Editing Computer mouse (section)

=== First-person shooters ===
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2012}}

[[First-person shooter|FPSs]] naturally lend themselves to separate and simultaneous control of the player's movement and aim, and on computers this has traditionally been achieved with a combination of keyboard and mouse. Players use the X-axis of the mouse for looking (or turning) left and right, and the Y-axis for looking up and down; the keyboard is used for movement and supplemental inputs.

Many shooting genre players prefer a mouse over a [[gamepad]] [[analog stick]] because the wide range of motion offered by a mouse allows for faster and more varied control. Although an analog stick allows the player more granular control, it is poor for certain movements, as the player's input is relayed based on a vector of both the stick's direction and magnitude. Thus, a small but fast movement (known as "flick-shotting") using a gamepad requires the player to quickly move the stick from its rest position to the edge and back again in quick succession, a difficult maneuver. In addition the stick also has a finite magnitude; if the player is currently using the stick to move at a non-zero velocity their ability to increase the rate of movement of the camera is further limited based on the position their displaced stick was already at before executing the maneuver. The effect of this is that a mouse is well suited not only to small, precise movements but also to large, quick movements and immediate, responsive movements; all of which are important in shooter gaming.<ref name="gi2006">Chris Klochek and I. Scott MacKenzie (2006). ''[http://www.yorku.ca/mack/GI2006.pdf Performance measures of game controllers in a three-dimensional environment]''. Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2006. pp. 73–79. Canadian Information Processing Society. {{ISBN|1-56881-308-2}}</ref> This advantage also extends in varying degrees to similar game styles such as [[third-person shooter]]s.

Some incorrectly [[porting|ported]] games or [[game engine]]s have acceleration and interpolation curves which unintentionally produce excessive, irregular, or even negative acceleration when used with a mouse instead of their native platform's non-mouse default input device.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Depending on how deeply hardcoded this misbehavior is, internal user patches or external 3rd-party software may be able to fix it. Individual [[game engine]]s will also have their own sensitivities.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} This often restricts one from taking a game's existing sensitivity, transferring it to another, and acquiring the same 360 rotational measurements. A sensitivity converter is the preferred tool that FPS gamers use to translate correctly the rotational movements between different mice and between different games. Calculating the conversion values manually is also possible but it is more time-consuming and requires performing complex mathematical calculations, while using a sensitivity converter is a lot faster and easier for gamers.<ref>{{cite web |date=2024-04-10 |title=Sensitivity Converter & Calculator – 3D Aim Trainer |url=https://www.3daimtrainer.com/mouse-sensitivity-converter/ |website=3DAimTrainer}}</ref>

Due to their similarity to the [[WIMP (computing)|WIMP]] [[desktop metaphor]] interface for which mice were originally designed, and to their own [[tabletop game]] origins, computer [[strategy video game|strategy games]] are most commonly played with mice. In particular, [[real-time strategy]] and [[multiplayer online battle arena|MOBA]] games usually require the use of a mouse.

The left button usually controls primary fire. If the game supports multiple fire modes, the right button often provides secondary fire from the selected weapon. Games with only a single fire mode will generally map secondary fire to ''[[ADS (video gaming)|aim down the weapon sights]]''. In some games, the right button may also invoke accessories for a particular weapon, such as allowing access to the scope of a sniper rifle or allowing the mounting of a bayonet or silencer.

Players can use a scroll wheel for changing weapons (or for controlling scope-zoom magnification, in older games). On most first person shooter games, programming may also assign more functions to additional buttons on mice with more than three controls. A keyboard usually controls movement (for example, [[WASD keys|WASD]] for moving forward, left, backward, and right, respectively) and other functions such as changing posture. Since the mouse serves for aiming, a mouse that tracks movement accurately and with less lag (latency) will give a player an advantage over players with less accurate or slower mice. In some cases the right mouse button may be used to move the player forward, either in lieu of, or in conjunction with the typical WASD configuration.

Many games provide players with the option of mapping their own choice of a key or button to a certain control. An early technique of players, [[circle strafing]], saw a player continuously strafing while aiming and shooting at an opponent by walking in circle around the opponent with the opponent at the center of the circle. Players could achieve this by holding down a key for strafing while continuously aiming the mouse toward the opponent.

Games using mice for input are so popular that many manufacturers make mice specifically for gaming. Such mice may feature adjustable weights, high-resolution optical or laser components, additional buttons, ergonomic shape, and other features such as adjustable [[#Mouse speed|CPI]]. [[Mouse Bungee]]s are typically used with gaming mice because it eliminates the annoyance of the cable.

Many games, such as first- or third-person shooters, have a setting named "invert mouse" or similar (not to be confused with "button inversion", sometimes performed by [[handedness|left-handed]] users) which allows the user to look downward by moving the mouse forward and upward by moving the mouse backward (the opposite of non-inverted movement). This control system resembles that of aircraft control sticks, where pulling back causes pitch up and pushing forward causes pitch down; computer [[joystick]]s also typically emulate this control-configuration.

After [[id Software]]'s commercial hit of ''[[Doom (1993 video game)|Doom]]'', which did not support vertical aiming, competitor [[Bungie]]'s ''[[Marathon (video game)|Marathon]]'' became the first first-person shooter to support using the mouse to aim up and down.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-use-of-freelook-in-a-fps |title=First Use of Freelook in a FPS |publisher=[[Guinness World Records]] |access-date=2015-10-17}}</ref> Games using the [[Build engine]] had an option to invert the Y-axis. The "invert" feature actually made the mouse behave in a manner that users {{As of|2006|alt=now}} regard as non-inverted (by default, moving mouse forward resulted in looking down). Soon after, id Software released ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]'', which introduced the invert feature as users {{As of|2007|alt=now}} know it.