Hi Guys!

I was just wondering whats the most preferred input method for osu: A tablet or mouse?
What do most of the real good payers up in the ranking use?

I am just wondering because I am using mouse and I seem to have reached the peak of my ability. I am asking myself if it is because of my equipment, or my suckiness.

If a tablett is better I'd appreciate recommendations for good tablets for osu which are not too pricey.

PS: Hope this is the right sub-forum :/

If you're good with a mouse, use mouse.

If you're horrible with a mouse but good with a tablet (like me) use a tablet.

No need to get a tablet if you're good with mouse unless you really just want to get one.


If you do feel like you need a tablet, I suggest Wacom Bamboo:
http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=294&lang=de&gm=2
Though basically anything works, as long as it doesn't fall apart in use

I myself have Intuos4 M but thats probably bit too pricy for just osu! use.

IppE602 wrote:

If you're good with a mouse, use mouse.

If you're horrible with a mouse but good with a tablet (like me) use a tablet.

No need to get a tablet if you're good with mouse unless you really just want to get one.

So am I interpreting you correctly here? There's no real consensus and it depends on your personal preference/ability which suits you better?
Does everyone else agree with this assessment?

I am just looking desperately for a way to improve my skill but won't sink money down the toilet if most people here believe that it won't make much of a difference (skill-wise) - since I am very used to mouse. I just don't seem to get better anymore...

It's based on preference. If you don't think you're improving one way, then you should try the other (except in your case, it would require spending extra money).

PS: Have you tried fooling around with your mouse sensitivity to see if that makes any difference? Also, how about using z/x on the keyboard instead of clicking? (Especially since streams/stacks will be near-impossibly trying to alternate mouse clicks) There's many ways to improve than to just switch input devices.

PPS: This probably would've been better in the Gameplay & Rankings forum, and there's already a dozen mouse vs. tablet threads there if you'd like to read them (just don't necropost).

Hey Derekku! Thanks for the helpful advice (all of it)

Derekku wrote:

PS: Have you tried fooling around with your mouse sensitivity to see if that makes any difference?

Yeah, i tried playing with the sensitivity. I have a Razer Lachesis (4000dpi) and used to play at a muuuch too high sens. I am now using 1500 dpi with 1.0 sens and 1280x800 resolution setting in osu, which seemed to improve my playing a bit (aaand it doesn't strain my wrist as much...). What kind of sensitivity/dpi do you use (if you use a mouse)?

Also, how about using z/x on the keyboard instead of clicking? (Especially since streams/stacks will be near-impossibly trying to alternate mouse clicks) There's many ways to improve than to just switch input devices.

Yeah of course i do that. Actually, I use a second mouse for clicking only, because my keyboard is crap. But still, even with alternating I am muuuch to slow for some streams in some maps: for example "Exciting Hyper Highspeed Star" comes to mind. On H-boy's Hyper diff its utterly impossible. How do people do that? Even on half-speed it's still pretty damn fast.

To be honest streams (if that is the correct term? I mean fast repetitive beats following a pattern like a slider) are one of my biggest weaknesses.. :/ I am too slow.

PPS: This probably would've been better in the Gameplay & Rankings forum, and there's already a dozen mouse vs. tablet threads there if you'd like to read them (just don't necropost).

I'll have a look, thanks.

I'm actually a tablet player, so I can't really offer much advice on mouse dpi/sensitivity settings. :p Although, I do feel your pain on streams. I easily achieve high scores on some maps, but then I find an extremely streamy map and I'm breaking combo every few seconds. Then, I check the rankings and tons of people have FC'd the map with near-100% accuracy. x_x

The main difference between tablet and mouse is absolute versus relative movement.

Obviously there are also differences in the way that they are used, but the main difference from my perspective would be what I stated above. With absolute movement, a point on a tablet will always correspond to a point on the screen. With relative, a movement with respect to the mouse is translated to movement on the screen, and a certain movement of the mouse will not always produce the exact same movement on the screen.

Many tablet players who wish to complete the top-tier songs in terms of difficulty will end up using a hand on the keyboard, with the tablet for movement, or alternate between tablet taps and button presses (as I do), but start off using solely pen taps. The same can be said for mouse players, with many starting off using the mouse click, then switching solely to keyboard input or combination keyboard/mouse input. As such, it becomes largely a difference of tracking method as I stated above, which won't ultimately help you with streamy/fast songs.

I would just stick to what I had been practicing from the beginning, as learning a different input method may end up being a waste of time, money, and a source of frustration, akin to switching from right-handedness to left-handedness.

As for recommended tablets, I would suggest the second-generation Bamboo Fun, though it's a bit pricey at 200USD. The other tablets in the Bamboo line are very small and, to me, unusable because of it. You can also try to find a secondhand 6x8" Graphire, which can be had for far less, while retaining the same size. You won't get the more modern features of the Bamboo series, but if all you're going to do is play osu!, you won't need them anyway.

Ok, a quick follow up on this thread.

First of all: I decided to buy a tablet (the Wacom Bamboo Pen CTL-460)... The convincer was seeing osu player "Cookiez" (hope i spelled the name right) in a video he uploaded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ijtFWPwWSs).

I thank you all for your advice guys, but I have to be honest: Some of it was pretty horrible (in my case).

No need to get a tablet if you're good with mouse unless you really just want to get one.

I would just stick to what I had been practicing from the beginning, as learning a different input method may end up being a waste of time, money, and a source of frustration, akin to switching from right-handedness to left-handedness.

Remember: I have NEVER used a tablet before.

The first day I got it - after about 3 hours of getting used to it - I was already improving some of my scores on certain beatmaps. It took a bit longer (few days) to become accurate with my jumps, but now I am able to easily pass maps that I wasn't able to pass at all before. This also resulted in me rising about +200 ranks... in only a few days [Would have been even more if I wasn't goofing around with the editor and wasting my time by achieving nothing] .

The other tablets in the Bamboo line are very small and, to me, unusable because of it.

Actually I ended up reducing the active area of my tablet a LOT. I am now playing with an area that's about quarter the original size. How do you play on larger tablets? Don't you have to move your arm around all the time? Isn't that kinda slow? How do you beat maps on insane or lunatic diff with huge and fast jumps? Isn't it suuper-exhausting to play if you can't rest your arm somewhere comfortably? I am really curious here....

In conclusion: (At least for me) the improvement by using a tablet is so enormous, that I can hardly imagine that any top-tier osu players use a mouse. Are there ANY in the top100 who are mouse players? Maybe I am completely wrong here, but if this is the case (that the majority of top-tier players use a tablet or similar) you guys should probably reconsider advising people on playing with "what they are used to".

Many of the top 100 are mouse players. Cyclone, for example, was #1 for quite a long time (and he was a mouse player).

Perhaps you were just meant to be better with a tablet than with a mouse.

EDIT: Btw, I have the Wacom Bamboo Fun (small) tablet, and it's more than enough room for me. The medium size might've been better, but at the time the small was $100 and medium was $200, so I just went with the small (and am still happy with my purchase).

People all talking about me in the past tense like that...

Deathcrow wrote:

The other tablets in the Bamboo line are very small and, to me, unusable because of it.

Actually I ended up reducing the active area of my tablet a LOT.

I mean unusable for things like drawing.
Regarding your other questions, I use my 9x12" tablet with the full active area.
Here's a video of me playing Higan Retour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMAUSYKrTZY

Deathcrow wrote:

In conclusion: (At least for me) the improvement by using a tablet is so enormous, that I can hardly imagine that any top-tier osu players use a mouse. Are there ANY in the top100 who are mouse players? Maybe I am completely wrong here, but if this is the case (that the majority of top-tier players use a tablet or similar) you guys should probably reconsider advising people on playing with "what they are used to".

If I'm not mistaken, most of the top-tier players are actually mouse players.

Derekku wrote:

Many of the top 100 are mouse players. Cyclone, for example, was #1 for quite a long time (and he was a mouse player).

Many? ^^ You named only one, maybe I should start a survey

Perhaps you were just meant to be better with a tablet than with a mouse.

That certainly is a possibility! The difference was just so astounding to me...

People all talking about me in the past tense like that...

Awww.... dont be sad Mr. Cyclone! Apologize already Derekku!

If I'm not mistaken, most of the top-tier players are actually mouse players.

hmm people keep saying that. Maybe I should get that survey started ... ^^

Deathcrow wrote:

Derekku wrote:

Many of the top 100 are mouse players. Cyclone, for example, was #1 for quite a long time (and he was a mouse player).

Many? ^^ You named only one, maybe I should start a survey

I really don't know which players use which input method off-hand...

Deathcrow wrote:

Cyclone wrote:

People all talking about me in the past tense like that...

Awww.... dont be sad Mr. Cyclone! Apologize already Derekku!

...what? o-o; His robot got rusty :V

My favorite one is a combination of tablet and Z/X keys. Mouse... I guess it could work but I like the classic osu feel. It does hurt my poor wrist though.

SapphireGhost wrote:

My favorite one is a combination of tablet and Z/X keys. Mouse... I guess it could work but I like the classic osu feel. It does hurt my poor wrist though.

Well... mouse isn't that much better for your wrist: I hurt my wrist pretty badly, probably through a mixture of too much osu! and frequent exam preparation for Aikido -> almost no breaks for my wrist. This resulted in me running around (for couple of months) with a splint on my hand and not being able to do much of anything :/

I tried using a tablet once and I sucked.

Well of course I sucked because I didn't have any practice with it. In my opinion and probably in many others', it all depends on what playing style you think you're better with. A tablet may seem easier for doing those sorts of jumps and stuff, but unless you're used to it, it's somewhat difficult to go to a very precise spot. Also, tablet taps move your cursor. With the mouse, it can also be good for doing jumps and being accurate, but it might be hard to spin, and in some cases it might just not be enough (extreme chain of jumps). I also find it really easy to combine mouse clicking and keyboard clicks. I use mouse with heavy mouse acceleration (which is against all recommendations), but just because it's my desktop mouse speed, I'm so used to it that it works best for me.

Asking whether tablet or mouse is better is like asking which way you spin, or how big you spin; they all have their pros and cons and are all relatively the same, in terms of... being "better". It's all about opinion and how good you can get with either input device.

well imo the mouse is better because it requires less stamina to hold it, especially in longer songs