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Benny Moore

The incremental aiming problem.

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When will the incremental aiming problem be addressed? The beta patch seems to have fixed a great deal of the aiming problem, smoothing out the mouse movement nicely. But the horizontal increments remain; it is impossible at high zoom levels to move the sights a single pixel in the horizontal plane. Rather, it jumps by several-pixel increments. This means that sometimes it is impossible to aim exactly at some distant targets.

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This has been addressed in 1.12b. At least to a very very large extent. It's much much smoother now and it doesnt jump pixels anymore. At least not that I have noticed.

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The default answer to this is that your thread could be regarded as criticism towards this game. The AI has no problems shooting you as a distant target so the flaw must be behind your keyboard, or, if you come from a "tactically advanced community" you haven't been planning that shot enought. Maybe you ought to buy one/several mouses to check you don't have hardware issues? This, what now is a feature to not attract inmature players used to faster games somehow, will anyhow be addressed in ArmA2...

(to anyone who is completely humorless, yepp, all above is what's called sarcasm...  nener.gif  )

Seriously, I don't think BIS has the time with that right now. With all right they are concentrating their efforts on ArmA2. Please moan if the issue returns in that release.

thumbs-up.gif

____

Fit in or f*ck off...the new approache

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What is your problem Abbe? You can stop with the flame baiting.

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Abbe, if you want to incite a riot and a flamewar, do it elsewhere.

+1WL, 48 hour vacation.

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This has been addressed in 1.12b. At least to a very very large extent. It's much much smoother now and it doesnt jump pixels anymore. At least not that I have noticed.

That's very good news. What is 1.12b, though? The latest patch I'm aware of is the 1.09 beta patch. I assume that 1.12b is an upcoming beta patch that hasn't yet been publicly released. Is it for Armed Assault or only Queen's Gambit?

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1.11 and 1.12 have been released since 1.09.  wink_o.gif Regardless of Queen's Gambit.

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Oh!

Well, I've tried it out, and the problem remains (though only at high mouse sensitivities). I took screenshots and measured the difference; the increment is about three pixels. So if you're far enough from the enemy that he is only two pixels wide (it happens), you can't aim directly at him. You can only aim beside him and hope that one of your bullets goes astray.

Incidentally, this problem is not present in the vertical, which is strange. In the vertical, it's quite possible to raise the sights a single pixel. It's only the horizontal which has these three-pixel increments.

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I just checked again using 1.12b and I don't have this problem.

From what i see mine moves the same up/down as it does side/side.

Logitech MX310 optical mouse, WinXp64

Weird I don't have the problem as I have pointer speed maxed in mouse properties, have you checked the "enhanced pointer precision" box?

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I can confirm that the problem is still there. Although it has been reduced to the point where I notice it only rarely.

I play with both x and y sensitivity set in the middle. In the ArmaAProfile:

mouseSensitivityX=1.100000;

mouseSensitivityY=1.100000;

It's very curious that it only affects x-axis movement... Even with y sensitivity set to maximum there is never an increment (at least not a noticeable one). This leads me to believe that x input is handled somehow differently than y input - and that this could be the root of the issue.

I know that at equal values the x-axis is more sensitive than the y-axis. It's possible that this is caused by some value that is added to the x input (The value seems to scale with increased sensitivity). This additional value is also what causes the increment by my guess.

If this is true, I would suggest removing the value, and just let the player set x sensitivity higher  than y in the options if needed.

1.12 introduced some kind of acceleration (pointer ballistics) so small movements are counted as slower, and thus the additional value is smaller and the increment less noticeable. However, I think if the issue above is addressed, it will remove the need for acceleration (Which a few have complained feels draggy), and x-movement will be as smooth as y. The only detriment being that players will have to readjust the x-y proportions to keep the old sensitivity feel.

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I believe it mainly affects the x-axis because its mainly used for driving rather than the y

Must be extra polling or something along those lines. You would think as x used for driving also would make it the smoother one out of both

Like I said I don't notice any incremental movement ( I was mainly using scope to test)

Is that where you notice it most? I do recall seeing it in earlier version however

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I believe it mainly affects the x-axis because its mainly used for driving rather than the y

Must be extra polling or something along those lines. You would think as x used for driving also would make it the smoother one out of both

Like I said I don't notice any incremental movement ( I was mainly using scope to test)

Is that where you notice it most? I do recall seeing it in earlier version however

The easiest way to demonstrate it is to look through the iron sights of an M16 while fully zoomed in, and try to align the front post with a very slim or distant object. Cranking up the mouse sensitivity in the options will exaggerate the effect.

With my regular settings the increment is almost equal to the width of the front sight post.

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As Sosna says, you must not only be looking through the M-16's iron sights but also be fully zoomed in (two seperate actions). Again, I measure the increments to be about three pixels at maximum mouse sensitivity (I do have mouse smoothing on from Windows Control Panel, by the way). I've tried three different mice. It's not the mouse; if the mouse simply wasn't sensitive enough, I would have this problem in Windows and in other games, but I don't. Also, the fact that it only affects the horizonal axis indicates that it's an Armed Assault-specific problem and not a mouse problem. Incidentally, I didn't have this problem with Operation Flashpoint or Resisitance.

To people who say that they don't have the problem, I think that you do but that you aren't aware of it. Try Sosna's suggestion of trying to align your iron sights, while zoomed in fully (not the default iron sights zoom), on a distant single-pixel-wide object such as the antenna on top of the airport control tower. Use maximum mouse sensitivity and you'll see the increments.

I just tested it with a HMMVW-mounted M2 fifty caliber machine gun. Since it's mounted, it is not affected by the one-pixel weapon sway. This enabled me to determine with two screenshots that the increment when fully zoomed in on the M2's iron sights is indeed three pixels at 1024 by 768 monitor resolution. It may be four pixels for other unscoped weapons which are able to zoom in further. Also, it may be twice as many pixels at twice the resolution. Since my monitor is incapable of higher resolutions, I am unable to test this.

Just as many players seem to be unaware of this problem, I suspect that Bohemia Interactive Studios is as well. The fact that they've been diligently fixing most or all of the other major bugs with patches but haven't addressed this one indicates to me that they're oblivious of its existence. I truly hope that someone in development takes note of this.

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I made a video of this bug for the BTS a while back:

. At YouTube's "super lo-fi"â„¢ resolution it doesn't look too bad, but the jump at ~1280*960 was about 6 pixels.

I can no longer reproduce it, but have a completely new PC (same mouse though) and obviously a later version of ArmA.

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Well, on close inspection and double checking the pixel jump has been reduced rather than removed. It's much lower now, but still sometimes noticable.

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So if you're far enough from the enemy that he is only two pixels wide (it happens), you can't aim directly at him.

I'd be very very impressed if you can spot a soldier when he's 2 pixels wide on the screen O_o.

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I often do. It's usually when it's a group of soldiers. But that's not the point anyway; the point is that the increments make aiming at distant targets difficult. In the case of this two-pixel wide soldier, it can be actually impossible to aim at him.

I just took this series of pictures in the game. Yes, that's an actual soldier in the middle of my gunsights. Try it yourself in the editor. The picture was taken looking from the base of the castle towards Mercalillo. Monitor resolution was 1024 by 768. Game version was 1.12.5252.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2091/armaaimingincrement1tv5.png

Here's a close-up.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4442/armaaimingincrement2cj7.png

Here's an even closer look, and I've added red dots to show the aiming increments that I measured with a pixel-wide antenna on top of a control tower.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8163/armaaimingincrement3ia4.png

And here I move the soldier to show that it can be literally impossible to aim directly at him. He can fit completely between the increments. In this situation have no choice but to shoot on either side of him and hope that some of my bullets don't go exactly where I'm aiming.

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/4244/armaaimingincrement4qq9.png

I hope very much that someone at Bohemia Interactive has taken note of this. If one of them were to simply post a single word in this thread, I would be enormously relieved just to know that they are aware of the problem's existence.

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I have absolutly no problems..

Display resolution 1280x1024

ArmAProfile: mouseSensitivityX=1.0; mouseSensitivityY=1.0;

Windows acceleretion ( aka Enhance pionter precision ) disabled. I have Logitech drivers installed and i change mouse dpi from 500 to 1500 by mouse buttons.

I tested with m16 with iron sights on full zoom. I was looking at 1-point object. I have no increment. I can move the ironsight with 1-pixel precision.

I hope you'll find your problem but IMO the problem is not inside the game.

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Does it make any difference how high the video settings are?

I have to run everything at "normal" or "low" with a low visible

range and my foresight movement is completely smooth (crap

Dell mouse on crap Dell PC, no fiddling with mouse parameters

attempted). I found its movement to be very coarse-grained

in earlier ArmA builds but now it is much finer. I can aim at

tiny objects quite easily.

"Suma", I recall, wrote about this issue in another thread on

this forum (I can't remember which, sorry )

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Benny Moore

Please do not hotlink images over 100kb.

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It could also be related to the fact that a good number of mice have a low polling rate and mediocre resolution.

Drove me crazy crazy_o.gif in many games, trying to snipe, "Noooope, a lil' to the left,,, Noooo, back right,,," etc.

So I ran out and got a Logitec G5 gaming mouse, lets me control the sensitivity as well as the polling rate. Not to mention it gives you 3 presets for sensitivity to configure sooo I've got mine set at fast (1600 / Very nice for flying choppers, driving cars), Medium (800 / Good for on foot and general aiming), Low (400 / Veeeery nice for sniping )

Also has a 4-way scroll wheel which lets you set L-R scroll as numpad - or + as well as 2 thumb buttons (Which are actually somewhat annoying as I use it Left-handed crazy_o.gif )

The Mouse has a nice feel to it in general and also has a cartridge that lets you add small weights (included) to better balance it to your prefrence.

The only real drawback is that it costs about $60 USD, but in light of what some are dropping on RAM and Video cards for their gaming boxes, it's tiny taters.

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This issue is not related to hardware, nor is it related to the Windows mouse settings.

It only seems to affect the x-axis. Y-axis movement is perfectly smooth, with pixel or sub-pixel movement.

The increment is not instantaneous. It moves smoothly, and is almost imperceptible - the problem is that it does not allow the player to aim exactly where desired. The player is forced between a certain number of pixels, the higher the sensitivity, the larger the increment.

Very small horizontal mouse movements are ignored - until a certain point when the point of aim smoothly jumps the increment.

To you guys who say you do not experience it, I would suggest testing again with the following conditions:

-mouse sensitivity at maximum in ArmA options

-no floating zone (makes it easier to notice)

-prone (to reduce distracting sway)

-M16, iron sights, fully zoomed in

Aim at a distant/thin object (antenna, tree trunk, etc.) something no thicker than the m16's front post. Now make very gentle left-right movements (no wider than the front post), try to align the front post with the thin object(s). Compare horizontal movement with vertical.

If you really don't experience the issue I'd like to see a video with the above conditions, because then it could be a hardware/OS issue. I highly highly doubt it though. I'm almost certain it's related to the fact that x movement is faster than y at equal values.

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