Hardware or software way to disable vertical axis on mouse for games? (Highly Technical regulars plz read...)

[CZroe]

*EDIT* Note to Highly Technical regulars: Please see 4th reply...

I can't belive that none of the so-called "gaming mice" out there support disabling the vertical axis. The IDEAL configurations for classics such as Doom, MDK, and many newer titles use the mouse for turning and the keys for movement. Most of these games do not support disabling the axis themselves, because they are console ports or are designed for a joystick. The problem arises when you turn while walking and the vertical axis (of course) moves a little. This interrupts the keys you were using and results in making you turn in place.
Is the PS2 layout simple enough to just cut a couple wires to disable the axis? If so, I plan on making a "mouse mod" to do this. There certainly does not seem to be any software for this (A "Sidewinder Profile" kind of method would be best, as would some kind of "Sidewinder Gaming Mouse" ), but if anybody knows of it's existance, let me know! Though I'm sure it would only work for games that accept input through Direct Input.

 

[Comp625]

Games like Quake 2 have such a thing called "Mouse Lock" where it limits your mouse for horizontal use only.

 

[CZroe]

But Quake 2 was meant to be played with mouse look on instead

 

[CZroe]

Still asking... Anyone have a pin-out of the PS2 connector? Can it be as simple as cutting a pin?

 

[CZroe]

Found THIS...
Makes it sound like it's not that simple.
Can someone that won't get flamed like me move this into the Highly Technical forums and lemme see what they come up with?
Thnx!

 

[Sunner]

Open the mouse and remove the wheel that controls the vert axis

 

[CZroe]

Thnx, but I can't do that "on-the-fly" like a simple switch mod and it wont work with optical mice

 

[CTho9305]

hardware: if you need to do a switch (this will be CRUDE), find the light source or collector, cut one of the traces, and put in a switch.

based on the link in the reply above, you cannot easily remove the Y-direction signals alone, since all the data is sharing pins. you could probably safely request a design for such a circuit in HT without getting flamed though

software: If you're using win9x, you could write a TSR that intercepts mouse stuff and sets the vertical change to 0 - I dont know exactly how to do that (the newsgroup comp.lang.asm.x86 would probably be useful there), or how you would do it under an NT kernel.

 

[CZroe]

<< if you need to do a switch (this will be CRUDE), find the light source or collector, cut one of the traces, and put in a switch. >>

Thnx, that's probably what I'll have to resort to I was hoping for something more "universal" so all my friends could be up and running this way with a simple PS2 dongle, but it can never be that simple!

 

[CZroe]

I saw a driver update for the Razer mouse lets it set different sensitivity for X & Y axis, I wonder if you can set Y to zero? Even so, they have no XP drivers
Still hoping for some kind of a "Sidewinder Gaming Mouse"

 

[dullard]

<< Open the mouse and remove the wheel that controls the vert axis
Thnx, but I can't do that "on-the-fly" like a simple switch mod >>


Are there any Y-cables for mice? I had one that worked with keyboards and another for joysticks. I don't see why a Y-splitter couldn't exist for a mouse. Remove the wheel on one mouse and leave it in on the other.

What about two mice with a KVM switch connecting only the mice? To switch mice, just hit the KVM switch. Since you don't need the KVM for keyboard or monitor use, you can probably use a cheapo KVM - just spend enough that it will recognize your scroll wheel if you have one.