Quote:
Originally Posted by
78@pwnt4lif3 
It was late at night for me too and i haven't slept for hours too due to reformatting. Just like him i didn't remember posting this either lol. So sorry lol. And yes i want that mouse too!
It's no problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
resis
Why do lasers perform worse on cloth?
Technically speaking, we should discern as laser sensors in two main groups :
- VCSEL
Avago's technology which involves casting a laser so it goes into an almost vertical direction respect the mouse, only for a CMOS sensor to pick the reflexed light from the surface for analysis and processment.
Due to the nature of the vertical alignment and the reduced area the reflected light is being picked up from, the CMOS sensor would have it much easier to pick differences from very uniform surfaces (just not on perfectly flat and clean surfaces like polished steel or reflective materials), at least that they are uniform on the area the laser lights up.
How does it get affected by mousepads?
- Cloth mousepads : They usually contain some sort of weave or porous paint, so the laser light will get pumped into an uneven surface, so the sensor will pick less information since it can't properly interprete the areas where light bouncing back up (most of the laser light will still reflect somewhat vertically, but it won't be on the intended angle, further confusing the sensor/firmware), and whenever you move the mouse/sensor, you will create a new pattern for the sensor to pick up, with new uneven reflections, so it will have to interprete the data from the average perpendicular angle the light is being cast/recieved (which means parallel to the mouse base).
Down to basics, the sensor will be recieveing less "trustworthy" data from the surface, hence "reading" less data, and as such cursor quality should be equal or less than on a more even surface, and max tracking speed should be equal or less to another more even surface.
- Hard mousepads :
Rough ones (with relatively high grooves), usually plastic : Usually the grooves have a pattern, so the sensor has no problem to read a number of points of the surface and then identifying the patterns and processing the movement (think of it as having topographic points of the surface, those where the differential is zero aka they are parallel with the base of the mouse), since as long as it picks the patterns correctly (potential firmware issue), tracking quality will be the best the sensor can give.
Smooth ones (very very flat), usually polished aluminium : While the other two options might make it feel that this surface should be ideal to the sensor, that's far from true. It's too flat for the sensor to pick enough information, and since it's very smooth, there are no real patterns to be checked, so the maximum perfect control speed is decreased and tracking quality can be affected (doesn't automatically go nuts, depends on sensor implementation/surface).
- PTE
Phillips Twin Eye technology, involving one laser emitter and sensor per axis, it gets the movement data from light's doppler effect (which effectively should mean that on certain surfaces the only limit to maximum perfect control speed is the MCU processing power
You might check their
webpage if interested). It also casts the laser vertically, and expects to recieve it the same way, however this time the sensor needs far less widely emitted light to identify movement, so that would make it more sensitive to uneven surfaces.
How does it react to different surfaces?
- Cloth mousepads :
A very small area is lit by the laser, expecting refraction. Since it is smaller, it is more sensitive to surface irregularities, so it can suffer a bit on cloth mousepads, specially if the weave is easily noticeable (it can jitter and/or move by itself if the weave is rough enough). On tight weave or on (well) painted cloth surfaces it might perform close to optimal though, depending on the surface porosity.
- Hard mousepads :
Rough ones (with grooves), usually plastic : Very small laser projection and spaced grooves will be hell on that sensor, you will notice some "oily" or "soapy" tracking, as it won't be able to keep up with all the weird info it recieves (might even jitter). If the grooves are tighter together, it might move a bit on it's own sometimes, but performance should be better.
Smooth ones (very smooth), usually polished aluminium : They are a dream come true for this sensor, as they are very flat so there won't be any inconsistencies with tracking, tracking quality will be huge and maximum perfect control speed will be great aswell.
I hope I've answered your question
