What is mouse distance in a keyboard tracker?

AlienPrimate·Apr 20, 2018·1 votes·763 views

My mouse distance is about half the community average in every game. Is this bad and something I should work on?

3 Comments

Mysticman89Apr 20, 20181 votes

I reckon it's not enough information to imply anything. Mouse distance probably is tracking the distance the cursor moves across your screen rather than physical distance your mouse moves (which would be a function of your mouse sensitivity), although you should check to be sure in the specific program.

It might mean that you're not moving your mouse around when you should be (e.g. to check different areas of the map or similar) (which would probably be bad), or it might mean you're very controlled in your mouse movements not spasticly sliding your mouse around (which is probably good). You say it's across every game too, so in some games the extra movement may not even be desirable.

I'd probably look to focus on more direct metrics for whatever games you play if you're looking to improve, rather than something fairly general and not equally applicable to all games.

edit: Also note that the distance on the screen is going to depend on your monitor size and resolution, so two players doing the exact same actions in a game might have wildly different mouse distance traveled numbers if they have different size monitors and/or different resolutions.

AlienPrimateApr 20, 20181 votes

The program I'm using is Overwolf. I wouldn't think that screen size would matter as the program shouldn't even be able to tell what screen size I have. Even if it did, I am on the larger end of screens with 17.9 inches which I think is the largest lap top screen you can get on the standard market. The reason I installed Overwolf is to track APM which I know mine is really low with an average of about 140. I did not expect a stat on mouse distance to be available though.

Mysticman89Apr 20, 20181 votes

Programs tracking physical distances across the screen tends to require you to input the physical dimensions of your monitor in the settings somewhere. I'm unfamiliar with overwolf and a quick google isn't telling me that feature even exists (although I found one thread asking why it was apparently removed [the answer being it was super inaccurate]), but i didn't look very hard.

In any case, even stuff like apm doesn't directly imply anything good or bad. Theres high rank starcraft players with relatively low apm, but their macro game is strong, and theres people with crazy apm who are trash and just kinda button mash. Mouse movement(->distance) might be a very loose analog to keyboard apm they included because they could and why not, but it likewise doesn't necessarily correlate with gameplay effectiveness.

If it's actually the distance the physical device in your hand moves, that can be interesting for ergonomic considerations perhaps, and maybe help inform future mouse purchases, but again I wouldn't really consider it a good metric for gaming skill since theres too many other factors.