During our 15-year quest to make the perfect gaming mouse, a true 1 to 1 tracking sensor has been the holy grail. From our engineering studios to PixArt’s labs; from our geniuses to Evil Geniuses, we’ve worked to define and perfect 1 to 1 tracking.
What is 1 to 1 tracking?
Simply put, it means that your mouse movement is matched exactly with movement on-screen, regardless of CPI setting.
This is extremely important when developing muscle memory needed for competitive gaming. Training your brain to instantly and unconsciously recall specific muscle movements requires repetition of the exact same movements with consistent results. Any unexpected variations in the results hurt muscle memory.
To achieve true 1 to 1 tracking, your mouse sensor must be free of imprecise movement, smoothing and angle snapping. If the sensor is inaccurately tracking. it could result in extra movement or less movement (the community calls it positive/negative acceleration). Smoothing - which is really a community created term for introducing processing and algorithms to cause delay - and angle-snapping, change your mouse movement to a more linear path. The three (“acceleration”, smoothing and angle snapping) together add up to imprecise and inconsistent movement, resulting in sensor latency and lag. Ergo, not true 1 to 1 tracking.
The Natives are Restless
You may have heard other brands talk about 1 to 1 tracking before (and even us in our older mice), or you may be one of the many who scoured forums to find the native CPI of your old gaming mouse. True 1 to 1 tracking isn’t “native” or limited to one CPI setting. That was like buying a new 4K TV that only lets you watch a single channel.
Every experienced competitive gamer has had to deal with sensors that can’t keep up with rapid, varied movement. Even with today's more modern sensors, which do not have issues of native vs non-native CPI's, movement beyond the sensor's IPS and gravitation force limits result in skipping, spinning out and total failure.
Unless you enjoy gaming on autopilot, your sensor shouldn’t assume your movement, and it shouldn’t introduce prediction algorithms that change your cursor movement and often result in latency, slowing down your reaction time.
True 1 to 1 tracking is the holy grail of gaming mice and if your sensor delivers it (even at any CPI), you have chosen wisely.
On August 1st, the quest will be complete.
