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Sandio 3D Game O' Mouse
Testing
Software The software is different when compared to most other mousing software. While it does offer preloaded profiles, as well as the ability to create new or edit existing profiles, it lacks the ability to automatically switch to the appropriate profile when launching the game. You have to go to the icon in the system tray and, from there, select the profile you want. Then the driver launches a separate application that apparently does the translation of the mouse button and HAT inputs to the keyboard/mouse inputs. Once you're done, you need to close the application,otherwise, the mouse's inputs will continue to be translated into key presses and mouse events. The first page of the driver shows the list of profiles and, when you click on one, you can activate, edit, or delete it. If you click on "edit," you're taken to a second tab and can then click on a field that has the command to execute when the HAT is pressed. The third tab also has more input controls, called Two Finger Touch, which allow you to access another set of commands by using the two HATs on the sides of the mouse at the same time. The final page shows the current DPI of the mouse.     Windows Usage At first when I plugged the mouse in, it was everywhere. The smallest movement of the device would cause the pointer to fly across the screen. This was only an occasional problem, however; I've only had the pointer's acceleration change on me a few times in two weeks of use. I first tested the mouse out with Google Earth. While I didn't like the way the buttons were set up by the driver (the pan controls were spread out between two HATs, along with the controls to rotate around), the mouse did perform the functions as needed. There were no issues with the mouse buttons, scroll wheel, or HATs registering inputs. In-game Usage I used Doom 3 to test the mouse's ability to operate in a FPS. The biggest difficulty I found was trying to use multiple HATs simultaneously. Walking through a hall and trying to scroll through weapons or use the multiple-input technology the mouse has was... interesting. The buttons responded well to repeated inputs, and the scroll wheel didn't glide too easily (so didn't scroll past my intended result). While I am no expert gamer (in fact, far from it; I can't play FPS competitively at all - I'm always at the bottom of the list), I was able to play the game in single player mode with moderate success. I wouldn't describe this as the most precise mouse ever, but it did seem better than my regular MS Intellimouse Optical mouse. The biggest issue with the mouse was the weight the built-in wrist rest added, in addition to the down force of your wrist if you do use the wrist rest. Games that are more 2D oriented, like Warcraft III (which is 3D but you usually operate in a top-down view), can benefit from the HAT switches by assigning keystrokes to them and using the HAT instead of the keyboard. One particularly useful combination I found was to assign the left HAT switch to groups, so I could access four groups rather quickly. Because I wasn't using the HAT as much in Warcraft III, I found the mouse generally easier to use with this game than with Doom 3.
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Add Comment
1 User Comment 1 - Posted by
willyharbs
on June 17, 2009 - 7:16 am this mouse looks great! is anyone selling them?? the sandio web page is lame, but the mouse is unmatched. oh someone in internet land please open such a gateway into cad 3d. and let me know. why would you need a space navigator if you have one of these o'mouse! Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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