Custom Curve Dimension function

Illustrations showing how Dimension shortens or lengthens off-axis mouse movement, without affecting horizontal & vertical sensitivity directly, as mentioned in the User Guide.

Movement shortened Movement lengthened Movement unchanged

Magnitude by direction

Mouse input, unit magnitude Cursor output at current settings

Cursor path for a circular mouse motion

Mouse input path Cursor path at current settings

Controls

4.0
0.00
45.0°

Gain by direction

Gain applied at each direction

Readout

Applied gain
1.166
Gain on the axes
1.000
Gain at 22.5°
1.123
Gain at 45°
1.166

Separating axial movement from arcs & diagonals

Most mouse movement has a horizontal & vertical component at the same time. Sustained movement along one axis only is uncommon: navigating a desktop, or tracking in a game, is a movement made up of arcs, curves & diagonals — a strict horizontal or vertical motion is the exception rather than the rule.

Setting only horizontal & vertical sensitivity directly adjusts the two movement cases that occur least often — Dimension acts on the rest of it, scaling what falls between the axes. The cursor or crosshair can be made to feel looser or tighter overall while a practised 180° turn or learned amount of recoil compensation remain unchanged.

The scale factor is applied to the whole movement rather than to either component, so the direction of the cursor stays true to the direction of the mouse at every setting. Only the distance changes, and only when the movement is off-axis.

How the gain is applied

A negative Dimension value shortens movement between the axes; a positive one lengthens it. The change is largest on the diagonals and falls to nothing on the axes, so a directly horizontal or vertical flick covers the same distance at any Dimension value.

Shape moves the change towards the diagonals. At 0 it is spread across every direction off the axes, including the shallow ones a few degrees from horizontal. At 1 it is gathered around the diagonals: the gain at 45° is the same at either setting — what changes is how quickly it falls away towards the axes. The Gain by direction plot shows this directly — Shape alters the width of the curve, not its height.

Some uses

  • Combined with acceleration: in a game, tracking a target while simultaneously compensating for recoil is a diagonal or curved motion almost the whole time it is happening. An acceleration curve scales movement by how fast it is, so for the same amount of required recoil compensation, the output becomes more accelerated when also tracking a horizontally moving target than when firing at a stationary one. Lowering Dimension can tighten this movement, which can make the two combined aiming tasks easier to hold together while using acceleration. This benefit can also be achieved using Independent Metric in the Input options, but using Dimension allows more control.
  • 2D cursor control: on increasingly common wide-screen displays, the corners require more movement to reach. Raising both Dimension and Shape lengthens that reach to make the movement more comfortable, without needing to raise the horizontal and vertical sensitivity, which may not be preferable.
  • Under-flicking: a flick meant to be purely horizontal that tends to come out a few degrees off covers less horizontal distance than the movement intended, so can land short of the target. Raising Dimension lengthens those shallow off-axis movements. Combined with lowering horizontal sensitivity a little to compensate, it can create a more comfortable margin for error.

Where it happens in the chain

Dimension is post-scale. It runs on the output, after the acceleration curve has already been applied — it can be used liberally without altering the curve response, or without using acceleration at all.