Everything they said but first start by playing some solitare first, it was included in early windows to teach mouse skills
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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I'm actually pretty good at Solitare. It's fun.
The castle is my favorite deck back, I think I have more hours in solitaire than I do in Elden Ring
No play Balatro
I don't know why but I have a natural avoidance of card based rogue battlers. Slay the spire made me very very angry
I played that too. Good shit.
- Disable mouse acceleration in the OS and in the game
- Enable raw input
- Decide on a grip for your mouse, your options are claw, palm, or tip. Which type of mouse you have will kind of dictate that choice for you at some level
- Download CS GO and an aim practice map
- Adjust the sensitivity until you start hitting shots semi-regularly. You should be able to do at least a 360 on a single mouse pad, some people prefer a higher sensitivity. You'll have to decide between using more wrist or more elbow.
- Memorize the DPI and in-game sensitivity you used, use it for mouse-sensitivity.com and try playing a very different game from CSGO with those settings.
Odds are the best settings for CSGO will be less sensitive than the best settings for open world RPGs, ultimately it's your call and depends on the games you play, but once you have a setting, stick to it for a few different games, then adjust as needed.
Aimlabs will help. Free on steam last time I checked.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
While it's true that experience is the only way to 'get used to' something, having the right settings can minimize the effort of it. It should almost be as effortless as pointing at something with your finger.
You will have to go into the settings and adjust your sensitivity to what matches your personal proprioception. The best way I know to do this is to open up the game and then pick a point to look/aim at (if it's a first-person/OTS third person) or a point on the screen to put your cursor if it's something with a static camera. Place your mouse/reticle on that point. Then swing it out for a loop/heart/star shape and try to snap your view right back to the same point based on where it would feel natural. Don't readjust to get there if it's not at the spot, just note where you are actually aiming compared to the target. If you go past it, sensitivity or acceleration is too high. If you don't get there, it's too low. If you are off to either side on a perpendicular line, (e.g. you come from straight to the side and end up too high or low) that's you, and that will just have to come with experience. .
So with mice, you have a center position you return to after every move. From that position, ideally you should be able to turn your character between 270°- 180° degrees with a single swipe.
You'll want to use a mouse with an at least 1000 hz polling rate. They can be found online for less than $30. There are websites to test polling rates.
I recommend a DPI of 800. 1200± DPI will often make your sensitivity way to high, even if you lower the in game sensitivity. 400 DPI has more hitches.
Turn off mouse acceleration in windows.
Make sure the sensor in the mouse and the mouse pad is clean.
Lighting round: light weight mice are preferred. 8000hz is better that 1000hz polling, but not by much and uses a lot of CPU usage and requires correct USB support. Don't aim at the enemy, aim where they are going to be. Warming up a bit does help your aim. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get the best gear or to have fun.
Useful mouse comparisons. https://www.rtings.com/
There is a mouse pad compare website, but I can't find it.
With a mouse you turn back.
Practice
There's aim trainer games to practice mouse speed and accuracy.
edit: aimlabs on steam.
I can understand where you're coming from. As a lifelong PC gamer, it took me ages to adapt to controller usage (I use a controller on PC for some game types now) and I still can't play any sort of shooter with a controller.
It'll inevitably take time. You're shifting from existing muscle memory, to an attempt to develop an entirely different kind of muscle memory. I'd suggest trying to use a PC for as many tasks as possible, even for stuff you usually use your phone for. Even general PC usage will help your muscle memory to develop.
Don't give up, you'll get there eventually!
I use a controller on PC for some game types now
I'll use a controller if I'm emulating a console game(obviously.) The only PC games I use a controller for is strictly driving a vehicle in GTA5 and Cyberpunk, or racing games. WASD isn't pressure sensitive, and it does my head in trying to feather the throttle to take a corner, or creep past an enemy so my companion can shoot them from the window. Just makes more sense to use a controller for that. Also too broke to buy a decent wheel and pedal setup.
I can definitely relate, similar experiences were my initial reason for getting a controller for myself. I ended up becoming a controller geek, though. Right now, I have a PS3 DualShock clone, a Logitech controller with DualShock ergonomics but Xbox face buttons, and then I have retro controllers for Sega Genesis and the SNES. Looking to expand beyond that eventually but virtually any game type works flawlessly with that setup haha
I have a 3bitDo SNES style controller. I barely use my computers for emulation these days though. I've got a plug-in/clip-on phone controller, and my phone is beefy enough to do everything up to the switch. Obviously some games and systems run better than others, but I mostly play PS1/2 with some 3/DS and SNES occasionally. I own the actual hardware for all of those, and for 3ds and ds they're portable. It is a bit of a faff lugging around multiple handhelds though.....
I'd love to set up emulation on my phone but I don't have a controller for my phone and I have a Steam Deck for portable emulation. Still, using the actual hardware is ideal, I just wish I knew where my DS and its charger went!
When I moved from Canada to the UK, my now wife and I had our very first actual fight. She didn't understand why I wasn't willing to give away or sell off my game collection. I have NES, SNES, N64, OG Xbox, 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, Vita, GB-DMG, GBC, GBA, DS and 3DS. With a load of games for each one. It was when she was helping do research on reasonable value for all of them for insurance to ship it all she finally got why I wasn't willing to sell it and try and rebuild the collection over here.
Yeah, a lot of people don't seem to understand just how valuable our retro game collection can be. A lot of people think it's just about holding onto the past, but it's more than that. Not to mention the fact that the games you really loved for the consoles you really loved can hold very deep sentimental value that you shouldn't be forced to give up.
Yeah, a lot of people don't seem to understand just how valuable our retro game collection can be.
The monetary values were what convinced her...but
A lot of people think it's just about holding onto the past, but it's more than that. Not to mention the fact that the games you really loved for the consoles you really loved can hold very deep sentimental value that you shouldn't be forced to give up.
I couldn't give a fuck about the money. Some of those consoles were gifts from now long dead relatives. Some of the games I have memories of playing with friends who passed away, or we drifted apart. That collection is like a story, every game in it has held a special place in my life. Be it having a session with my younger siblings on a week night, trying to be super quiet because dad told us to go to sleep 2 hours ago. Or trying to beat Masa and Mune in chrono trigger with Brandon every day after school, handing the controller back and forth. Or having our little minds blown that we had to physically switch the controller to beat Psycho Mantis.
It's a huge part of who I am, and when I said I would rather stay in Canada than ditch my collection? It hurts that she only understood when she found out what it was "worth."
We've had long chats about it since, and she gets it now. Took a while though...
Well said. A lot of people just don't get it, which is sad.
I'm sure they'd get it if it was something that they cared about. Most of us just can't fully equate what matters to other folk to stuff that matters to us. Was just channel surfing the other week, stopped randomly. Was a kid, he got a lot of attention on YouTube for getting super emotional while train spotting. Now he's a presenter for the BBC. In the segment I watched he was in Malaysia. A rare engine went by with freight, and the guy was vibrating, tearing up, and all the hair on his arms was standing up.
I look at that, and I just don't get it, to me it's just a train. You could clearly see, it was one of the greatest moments of his life. While the situation didn't spark the same reaction in me, I can absolutely understand the feeling. And I think that a lot of folk just don't take the time to try and understand.
True. Another part of the problem is that a lot of people don't find any joy in seeing others happy, even if they don't really get it. We should start being happier about others finding happiness, especially when that happiness is found in simple and wholesome things.
10000000%
We should just start being nicer to eachother in general. 🤷
I use a mouse and keyboard for everything except gaming. I hate using my phone. I use to play basic keyboard and mouse games when I was a kid but it's been a very long time. I actually started my game tonight and after adjusting my mouse sensitivity it's easier than I thought. Hitting left shift with my pinkey to run kind of sucks but oh well. Still slightly cumbersome but I think I can get used to it. I'd still rather use a controller if given the option but I think I can manage. Thanks!
Get a good mouse with some extra buttons and it makes the whole experience a lot nicer. And remember you can usually change any keybindings you dont like. My mouse has two extea thumb buttons and theres some games where ill use one for sprint or dash, although left shift feels pretty natural after you get used to it for a while. The biggest difference with mouse is turning like you said, its not like a conteoller where you can just hold it to the side and then release to 'reset'. Regardless of your preferred sensitivity tou have to get used to 'resetting' the mouse yourself by pucking it up and recentering it. But once you get used to that it feels way more responsive and accurate than controller aiming imo. I got a steamdeck a couple years ago and its largely replaced my pc for gaming but theres still times where i wish i had a mouse, even with the touchpads.
There's no shame in getting a good USB controller for your games. I'm hardcore PCMR but I have no issue with PC players using a controller. The fact that you actually have those options is an excellent example of why PC is so awesome.
Definitly PC for the win. I have several controllers. The game I'm playing is mouse and keyboard only sadly. I get it, indie game developers have limited resources to work with. I'm forcing myself to use mouse and keyboard and its going better than I thought it was. The game is good so far.
Oh gotcha, did you try messing with Steam Input to see if you can sorta force that game to work with one?
Might try a low stakes, low stress first person puzzle or platformer. Was playing Faraway: Puzzle Escape a few weeks ago. It's mouse look, WASD movement, no jumping, and no deaths or timers. Gentle gameplay, relaxing music, the puzzles are difficult enough to be interesting, but easy enough that I played the whole thing in one sitting between lunch and dinner....and I didn't feel tempted to throw anything.
I got Faraway 1&2 off Amazon prime games, think they might still be available.
My thinking is that it'll get you used to how to move around without being aggravating, and without adding too much complexity to the movement.
Or play Portal.
Try to keep the mouse centered in your mousing area. The aiming motions for the mouse are shorter, snappier throws rather than the long and slow arcs of an analog stick.
So move the mouse to your aimpoint, then pick up and recenter. I find that a full "flick" for me should go about 360 degrees. You can also check for mouse acceleration settings, this increases the rotation of your view based on how fast you move the mouse. Good for games where action is coming in from all sides, but it can cause some problems with precision and consistency.
Practice
Step 1: Sit in front of your computer.
Step 2: Start using the mouse and keyboard attached to your computer.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now well on your way to getting used to using a mouse and keyboard.
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