Mouse tips and troubleshooting

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Primal Fear
Xpadder Xpert
Posts: 2437
Joined: 09 Feb 2010, 16:41
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Mouse tips and troubleshooting

Post by Primal Fear »

This topic is about troubleshooting and tweaks in connection with Xpadder mouse emulation.
If the topic doesn't help you, create a new topic in this very sub forum or try using the search function first.
Problem: the mouse is moving while I don't even touch the analog stick: Show
If the mouse always or sometimes keeps moving when you release the stick, you should check the Stick Settings window for the respective stick first. To do that click on the tool symbol near the stick where you have assigned the mouse (unload the profile before, if necessary) and then click on "Settings...". In the opening Stick Settings window you will see under "Status" an image with a black dot that indicates the current position of the stick (should be moving when you move the stick) and a red area called "Dead Zone". As long as the dot is within this Dead Zone, the mouse shouldn't be moving. I the best case the black dot is exactly in the center and all numbers below this image show 0 so you theoretically don't even need a Dead Zone, but unfortunately analog stick tend to wear out over time.
Basically now it depends where this black dot is located when you don't touch the stick.

Dot is somewhere at the edge:
You have either not correctly configured your controller layout and need to check that (doesn't apply to Xinput compatible controllers, like the Xbox360pad) or your controller is seriously broken (but in that case you would have already had problems while creating your controller layout, assumed that is was already broken at this time).

Dot is bad out of the Dead Zone, but not completely on the edge:
It could be broken too but you can try to recalibrate it. To do so press Windows Key+R, type joy.cpl and press Enter. In the opening Game Controllers Control Panel of Windows you need to select your controller and to click on "Properties". In the Properties window you select tab "Settings", click on "Calibrate..." and go through this process. It's important that you follow the instructions carefully, otherwise you could mess up the calibration and would need to do that again.
After that close Xpadder completely as explained here and restart it. Now check the Stick Setting window again. If the dot is still by far out of the center in the same way, you unfortunately need a new controller.

Dot is slightly out of the Dead Zone:
First you can also try to recalibrate your controller, as it cannot hurt and could help. Check the section above for that.
If that didn't help, you need to increase the Dead Zone a little bit until until it can enclose the black dot.
But to do that you should know a few things. You can simply increase the Dead Zone with the slider on the right of the status image, but that setting will only apply to the currently loaded Profile and to the currently selected Set. So you would need to change this setting for for ever you create or download from the forum and for every set they use.
The better possibility is to increase the "Default Stick Dead Zone" after figuring out how large it has to be. To do so click on the button with the toll symbol in the upper right of the Xpadder main window, select the section "Values" and adjust the "Default Stick Dead Zone" there. This value will now be applied for every new profile that you create and for profiles that you have downloaded, but only if the creator didn't change the DeadZone value of this profile manually. So basically you should check that after downloading a profile.

Dot is actually within the DeadZone:
There are two possibilities for that, either your stick only stays outside of it when you release the stick carefully out of a specific direction or the profile (that you have probably downloaded) has a lowered Dead Zone value.
To check the second one, open the stick setting window with the respective profile loaded. The default value is 25%. If it is lower, then you simply need to change that. But note that you have to check that in every Set.
To check the first thing, move the stick in one of the eight directions and release it very slowly. Do that for every direction until you find the direction (it's probably only one of them) where the stick stays slightly out of the Dead Zone. Now you need to increase the Dead Zone so it does still enclose the black dot. Read the chapter above for more informations about that, but ignore the first sentences about recalibration.
Tip: Pro-tips for adjusting the mouse speed: Show
There are some things that are affecting Xpadder's mouse emulation speed, except from the settings in Xpadder itself. Two of them are the mouse settings of Windows, you can open them by pressing Windows Key+R, typing main.cpl and pressing Enter.
These settings are the pointer speed and "Enhance Pointer Precision" both to find under the tab "Pointer Options". "Enhance pointer precision" is a rather big problem. It's name doesn't quite tell what it does. It is actually making slow mouse movements slower and fast ones faster, missing out the middle. In my opinion this setting makes using as mouse pretty much a torture (may have something to do with habituation) but on the other hand it's really good for using touchpads. The problem with XPaddder is that the emulation curve is already rather steep (the more you increase the mouse emulation speed) and this setting makes it by far worse. Means you either have to keep Xpadder mouse emulation speed really low, which would lead to almost no difference if you push the stick further, or you have a very slow movement when you push the stick just a bit but at a certain point the speed increase rapidly. So I highly recommend to disable this setting.
What the motion speed does should be obvious, by default it is exactly in the middle and most users seem to leave that way. Changing it simply also makes Xpadders mouse speed slower or faster too.

If you use the "Enhance pointer precision" setting for your normal mouse or touchpad, you can use the profile below (or just it's assignment) to disable/enable it before and after playing a game with Xpadder just by pressing a button. To have it all the time loaded while Window is in focus, make a AutoProfile entry for the Explorer.exe.

Code: Select all

;--- Xpadder Profile Data ---
DataType=Profile
Version=2014.01.01
Name=disable or enable Enhance Pointer Precision
Set1Button1Slots=TAP TIME 0.01s,Windows Logo Left,R,PAUSE 0.15s,M,PAUSE 0.00s,A,PAUSE 0.00s,I,PAUSE 0.00s,N,PAUSE 0.00s,Dot,PAUSE 0.00s,C,PAUSE 0.00s,P,PAUSE 0.00s,L,PAUSE 0.00s,Enter,PAUSE 0.80s,Left Shift,Tab,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Left,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Right,PAUSE 0.01s,Arrow Right,PAUSE 0.01s,Tab,PAUSE 0.80s,E,PAUSE 0.50s,Enter
The last thing that is affecting the mouse speed of Xpadder is of course the mouse speed setting directly in the game. As Xpadders emulation curve gets steeper the more you increase the speed setting, it is a good idea to prefer using the games setting instead and just using Xpadders setting to adjust the curve to your liking and maybe even the vertical and horizontal axis individually as games rarely offer this possibility.

If you have changed one these settings (so either in Windows or in the game), you can have a problem with the mouse speed of profiles you have downloaded from the forum and need to readjust that for every profile, either in Xpadder or in the game. The other way around, if you share a profile yourself (or somebody else with a non default setting), this is of course also a potential problem, that would at least a good idea to mention in your profile post (e.g. "adjust mouse speed in the game to XX" or "It may be necessary to change the mouse emulation speed for the profile").
Tip: Switching the mouse emulation speed while in-game with a button press: Show
As the mouse speed can be configured for every set individually, you can use Set Selectors to change the mouse speed while playing. This can be used for example to slowdown the mouse movement while aiming through the sights or to make the mouse movement faster to be able turn around faster. You could also use a two-way set selector or change the mouse mode.
Note that if you use that with a while held set selector (no matter if with while held glitch workaround or not) and want to have held a key or mouse button while the mouse speed is higher or lower (e.g. left mouse button for aiming through the sights), you have to make that assignment in the destination set.

My example profile is slowing down the mouse speed while holding the left trigger and increasing it rapidly while holding the right stick button.

Code: Select all

;--- Xpadder Profile Data ---
DataType=Profile
Version=2014.01.01
Name=switching mouse speed
Set1Button10SetSelect=2
Set1Stick2UpSlots=Mouse Move Up
Set1Stick2UpMouseSpeed=65
Set1Stick2RightSlots=Mouse Move Right
Set1Stick2RightMouseSpeed=65
Set1Stick2DownSlots=Mouse Move Down
Set1Stick2DownMouseSpeed=65
Set1Stick2LeftSlots=Mouse Move Left
Set1Stick2LeftMouseSpeed=65
Set1TriggerLeftSetSelect=1
Set2Stick2UpSlots=Mouse Move Up
Set2Stick2UpMouseSpeed=32
Set2Stick2RightSlots=Mouse Move Right
Set2Stick2RightMouseSpeed=32
Set2Stick2DownSlots=Mouse Move Down
Set2Stick2DownMouseSpeed=32
Set2Stick2LeftSlots=Mouse Move Left
Set2Stick2LeftMouseSpeed=32
Set2TriggerLeftSlots=Right Mouse Button (2)
Set2TriggerLeftSetSelect=0
Set3Button10SetSelect=0
Set3Stick2UpSlots=Mouse Move Up
Set3Stick2UpMouseSpeed=211
Set3Stick2RightSlots=Mouse Move Right
Set3Stick2RightMouseSpeed=211
Set3Stick2DownSlots=Mouse Move Down
Set3Stick2DownMouseSpeed=211
Set3Stick2LeftSlots=Mouse Move Left
Set3Stick2LeftMouseSpeed=211
Possible useful supplements for that are the Anti-Toggle or the Distance dependent while held set switching. Also I highly recommend using one of the already mentioned while held glitch workarounds if you should have more than one while held set selector in your profile.
Tip: Diagonal Size: Show
The Diagonal Size is also a setting you should take into consideration for adjusting the mouse emulation to your preferences. You find it in the stick settings, by clicking on the tool symbol near the respective stick and then on "Settings...".
If you change it using the slider, you will see that the grey and white areas in the status image on the left are changing. When the stick is in the white areas, it will only move the mouse straight up/down/left/right. Only if it is in the grey areas (the diagonals) it will move the mouse in exactly into the direction where you direct the stick. That means if you always want to have perfectly full control, you should increase value to at least 75 or to the maximum. On the other the standard setting may be more comfortable and eliminate possible drifting.
Tip: Improving the Spring mode: Show
The Spring has in my opinion two major flaws, first it doesn't return reliably to the center if you release the stick too rapidly and second it doesn't allow to move the cursor over the full screen as the straight direction (where the cursor only moves straight to the up, down, left, right) have a size of 45 degree each.

Fixing the second problem is easy, click on the tool symbol near the stick you have assigned the mouse spring to and click on "Settings...". In the opening Stick Settings window move the slider for the "Diagonal Size" value fully to the right to increase it to the maximum. Now all direction of the respective stick in the currently selected Set of the currently loaded Profile will be handled fully analog .

For fixing the first one, you need to open the Advance Assignment window and to add a 0.01 Release Zone followed by two opposite mouse directions for every stick direction one after another. You can add mouse direction by clicking on them in the Assignment window.
In the end it should look like that (? stands for the respective mouse direction):
Image
Respective Mouse Direction (?), [Release Zone 0.01], Mouse up, Mouse down
Example Profile:

Code: Select all

;--- Xpadder Profile Data ---
DataType=Profile
Version=2014.01.01
Name=Improved Mouse Spring
Set1StickDiagonalSizes=45,89
Set1Stick2UpSlots=Mouse Move Up,RELEASE ZONE 0.01s,Mouse Move Up,Mouse Move Down
Set1Stick2UpMouseSpeed=32
Set1Stick2UpMouseMode=Spring
Set1Stick2RightSlots=Mouse Move Right,RELEASE ZONE 0.01s,Mouse Move Up,Mouse Move Down
Set1Stick2RightMouseSpeed=32
Set1Stick2RightMouseMode=Spring
Set1Stick2DownSlots=Mouse Move Down,RELEASE ZONE 0.01s,Mouse Move Up,Mouse Move Down
Set1Stick2DownMouseSpeed=32
Set1Stick2DownMouseMode=Spring
Set1Stick2LeftSlots=Mouse Move Left,RELEASE ZONE 0.01s,Mouse Move Up,Mouse Move Down
Set1Stick2LeftMouseSpeed=32
Set1Stick2LeftMouseMode=Spring
Last edited by Primal Fear on 23 Jun 2014, 17:22, edited 2 times in total.

jwmccle
Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Mar 2015, 19:20

Re: Mouse tips and troubleshooting

Post by jwmccle »

I am attempting to use my joystick to gain analog response control over helicopter flying. DCS and FSX among others provide such a feature. Armed Assault III (Arma3) does not. For many reasons I would like to fly helicopters with analog response as well in Arma3. Using mouse spring mode in Pinnacle Game Profiler (PGP), I could gain analog control of my helicopter, but the joystick would loose center position and thus PGP became not practical. Using Xpadder in relative (regular) mode works fine, but when I touch the joystick in mouse spring mode, the helicopter rolls to the right and crashes. Note that my joystick, a high resolution Thrustmaster T.16000M, is fully calibrated. In the Xpadder GUI, the test shows the expected X/Y axes movement, but the raw values seems strange. At rest, the values are: X=975 and Y=522. The value at the extreme left on the X axis is -381. On the extreme right it is 2,221. The Y value at the extreme up is -202 and down is 1,300.

PGP had sensitivity and range of stick movement adjustments that allowed me to use it at all, but up to now, other than for speed, I have not found more adjustment for mouse spring mode in Xpadder.

Of course if there is a way to trick WASD into producing analog responses, that would be just as good.

Please advise.

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