Update: mm201 has presented the theory that it is based on a slight, in some cases negligible natural spin of the wrist / arm during the motion of rotating the mouse. Through testing I can confirm that high amounts of spin very much so do factor into the drift of the mouse cursor.

It seems learning how to move the mouse completely and utterly avoiding that spin would be the only way to avoid it, though from this information, it's probable that the angle of the markings on the surface the mouse is being used on could definitely factor into it.

--- Original Post

I've been asking everyone I know everywhere and even people I don't know to help me solve this problem. It's very simple on the surface;

When I rotate my mouse clockwise, the cursor drifts up and to the right.
When I rotate my mouse counter clockwise, the cursor drifts down and to the left.

However, this happens no matter how quickly I rotate, what mouse I use, what operating system, what surface, what type of mouse (optical, ball, laser), polling rate, settings, so on and so forth, with the exception of a tablet mouse, because its position is based on the surface of the tablet, not some arbitrary collection of distances between points.

It happens everywhere; in osu!, FPS games, in Graphic Editing programs, etc.

The only things that have come up are the probability that it is my hand doing something weird (I can't imagine this being it, because I taped a pencil to my mouse and drew circles just fine, but the cursor still drifted) or that it is a problem that exists for everyone.

The one that made the most sense was that it might be the drivers for the mouse, but that doesn't explain why it happens on all computers, operating systems and with 4 different mice.

If it's really a problem that exists for everyone (which I seriously highly doubt) then I will accept that and go back in time to prevent mice from ever having this inaccuracy.

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

have you tried going to Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointer Options
and then untick ?

Yep. I've tested it on Windows XP/7 32/64bit on 6/11 (and all others) with and without Enhance Pointer Precision. I also tried on Linux Mint to make sure it wasn't some strange Windows error.

Try turning up/down the mouse sensitivity by individual notches to see if it changes.
As for happening everywhere, maybe you have bad luck with computers/mice.
Is it a USB or PS2 connector?

mm201 wrote:

Try turning up/down the mouse sensitivity by individual notches to see if it changes.

Having the Steelseries Sensei, I have integer control over the CPI up to 11200, and I've tested 200, 400, 512, 768, 800, 1000, 1024, 2048, 4096. They all have the same drift, albeit because of the amount of reads to move the same distance, higher CPI's will drift less often, but I lose accuracy overall.

When not using that mouse, I've used the Logitech G5 (200, 400, 800, 1200, 2400 CPI) it also drifts. When using some random dollar store optical mouse (most likely at 400 CPI) it also drifts. The most surprising to me was that even when using a PS/2 Ball Mouse it drifts.

I haven't had the luxury of testing a trackball, but considering how you control it, I doubt I'd be using it anyway.

If you were referring to the Windows Mouse Speed settings, I've tested 1 through 11 to make sure it wasn't just some bug with the 6th tick.

My mouse does the same thing, except it usually drifts down. Strange.

ragelewa wrote:

My mouse does the same thing, except it usually drifts down. Strange.

I have heard of others with this problem in different directions, but I more often I hear that they never rotate their mouse like that, so it hasn't come up and/or isn't significant. I seriously doubt professional gamers and osu! players that play at the speeds they do with their mouse have never noticed it though.

I'll have to perform a test on everyone I know to make sure it isn't just how I rotate the mouse...

What happened to me when I first got my QPAD 5K was that I had experienced what you are right now.

The remedy that worked for me was simply swapping to a different USB port on the rear of my PC since I did found that the slot I was using turned to out to be faulty or something like that.

In regards to noticing if something like this does happen, when you've been on low DPI/CPI settings for years something as small as a random upper-right jitter is very noticeable.

ampzz wrote:

The remedy that worked for me was simply swapping to a different USB port on the rear of my PC since I did found that the slot I was using turned to out to be faulty or something like that.

I figured it could be the same. I've tried all 6 ports on my computer as well as multiple ports on each of the computers I'd tried the mice on (3 other desktops, 2 different laptops) and it does not change the amount of drift.

It's good to hear that you've experienced and fixed it though. At this point, it seriously could be a case of ridiculous coincidence in that all the mice I've tried suffer from this error.

i have the same thing, had it on every pc with every mouse ive had in my life.
although its not even nearly as bad as yours.

I'm fairly sure every mouse has this problem

ragelewa wrote:

I'm fairly sure every mouse has this problem

I feel as if this is starting to hold true. If it is so, I'm not surprised many people fail to experience it, as I only noticed it when I began playing osu!, spinning and finding myself having to recenter after the fact. Maybe I will continue to try out as many mice as I can until I find the lowest drift of all of them, though realistically if true, this would have to be a pretty base level oversight.

Thankfully it has not hindered me up to this point, but I can now feel it impeding on my ability to improve with the mouse, as I'm completing things with the tablet that I can not complete with the mouse, not because of my inability to move quickly to where I need to be, but because where I "know" the mouse will end up is not truly where it does. I do not have it in me to react and correct in 112ms.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far, but I would love to believe this isn't where it ends. If it so happens to be I'll see what I can do about getting in touch with different mice manufacturers. If worse comes to worst, I'll bump up my CPI to compensate and find a good balance between drift cancellation and accuracy while clicking. No point in giving up after coming this far, right?

Why I haven't felt the same thing with my mouse? (2400dpi creative fatal1ty 2020 (laser version)) o_O

EDIT: Tried the same thing, started spinning on the same spot and continued for ~1 minute.

Result:


Either I'm suffering from this, but am fixing it w/o noticing or then just dunno.

You're using 2400 dpi, I don't have almost any drift at the highest dpi (which is 1600)

Valentiino wrote:

Why I haven't felt the same thing with my mouse? (2400dpi creative fatal1ty 2020 (laser version)) o_O
Either I'm suffering from this, but am fixing it w/o noticing or then just dunno.

How small of circles are you making with your hand? To be using 2400 CPI you'd have to be making very small rotations or have a very high resolution.

The easiest way to test if you're correcting it is to put the pad of your hand on the desk / pad and to check the angle of your hand. I can start with my hand at a 30 degree angle to the right, without fail, no matter what resolution my desktop is it and no matter what my CPI is, I always end up angling so far left I can not physically continue to correct it.

If you really don't have drift, I'll have to look into getting that mouse!

My wireless looked like it didn't know where to drift first and then it started going to the bottom right corner.



600dpi, Lagitech VX Revolution or something.

1800dpi Razer diamondback 3G

My cursor moves to the left while spinning, but I never noticed it because I compensated by moving my hand right. Hm.

same thing as IppE but then the other way, no idea where i can see dpi or anything but im using a logitech G300

I used to have this problem, but it was caused by dust in the sensor.
Dunno.

jamujamu wrote:

I'll have to perform a test on everyone I know to make sure it isn't just how I rotate the mouse...

This is interesting. I don't have the drift. I tried turning my mouse back and forth when drawing circles and I started experiencing it!
Experimenting with different kinds of turning, I was able to make it drift in different directions. Towards the bottom left was easiest, but I also made it drift upwards, and towards the top right.

I'm using a cheapass Logitech m100. 1000dpi, set to native in Windows, mouse acceleration off.

I think it has to to with the way you're holding the mouse. Perhaps the sensitivity of an optical mouse drops when it's being turned while moving.

mm201 wrote:

jamujamu wrote:

I'll have to perform a test on everyone I know to make sure it isn't just how I rotate the mouse...

This is interesting. I don't have the drift. I tried turning my mouse back and forth when drawing circles and I started experiencing it!
Experimenting with different kinds of turning, I was able to make it drift in different directions. Towards the bottom left was easiest, but I also made it drift upwards, and towards the top right.

I think it has to to with the way you're holding the mouse. Perhaps the sensitivity of an optical mouse drops when it's being turned while moving.

I think you've just hit the nail on the head. It explains everything; the difference between people's results, the reason every mouse I try has the same problem and it's easy not to notice a very slight turn when rotating the mouse very quickly.

To test what you outlined, I set my mouse CPI to 100, so I could make sweeping movements without going off of paint. Below are some of the results. You can get some crazy drift patterns depending on the turn speed and angle.

I'm just surprised that this plagues all mouse types. That was my main reason for not believing that it was the way I held my mouse, but I think this is proof enough. Thank you mm201 for potentially solving this mystery that's been bugging me every since I started playing osu!

Time to relearn how to use a mouse!