Auto-Mouse to 400 DPI mode

[lifeschool]

Hi Toni. I just thought I'd offer this up in long form and away from the normal suggestions, as it would require more hardware info.

The Problem:
My 1600/2000 dpi mouse wont play mouse driven games at the right speed to the Amiga, especially on games which have a locked mouse sensitivity - which means the user must go into the Game Ports tab and twiddle with the settings and guess at the right speed for their mouse.

The Solution:
(Semi) Auto mouse calibration, which gives the output option of either 200 dpi mode (the old style ball mouse) or 400 dpi (which is the speed of 1990s mice which are still sold today).

Implementation:
Here are some figures I came up with, in order to help understand the problem, and why people are having to guess at the right sensitivity for their mouse.

old Amiga Standard Mouse = 200dpi
1990s Mouse = 800dpi * 0.3 (30%) = 240dpi
2000s Mouse = 1200dpi *0.2 (20%) = 240dpi
2010 Hi DPI = 1600dpi * 0.15 (15%) = 240dpi
2015 Super = 2000dpi * 0.1 (10%) = 200dpi

90s+ Amiga High Speed Mice = 400dpi
1990s Mouse = 800dpi * 0.5 (50%) = 400dpi
2000s Mouse = 1200dpi *0.35 (35%) = 420dpi
2010 Hi DPI = 1600dpi * 0.25 (25%) = 400dpi
2015 Super = 2000dpi * 0.2 (20%) = 400dpi

Application:
What I would love would be a button which says calibrate, and then I drag my mouse pointer left and right until the machine is happy with the dpi of my mouse and mouse mat combo (the dpi of the mouse may be lower than the printed maximum on the box, with an old mat). The program would then list two options, 200 dpi or 400 dpi mode, having worked out the perfect sensitivity for my mouse. 4000 dpi mouse and future mega mice would be future proof. If the software detects a 400 dpi mouse it wont change anything, and for a 200 dpi mouse detected the 400 dpi option would be ghosted. A sample calibration could be done during the installation process of UAE, and this would be used for the Quickstart mode.

Evaluation:
I think this would really help balance out the issues with various hardware, and the manual sensitivity will always be there in case you want to change it. I think this would give everyone a level playing field, and would hopefully save some of the guesswork for an "Amiga Perfect" setup. Needless to say, we are playing Amegas in the EAB Competition right now, and this game definitely requires mouse sensitivity changes, and this would mean that all players are equal.

Thanks for considering this.

[lifeschool]

Bump: I just tried my mouse in 1600 dpi mode set to 25% sensitivity (400dpi) and it plays Amegas absolutely perfectly to how it was back in the day, so this works!

[Toni Wilen]

How are you supposed to be able to detect mouse dpi without user selecting the value manually? What if user has multiple mice? Mouse with adjustable DPI (like most gaming mice)

Some quick select values for most common DPI values would be good enough improvement, I think.

[lifeschool]

You are right. Common DPIs like the ones below could be used instead of auto detect. I have updated my numbers below, although as you can see, this really needs exact science, as my conversion numbers are only in the ballpark of the right DPI.

Emulate Amiga Tank Ball Mouse = 200dpi
800dpi * 0.26 (26%) = 208dpi
1200dpi *0.17 (17%) = 204dpi
1600dpi * 0.13 (13%) = 208dpi
2000dpi * 0.1 (10%) = 200dpi

Emulate 90s+ Amiga High Speed Mice = 400dpi
800dpi * 0.5 (50%) = 400dpi
1200dpi *0.34 (34%) = 408dpi
1600dpi * 0.25 (25%) = 400dpi
2000dpi * 0.2 (20%) = 400dpi