Trouble with Some Games

[reighnie]

I'm using a SmartNav 4 with the latest software. I use it with a hardware sip/puff switch plugged directly into the SmartNav unit. In some games, the cursor jumps when I click the mouse. At first it jumps pretty far, then I can get it increasingly closer with subsequent adjustments and clicks. I usually quit at that point. My monitor on my desktop runs at 1440x900 and a lot of games don't support that resolution. I thought that might be the issue. But, some games do it even after I change the resolution to 1440x900. However, I was recently bedridden due a pressure sore. I got a netbook to use in bed and experienced the same problem. Also, it's not specific to versions of DirectX or Windows or graphics hardware. I've had it happen on fairly simple games from Big Fish to newer games like Cryostasys. I recently got a new desktop with with a GeForce 250. My old desktop had a GeForce 7600 GTS. The netbook has a Intel Mobile 945 chipset for graphics. The same games have the same exact problem across computers. The netbook runs XP Home, I used Vista Home Premium on the old desktop. I currently use Windows 7 RC1 on the new desktop, but I also have Vista Home Premium on it. I also tried Windows RC1 on the netbook, but had to stop because of wireless driver issues. My point is that the issue is not specific to versions of Windows, DirectX, or graphics hardware. I did find out that a game I was having issues with works fine if I switch it to windowed mode. So, I'm pretty sure it's an issue between the SmartNav drivers and some game's DirectX access. As I mentioned above, it's not specific to any one version of DirectX. It's also not an issue of bogging down hardware either as it happens with some pretty simple games too, as well as at the main menu screens. Cryostasys has the issue, but Barman Arkum Asylum works fine. (Both tested on my new desktop. Elder Scrolls � Morrowind has the issue on both desktops. (I didn't test it on the netbook.) Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 work fine on all 3. A vertical scroller called Astro Avenger 2 works at it's menus, but has the jumping issue in the game. It's the one I tested in windowed mode and it worked fine. I just tested Morrowind and it still has the jumping issue. However, it works at first at the main menu, but starts jumping as soon as you start playing. Also,when you press escape to get the menu, the menu now has the jumping issue. Interesting. I double checked Astro Avenger 2 and it works fine in windowed mode but, not in full screen mode. I'm pretty sure they use different versions of DirectX though.

Oh, on an unrelated matter, my SmartNav 4 runs really hot all of the time.

My SmartNav Settings:
Driver Version: 3.2 build 35
Horizontal Speed: 20
Vertical Speed: 18
Smoothing: 83
Mode: Relative
Clicking: Ability Switch
Double Click Assist: On (I turn it off for games.)
Behavior: I have everything disabled except �Center.� I have both delays set 0.
Gravity is all disabled.
Camera LEDs: On
Grayscale Tracking Mode: On
Light Filtering: I've tried it both ways.

Thanks in advance,

Sean

[VincentG]

So mouse override delay is set to 0?

Dwell clicking is not enabled?

Are you running the games in full screen mode, or in a window mode?

[reighnie]

[quote=NaturalPoint - Vincent]So mouse override delay is set to 0?

Dwell clicking is not enabled?

Are you running the games in full screen mode, or in a window mode? [/quote]

No dwell clicking. Mouse Delay is set to 0. As I described above, it generally happens in full screen mode. I've only tested two of the glitching games in windowed mode. In one it operated correctly in windowed mode. In the other, the problem persists.

Sean

[nitro81nj]

I am also having the same issue, where the screen jumps when clicked. I also use the same sip & puff on Windows Vista...

[VincentG]

If someone uses the keyboard hotkeys for clicking, or the dwell software, does this occur as well?

[reighnie]

[quote=NaturalPoint - Vincent]If someone uses the keyboard hotkeys for clicking, or the dwell software, does this occur as well? [/quote]

I have no idea. I don't use those. I guess I could try turning on dwell clicking to see. The dwell clicking software uses mouse hooks to generate mouse clicks. The switches plugged into SmartNav would generate mouse clicks through SmartNav's drivers. I'm not sure if they use standard mouse hooks or interact at a lower level. I suspect that they use lower level access as most mouse drivers do. At any rate, I'll try it real quick.

[reighnie]

[quote=NaturalPoint - Vincent]If someone uses the keyboard hotkeys for clicking, or the dwell software, does this occur as well? [/quote]

I just tried dwell clicking on Cryostasis and dwell clicking didn't work at all,which suggests three things: first, the dwell clicking utility most likely uses standard mouse hooks; two, SmartNav doesn't; three, Cryostasis doesn't use standard mouse input APIs or dwell clicking would've worked. This latter observation could be a clue as to why the game has issues in the first place.

Sean