have had an option to disable mouse acceleration, but they don't anymore (I just tried them this morning). They give you a few more speed settings, but that's it. Don't help at all.

I'm going to try a few other drivers...

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Part of it sounds like understanding how optical mice work. If you have a grainy texture to put your mouse over, it is more likely to be able to have finer tracking capability. A smooth drawn (one color, or broad bands) surface does not give it anything to move proportionally against, thus makes tracking harder to use precisely. What you may need is a finely textured mousepad.

This isn't related to a mouse pad. The operating system doesn't give you the ability to turn off mouse acceleration.

I'm playing with USB Overdrive right now, and it SORT of does, but introduces it's own issues (plus it's $20).

I know the operating system doesn't care about the mousepad. However, the mouse sends back information to the computer how far you have tracked. If the mouse is not getting precise enough information, the side effect of that is poorer tracking. The mouse works on a light based scan principle. If there is no difference in the surface, it won't scan properly as there is no wheel to tell it where to move. It is the surface which gives it some indication that it has to move the pointer.

Okay, USB Overdrive is a pain to configure, but it does let you get MUCH closer to correct mouse settings.

I had to manually set each action, including scrolling up and down. Set acceleration to "none", and Speed to 140dpi (which seems to work okay for me-lower numbers are faster).

Feels fairly decent. I can't believe the operation system lacks a basic feature like that though!

You can always ask for Apple to include it on http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
And if you have the inclination to open a free developer account with your user ID:

http://bugreporter.apple.com/

Message was edited by: a brody

a brody wrote:
I know the operating system doesn't care about the mousepad. However, the mouse sends back information to the computer how far you have tracked. If the mouse is not getting precise enough information, the side effect of that is poorer tracking. The mouse works on a light based scan principle. If there is no difference in the surface, it won't scan properly as there is no wheel to tell it where to move. It is the surface which gives it some indication that it has to move the pointer.

This issue has nothing whatsoever to do with mouse pads or the physical hardware. OS X for some unknown reason completely lacks the ability to turn off mouse acceleration, leaving it extremely unpleasant to use for a lot of people.

USB Overdrive is so far the only way to turn acceleration off that I've found. Haven't found any free solutions at all.

Thanks, yeah I've submitted that. Though it's mind blowing that there isn't a checkbox to disable it already there. Especially given the number of threads and posts everywhere trashing OS X's mouse handling.

Refer them to the links I just gave. Discussions feedback does not appear to be taken as seriously as the other sites, but since I can't guess Apple's policy or speculate, I'll just preface that it is just based on the response to complaints given here.

Message was edited by: a brody

Try USB Overdrive-it's far from perfect, and shareware, but at least with some tinkering the movement got pretty decent. You can completely turn off mouse acceleration, and then for me setting it to a dpi of I think 140 made it feel pretty similar to the settings I use in Windows.

Unfortunately that's the only "fix" I've found so far. People on one forum were actually defending it, claiming it was "more precise" and "more ergonomic". Completely backwards (these guys were complete Apple fanboys, one of whom immediately jumped to that I should stop using a Mac 😀 )

Oh well, at least I submitted a request to that one Apple page. I still think it's bizarre something so basic is missing (and frankly I think it's bizarre that either Windows or OS X defaults to mouse acceleration on, but...)