Much slower default mouse speed for first-person games

Every first-person game or demo I've played from Unity is nearly unplayable for me: the tiniest mouse movement rotates me so fast that I will easily walk off a bridge/ramp--and shooting a target is nearly impossible.

Mouse speed is a matter of taste of course, and a complete game would have an adjustment lacking in small demos. However, mouse speed is the kind of thing that could stop people from appreciating the demos, and I'd hate to see people think less of Unity for something so trivial!

I play a lot of FPS games, and Unity's default mouse response (as seen in the FPS tutorial) is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH too fast. Even with practice I can't control it well. But I play UT2004, Doom 3, etc. with mouse speed set at default or pretty close.

This may be an acceleration curve issue rather than raw speed, but whatever it is, I really hate playing Unity first-person demos, and I want to like them

If I'm not alone in this, then maybe the tutorial's default (which I assume is what everyone works from) should be changed.

Regardless of preference, though, Unity twitchiness seems to be very different from commercial games, and that's not good.

I know it also varies with the mouse. But I notice this on multiple systems with different brands of mice.

 

Yes I also think the mouse control needs to be smoother in the FPS demo.

 

I think that what really needs tweaking is the acceleration rate. The speed is fine, but it reaches the top speed too fast.

 

Yeah, it's hard to say what the culprit is without playing with some variables. All I'm sure of is the result: tracking a target or walking a narrow path is virtually impossible. I have to nudge the mouse EVER so slightly, and have no precision.

The other extreme would be bad too, though: slow mousing that made precise aim easy, but took forever to turn.

I do like having an acceleration curve if it's the right one: precision when you mouse slow, speed when you want speed.

It's a moot point in a shipping title that has adjustable speed and acc, but there are a lot of Unity demos floating around that use the defaults and thus--I fear--drive people crazy!

 

The thing is, I have no problems at all with the default controls, and they are also fine on a Windows machine I used once. What sort of mouse do you have?

--Eric

 

Multiple mice, multiple Macs (I don't recall trying on a Windows system). And of course it's also subjective: someone would want it even faster than it is!

MS Intellimouse Explorer
Apple Pro Mouse
Apple Mighty Mouse
Apple Might Mouse Wireless
PowerBook trackpad

CPUs ranging from G4s to low-end Core Duos to top-end Mac Pros.

In all cases, mouse speed (or acceleration?) seems to be in a whole different league compared to UT2004, Doom 3, Quake 4, etc.

I'd be interested to note whether it's different on Mac vs. Windows, but I have played mouse-based (non-FPS) unity games in Windows and not noticed a huge difference. I'd assume that the system's mouse acc curve is not relevant in Unity, just like it's not relevant in other games: you're just getting raw mouse data into Unity, and what the pointer does (like hitting the screen edge) isn't relevant to your rotation. (I've tried playing with system mouse speed, and as expected, saw no difference in Unity.)

 

To be perfectly honest, it doesn't seem as though the default fps prefab even has an acceleration curve. It seems like it just instantly goes to the speed of the mouse movement, which just isn't how tracking should be handled in games.

 

Maybe it just needs the min speed lowered then, and an acceleration curve added to that.

 

Mouse acceleration should not exists!

There should be an option to deactivate mouse acceleration since FPS are more accurate without mouse acceleration, you can get your hand used to a movement to issue the same result every time, harder to do with acceleration, for example:

you can rotate 90 degrees left by moving your hand 5 centimeters, so you can look the environment really soft of just do it instantly, and your brain doesn't have to process the speed of your hand, just the 3d graphics

that's why i love windows and not mac os x

that was just a thought.. don't take me so seriously please

 

Accelerated and unaccelerated both have advantages of course: having a slower speed when zeroing in on a close target also provides accuracy--in a different way, that you can't get from twitchy (though mathematically precise) controls.

I can turn 90 or 180 quite easily with commercial (accelerated) fps games. I do so, presumably, by moving a known distance AT a known speed. Which sounds harder than not having to care about the speed--but I find it's no problem in practice. I suppose when I want a fast turn, I'm naturally always moving my hand at the fastest comfortable speed. And thus the distance I must move is pretty constant after all. And then, once I've turned, I can acquire a specific target with precision due to the lower speed when I move slower. (The precision of slower mousing is why sniper guns traditionally use a slower speed.)

Many people will prefer what they've spent the most time with, of course. I won't try to win anyone away from their current tastes. And I wish every OS and game had explicit acceleration control, not just one speed slider. (I know third-party utils can provide that.)

Another case in point: I just got Prey. Didn't touch the default mouse speed--it seems perfect And I moved Doom to a new machine. Ditto--the defaults are fine. And yet I still can't steer in Unity FPS games. They are so "not-fun" that I have to exit after less than a minute. I could learn them with practice maybe--but only with a "gamer's mouse" perhaps. And they still would be different from commercial games.

So, while I think the current defaults in Unity may be best for some, and should remain as an option, I stand by the assertion that Unity's default FPS controls feel very different from commercial games. And that this may not be good for promoting the Unity platform.

So I'd suggest having an adjustable speed AND adjustable acceleration in Unity FPS controls--and having some acceleration be the default used in tutorials and demo pieces. Make the demos feel like commercial games. (Those speed and accel variables could then be tweaked by the user, in the menu of a full-scale Unity game release.)

This could all be done mathematically with no changes to Unity--I've done so myself--so it's just the demos and tutorials that I'm convinced should be changed. That would make the stuff people sit down and make/share feel less frustratingly different from other games. And most importantly, it would make the FPS demo in the gallery more appealing: I'm sure it's one many people try first.

So I have no problem for my own games: I can make acceleration to match commercial games if I want. Rather, it's that I fear the default method could turn people off from Unity.

 

Definitely something I'll play with some time. The acceleration I've done already uses the mouse on only one axis (sort of).

 

that would be great morgan. I'd love to see the script.

cheers.

 

OK--I'll try to play with it ASAP.