I was about to upgrade to Windows 8.1, but fortunately saw the story's below, before performing the upgrade. I am thanking my lucky stars I did not, after reading the below.
http://www.firstever.eu/en/windows-8-1-not-for-gamers/
http://www.pcgamesn.com/windows-81-mouse-lag-reportedly-renders-some-pc-games-close-unplayable
http://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1oor43/windows_81_warning_for_gamers_issues_with/
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/45259/windows-8-1-fix-for-mouse-lag-in-games/
It looks like Windows 8.1's new dpi scaling feature ( http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2013/07/15/windows-8-1-dpi-scaling-enhancements.aspx ), has put a polling limit in place for gaming mice of under 200 hz. Gaming mice with previous OS's, are capable of being polled up to 1000hz. This polling rate is available in most decent drivers, e.g selectable for mice from Razer and Logitech. If the polling is reduced, it brings in input lag into games.
From the links above it appears that games that take raw mouse input, are not affected, games that do not and use direct input will now feel laggy to those who have mice that normally run at high poll rates.
A work around is also in the links, but is not always successful.
Until this is resolved, I won't be upgrading and wanted to warn the community about this issue.
Whether this will be resolved by Microsoft or the gaming mouse companies via driver updates, is not clear at the moment. If it is just that the why that the hook that the drivers have to use, has now changed, it is disappointing that mouse companies have not updated their drivers during the preview and 'release to manufacturing' phases of the software's release. That is the whole point of the phases in the release cycle.
If it is that Microsoft have killed the function, then they have really shot themselves in the foot. PC gamers are probably are probably about the only group keeping the PC market moving, to the small extent it is. You don't win back customers (the point of 8.1), by screwing one of the major constituents of that market.
http://www.firstever.eu/en/windows-8-1-not-for-gamers/
http://www.pcgamesn.com/windows-81-mouse-lag-reportedly-renders-some-pc-games-close-unplayable
http://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1oor43/windows_81_warning_for_gamers_issues_with/
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/45259/windows-8-1-fix-for-mouse-lag-in-games/
It looks like Windows 8.1's new dpi scaling feature ( http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2013/07/15/windows-8-1-dpi-scaling-enhancements.aspx ), has put a polling limit in place for gaming mice of under 200 hz. Gaming mice with previous OS's, are capable of being polled up to 1000hz. This polling rate is available in most decent drivers, e.g selectable for mice from Razer and Logitech. If the polling is reduced, it brings in input lag into games.
From the links above it appears that games that take raw mouse input, are not affected, games that do not and use direct input will now feel laggy to those who have mice that normally run at high poll rates.
A work around is also in the links, but is not always successful.
Until this is resolved, I won't be upgrading and wanted to warn the community about this issue.
Whether this will be resolved by Microsoft or the gaming mouse companies via driver updates, is not clear at the moment. If it is just that the why that the hook that the drivers have to use, has now changed, it is disappointing that mouse companies have not updated their drivers during the preview and 'release to manufacturing' phases of the software's release. That is the whole point of the phases in the release cycle.
If it is that Microsoft have killed the function, then they have really shot themselves in the foot. PC gamers are probably are probably about the only group keeping the PC market moving, to the small extent it is. You don't win back customers (the point of 8.1), by screwing one of the major constituents of that market.
