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Jacob Fox, {hardware} author
This week I’ve been: Trying out a brand new mouse (a Superlight clone) and eventually sacking off CS2’s cheater-ridden Premier matchmaking for FaceIt.
I’m identified across the PC Gamer streets as a little bit of a mouse pad nerd. Though that is simply because I take the floor my little rodent skates throughout severely, as you must. If you are taking part in a sport that requires good intention, an excellent pad could be simply as essential in your gameplay expertise as excessive fps, as much as a sure level.
Naturally, then, I fell below the spell of glass mouse pads for some time. With glass, there’s the promise of a really slippery glide, if that is your factor, however extra essential is the promise of consistency and longevity. Cloth pads accumulate mud and dust that may’t simply be wiped away, and the fibres change over time. That’s why professionals change them out so usually.
Glass pads aren’t like this, although. They do have irregularities etched into their floor to assist with friction and sensor monitoring, however these do not put on down as a result of they’re tougher than your mouse skates. Your skates, then again, do put on down faster, however these are simply replaceable, and an inexpensive pack of dot skates can final a really very long time.
Glass pads do require extra upkeep, however not as a lot as I initially thought. When I first began utilizing one—a QPAD Obsidian—I would wipe it down with a microfibre cloth between almost every two-minute Counter-Strike round, just in case something had gotten on it that could cause the skates to feel horribly scratchy when they ran over it. This does happen, but nowhere near as frequently as I initially thought. But eventually, when using a glass pad, I just wiped it down once or twice every 45-minute game, or if I noticed scratchiness.
There’s one other bit of maintenance required, too. Unless you’re in a cold climate and have dry skin all the time, you’ll probably want to use a gamer sleeve so your arm glides consistently over the pad while you aim, whatever the conditions.
I got used to this maintenance and started using a glass pad, and for a while I was hooked. There’s just something about having very little static or dynamic friction and having an incredibly consistent glide that makes you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. Every little movement is in your control, as is how smoothly you make those movements.
That seemed fantastic at first, but over time I’ve found I often don’t want that much control. Somewhat paradoxically, I gain control over my aim by giving up some control of my mouse. That shouldn’t really be a surprise, though, because ‘control’ pads are designed to be slower, i.e., providing more resistance to your movements, giving you less free control over your mouse movements. That’s the opposite of a glide-y glass pad.
There’s definitely a place for glass pads, but I just don’t think I’m the target market. They’re great if you don’t need pinpoint aim and love a smooth glide, or if you need the kind of pinpoint aim that benefits from smooth, consistent tracking with a long time-to-kill (TTK). Games such as Quake Champions or The Finals, as an illustration.
However, in tactical shooters like Counter-Strike 2 (my go-to sport), I discover I play significantly better when utilizing a management fabric pad. I’m in a position to maintain angles higher and preserve my gun very nonetheless, and I could make the small changes wanted when peeking or sometimes flicking because of the elevated stopping energy and static friction.
I do know that over time I may develop finer management over my intention with a glass pad, and perhaps then I’d discover them to be higher. But I did strive. I’ve put dozens of hours in on totally different glass pads, and I nonetheless really feel slightly aid when going again to a management pad just like the Razer Gigantus V2 Pro or Zowie HSR-III, or perhaps a clean fabric pad just like the SteelSeries QcK Performance Speed.
I’ve even tried a glass mouse pad that is designed to supply a bit extra management: the Wallhack CR-005. And this did feel better to begin with, to the extent that I wondered whether it could be my endgame pad. But that control feeling seemed to wear off a little over many hours of gameplay (perhaps, very speculatively, due to skate debris getting stuck between the micro surface bumps), and regardless I still felt on more solid ground, so to speak, when I whapped a cloth pad back on the desk.
I could have stuck it out with glass, but I ask myself: why? If pro players are able to reach their heights on cloth, then I see little incentive to switch to glass over the long-term, and there’s little incentive to try and stick it out when I’m not getting the benefit in the short-term, either.
Whenever I boot up Counter-Strike, I sleeve up too
So, unless I ditch Counter-Strike and pick up Quake Champions once again (I’ll be holding out for that fabled arena shooter genre comeback until the day I die), I’ll be sticking with cloth, I think.
There is one thing that using glass pads has given me which I will continue to use, however: the gamer sleeve.
As I mentioned earlier, in most cases, using a sleeve with a glass pad is essential if you want to keep your arm moving across its surface consistently every time. But a couple of months ago, I heard someone say somewhere (I can’t remember where) that a gamer sleeve can even be of benefit when using a cloth pad. So I tried it, and now I can’t go back.
Yes, whenever I boot up Counter-Strike, I sleeve up too. Even though I play on cloth. I felt a little sheepish the first few times, but I kept reminding myself that some pro players use them and that no person is right here watching me anyway. But now, it feels as pure as placing on my coat earlier than I’m going exterior within the winter.
And if I overlook? It’s simply as noticeable as forgetting my coat. Without my gamer sleeve on, transferring my arm across the mouse pad—aiming with low sensitivity, as you do in Counter-Strike—feels inconsistent at greatest, and downright sluggish at worst. But with my trusty half-palm-and-forearm sheath correctly donned, my arm scoots round deftly, in precisely the identical manner each time I boot up the sport, regardless of the climate.
So thanks, glass pads, for opening my eyes to the wonders of the standard sleeve. You may not have received me over for enjoying my tactical shooters in your slippery surfaces, however you have given me that.
Best gaming mouse 2026
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you possibly can go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-mice/glass-mouse-pads-havent-won-me-over-but-gamer-sleeves-are-a-different-story/
and if you wish to take away this text from our website please contact us
