Notes beginner trackball

For a long time I wanted to try a trackball instead of a mouse. “Gathered with the forces” for two years, probably: I read reviews, compared models, watched videos with anboxing and tests. Finally I acquired this unusual manipulator, and for the second year I have been using it at work and at home. I will try to tell about how my trackball expectations were adjusted by reality.


My story is in many ways similar to the previously published Just_Wah user, the findings are also largely correlated. In my note, I will focus on the following points:

• criteria for the applicability and usefulness of trackballs;
• the disadvantages and limitations of the trackballs;
• trackballs in computer games.

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And, of course, all of the following is my personal experience and my personal conclusions, the truth and universality of which is indisputable.

1. Select the trackball

If you look for trackballs on the Internet, there are a lot of models, but in offline stores, a trackball is extremely rare. In Novosibirsk, for example, I found only one store where a trackball could be picked up. I had to order the device from afar.

I was interested in classic desktop trackballs for workstations, not 3D mice, not built-in keyboards or devices that are not worn on a finger. Classical trackballs were divided into two groups: the ball under the thumb and the ball in the center.



In addition, the following were taken into account:

• number of buttons;
• the presence of additional axes (wheels or rings);
• PC connection (USB or Wi-Fi);
• price (can reach more than one thousand rubles).

Here I hung up for a long time, a suddenly breaking wrist helped me and this post in LiveJournal, after reading which I dropped the trackballs with the ball under my finger and chose the popular inexpensive four-button TrackMan Marble.

2. Trackball and ergonomics

The Internet often mentions the fact that, compared with a mouse, a trackball requires less movement of the arms, respectively, it is better in terms of ergonomics. My experience, as well as the user experience dlinyj (the author of the above LJ-post), clearly says that this is not entirely true.

The final choice in favor of the red ball was made, after I began to noticeably moan my wrist when working with the mouse. Wrist prescribed rest and elastic bandage. With the trackball, I thought to solve this problem: “Now I’ll unload my hand, I will defeat the sore with ergonomics!”. Unloaded. On the second day of work with the trackball, from the unusual load, the fingers ached in the appendage to the wrist.

Although the effect was temporary, it was extremely unpleasant. Fingers after a couple of days got used, and the wrist, however, returned to normal.

In general, it turned out that the trackball does not so much reduce the load as it changes its type: after prolonged intensive work with the trackball, the fingers get tired and start to ache. The position of the shoulder and elbow is also very important, they get tired no worse than the wrist. I repeat the words dlinyj : "Better without fanaticism."

3. Trackball Setup

Personalization turned out to be an important point. I mainly work with code and browser. After some experiments, I stopped at these settings:


Picture and configs from here

Moreover, I clearly understood that if I were mostly engaged in, for example, photo processing, I would choose a different configuration. Experiments with the settings took about two hours.

The discomfort from working with an unusual device took about 30-40 minutes, and by the end of the setup period, I managed the ball naturally.

On the Internet about trackballs it was not just “at the beginning it is difficult to accurately get ...”, “at the beginning the speed decreases ...” and the like. Personally, I have this "in the beginning" was very short.

4. Trackball in work

During operation, some unexpected moments for me were found.

First, grab the ball with your hands, greasy and dirty. The ball and its groove require regular cleaning. Well, they do not demand this much, but if not cleaned, then the ball gradually begins to stick at the points of contact with the body. In older articles, the advantages of trackballs in front of mice mention that a trackball ball is easier to get for cleaning than a mouse. Modern mice have not had balls for a long time, and trackballs still need to be cleaned.



Secondly, I had to keep the mouse “for guests” at work. Often suitable colleagues with working questions, and each "give a computer, now I will show ..." always turned into "... and what is this thing, how can she poke? !!"

Thirdly, personally, I was not very impressed by the often mentioned "effect of inertia" of the ball (spinning by inertia after a strong jolt). For me, it is more convenient to adjust the acceleration of the cursor for yourself - and the effort is less, and the accuracy is higher.

However, besides surprises, there were quite expected impressions:

• To work with the code, the text and for surfing the trackball is a complete analogue of the mouse, neither special pluses nor minuses.
• The ball allows scrolling in two axes at once. When scrolling maps, for example, it is convenient.
• The rotation of three-dimensional objects with a trackball is pleasantly intuitive.
• A simple mouse action - “scroll with the right button held down” - is extremely inconvenient, or not available at all with my trackball type.
• The trackball does not "jump" and remains comfortable even with significant table vibrations.
• Trackball does not require a lot of space on the table.

5. Games

The statement “trackball is not for games” or the question “how is trackball in games?” Is found in almost every text I read about trackballs (especially in old ones). The first statement is not entirely fair, but in some places it is not at all fair. I am not a hardcore gamer, but I think that my observations and impressions are quite relevant.

I will make a reservation: here we are talking about a classic trackball with a ball in the middle - you have to press a button on this in order to start scrolling. Trackballs of other designs do not have such restrictions, and the following may not apply to them.

5.1 FPS

First-person shooters are great with trackball. Aiming is, in a sense, even more natural. I tried Serious Sam 3, Left 4 Dead 2, the first and second Half-life.
The same is true for Minecraft, which is quite manageable for FPS.

5.2 TBS , quests, casual games

No difference with the mouse, which is quite expected.

5.2 RTS

Tower Defense / Offense types are played normally.

The classic RTSs like Dune and Starcraft have not tried, but their descendants include DotA, which is described below.

5.3 [MMO] RPG

Games with a third-person view are practically unplayable if fast camera rotation and zoom wheel are critical for gameplay. With the trackball config I chose, playing Lineage II and Guild Wars was extremely difficult.

5.4 MOBA

You can play in DotA2 because rotation of the camera is not necessary, but it was necessary to conjure over the binding of buttons Whether the trackball worsens the performance, I will not say - not special in such games.

5.5 Flight simulator

Arcade simulators are great, and if the game allows you to adjust the rotation of the plane from the trackball axes, the control becomes pleasantly intuitive (a simple GL117 makes you feel this effect).

Tested Freespace 2 and Star Conflict. It was not possible to set up Freespace without complete trouble-free, Star Conflict is 100% playable. Simulators with an emphasis on realism did not try.

In conclusion about the games I repeat: a long and intense load on the fingers when playing the trackball is not good for your health!

6. Experiments on humans

After I finished this place, I wondered how much trackball control was different from mouse control in numbers. Nakropal primitive test that allows you to compare some metrics of the trackball and the mouse relative to me.



Those. My results on aiming at the target with the trackball are consistently worse than with the mouse, by ≈100 milliseconds, while the number of errors is somewhat less.

7. And now the slides

A couple of pictures with trackballs in the wild:





Photo from Zelenyikot 's article “More Marsov good and different”



Sudden trackball in a nearby street. This for many years lives in a small shop of radio components.

Please note that in the first case, the trackball was chosen due to the limited working space, while in the second case, the transparency of the “table” is also added to the crowdedness.

8. Total

From my experience it follows that:

• A trackball is quite an equivalent replacement for a mouse, albeit with features.
• The trackball itself does not improve the ergonomic characteristics of the workplace.
• Trackball is suitable for games, but not for everyone.
• Trackball is good if you have little space, or the table is often loose.
• To hit the trackball right on target is, in fact, a little more difficult than a mouse.
• There are definitely people and cases for which the trackball is not suitable and even harmful.

Something like this would have been useful to me a couple of years ago, when I made the choice.