DescentBB

I'm running Descent on an old P200 MMX with an SB AWE64. Gives the right old school feel, if you know what I mean. Anyway, the mouse sensitivity is very low and I was wondering if there is any way to raise the sensitivity of the original version.

Hmm I remember CajunAce had a program that allowed this in D1 and D2... Stop by Rangers server on Kali and ask there.

http://www.descent-rangers.com/

Basically the problems comes about because Descent 1 & 2 tie the mouse sensitivity to the framerate. Once you start going beyond about 60-80fps the sensitivity takes a dive. The various source ports let you lock the framerate to a certain level so as to maintain a decent level of sensitivity but that doesn't really help if you're trying to \"preserve the old school feel\".

I've recently run into this problem again myself since I got fed up with DOSBox and set up a computer specifically for older games, Descent in particular and realising that even underclocking it to 75Mhz was just too fast to get decent mouse sensitivity. If you find that app Canuck is referring to would you mind posting a link to it here?

Found it, PS2rate;
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html

Crank up the sampling speed.
Worked in 3DFX just great... nice and smooth too.

yea, I used Dos Drivers back then.

made the mouse scream. I could keep up with guys on a Sidewinder.

PS2Rate doesn't seem to be having much effect here

Perhaps 200Mhz is just too fast for even PS2Rate to compensate for. I still haven't completely ruled out the possibility that the video card may have something to do with my problem. It's an S3 ViRGE and while Descent 1 never had any ViRGE-specific optimisations the ViRGE was a fairly quick card in its day leading me to think it's what's boosting the framerate and thus causing the sensitivity issues. Unfortunately, I have nothing old and dodgy to swap it with and test that theory atm

Is your mouse on a PS2 port or USB?
Did you bump the mouse scan rate up to 200 HZ?

I tested on an 800 MHZ PIII, with an Microsoft optical on an USB to PS2 converter and it works very nicely at 60 hz in 3DFX Descent 2.

Try some of those other Dos drivers... many work on other brands.

Hope this helps.

It's a PS/2 mouse and I'd already installed PS2Rate (and maxed it out) after being reminded at just how crappy the default PS/2 mouse rate is. It just doesn't seem to have had any effect. I also downloaded the MSMOUSE package from Microsoft and even after maxing out the sensitivity on that failed to have any effect on Descent (works a treat on Terminal Velocity though)