What's the best surface for an optical mouse?
 

I use to have a mouse pad with my old ball mouse, but with the new opti, I found that in FPS games the pad tends to screw up the light, and make my aimer wiggle. So I got rid of the pad, and put it on the wood underneath. Is there any bad side effects to this, and if there is, what mouse pad (texture wise) would you recommend?

Nah - I game with my cheapo Pine optical on the desk all the time. Wouldn't worry about it.

IIRC optical mice prefer something with a regular fairly large pattern and as little shine as possible. Hard is good too (hur hur)

I use an ancent old mouse mat with bubbles on it. Works great.

I'm using my sofa right now, since we don't have a coffee table yet (I'm on a laptop). I used to use my bed. Before that a wooden table. Point is I don't think it matters... except for anything with glass.

Alright, that's good. I'd hate to think I was damage this precious, 35 dollar thing.

i bought a big piece of graph paper and had it laminated at kinko's. the mouse really likes that pattern, like manalone was saying.

What Manalone said. A broken pattern that doesn't reflect. The arm of my chair, my pant leg, the oak desktop.

Time to donate to the forum. I did it once before, gonna do it again. Ya'll do the same.

I just donated for the first time. Everyone who uses this site should do so as well!! this shiz ain't free!!!:hmm:

I invested 19$ (Yeah I know a bit expensive) for a fUnc pad about 8 months ago, it's still workin great, never skips, and is still the #1 mousepad for most every FPS game. http://www.fUnc.net there's also dkt pads, supermats, and steelpad's which also work well (I've tried all but dkt), but I still prefer my fUnc.

EDIT*

Here's a fUnc
http://www.octools.com/articles/everglide/func.jpg

Here's the Steelpad (Looks small, same size as func's surface)
http://www.fedespil.dk/artikler/stee...ad3s_large.JPG

Here's the dkt pad, slightly bigger than the func/sp by about 2"x2.5"
https://www.everglide.com/images/pro...20Pad55432.jpg

Ive seen optical mice mess up on printed repetitive (wood) patterns.. like that crappy woodgrain they glue on.

I just use a regular cloth mousepad. It does jitter at certian spots (so does my mousewheel), but i just tap it and it goes away.

I like to use my jeans when I'm using a laptop =P

anything flat, clean, smooth, and not white. now im just using a big piec of cardboard, pending a free mouse pad from someone

A good make it yourself mousepad is to grab a cheap hardback binder at office depot (or wherever), and just cut one of the folds off, I used that before I spent any serious money.

im useing the matters of my bed, works great

I've found that any flat non-reflective surface works great. I had a mousepad that had dents in it - the cursor would freak out every time the sensor ran over the dents in the mousepad.

I'm currently using my good ol' Max Payne mousepad with my optical explorer mouse. Never had any problems.

I'm using an old math binder. As long as you don't use it on glass, you should be okay.

i heard that a cutting board works great. one of those white ones with the bumpy surface. never tried it though

I've heard good things about RatPadz, you might want to take a look at them. http://www.ratpadz.com/

i have one of those.
i'm using the orginial right now. it's quite amazing.
i heard that a new version (ratpadz gt?) is coming out or is out and that it sucks compared with the orginal.

Any non reflective surface shold work great. My Cordless Mouseman Optical works on a variety of surfaces. 3M does make a "Precise Mousing Surface" for optical mice that you might wanna check out.

I am using a piece of carpet. It works better than you would think. Its not a thick piece because that would cause problems.

I use a generic mousepad colored black. It works perfectly with my mouse and it has no problems with that kind of surface.

I tried using it on a GameCube case,
but the pointer skipped all over the place.
Now I use my old black cloth pad.
Isn't that rad?
;)

As long as the surface is non-reflective, and textured--but not *too* textured, it should work fine. I use mine on my desk without a pad and it works without a hitch.

A good practicale joke for someone using an optical mouse is to find a red mouse pad. It confuses the mouse and keeps it from working right, if it works at all. It is very funny to do to those who dont know much about computers.