Don’t believe the hype – laser wasn’t meant for gaming (till now).
At first glance today’s laser gaming mice looks awesome. The technical specifications and features in gaming mice are constantly improving and have now reached levels that would have been considered science-fiction just a few years ago. The constant improvement in the technical specs (and the ridiculous focus on these) means that the technical specs usually dominate the packaging on gaming mice, explaining how dramatically improved this mouse is over its predecessor or over similar competing products. All kinds of different manufacturers promise the Holy Grail when it comes to describing what their mice can do. Laser technology, 4.000 DPI, a high number of buttons, Burst-Fire-Button, glowing colors, gold-plated USB connectors and “always on hyper ultra something” are just some of the features that are offered to us, in the mouse manufacturers quest of making their potential customer one of the top gamers in the world. According to these companies every top gamer would be even better when using a 4.000 DPI laser mouse. “For gamers by gamers”, “created for gaming”, “the ultimate gaming mouse”, “hardcore gaming” – you’ll find all these statements, and many more, when browsing today’s gaming mice.
As a manufacturer of professional gaming gear our view is radically different. High and inflated performance numbers, or fancy “ultra-hyper-power” expressions, does not equal great gaming products. Period. SteelSeries is one of the few companies where all hardware is actually tested by real professional gamers. It’s our belief and guideline that if professional gamers approves a concept, idea or product, our development of a product is heading in the right direction. When we label something a “professional gaming product” we do so because we believe it’s better than a “standard” off-the-shelf product. Gamers use their computers, peripherals, and gear in ways that demand much more than the average office user. They use their equipment more rigorously, for longer periods of time, demand faster reaction times, more power – when it comes to computers and peripherals, gamers have higher requirements than any other consumer group in the world. Since 2001 we have been providing gaming surfaces to these professionals, whilst improving on surface quality and materials thanks to continued dialogue and feedback from the best gamers in the world.
While we were working on our surfaces, gaming mice started evolving too. More and more companies started labeling their mice “gaming” and up to a point everything was fine and dandy. That all changed with the introduction of “laser gaming mice”. Logitech released their G5/G7 and Razer released the Copperhead. These companies ventured forth and promised 2.000 DPI precision and a number of other benefits thanks to this new ‘fantastic’ laser technology. Many people followed the marketing call and bought these new gaming mice, which seemed to boast awesome technical specifications. The reality is that shortly after the market introduction of these laser mice we started receiving complaints via e-mail. Hundreds of e-mails. Then thousands of e-mails. For some of these products firmware updates eventually helped the mice reach a performance level where only experienced and advanced users could tell that the technology wasn’t on par with the old optical technology.
The problem with conventional laser mice
So what is the problem with laser? First of all, the laser technology was never developed for gaming to begin with. The technology was originally developed to improve tracking on glossy surfaces, on wooden surfaces (like desktops) and the marketing buzz was all about “more surfaces”. It’s a sad fact that even today many laser mice works awful on most of the plastic mouse pads on the market.
Another problem with today’s laser mice is that they function using image correlation. Meaning that the sensor snaps pictures of the surface, then compares these pictures to determine the movement of the mouse. If the user performs an “advanced movement”, which can include sudden deceleration, mouse movements at a certain angle or something else weird, that couldn’t be programmed into the robotic testing machines, the mouse will either stall or try to “guess” the intended movement. This is not what we consider “gaming grade”. A gamer requires precision and accuracy from his gaming gear – not software that tries to predict and emulate his intended movements. If these “gaming laser mice” had been tested by professional gamers before their release, the test results would have clearly indicated that they weren’t suitable for high level gaming.
It is our mission, both as SteelSeries and individuals, to make products for professional gamers who demand (and expect) high quality. Other companies (not all though;)) have high standards as well, but fail miserably when it comes to actually testing their products. We distance ourselves from marketing hype, bullshit and useless specifications the same way as we distance ourselves putting features in a mouse that are beyond pointless or added just to for marketing purposes.
Our approach to gaming mice:
Feature: Drivers. A mouse driver generally allows a higher level of interacting between the mouse and the computer. In the driver all sorts of features can be switched on or off and various kinds of fine-tuning (like sensitivity) can take place.
Problem: Many mice utilize “advanced” functions that only work properly if the driver is actually installed. This is in particular a problem for professional gamers who often need to play on tournament computers, where installing/uninstalling drivers is time consuming and sometimes even technical impossible (due to closed systems).
Solution: Make the mouse driverless. The performance of the mouse is the same, no matter if the computer has a driver installed or not. Gamers can even program the macro features on the SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse from home – and use all functions on third party computers without installing software.
Feature: XXXX DPI for maximum precision/accuracy.
Problem: When a company mentions DPI in the same sentence as precision, or anything else regarding better tracking, it is simply bullshit. First of all the term DPI (Dots Per Inch) has nothing to do with mice. It’s an expression from the printing world and shouldn’t even be used to describe mouse movement. DPI is meant to describe the fact that for one inch of distance you move your mouse on any surface, the equivalent number of counts are sent to the PC - resulting in movement on your screen. The correct term for this is CPI (counts per inch). You can achieve higher CPI in many ways: By having a larger image, higher sampling rate, better light source quality, adding DSP (Digital Signal Processor) power and having the right algorithm (prediction). You can unfortunately also reach bloated CPI settings, by faking an increase through software in drivers, firmware or windows settings. Let’s say you make a movement of exactly one inch, from left to right, with your mouse. With a 400 CPI sensor your PC would receive exactly 400 counts, and would move 400 pixels (the smallest visible movement) to the right (assuming you haven’t touched any mouse speed settings in windows). Now we do exactly the same movement with a 3.200 CPI sensor. With one inch of movement we move 3.200 pixels on the screen. This has nothing to do with precision – but has something to do with speed of movement. Your cursor (or crosshair) moves faster with 3.200 CPI, but the precision of the sensor is exactly the same as neither sensor skips a pixel. There is only one situation where a higher CPI count makes sense: if the speed on the screen is too slow, you want to have a sensor that is capable of more CPI, as everything that goes beyond it has to be calculated by software and then you LOSE precision. As an example let’s say you double your windows sensitivity on the 400 CPI sensor mouse and make the one inch movement described above: now you just move 2 pixels at a time. You can try this easily for yourself by setting your windows mouse speed to the max and making movements. You will now notice pixel skipping. To summarize: High CPI settings does NOT equal ultimate precision. High CPI settings will not make you a better gamer – as evidenced by the fact that most professional Counter-Strike gamers use 400 to 800 CPI in games. CPI settings only marks the highest on-screen speed you can achieve, not the highest precision you can achieve. If you are using software to alter your movements you will lose precision.
Solution: If you’re a gamer precision and accuracy is vital, thus it is our belief that it’s much more important to have the exact right CPI setting for your personal usage pattern, than to have high inflated CPI settings. Our SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse uses a new technology – named SteelSeries ExactSens. SteelSeries ExactSens is a new unique mouse technology, which is very different from the normal CPI calculation utilized by standard image correlation based laser sensors. Most current laser mice can only set their true hardware “DPI“ in increments of 400 CPI without using software. The ExactSens technology in our sensor enables us to set the CPI (in the actual hardware) in increments of 1. So why is this important? If you examine today‘s mice for professional Counter-Strike gamers you will see that most mice use either 400 or 800 CPI. They use those specific values because they can’t choose anything in between without a driver, but being able to adjust the CPI settings would totally make sense. When other companies say “fine-tune your DPI” you would actually in most cases just double the speed you’re playing with, which is a really weird feature to offer to a gamer. If you only want it to be 10% faster than with your previous mouse you adjust the mouse to 440 CPI. 50% faster? 600 CPI is also possible. And the result you get by using this technology is much more precise than just adjusting sensitivity in Windows or in the game you’re playing. Note that the SteelSeries ExactSense technology is also capable of setting the CPI as low as 1. If we compare to other mice: The first laser mice that offered 2.000 CPI had 400CPI increments only (and that was also limited). You had a driverless function for tunable sensitivity, but in reality it only offered 4 settings: 400, 800, 1.600 and 2.000. By using the first two steps you would double your speed and the mouse would get insanely fast. Less than 400 CPI weren’t possible. Neither were steps in between those, without the use of software. If a SteelSeries ExactSense powered mouse has 2.000 CPI it will have an availability of 2.000 hardware based sensitivities. No less. Please note that CPI is not really a setting of precision on the surface itself. It is merely the resulting on-screen-speed of the movements you’re doing with your mouse. The 1-cpi increments enable you to SET the speed as exact as you want it. Today there is nothing more exact than the SteelSeries ExactSense technology. It is the defining tool to perfect your mouse speed preferences.
Feature: On-The-Fly CPI switching. Almost every mouse in the market have the ability to switch between different CPI settings. Many of them are saying that it’s “on-the-fly” used as a synonym for fast reaction.
Problem: We use the term Actions Per Minute (APM) when referring to gaming products and the inherent need for the user to do a high number of operations while gaming. Our object is to reduce reaction time for the user, no matter what commands he is issuing to his computer. With that in mind it doesn’t make sense to utilize any “on-the-fly” feature that requires 2 to 4 button presses to obtain the desired CPI. We very rarely see gamers using more than two different CPI settings in same game.
Solution: Our toggle feature simply allows the user to set 2 exact CPI settings and then toggle between them. This will increase the APM of the user (compared to a standard mouse) and help eliminate situations where a user accidently hits the wrong CPI-settings.
Feature: Works on more surfaces than optical. This was the biggest lie when laser mice for gaming was announced back in the day. “More surfaces” should have meant “more ridiculous surfaces” (seen from a gaming perspective).
Problem: Tons of gaming mouse pads, including our own, had serious problems with the mice. It’s not because the pads are bad, but because the conventional laser technology has very specific surface requirements. If you called tech support at one of the bigger mice companies, they would probably have told you that “you don’t even need to use a mouse pad with our new laser mouse”. Which was somewhat true – the laser was capable of sub-standard tracking on many surfaces. To gain precision and accuracy, you need a mouse pad that offers consistent performance. And it’s not just a question of precision, it’s also a question of comfort for anyone who uses their computer for hours at a time. Gamers do that. Having people buy a $100 USD gaming mouse, and not even recommend a mouse pad, is a tragedy. You compromise the performance of the mouse and you give your new customer a bad experience. It’s like buying a very expensive car and the dealer tells you that the tires don’t really matter.
Solution: The forthcoming SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse uses a drastically different approach, to eliminate the tracking problems found in conventional laser mice. We still use the laser as a tool to light up the surface area where we track information, but the comparison stops there. Our mouse utilizes a sampling rate of 40.000 samples per second (SPS), but our SteelSeries XY2 chipset is using an advanced technology where we only need 4 inputs, compared to the hundreds of inputs a conventional sensor requires to do image correlation. The SteelSeries XY2 processor can thus process a significantly larger amount of calculations than conventional laser mice. Furthermore the SteelSeries XY2 technology calculates the X and Y displacements independently which results in total flexibility and freedom for the user.
Feature: Prediction and correction of movement. Let’s say you’re trying to make a horizontal movement. Of course your hand isn’t 100% steady, so your line will have slight diversions and wouldn’t be completely straight. Back in the day, the manufacturers of mouse sensors decided to include a feature in the optical sensors of their mice, that would help people draw straight lines. It would “remove” the small diversions, if the diversion was less than a certain angle and instead just draw a perfectly straight line. The funny thing is: This feature has never been marketed, though it has been in countless mice over the past years. Can you guess why?
Problem: Prediction cost you precision. Period. If your mouse is trying to predict your movements, instead of just performing the movements you are actually doing, your precision is obviously degraded. If you want to make a movement that is almost, but not quite, a straight line (meaning you want to move a bit up and like half a screen to the right for example) then your movement will be altered. This function of sensors kicks in pretty fast and the worst part: in most sensors you can’t even disable it.
Solution: The introduction of SteelSeries FreeMove. This frees your movement from pre-calculated or altered movements imposed by your sensor. What basically happens is the following: As our sensor is programmable we let you remove (recommended), keep and even tune the settings of this particular feature. After conducting testing with gamers, it became painfully obvious that prediction should be optional. FreeMove allows the user to completely disable prediction– as well as utilize different degrees of prediction, as personal preference dictates. Again, this prediction “feature” has never been marketed, and we expect you will see several mouse companies remove the feature in the future now that we have brought attention to it. This will hopefully make future mice more precise for everyone.
Feature: Glowing lights/illumination. That stuff looks nice, really, but after about 5 minutes it gets old. And it gets old fast.
Problem: We make professional gaming gear or “sports equipment” for gamers to use another description. We don’t make toys. A large percentage of our customers are older than 15. Have you ever seen Tiger Woods with a golf club that glowed blue? Or Beckham with shoes that glowed green? No.
Solution: Don’t make it glow..
Feature: Weight systems. The weight of a product can give a feeling of quality. Weight in a gaming product is a preference. However most people highly favor a low weight mouse. And when we say “most people” we actually mean that not a single gamer we asked (out of thousands) felt that an adjustable weight system was anything but useless.
Problem: The heavier the mouse is, the more strain is put on your arm and especially on your wrist. The weight system itself is fundamentally flawed for serious gaming: even if you remove all weights that came with your killer gaming mice, the mouse will still be heavier than it should have been – simply because the built-in weight system itself adds weight to the mouse. The lower the weight is, the faster the reaction time can be. The lower the weight is, the more control the user has. Why would you want a weight system then?
Solution: Cut the crap.
SteelSeries Ikari
15 months of research and development went into the SteelSeries Ikari mice. 15 months where we looked at ergonomics, technology, shape, motion, hand grip and various play styles. From the very beginning our approach to this project was to develop gaming mice based on input and feedback from professional gamers. We did research and testing with our American partners in New York and Dallas. We did testing with our European partners in Sweden, Germany, France, United Kingdom and Denmark. We did testing and research in Korea and China.
The result is two gaming mice which feature the same chassis, but utilize very different technology. Proven (and optimized) optical technology in the SteelSeries Ikari Optical Mouse and groundbreaking new “gaming grade” technology in the SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse.
Best regards,
Kim, Jonas, Tino and Jacob
SteelSeries Development Team
September 13th, 2007 16:37
Again, you, SteelSeries showed the world that you make pro equipment. The way you develop them simply makes them the best products out there. The Ikari Optical Mouse promises a lot as I’m FPS gamer so I’ll wait till its release and test one.
September 13th, 2007 18:37
“Prediction and correction of movement”
How can we know if this feature is enabled in our mice? Is the mx518 concerned? the MIE 3.0?
Thanks for this article, made lots of things crystal clear for me!
September 13th, 2007 19:00
All I can say is: Thank You.
September 14th, 2007 00:15
[…] a vehement editorial at fragyou.net entitled “Don’t believe the hype – laser wasn’t meant for gaming (till now),” the […]
September 14th, 2007 00:51
[…] Processor) power and having the right algorithm (prediction)?.?[/quote] Here’s the full article: FragYou! ? Don’t believe the hype – laser wasn’t meant for gaming (till now). __________________ I Like Watercooling. D-Tek Fuzion, MCP655, […]
September 14th, 2007 08:04
Firstly, I don’t understand how your “professional” gaming company who have been creating mouse pads for the past few years can proclaim the stated “facts” on laser when companies like logitech have been doing gaming mice for years with multiple iterations, software updates to their sensor technology using their own internal R&D departments. A mousepad has very different technology from a mouse and dissing Logitech on this is like teaching your grandma to suck eggs.
As you stated - “It’s our belief and guideline that if professional gamers approves a concept, idea or product, our development of a product is heading in the right direction.” It scares me to think how much you might have paid to your ‘professional gamers’ to pull out such quotes in order to make the public believe your products are the real deal when it comes to such “groundbreaking new “gaming grade” technology” statements.
I’m sorry but I trust real technology from a real mouse company.
September 14th, 2007 09:26
We are not ”claiming” anything that is technically difficult to explain or difficult to research. Yes, a mouse is a different animal than a gaming surface. So is security software (anti-virus, firewall, remote backup systems) etc and we have security software for gamers on the market. Audio equipment seems to be somewhat different than mouse pads as well and yet we make USB soundcards, headphones, headsets and other audio products.
We have extensive knowledge about competitive gaming and the issues the top-performers encounter. Not because we are smarter than everyone else in the world, but because that is all we do. Our approach to product design is drastically different than other companies within the same space, simply because we focus so much on particular consumer group.
My suggestion is that you looking at what we say, instead of looking at what you think we know or do not know.
I am sure Logitech and other companies employ exceptionally talented people, but that doesn’t mean that they create products that cater to professional gamers. Their flagship gaming mouse G5 is actually used by less than 1% of all professional gamers in the CS and WC3 circuit. Being good at making products, or being good at making mass market products, is not the same as understanding (or catering to) professional gamers. Again, it’s a fairly small market. Companies can usually reach much higher volumes elsewhere.
September 14th, 2007 12:48
Nice debunking of these myths! I especially liked the part about the weight system.
Unfortunately I’m missing a few things I’d like to see in this article. I’m considering myself to be a demanding gamer regarding hardware, I might not be a pro, but I do certainly care a lot about my mouse. I would be glad if you could clarify a few things:
Maximum mouse speed (on the surface of the pad, not on screen) is what I’m missing the most. In earlier mice, this was quite an issue, maybe you remember the “negative acceleration” thing. Logitech for instance introduced things like 16bit data paths with the mx518 which increased the maximum physical mouse speed quite a lot.
Precision and all is great, but if the mouse can’t follow my movements simply because I’m moving too fast, frankly, it sucks. I have values in my mind of up to 3m/s, this is what an mx518, with the right cpi and usb polling frequency settings can achieve, i think. 3m/s is definetly enough!
Technology has evolved a lot, so max physical mouse speed might be high enough in any of todays mice, I don’t know about that for sure as I haven’t followed the developments.
Now, there’s one BIG point I’m missing in the article: the USB polling frequency. Back in the mx300/500 days, when it came up, it was VERY important (and still is today) to increase it to at least 500Hz. This is a driver issue, and the new Logitech drivers automatically set your polling frequency to 500Hz (125Hz is standard in windows). In some mice it not only nearly doubles the max physical mouse speed, but also improves the responsiveness and general feeling of the mouse a lot. What do you plan to do about this, as you don’t want us to install any drivers?
September 14th, 2007 15:08
I’ve been preaching high dpi is useless for years. It’s hard to convince people that get sucked up into the hype from Logitech, Microsoft and Saitek though.
One thing I do like about high dpi is the ability to whip around a turrent of a tank in a game like BF2/BF2142. For sniping, running around and shooting or even for RTS, it is not so handy. I’m glad SS is taking a fresh look at this whole gaming mouse thing. I’m looking forward to checking out these mice when they hit the store shelves.
Keep it up!
September 14th, 2007 16:04
STEELSERIES _IS_ GAMING! U ROCK! AND I HAVE ALL YOUR EQUIPMENT BECAUSE I TRUST U!
September 14th, 2007 17:17
Wow, Love this company.
Give us a release date xD
September 14th, 2007 20:17
Funny that you cleared out anything in this article but the most important thing about gaming mouses - their shape.
And i guess you already know that what makes the player aim better or worse is mainly how he holds the mouse which resultant by the shape of the mouse.
I have found the Intelli 3.0 shape to be the best i have used so far, so i really dont care that the DeathAdder I’m gonna get has some glowing lights or that razer are bullshitting me with their announcments as-long as i know this mouse will be comftirable for me and as long as i know that it’s gonna perform well on cloth surfaces.
Then despite how true this article is about everything it touches at, for me and for other gamers it all comes down to the shape ( considering the mouse dosent have any serious technical problems though, which laser mouses does have ), and i personally think that the Ikari looks too high and MX518/G5 inspired.
Most of the gamers just find’s flat mouses to be better then high ones, so all that information is almost irrelevant when looking at the shape of SteelSeries new mouse.
I’ts not bad ofcourse, but there are better, and if SteelSeries consider themselves as “Pro-Gamers company” they should have known it.
I would love to see a Intelli 3.0 shape mouse from SteelSeries in the future, but right now i cant stand looking at a mouse which is even slightly similair to the G5/MX518, that after using a DeathAdder.
September 14th, 2007 20:38
in reply to #7
Well its a weird fact, that your products most likely get worse reviews compared to those of the mainstream market companies. I speak about the headsets, mice, mousepads etc.
If you claim to understand so much about all that stuff and have such a great attitude, why I ask myself dont your products get the best marks and reviews then.
While saying that G5, which truly is Logitechs flagship atm (not anymore –> G9), is beeing used by less than 1% of progamers, would you tell use how many progamers use SS flagship mouse? Also would you tell us how many progamers use Logitech mice in whole? Well Im pretty sure the last one isnt as small as 1%, which shows us that Logitech understands alot about aiming progamers with their products too. While you claim youre the “only one who knows whats good for gamers”. I know u didnt say it exactly this way, but it sounds like that, which I think Stanley White also noticed and didnt agree with that.
I really like the article about all those senseless spec/feature marketing but putting yourself through this in the spotlight and making others look “not interesting” isnt the way a serious company acts like.
Cyouz
September 14th, 2007 23:28
Must say I am really looking forward to this product.
Impressive how you, contrary to other mouse-companies, actually care about developing a mouse that has the abilities the few pro players wants. Instead of useless features.
I have spent nearly 1.000$ on gaming mice, just the mice, and I’m not kidding.
But no matter what kind of mice I have used, I have always returned to my IME3.0 mice.
Nothing beats them, really. Well, perhaps your new product does.
So, you kind of need to make an agreement with Microsoft to use their 3.0 shape :)
September 15th, 2007 20:48
#13
Well he knows what gamers needs, because he has had a lot of pro gamers in to test their products, and who better to tell us whats best for competitive gaming, than the people who lives for it.
And the problem with many of the reviews of SS’ products is that the reviewer often don’t consider what the product is made for. Like SteelSound 5H, it’s made mainly for playing Counter-Strike, so when it gets a bad review because music don’t sounds so good, it’s not really SS’s fault.
And by what i have seen at many LAN-Events and read about, it’s actually pretty few of the professional CS gamers who uses a Logitech mouse. They often prefer an MS 3.0, 1.1 or 1.1 SE. Which is old models with optical sensors.
And it’s pretty stupid to ask how many who uses the SS mouse, because it has not been released yet.
September 16th, 2007 13:01
Im looking forward 2 the new product, but it will take a lot of good reviews before i change my deathadder.
Perhaps this new mouse it better than the other, but the design of the mouse is still important. So it might be the best mouse in the world for gaming if you look at the features, but if it dosent fit my hand nicely, I wont buy it.
But impress me Steelseries, and i will be like warm clay in your hands ;)
September 16th, 2007 14:41
#15
I have to agree on the reviews about the headset. So far its my only SS product, but it is brilliant for playing counter-strike. I’d recommend some DJ headphones for music listening like Sennheiser HD 25 or Pioneer HDJ-1000.
September 16th, 2007 17:39
I think u shouldve also introduced an ambidextrous design
September 16th, 2007 19:14
Nevermind. I’m stupid. An ambidextrous design is a bad idea.
September 16th, 2007 19:15
Btw, I’m a logitech fanboy.
September 17th, 2007 00:58
#13
I’ve never seen a SteelSeries (or IceMat) product receive a ‘worse’ review than a mainstream product. If you’re reading reviews from CNet or some other techno-junkie trash, you’re probably getting a review from somebody who spends more time surfing blogs than in game.
In my opinion, this article was a breath of fresh air. I’ve been waiting for a company to debunk the myths of ‘DPI’, weights, and laser technology. Anybody who has done an ounce of research knows that they are quite accurately ‘bullshit’. The added features such as hardware-based tuning have been lacking in current mouse technology for years. It obvious Logitech and Microsoft don’t care enough about gamers to fund some serious R&D like SteelSeries has.
I’d also like to recommend reading the ‘Optical Mouse Review’ by Richard L. Owens. ESReality has a wonderful, standardized mouse analysis called MouseScore 2007. I hope to see the Ikari at the top of the list in 2008 :D
September 18th, 2007 01:38
“Necessity, the mother of invention”, once again SteelSeries offers another logical product…that Ikari laser mouse. Wow,(installing/uninstalling drivers..tournament computers and multiplayer gaming centers, impossible:due to closed systems). Brilliant bypass, had to have been conceived by pro gamers! I truly see a changing of the guard.
“Let’s get it on!!!
September 18th, 2007 09:15
Great one SteelSeries =) My team and I cant wait to try out this mouse! Hopefully we can have good reasons to ditch our razer mice
September 19th, 2007 05:26
cant wait to try it out
September 19th, 2007 06:02
I’ve got a laser mouse, a Logitech MX 1000. It’s heavy and big, but perfectly suits my size and shape of hand and it’s wireless! I use it for gaming as well and it’s far higher quality than the majority of gaming mice I’ve tried, heh.
September 20th, 2007 05:45
I’m really interested in the Ikari, but there is a certain amount of irony here. Don’t believe the hype, but this blog entry sounds like hype to me >_>
At least all the specs are right. Optical, 500/1000hz polling, light, classic IE3.0 and MX500 based shapes. One last issue…
I currently use the Razer Diamondback because its main buttons are extremely sensitive. It requires much less pressure and has less travel distance than any Logitech or Microsoft mice (I’ve used them all). Will the Ikari use similiarly sensitive buttons?
September 23rd, 2007 12:39
Good job Steel. Rly looking forward 2 use u new mice.
September 24th, 2007 16:23
We’ll telling the people that all the established mice manufacturers are talking and building “bullshit” all the day is not a new marketing strategy to let own products appear stronger.
I won’t go too much into detail but I simply can’t believe that Steelseries has the financial power, engineering knowledge or simply the production possibilities to develop an own sensor or an own DSP.
Actually there are only a very few (!!) producers of high quality sensors world wide. From my experiences none of those companies will develop or even produce a customized sensor for “smaller” companies.
Why should they ? Their production has to be 100% under load - they simply don’t have any interest or timr in/for experiments. Have you ever heard that e.g. AMD has developped and/or built a customized cpu for a smaller company - no ..and for sensors and DSPs it’s the same.
In general you can install a good (and existing) sensor and DSP into a mouse and add a smart software (maybe implemented in hardware) but to call this a revolution or “big” invention will go too far - same like calling competitors “bullshit”.
Maybe Steel will do a lot of things better but i am really convinced that there won’t be a technical revolution. If I am wrong I will be the first purchasing such a mouse :-) If I am right Stell is taling the same “bullshit” like their competitors - which other people might call marketing :-)
September 24th, 2007 23:37
Great article, I think i’ll be replacing my G5 with one of your products ;)
I’ll miss the weights, though… being bred and raised on the farm i’m used to having something with a bit of excess weight in my hands when working so lighter objects lose precision for me. Guess I can glue some weights into the casing of course.
;)
October 1st, 2007 00:30
All mice interpolate (or “predict”) motion as you’ve stated in this article in order to maintain accurate acceleration speeds at higher movement speeds, so I’m interested in seeing the actual malfunction speed of these mice are without interpolation. Considering current optical mice begin to malfunction at around 2meter/second at 1000hz (400dpi) even with interpolation, I’m wondering what ground breaking system you’ve created to compensate for the loss, and I emphasize ground breaking as it will be the first ever in the industry.
If there is no compensation for the loss of interpolation I hope you do not release this mouse without realizing that the majority of people will be very unhappy with the clipping/pausing issues no interpolation will cause at certain acceleration speeds.
October 3rd, 2007 06:37
To Bob:
There are plenty of optical mice with malfunction speed higher than 4m/s. DeathAdder even has perfect control above 4.5m/s
October 3rd, 2007 13:22
Hehehehe, what a load of crap he writes there.. Full of technical errors, and strange arguments..
Trust the technology leaders in the field if you want true useful innovation.. Razer & Logitech..
The rest are just OEM immitators with fancy buzzwords..
October 5th, 2007 01:43
there is some serious blog scrutiny here, most negative posts are deleted/edited and they fakenick to contradict pure individual opinion
its ok when we buy ur stuff but u dont let us say what we think, in a blog of all places
nicely done
October 5th, 2007 09:38
I’m sorry lol (Mario) but your comments weren’t related to the article at all. If you want to flame users for “fakenicking” or god knows what why don’t you just go to the GotFrag forums and go full throttle?
October 9th, 2007 01:31
in reply to stanley white; yes there are numerous companies that have been making gaming-grade mice for years now. however please do look at any major lan event, what are the most common mice you see: optical, corded, lightweight (mx518, 1.1, 3.0, mso are the most common). is this because top players are “old school”? the fact is players change everything to improve all the time and these mice have stood the test of time. gamers dont need adjustable weight cartridges, 50 buttons, or anything useless like that. steelseries listens to gamers instead of making new useless products like microsoft and even logitech.
October 10th, 2007 02:09
Nathan
thats true for maxed dpi in the deathadder, and probably many other mice with high dpi, but at the same time their malfunction speeds are high due to interpolation as well as higher dpi. at 400dpi the deathadder has about a 2.1m/s failure point according to esreality’s mouse score. 2.1 is more than enough, but this includes interpolation. without interpolation the result could be quite a bit less. 2.1m/s may be more than enough, but at around 1.5 people will see problems when they flick their mice too quickly.
October 19th, 2007 00:29
http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1265679 Stanley White ought to read this. Some interesting things there.
October 22nd, 2007 00:17
wtvr
ambidextrous design could get razer diamondback ppl back
October 31st, 2007 05:32
Don’t know if you guys saw this – but it looks like Razer’s got the real stuff on sensor science here
http://blog.razerzone.com/2007/10/30/the-razer-3g-laser-technology-%e2%80%93-our-statement/
October 31st, 2007 07:31
The deathadder’s 3G sensor is perdiction free, tracks faster than anything out there, and isn’t some OEM POS.
Now the lachesis 3G laser trumps any 3200 second gen trash that logitech/microsoft/steel is using.
face it steel, you are just another marketing company peddling re branded OEM crap. how much does each one of your mice cost to make? $5? $10?
Greed is a terrible thing steel. You bring nothing new to the table, you guys are nothing but marketing hacks, and it makes me sad to see these people feeding at your slop dish like mindless idiots.
in short
3G optical > steel
3G laser > steel
you guys are hacks. get owned son.
November 2nd, 2007 20:16
You just don’t get it.
People SUCK at gaming because they react too quickly - it’s not mice that need to react quickly, it’s humans.
The mouse only has to be precise, movement speed is a personal preference to each user depending on how accurate their movement is toward their speed - their accuracy directly relates to their ability and speed of reaction.
Don’t feed me this bullshit to sell me some product I’ve never heard of. Also, it’s a boring looking mouse - shit name for it, too.
November 3rd, 2007 01:50
Boring is better. I would much rather have a plain black looking mouse than some Razer crap with glowing lights everywhere. To everyone complaining, why don’t you just wait and see how the mouse handles before bitching?
November 4th, 2007 08:40
lol #40 is a raged douchebag that doesn’t know about half the shit he says.
November 4th, 2007 18:08
hey,
first off, i like your company policy (no glow and stuff), but i have some questions regarding the not-so-technical aspects of your mouse.
1)
how much research went into the shape/formfactor ? is this a mouse that you rest your pawn on, like logitech mise, or is it a mouse that you hold “claw”-alike, like razer mise ?
2)
how much went into the mouse buttons ? i am currently using razer mise, and what i like about them are the very big and very sensitive buttons.
i’d gladly appreciate if you could answer theese two questions. i have the feeling razer is moving into a directory that i do not like, and i might very well switch to your company to get my gaming equipment.
thanks.
November 7th, 2007 00:12
Ive pre-ordered the Ikari optical mouse.I have been waiting for a company to show special attention to HARD CORE(or pro)gamers. Im a mouse freak I buy them all and they all promise DPI, and blah blah blah. YES they are all to heavy and i hate the damn GLOWING theres no need for that.I was also wondering about the materials used for the top of the mouse, is moist plams and fingers going to be a problem like all other so called gaming mice. Im waiting for my mouse to come in and trust SS for there product hands down. Maybe we can see a keyboard that has an LCD screen in the future.
November 7th, 2007 23:40
It won’t really matter that they aren’t producing their own sensors and even if it is likely to be OEM it won’t matter because the drivers are going to be what’s important. New hardware doesn’t always mean it’s going to be the best. If you look at Starcraft pro gamers a lot of them favor the older Logitech Mini Optical (not the new revision) and I’m sure the sensors used in those weren’t any more sophisticated than the ones people are making now.
I do have a couple questions about the Ikari mouse along with what others have asked though.
How heavy will it be?
It was mentioned that it was created to be very light, but the photos don’t make it look all that light.
How is the mouse scroll wheel like? Does it click as it rolls or is it fluid?
How is the construction quality and is it durable?
One of the reasons I chose a Sennheiser headset over the SteelSeries hedasets were because many of the reviews online about the SS headsets mentioned poor quality control with the wiring and very low durability due to cheap plastics.
#45 This may just be me but I wouldn’t want a keyboard with an LCD. I’d rather be watching my screen than the top of my keyboard.
November 13th, 2007 16:08
What is the weight of this mouse. Will it be the same as the G5 without any weights and the cartridge?
Or the same as the Copperhead which is way too light.
December 19th, 2007 19:35
Oh, and did not know about it. Thanks for the information …
December 20th, 2007 01:37
Hello,
I just read article sounds like nice explanation about technical aspects of mouse. Nothing about pooling rate that’s hot topic right now why isn’t it mentioned. But let’s say something about things that some people disagree:
1. Weight – lighter better ? hmm 0 weight mouse ? I am not sure if its going to work let’s add slippery surface and your aim worse than ever. Lowering weight to achieve lower Inertia sounds ok to me but lowering weight might reduce friction to much. You are giving choice of DPI settings that’s great but why not give to us players choice of friction between surface and mouse and inertia. Oh I guess that u are planning to make mouse pad with adjustable friction. Ridicules calling retarded (less flexibility) better. And ahh weight of weight system no way that this part is increasing overall mouse weight that significally.
2. Now about shape researches hmm maybe some more facts about how It looked. You have chosen most wide spread shape of mouse. Now look at new G9 shape different ? yes I guess they research department has spend a little more time on it. Don’t claim your is best I guarantee best wasn’t found yet. When some other company will find best shape I feel it that I am going to read article on your website how did u redefine best shape with your copycat mouse. And again u are giving flexibility what about shape get used to it or throw it ?.
Sorry for me it looks like rebranded oem products from china even if u developed software for microcontroller inside mouse and added some eeprom memory. Mouse sounds ok for steelseries. Keep on researches and asking players if they like it . But please don’t claim that u can produce better headphones then companies producing for mainstream market ehh let’s say sennheiser I bet it outperforms all of steelseries in same price range. Just years of experience and development u can’t skip that phase I hope u work with best mainstream market companies (not cheapest Chinese ones) to create finest products for players.
Greetings
Lipin
PS. Hmm sorry for my English alike language.
December 20th, 2007 01:38
Hello,
I just read article sounds like nice explanation about technical aspects of mouse. Nothing about pooling rate that’s hot topic right now why isn’t it mentioned. But let’s say something about things that some people disagree:
1. Weight – lighter better ? hmm 0 weight mouse ? I am not sure if its going to work let’s add slippery surface and your aim worse than ever. Lowering weight to achieve lower Inertia sounds ok to me but lowering weight might reduce friction to much. You are giving choice of DPI settings that’s great but why not give to us players choice of friction between surface and mouse and inertia. Oh I guess that u are planning to make mouse pad with adjustable friction. Ridicules calling retarded (less flexibility) better. And ahh weight of weight system no way that this part is increasing overall mouse weight that significally.
2. Now about shape researches hmm maybe some more facts about how It looked. You have chosen most wide spread shape of mouse. Now look at new G9 shape different ? yes I guess they research department has spend a little more time on it. Don’t claim your is best I guarantee best wasn’t found yet. When some other company will find best shape I feel it that I am going to read article on your website how did u redefine best shape with your copycat mouse. And again u are giving flexibility what about shape get used to it or throw it ?.
Sorry for me it looks like rebranded oem products from china even if u developed software for microcontroller inside mouse and added some eeprom memory. Mouse sounds ok for steelseries. Keep on researches and asking players if they like it . But please don’t claim that u can produce better headphones then companies producing for mainstream market ehh let’s say sennheiser I bet it outperforms all of steelseries in same price range. Just years of experience and development u can’t skip that phase I hope u work with best mainstream market companies (not cheapest Chinese ones) to create finest products for players.
December 25th, 2007 23:44
@50:
about the weight of the mouse… ofcourse it wont be 0 weight, thats impossible seeing as it isnt an empty shell of plastic, of course it will have weight to it. just not the unnessecary crap it seems.
about the shape of the mouse… certain people like certain shapes, but refusing to try to get used to it, well.. thats not the manufacturers fault.
about the headphones, yes sennheiser has very solid headsets, the thing with the 5Hv2 though is that theyre pretty much made specifically for counter-strike. the thing with producing for the mainstream market is that it isnt produced for specific groups of people, which usually means that its not the “best” for certain things.
whether the ikari lazer or 5Hv2s are the best or not, theyre certainly better than logitec’s mice or razer’s headsets which constantly break. fckin waste of money… but i have high hopes for steelseries products, their pads are great and i cant wait to get everything else in the mail :)
January 11th, 2008 08:52
oshit son! i just got my Ikari Laser and 5L pad in the mail about 2-3 days ago… long story short, its the best ive ever used. the weight of the mouse is perfect, the way it fits in your hand is so comfortable too. i had heard a few ppl say their hands were too big or shaped wrong or something so i was a bit worried at first since i didnt really have any chance to try it out before i ordered it, but i couldnt be happier. the CPI switching button and thumb macro buttons are placed very well, easy to press when you want to but youll never press them by accident. the mouse1 and mouse2 buttons are very easy to click, the first day i would accidentily hit mouse2 occasionally, but ive gotten used to it now on day 3.i still havent found my perfect CPI setting but my god is it easy to switch it, it takes about 5 seconds to set a completely new CPI setting.
all in all, this is the happiest ive ever been with a product ive bought since that LSD from 2 new years parties ago.
January 11th, 2008 10:14
oh yeah also, the material the mouse is made out of is so soft and comfortable, it feels like some… plastic rubber hybrid or something. its amazing. id rather rest my hand on the mouse than have it idle at the keyboard or anywhere else.
January 12th, 2008 13:03
i think i’ll buy this nice piece of mouse next to my mx518. i like the shape!
January 19th, 2008 13:24
i got the Ikari laser mous now.. and i think it’s too small and just wierd to hold on to..or more like hard to keep grap on when im lifting it from the mousepad… Sorry to say it but i think i try to sell it again.
January 28th, 2008 03:18
I’ve been playing with Ikari Optical for several days now and the mouse is a solid performer, but nothing exceptional compared to other gaming opticals (LEDs). Performance-wise Ikari Optical is on par with Razer Krait and Diamondback (2G) which is not bad at all. However, it doesn’t quite measure up to the Razer 3G optical trio (DeathAdder, Diamondback 3G, and Boomslang CE 2007). Overall, I’d say that Ikari Optical is a nice and solid LED mouse for FPS gamers. In the future revisions of this mouse, I’d consider some changes:
1. shell design — when holding the mouse the right side of the mouse is slipping when trying to quickly lift it … or my hand is not large enough. Also, slightly lower the hump on the left side of the mouse.
2. Put 3 switchable DPI/CPI settings instead of two. I read somewhere that you guys talked with many gamers and that they don’t ever use 3 in-game DPI settings — talk with more peeps. You want a rather low sens for, say, a sniper use, a bit higher DPI for general in-game use, and one high DPI when turning tanks, turrets and such things.
3. And the biggest one is fixing the lift distance. I’m sure I need to lift the mouse more than 5 mm on eXactMat (the control side) to discontinue the movement. Combine this with the “slick” right side of the mouse and I end up applying more force just not to drop the mouse when lifting it.
Anywho, good job, but plenty of room for improvements.
January 29th, 2008 18:59
Have a problem with my ikari laser mouse where it randomly hangs and I’m wondering if anyone else has had the same problem, if you do please let us know.
I have had it for a month and it worked perfectly fine up until now. I’m getting random hangs whilst playing, it got worse over time, now it does it so frequently that I can’t use the mouse at all.
I tested the mouse on my brothers computer and the same problem arises, I don’t think it’s a usb issue as I have all my usb drivers up to date, I even installed a program that sets your windows xp polling rate to 1000Hz which doesn’t fix it either. And like I said the mouse was working perfectly fine for a month and I have not installed anything that could have caused it to stop working properly.
So I think I have a faulty mouse, well I hope so, because besides the hanging problems, this is a brilliant mouse. In fact the best I have used to date.
The ikari laser in my opinion is the most comfortble and precise mouse I have ever used.
I am comparing it to very good mice that I have owned (Razer DeathAdder, Logitech G5 & G7, Razer Copperhead).
I have had no problems with skipping or negative acceleration, but that’s probably because I am a high/mid sensitivity player. I like to grip the mouse, with my index and middle finger bent up on the mouse1 and mouse2 buttons, think I’m considered as a claw grip user of mice. I am using the mouse on an Everglide Titan DKT mousepad.
The sensivity settings I use are:
- 6/11 windows sen
- windows enhanced precision off
- 3.0 ingame sen (CSS)
- 900 cpi mouse sen
- freemove set to zero (no prediction completely free movement)
The accuracy on this mouse is more precise than any other mouse I have used, in my opinion it beats the Razer DA through precision, the DA is no slouch btw, infact a good mouse.
It’s the mainly the FreeMove and the fact that you can customise your cpi in increments of 1, that does it for me.
With freemove you can feel the difference when aiming, that’s the main thing that annoyed me about the deathadder, it seems to have prediction turned on. So when I needed that little bit extra precision through very small movement of the mouse, the DA wouldn’t allow me to do those pixel perfect slight movements whilst aiming. This is why freemove on the ikari laser rocks, as it gives you more control of your aim compared with the DA. Also you can adjust the freemove so if you decide you want to choose the level of prediction you want you can do so, personally I prefer no prediction at all as I like to have full control of my aim.
The on the fly cpi changing is very useful as you can change your cpi settings in game without having to exit and load up the software/driver for the mouse. But the best feature is the fact the you can adjust your cpi in increments of ‘1′ so you can customise your cpi sensitivity to your exact preferrence.
The only real negative for me, besides the fact that my mouse died on me, is the side buttons. They are somewhat a little too small for my liking, I would have prefered them abit bigger, however I am demanding player.
Despite that, the side buttons are actually very good in terms of clicking, the click feels a lot better than my current mouse DA and seems to respond faster.
For mid/high sensitivity fps gamers I would highly recommend this mouse, however for low sensitivity gamers, due to what I have read about skipping and negative acceleration, I would suggest trying out the mouse first or buy it to test it and return it if you don’t like it. If not go for the opitcal version, but I have heard about lift-off problems, but perhaps that can be reduced depending on the mousepad you use the mouse on.
I have only just sent mine back for a replacement, because the site I bought mine from had none in stock and told me to avoid a long wait, return it when they get the ikari’s back in stock which is this week :D
I hope that what I have written is helpful for those considering buying the ikari laser. I am not stating this mouse will be perfect for everyone, as it will come down to personal preference as different people use different sensitivity settings and hold their mice in different ways. But for me this mouse is almost flawless.
January 29th, 2008 19:00
random hangs
I have problem with the ikari laser mouse and I’m wondering if anyone else has had the same problem, if you do please let us know.
I have had it for a month and it worked perfectly fine up until now. I’m getting random hangs whilst playing, it got worse over time, now it does it so frequently that I can’t use the mouse at all.
I tested the mouse on my brothers computer and the same problem arises, I don’t think it’s a usb issue as I have all my usb drivers up to date, I even installed a program that sets your windows xp polling rate to 1000Hz which doesn’t fix it either. And like I said the mouse was working perfectly fine for a month and I have not installed anything that could have caused it to stop working properly.
So I think I have a faulty mouse, well I hope so, because besides the hanging problems, this is a brilliant mouse. In fact the best I have used to date.
The ikari laser in my opinion is the most comfortble and precise mouse I have ever used.
I am comparing it to very good mice that I have owned (Razer DeathAdder, Logitech G5 & G7, Razer Copperhead).
I have had no problems with skipping or negative acceleration, but that’s probably because I am a high/mid sensitivity player. I like to grip the mouse, with my index and middle finger bent up on the mouse1 and mouse2 buttons, think I’m considered as a claw grip user of mice. I am using the mouse on an Everglide Titan DKT mousepad.
The sensivity settings I use are:
- 6/11 windows sen
- windows enhanced precision off
- 3.0 ingame sen (CSS)
- 900 cpi mouse sen
- freemove set to zero (no prediction completely free movement)
The accuracy on this mouse is more precise than any other mouse I have used, in my opinion it beats the Razer DA through precision, the DA is no slouch btw, infact a good mouse.
It’s the mainly the FreeMove and the fact that you can customise your cpi in increments of 1, that does it for me.
With freemove you can feel the difference when aiming, that’s the main thing that annoyed me about the deathadder, it seems to have prediction turned on. So when I needed that little bit extra precision through very small movement of the mouse, the DA wouldn’t allow me to do those pixel perfect slight movements whilst aiming. This is why freemove on the ikari laser rocks, as it gives you more control of your aim compared with the DA. Also you can adjust the freemove so if you decide you want to choose the level of prediction you want you can do so, personally I prefer no prediction at all as I like to have full control of my aim.
The on the fly cpi changing is very useful as you can change your cpi settings in game without having to exit and load up the software/driver for the mouse. But the best feature is the fact the you can adjust your cpi in increments of ‘1′ so you can customise your cpi sensitivity to your exact preferrence.
The only real negative for me, besides the fact that my mouse died on me, is the side buttons. They are somewhat a little too small for my liking, I would have prefered them abit bigger, however I am demanding player.
Despite that, the side buttons are actually very good in terms of clicking, the click feels a lot better than my current mouse DA and seems to respond faster.
For mid/high sensitivity fps gamers I would highly recommend this mouse, however for low sensitivity gamers, due to what I have read about skipping and negative acceleration, I would suggest trying out the mouse first or buy it to test it and return it if you don’t like it. If not go for the opitcal version, but I have heard about lift-off problems, but perhaps that can be reduced depending on the mousepad you use the mouse on.
I have only just sent mine back for a replacement, because the site I bought mine from had none in stock and told me to avoid a long wait, return it when they get the ikari’s back in stock which is this week :D
I hope that what I have written is helpful for those considering buying the ikari laser. I am not stating this mouse will be perfect for everyone, as it will come down to personal preference as different people use different sensitivity settings and hold their mice in different ways. But for me this mouse is almost flawless.
March 10th, 2008 07:10
[…] noticed it? The first time a lot of people ever heard of it was when reading your blog post on fragyou. So if people have been performing rather well with corrections, is it something that is really […]
April 30th, 2008 00:32
a very facinating read and just your critism of the “DPI War” is probabally enough to sell this to me.
It was close one for me being tempted by the Lachesis’s 7 “Hyperesponse” buttons because I really do like loadz of buttons and to not have to offload things like the COD 4 melee on things like my ALT key. My opinion is that anything movement should be on the keyboard, anything fire on the mouse.
With COD 4 you really want fire, zoom, melee, grenade, special grenade all on the mouse imo. It seems to me that unfortunatly, unlike my ancient MX300, I cannot have a special grenade button under my wheel (frag grenade). This made logical sense.
Am I just being anal here? I dunno, I think I will take the plunge anyway.
November 7th, 2008 08:54
[…] ? @cool_chap :- gr8 article you suggested. For those who are interested , please go through FragYou! ? Don’t believe the hype – laser wasn’t meant for gaming (till now). really a nice read.. […]
November 7th, 2008 17:40
[…] @cool_chap :- gr8 article you suggested. For those who are interested , please go through FragYou! ? Don’t believe the hype – laser wasn’t meant for gaming (till now). really a nice read.. Thanx You can find almost all these articles on Vstreet also [ though […]
November 8th, 2008 12:49
the first batches of ikari optical mouses suck…and ikari knows it…cuz the mouse just completely turns off randomly…this problem has been reported all over.and happens to my mouse as well.do some googling and u will know about it.my copperhead was much better and smoother than this ikari shit optical
December 23rd, 2008 02:38
well, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)
December 26th, 2008 18:38
znmavpoapkulztwqwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)
January 3rd, 2009 10:46
udzubgbdrvggdqnbwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)