[MG] good optical mouse? (Was: good 2-button mouse?)

[Nevin Steindam]

>Nevin, do you find the performance of your optical mouse sketchy on all
>surfaces? Do you use just your desktop? Is it glossy?

I'm using a soft mousepad with a good surface and picture for lasers.  No
thin lines or anything else that easily confuses the mouse.  It works fine
for normal computer activity.  The problems happen if I try to move fast in
a game.  As far as I can tell, this is just a limitation of the laser
technology.

>Either that - or you have a lower optical
>resolution with your mouse. The newer ones are higher (can't quote numbers),
>and provide a pixel to pixel higher perfromance rate than a 'normal' or
>older optical mouse.

That is probably it.  I'm using a two-year-old Kensington mouse, and I
think at that time there was only one basic resolution used by all optical
mice.

Can anyone else who's had similar trouble with old optical mice (works fine
in normal circumstances, but not in intense games) confirm for me that the
problem went away with newer, fancier optical mice?  I'll probably be
buying a new one within a few months (to replace the 1-button Pro Mouse
that I'm using on my second computer), and I'd like to be confident that it
will work.

Thanks,
Nevin

(By the way:  If anyone else is using a Kensington optical mouse, I've
found that its performance is much better if you turn the Kensington
drivers OFF.  Under OS 8/9, at least.  I'm just using the aforementioned
Pro Mouse on my X machine.  The Kensington drivers do some cool tricks that
can be useful in normal applications, but the standard Input Sprockets do
everything you need in games.  And in many games, especially ones based on
the Quake 3 engine, I couldn't turn around at even a moderate speed until I
disabled the drivers.  After that, everything is fine as long as I don't
shoot around as fast as I can.)