Mouse wheel - causes huge lag / renders some 3D games temporally unplayable - found workaround (2)

[yossarian_uk]

Specs:-
---------------------------------------------------------
CPU : Amd64 X2 4600
Motherboard : GA-M55S-S3 (rev. 2.0)
RAM : 2X2GB
GPU : Nvidia Geforce 8500GT (PCI-E)- latest stable driver
---------------------------------------------------------

This is a really strange one. It is reproducible 100% of the time.

This occurs only in some games- it seems to be the same issue

for example :-

- enemy territory
- legends -> http://legendsthegame.net/
- Prey

Basically in some 3D games when I use the mouse wheel (rapidly move it up and down) the game lags really,really badly for a limited amount of time , the amount of lag seems to depend on the amount of mouse wheel activity...

This occurs in game but - really weirdly - also in the game menus before you have even entered the game !!!!

After mousewheel use the mouse movement will sometimes occur 3-4 seconds aftermoving the mouse rendering the game completely unplayable.

The specs of my machine are o.k (see above) and the games have good speed on my system (until rapid use of the mouse wheel)

I have tried the other following games - just in case there seems something generally wrong with my system - none of these games have the issue.

- Nexuiz
- digital paint2

Games exhibits the same flaw on the following distros:-

Ubuntu 8.10 x86 + amd64
opensuse 11.1

I have tried Prey demo in Windows - this doesn't occur (was the 1st time i've booted into Windows for ages,,,,,)

Is there some similarities with prey,enemy territory and legends games
- i.e - do they use sdl for mouse control ?

- I have tried other mice and as mentioned the issue doesn't occur in windows (i.e there is not some general hardware issue).

Has anyone any ideas?

Is there anything I can do to help troubleshoot this issue ?

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

Yey - found a workaround

Now I can play all the best linux games !!

The solution for me was to put

export SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0

before playing any of the games I had issues with

They all work fine

Is this an Ubuntu bug ?

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

Sorry - obviously this is a bug..

What I mean is where is this bug from ?

I'm guessing its an SDL / mouse driver issue (as some games where not affected bu this)

I'm going to install arch linux shortly to see if the same thing occurs.

This is enough to frighten noobs away from linux....

[Stefan Lesicnik (stefanlsd)]

Did you make any progress in tracking where this bug comes from? Does it still affect Intrepid with updates applied?

Thanks

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

Hi.

Issue effects intrepid with latest updates

As this fixes it (except et)

export SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0

I assume its an SDL bug ?

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

export SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0 doesn't fix enemy territory (probably others)

This links are the same issue

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libsdl1.2/+bug/189958
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=42737
http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=99859&sid=4cb33dd439a2346eac4cdc3dd73462d9

There appears to be no exact solution/fix

Is it SDL or Xorg thats broken ?

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

The fix for et etqw doom3,etc

it to

(from game console)

in_dgamouse 0

- this makes my mouse freeze - i have to quit (using the game console)

As the command freezes my mouse I have to restart X
(You only have to do this the once)

- restart game
- its completely fixed.

you could always edit the .cfg file and manually edit in_dgamouse setting

see http://corent.proboards42.com/index.cgi?board=bugsolved&action=print&thread=156 for more

What package needs to be fixed.

[Adil Arif (adisari06)]

Have you tried to see if this bug is still relevant in the newest Ubuntu releases?

[yossarian_uk (morgancoxuk)]

This bug can be classed as fixed now.