Windows 7 (x64) - Increase Mouse Polling Rate (anyone done it?)

[kronic24601]

Ok I have read the Wiki on the polling rate issues, and I have read a number of other misc forums where it supposedly works on Vista and the Dev builds of Windows 7 ... but for the life of me I cannot seem to get this to work on my machine.

Has ANYONE actually successfully increased their mouse polling rate using Windows 7 (x64) (in a full retail version)?

If so, please post your steps or link to guide please 

[AndyWarne]

What device are you wanting to increase the polling rate of?

Unless its a low-speed USB device it will not use the Windows polling rate, it will use the polling rate specified by the device.

Andy

[kronic24601]

Pretty much just my spinners ... I was under the impression that increasing the polling rate allowd them to be more accurate (more like the real game) and less jittery.

[RandyT]

Pretty much just my spinners ... I was under the impression that increasing the polling rate allowd them to be more accurate (more like the real game) and less jittery.

Please define "jittery".

The poll rate primarily helps backspin issues, which you just won't see on your spinner (I see that you have a TT2).  All TT2's manufactured in about the last year and a half include very effective code in the firmware which removes any possibility of a backspin issue, so increasing the poll rate is extremely likely not to make any difference in your gameplay at all.

FWIW, I just read the Wiki on the subject and it's poorly worded at best.  First, the importance of higher than standard polling rates are overstated.  Second, the 100hz example is not apt.  The standard OS poll rate under later Windows versions is 8ms.  That's a poll rate of 125 times per second, not 100.  If the game has a 60hz poll rate, that means the OS can provide greater than 2x oversampling of the control.  In other words, the OS has polled the control at least twice, every time the game looks for the information, and it will never fall below that.  Now couple that with the fact that a high resolution spinner is sampling much faster internally than it is reporting and it's quite plain to see that there's more than enough information for perfectly smooth, and accurate gaming.  The problems come in when the internal sampling shows a change of more than 255 spinner positions in an 8 ms time frame (1/125th of a second.)  This can result in "backspin" unless there is code to prevent a rollover from occurring.  It should also be noted that there is no game in existence which requires a user to move the spinner over 255 positions in 1/125th of second, so even the "backspin" issue is purely cosmetic in this application. 

But back to your comment....If the control seems "touchy", it sounds like you need to adjust the sensitivity (in MAME) to suit the game you are playing and the size of the knob on the spinner.  To approximate the same feel, smaller knobs than the original title used will require a little less sensitivity than the numbers used by the original control will indicate.  Likewise, larger than original spinner knobs will need a small increase in sensitivity based on those numbers.

RandyT

[Frigo]

Really, that was interesting. 

[kronic24601]

@ RandyT

Thanks for the comment, I personally haven't played a lot of the older games in their actual setting, but I was reading that Wiki on the subject and it implied that things are more "accurate" with a higher poll rate. I guess this may not be the case. Thanks for letting me know. The "jittery" I mentioned was related to a poor performance in arkanoid, I didn't really mess with the MAME settings, because (as I mentioned above) I assumed this was the fault of the polling rate.

I'd test out the MAME settings and let you know if I have problems.

Thanks so much!

[RandyT]

@ RandyT

Thanks for the comment, I personally haven't played a lot of the older games in their actual setting, but I was reading that Wiki on the subject and it implied that things are more "accurate" with a higher poll rate. I guess this may not be the case. Thanks for letting me know. The "jittery" I mentioned was related to a poor performance in arkanoid, I didn't really mess with the MAME settings, because (as I mentioned above) I assumed this was the fault of the polling rate.

I'd test out the MAME settings and let you know if I have problems.

Thanks so much!

Heh.  If you haven't adjusted it, the sensitivity is much too high and that's the cause of the "twitchy" movement.  Try setting the sensitivity down to 40 and go from there.

RandyT