GLOBAL SENSITIVITY I usually have a few first person shooters that I enjoy playing at the same time. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Far Cry 4, Borderlands 2/presquel, and garrysmod. Something that bugs me is how all the games measure mouse sensitivity differently. If you use the sliders in those games and put them all in the middle, they will all give you varying mouse sensitivities. To get better at anything, it takes practice. Now, if i played garrysmod a shitload and then try to play borderlands 2, it'll take me awhile to adjust to the mouse sensitivity difference. Maybe this isn't for everyone, but for me, it's a huge pain in the ass. If I play too much borderlands this week, then I'll go back to garrysmod and not be able to get any kills because of the different sensitivities. I was browsing the internet looking for some sort of "universal mouse sensitivity" guide, or something along those lines, and I found something that will probably help me a lot (and maybe some other players, which is why im sharing). Found here; I did this with an inch ruler, since I was going for a rough estimate. In garrysmod (which I've found to already have my most comfortable settings), my mouse takes 3" of horizontal movement to rotate 360 degrees ingame. I did this in borderlands and noticed it only took 2", which would make Borderlands' sensitivity 30% higher, even though they both had their sliders in the middle. Your results will most likely be drastically different since I use razer synapse to customize the actual DPI settings in my mouse. I just thought I'd share this with the community, even though I imagine most serious FPS players already know about this. I think this will drastically improve my performance in the FPS genre. I do not recommend doing this for EVERY fps game that you have though, since a lot of them play very differently. I've found that borderlands and garrysmod play very differently than far cry 4. I think that Far cry 4 is much harder to play with higher sensitivity since the engine is so different, and the guns have far more recoil. I'm curious to know what other people find the most comfortable for them, so feel free to post comments on your cm/360 or in/360. HIGH VS LOW While on the topic, is higher sensitivity better than low? Which do you prefer? I've heard and read anecdotal evidence that claims most professional players use very low sensitivity. I also read how most people use 2 methods for moving their mouse. Method 1: Rest the palm on the desk and use your wrist and fingers to move the mouse. This is what I do, and I feel like it caters to a higher mouse sensitivity. It has more fine tune control, while not covering much distance on the mouse pad. I can't imagine playing like this with super low sensitivity. Method 2: Lift your palm off the desk, and use your arm to move the mouse. For me, this makes me lose A LOT of accuracy (Like missing google chrome 3 times in a row when I'm trying to open it). Anecdotal evidence says that this posture combined with lower mouse sensitivity allows you to place your shots much more accurately.
just food for thought. I use different sensitivities based on the gun I am using, for example using a longer range gun like the hksl8 or guns like the m16 that have low recoil I use lower sensitivity, to avoid small movements or over compensating for recoil by mistake throwing my aim off target. alternatively when using guns like the scrubble barrel or the mp5 navy where twitchy movements or the ak-47 where the recoil demands it higher turn rates and smaller movements to cover more recoil comp. it might be necessary to turn your sensitivity up a bit. I do this with the dpi switch on my mouse (using the games slider may be a bit more tricky)
I might start doing this when I switch between my ak and any sort of sniper. I usually have my sensitivity up very high, but it hinders my sniping abilites. Having my mouse dpi lower when I'm sniping would help significantly.
Most FPS games have a developer console. Not all, but most, and every Source game I can think of has one. If the FPS you are playing does include a console, you can set a numerical value via said console for your sensitivity. Assuming you don't mess with your DPI settings, this should give you a consistent sensitivity across all FPS games that include a developer console. However, games like DayZ, H1Z1, Rust, Reign of Kings, and games like that don't really work for this method. I know because I have the same issue that the poster of this thread has; I need consistency. On the topic of how high of a sensitivity you should use, I'd say it really depends which FPS games you play, and the extent of which you play them. If you play CSGO, CSS, Garry's Mod, and TF2 with the intent of being skilled at the game, then the clear choice to me is a low sensitivity with a large mouse-pad. This allows for extremely accurate minor corrections in your aim, and with a big mouse-pad, you don't have to sacrifice the ability to flick or just the general ease of movement. If you play games that aren't really competitive and your aim doesn't truly matter that much, games like RPG's with FPS elements (Fallout, H1Z1, Borderlands, etc.) and you have a pretty standard mouse-pad, I would go for a higher sensitivity. This allows for better movement because you can do a full turn or a sharp turn very quickly and with minimal effort. Obviously, you need to retain your ability to aim sufficiently enough for whatever title you're playing, but with a small mouse-pad and a high sensitivity you won't achieve what someone with a low sensitivity with a huge mouse-pad will. In the end, it all depends on what feels right to you. I would recommend ANY PC gamer, regardless of the genre of games played to get a mouse-pad designed for gaming. I highly recommend mouse-pads such as the SteelSeries QcK. Comes in like 4 different sizes, and they're reasonably priced. Adjust your sensitivity so that one full swipe of your mouse-pad will allow you to turn a full 180 degrees, or at least very close.
