Mouse lag is not gone in Mountain Lion.
We were (finally) able to build the fix for Mountain Lion and Lion.
It will be called Smooth Mouse by the way.
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SmoothMouse, the long-awaited fix for mouse problems in OS X, has been released.
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Do you need a tester? I just upgraded, I have a MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2009 with a microsoft intellimouse explorer 3.0.
If you have ever emailed me at dae@cyberic.eu OR signed up for the newsletter, then you’re already in the list of beta testers. Private testing is likely to begin in August.
I would love to beta test it too. I signed up for the newsletter.
Very glad to hear that you’re close to a fix, Dae. Thanks for sticking with this project.
Sorry, but I have to ask: is the fix specific to Lion/Mountain Lion? If you do happen to need Snow Leopard testers, I’m willing (if I can just figure out where to sign up for your newsletter…)
SmoothMouse generally works in Snow Leopard, but there is a very annoying bug: sometimes when you click on something while holding a modifier key (Cmd, Shift …) the key may get stuck. The bug is caused by CGSetLocalEventsFilterDuringSuppressionState / CGSetLocalEventsSuppression calls, and I believe it’s Apple’s fault. In Lion and Mountain Lion the problem is gone.
Try using CGEventSourceSetLocalEventsFilterDuringSuppressionState instead of CGSetLocalEventsFilterDuringSuppressionState.
We don’t use event-driven cursor movement API because it is full of bugs (or at least, it was so in SL). Bugs like inability to double-click. This is also why Synergy 1.4.x is practically unusable on Mac OS X.
The Event-Driven API is really full of bugs. I used it in one of my applications and it only gives me headaches.
But the double click issue is easy to fix, just change this parameter:
CGEventSetIntegerValueField(eventRef, kCGMouseEventClickState, NumberOfClicks);
The CGEvent API really sucks and is full of redundant parameters that are needed in some cases but not in others… dafuq?
thank you thank you oh lord!
if your smooth mouse thingy works I wouldn’t have to trash my Mac after all. Having a not properly responding mouse drives me nuts! Its like trying to write with a pen while someone pushes my shoulders. I have done some testes and I can literally click (10 random icons on the desktop) two times faster on a Windows system – this has to stop – thank you again. Can’t believe Apple is doing such sloppy work on such an important issue!
I so agree with you christoph von klot, especially the feeling that someone is pushing my shoulders as I try to work. This jumping all over the page thing is very frustrating. We need a resolution to this problem.
Great! Thanks Dae!
I wonder how people at Apple can make some ‘wow’ designs but mess with such a basic functionality like mouse movement! The mac touchpad feels so cool but using a mouse is just awful! Again, thank you guys!
I don’t mean to rush you, but is there any news on when we might see a release of Smooth Mouse? I just bought a Macbook Pro Retina and the lag is driving me up the wall. If the Smooth Mouse release is still several months away, I may just pick up a netbook for the sole purpose of running Synergy.
If Smooth Mouse works as good as I hope it will, you guys will forever be my heroes. As a long time Mac user this is the single most annoying thing with OSX, and it has been around for ages.
I second that Labbe123!!!!!!
Great to see you are working on a solution, thank you for your work. Although, after a days use, I do find the acceleration curve more bearable in Mountain Lion than Snow Leopard. Nevertheless I’ll still love Smooth Mouse when it comes out!
Glad to know about this. Please register me as an early/beta tester. Also, I think I may be able to help you with packaging if that position is still vacant.
I would love to beta test this. I dual boot Windows 7 and OSX 10.8 on separate SSD’s in my mac book pro and the noticeable mouse lag on exactly the same hardware keeps me in windows as often as possible.
I’m a .NET / IOS programmer and will help however I can.
Thank you for your hard work Dae, this will be much appreciated!
I too ,would be happy to be a tester for the SmoothMouse. Thanks for the work you’re doing to solve this problem.
This is the first problem i noticed on OSX after using Windows for 15 years.
Its a huge problem for me, so thanks for all your work, i cant wait for the fix!
I will definitely be willing to pay for “Smooth Mouse”, and I’m sure mostly everyone else who actually cared enough to search Google and find your blog (like me) would be happy to at least make a donation!
Absolutely……I agree with Ben….
I also came across your blog by searching on google.
I honestly don’t find it to be much of an issue (not always), I have a wireless Microsoft mouse with a nano adapter and don’t have any issues until I am downloading something that’s using a lot of bandwidth, like a big file or even streaming a movie online, then my mouse’s movement becomes erratic and ‘jumpy’, very annoying.
I found it to be particularly worse when I tried this HP Keyboard/Mouse combo that use the same nano adapter, the response of the keyboard was so bad that it would skip a bunch of letters when I was typing, but again it was a bigger issue when downloading something or using a lot of bandwidth.
The bandwidth issue baffles me, I don’t understand how that can affect the movement of the mouse, or keystrokes… My Macbook’s keyboard and/or touchpad do not get affected when this is happening.
I just realized that the issue with my external mice and keyboard is that my router uses the same 2.4Ghz frequency, that’s why when I am using a lot of bandwidth the movement and response of those devices became jittery. Changing channels in my router seems to have improved response considerably. Other than that I am afraid I am not sure what you guys are talking about when it comes to external mouse lag.
Hope that info helps someone else.
If you never played video games, especially first person shooters, you might not be able to tell. The lag is there, but some folks don’t notice. Once you do, you can’t un-notice it, sadly.
I don’t think your issue is related to 2.4ghz spectrum usage either. If you’re ‘using a lot of bandwidth’ it’s more likely that your’re simply using your computer more, and it’s having a hard time keeping up. If you have an older mac with a spinning (non-solid state) hard drive with integrated graphics, it’s more likely you need to reinstall or upgrade your system.
If you’re sure it’s a 2.4ghz noise issue, you can get tools like the ‘Wi-Spy’ from metageek: http://www.metageek.net/products/wi-spy
It will show relative signal strengths, and interference.
Thanks I will look into that.
Actually I do play games on both my 2011 iMac (8GB/1TB/Quad) and my 2012 Macbook Pro (8GB/75OGB/Quad). I never noticed lag on my iMac.
However I started to notice the lag after starting to use my new MacBook, specially as I said, when using more than ‘just browsing’ bandwidth and an external mouse and/or keyboard. And the reason now I believe is because I never use Wi-Fi on my iMac, I prefer to have it hard wired. But also the Mouse and Keyboard of my iMac are both bluetooth so that probably counts as well.
If you’ve played the same game on Windows and OSX, especially if it’s a fast-paced game, then the lag will be very obvious. And yes, 2.4 GHz mice do receive interference from wireless routers operating on the same band. The more data you’re pushing through the wireless network at once, the more your wireless mouse will start to skip and get interrupted. It may not happen in all cases though.
Thanks Ranma13,
I actually just caught the same issue on a different network, not at my own home. I was copying 5GB of data across computers within the same network and all of a sudden I notice this guy who works there smacking the keys on his wireless keyboard and fighting with the mouse, because it became really jittery. And he was actually using Windows 7. I checked their router settings and it also uses 2.4Ghz, I checked the guy’s keyboard and mouse and they also use the same frequency. So that’s proof to me that it has to do with the 2.4 Ghz frequency.
10.8.1 no change
I dont think anything will change any time soon.
If Apple had any plans to fix this problem they would have done so a looooooooong time ago. As far as I know this is a problem that has been there in every Mac OS X release to date.
Any news on the fix?
Another post with the news.
I have just purchased a second computer for my company.
I was inches away from purchasing a mac pro – already got three big screens for it – but the mouse thing was the dealbreaker.
I have a macbook pro for personal use. I tried all sorts of mouse combinations and software to improve mouse behaviour, but the lag and the inaccuracy made any attempt at graphics quite hopeless. Even trying to point the cursor at the red close-window thingy was frustrating.
In the end I made a clone of my PC. I am so sorry, everything else about the mac is just, well, better! And the silly thing is this was their territory for so long, and they are squandering the love.
SmoothMouse is out.