WarMouse - a development blog

The Dutch technology site Techzine has the first hands-on preview of the WarMouse Meta:

Last November, the OpenOffice.org mouse made it to all the technology sites. The mouse was conspicuous because of its enormous amount of buttons and it was received with mixed reactions. In the meantime, WarMouse, the manufacturer of the mouse, removed the Openoffice.org name. Both WarMouse and Sun agreed that it would be better if the mouse would go its own way, which gave WarMouse the space to prove that its mouse was capable of being more than just a little word processing helper. And thus was born the WarMouse Meta, a mouse with one important philosophy: you can program almost everything and you can do it exactly how you want.

The reviewer used a Mk III prototype for more than two weeks and was able to bang on the mouse in a fairly comprehensive manner. So, if you’d like to get a look at the first objective perspective provided by someone who has actually used the Meta, we’d encourage you to go and read the article. It is by no means a gushing preview, but it is a very fair one and we are quite pleased with the reviewer’s conclusions.

The primary motivation behind the design of the WarMouse Meta has always been speed and efficiency. Needless to say, there have been numerous doubts expressed about the utility of the 18-button concept, to say nothing of the Meta’s effective 40 commands. However, we are so confident that the Meta represents the next step in the evolution of the input device that we have even provided an empirical means of testing our hypothetical superiority by including a click counter in Meta Modeware. The counter works in two ways. Display Click Statistics shows exactly which buttons you have been clicking and provides you with a comparison of how often you are using the generic L1/R1 mouse buttons with the 14 Meta specific buttons of A1-B7, in addition to the Joystick directions and T2 buttons.

The second counter is a mode specific one entitled Mode Click Statistics which counts by function. This allows you to see what functions you are using most often in order to give you the information required to customize your mode in the manner that you will find most effective. Because it also tracks the mode-specific Mouse vs Meta clicks, this allows for cross-mode efficiency comparisons. If you consider that every Meta click saves you several seconds of sweeping the mouse pointer across the screen, it will become rapidly apparent that the calculated 30% speed improvement achieved by the WarMouse Meta in early trials using OpenOffice.org is likely on the conservative side.

The keen-eyed will immediately spot a new feature assigned to three buttons in this weekend’s mode review. As can be seen in the mode map below, buttons B1 and B2 are marked CPI LOW and CPI HIGH, while B4 is set to CPI Default. These button assignments incorporate our new CPI-on-the-fly feature, which allows you to actively switch between three CPI settings, DEFAULT, LOW, and HIGH, each of which are set to any value between 100 and 5600. This is very useful when sniping at a distance, for example, when clicking on B1 will instantly drop the CPI to your low setting, (in my case I use 350), in order to line up your shot more accurately, then click on B2, (I have it set to 3200), to switch back to the high setting for rapid recon. The default setting is at 2000 for use in the barracks, but that too can be set to whatever value you prefer. These are all Special Buttons so if you have no need to use different CPI settings within the same application, you have no need to waste a button on it. They can also be assigned

Ben went a little crazy last week and sent us Meta mode layouts for no less than nine games. Here is the one he created for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. The important thing to note is that it utilizes the directional joystick, which only requires entering the four cardinal directions. The Meta is smart enough to take those and then utilize the corners for NE, NW, SE, and SW movement. So, this mode supports eight directional movements despite there being only four directional assignments. You will probably also notice that we have changed the keypress color from red to blue. This is a relatively simple mode, which doesn’t utilize any of the showier functions or even many double-clicks, but nevertheless makes the interaction with the game’s interface much easier and more enjoyable.

As will probably be apparent from the image of the mode map below, we have added the ability to assign functions to the click and double-click of the Meta’s scroll wheel as well as to Scroll Up and Scroll Down. We intend to leave Scroll Up and Scroll Down blank on the default modes for most applications, since the scroll feature is usually utilized in some basic manner, but if you want to use them for something else, you certainly can. In this case, Escape is assigned to the scroll wheel click, Select All to the double-click, and scrolling up and down is left to the application’s control.

We’ve had some requests for the ability to change CPI on the fly in the hardware rather than by software or application switch as it presently changes. Presumably this requirement is from the FPS players, since application-specific CPI is sufficient for pretty much everyone else. So, here’s how we have designed it to work. The first method is through the Meta Modeware’s Special Button interface. There will be two functions, CPI HIGH and CPI LOW, that are defined by the user. CPI LOW can range from 100 to 5599 CPI, CPI HIGH can be anything from CPI LOW+1 to 5600 CPI. These functions can then be assigned to whatever button or joystick position you want. Click to change. The second method is for those who are using the mouse without access to the Modeware. Pressing a specified combination will put the Meta into its CPI CHANGE state, wherein pressing a button from A1 to A7 will change the current CPI to one of seven pre-determined settings. Obviously A1 will be 100 and A7 will be 5600, so the question is: what should the five remaining default settings be?

If you have an opinion on the matter, feel free to share it here.

Here is an update on the new Meta Modeware features that have been added in the last two weeks:

• Scroll Wheel up, Scroll Wheel down, Scroll Wheel click, Mouse Buttons 4 and 5 all assignable as special buttons.
• Special buttons, including L1/R1 clone and Display Mode Map, now assignable as keys, not only as keypresses.
• Assigned functions now displayed in bold text.
• Key-Mouse Button combinations now function as text macros. Incorporation into the GUI still remains.

There’s still a lot to do, both on the hardware production and software development side, but things are consistently moving forward. We’re always looking for more mode layouts from people, so if you’ve got ideas for one, don’t hesitate to download a spreadsheet and put one together. Our goal is to ship with 100 game and application modes available. And for this weekend’s mode review, please consider IW’s FreeSpace mode and offer any suggestions that may occur to you.

This is the latest, and we hope final, set of prototypes for the WarMouse Meta. The MkIV is a little lower and sleeker than the previous model, and allows the hand to rest more comfortably upon it. Most of the modifications are internal and primarily related to the production and assembly process, but there are a number of minor utility changes as well.

Note that neither of these pictures shows the rubber covers for the joystick and the scroll wheel. A small bump has been added to A6 and B6 to aid the user’s locational awareness; the one problem that occasionally cropped up was losing track of which button in the back row your fingertip was presently on. Unlike the front two rows, the larger size and concave shape of the six buttons in the last row means you can’t feel the nearby buttons on the side of your finger. The joystick is going to be covered in dark gray rubber, so we’re going to leave T2 dark grey as well; the only question that remains is if we go with red or dark grey on L1 and R1. Feel free to offer your opinion on the matter.

Those who have been concerned about the small size of the buttons may be pleased to learn that one of our first corporate beta testers has declared that now that he’s actually using the Meta, (a Mk III version), he wouldn’t want the buttons to be any bigger because he has no problem placing his fingers on them at the size they are now. So, it’s good to see some initial feedback that confirms the assumptions inherent in the design.

Blackstone had a request: We’ve been hearing a lot about the (excellent) software, but do you think that you could go into some detail on the hardware, specifically the updated designs, in a future blog post? After all, on the homepage the “blue key” version of the mouse has been noted to be deprecated in favor of a matte black and red color scheme? Do you think you could go over any new ergonomic and aesthetic features of the current Meta?

Of course. There were 14 changes scheduled made in the change from the MkIII prototype to the MkIV prototype. We haven’t received them yet, so we can’t show any pictures, but we can certainly talk about the ones that are relevant to the appearance and ergonomics of the Meta. The two most important things are that we lowered the height from 44mm to 40.5mm and slimmed down the bulbous rear end of the mouse. These two factors meant that the average-sized hand had the tips of the index and ring fingertips resting on L1 and R1 while one’s wrist was on the table surface rather than the pads. While piano teachers would have approved the need to keep the hand slightly raised in order to press the front-row buttons properly, it did tend to tire the wrist a bit over extended sessions. A side-view of the two 3D models should show the difference in shape between the two body styles rather clearly. The MkIII that has been featured in past pictures is above and the new MkIV is below.

As for ergonomics, that’s a very good question that requires two answers. First, we believe that ergonomics concerns function, not style. Not having to move your wrist at all, or merely twitching a digit, puts less strain on the human body than a repetitive wrist motion. In that sense, the Meta is far more ergonomic than the most funky, form-fitted input device out there. But, of course, that’s really not what anyone means. Consider, then, what most people consider to be ergonomic mouse-style. This generally consists of two things, a curved thumb rest and a slotted pair of finger rests. The Razer Naga is a good example of an “ergonomic” mouse, its painfully messed-up placement of buttons 4 and 5 notwithstanding. But do either of these things apply to the Meta? Not really. The curved thumb rest is out for the rather obvious reason that there is a joystick upon which the thumb will rest; a curve is not only pointless but would tend to compromise the structure of the joystick shaft. As for the finger slots, the A5 and B7 buttons provide grooves in which the index and ring fingers fall, while the gap between the A buttons on the left and the B buttons on the right permits the middle finger to rest comfortably in between them in a position to spin the scroll wheel. We’re not claiming that we won’t be able to do better down the road, nor are we under any illusions that we have reached the height of ergonomic perfection, but if using the Meta doesn’t quite feel like immersing your hand in warm melted butter, it’s not at all uncomfortable either. The average user will probably be surprised how little movement is involved in using the Meta, as you can do more with two thumb twitches and a pair of slight finger presses than you can with five vast back-and-forth sweeps of a conventional gaming mouse.

As for looking cheap, that’s mostly an artifact of the prototype process. What you’re seeing now is thin plastic shells painted black. We’ll be using a high-quality molded plastic that should allay any fears on that score; we’ll also have a rubberized grip on the joystick as well. As it turns out, the concave shape of the joystick probably rendered the rubberization unnecessary, but it won’t hurt and should give the Meta less of a pure plastic appearance. Another thing to keep in mind is that despite the power specs, this is not a pure gaming mouse. We named it the Meta, not the DeathKillaz 666 for a reason, after all. Based on the information people are providing us when they pre-order, as many people will be using it for various non-gaming applications as they will for MMO and FPS games. So, we never intended to paint metaphorical flames on it, even though the little beast has the equivalent of a turbojet under the hood compared to the average gaming mouse’s conventional six-cylinder.

We’ve just added a small, but significant feature that will make the joystick even more useful for WarMouse Meta users. One thing that we’ve learned from using the prototype Metas over the last two months is that while the buttons are quite useful, the joystick simply blows them away in terms of its ease of use. While clicking the buttons is much easier than moving the mouse pointer up to a pull-down menu or toolbar, flicking your thumb is even faster and more automatic. So, we’ve now added a special function called “altstick” that is assigned to the joystick click; this allows you to assign different commands to the joystick directions depending upon whether the joystick is pressed in or not. Below is a new variant of the Thunderbird mode utilizing the altstick feature. Whereas red denotes “keypress” and grey indicates “key or macro”, the yellow signifies a) which button is assigned the altstick trigger, (it is a keypress variant, so no double-click is permitted), and b) the four alternative commands. If you’ve downloaded the mode layout spreadsheets for laying out your own modes for your games and applications, note that J2=J1 alt, J4=J3 alt, J6=J5 alt, and J8=J7 alt. So, in the Thunderbird mode shown, moving the joystick up will “Mark as Read” an email while moving the joystick up while holding it in will “Attach File” to an outgoing email.

We anticipate that most default modes will make use of this feature, but it’s entirely optional in case you prefer to have commands assigned directly to the joystick click and double-click, (T1 in WarMouse Meta-speak). And if for some reason you insist on having both the T1 click/double-click AND the altstick feature operative, it’s even possible to assign the altstick trigger to one of the A1-B7 buttons. You can even assign it to T2, however we don’t recommend that except to mutants with two thumbs on one hand or lefties with especially dextrous little fingers.