[HN Gopher] Piper: GTK application to configure gaming mice
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Piper: GTK application to configure gaming mice
Author : captn3m0
Score : 142 points
Date : 2021-07-18 10:44 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| Shadonototro wrote:
| GTK since GTK 3.0 is very ugly.. i can never get used to these
| giant controls.. am i using a mouse or a touch screen? i always
| forget... it's my desktop PC, and i don't have a touchscreen, why
| do i get a touchscreen UX?
| rvz wrote:
| What on earth is _' ratbagd'_? - _Says a typical end user /
| gamer._
|
| Sounds very confusing, cryptic and user / gamer unfriendly.
| darkwater wrote:
| The typical user/gamer will just use the "Piper" frontend
| which, upon installation, will automatically pull the ratbag
| thing dependency.
| rvz wrote:
| Well its an error message and it is in the Piper frontend
| app. That is enough to confuse them and start googling around
| for that message.
| kop316 wrote:
| https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag
|
| It looks like libratbag is a CLI only back end that does
| all of the heavy lifting and then abstracts everything into
| an API (which Piper uses).
|
| This is actually pretty nice, as it allows any other
| desktop environment to use libratbag and then put their own
| GUI overtop of it (I do the same thing with a couple of
| apps).
| Fnoord wrote:
| Its actually a very clever name (as is Piper).
|
| Rat -> Mouse
|
| Bag -> Because it works with all mice ie. its a catch-all.
|
| d -> daemon
|
| lib -> library
|
| There's also a mouse brand (Madcatz) who have are known for
| their gaming mouse, Rat (stylished R.A.T.). To gamers, they're
| known for their quality mice.
|
| That should tell you enough, and if it doesn't you're free to
| embrace curiosity to figure it out on your own.
| alex_duf wrote:
| Thanks for that, I had no idea this was a thing, I've now
| configured my Mx master 3!
| yoz-y wrote:
| I haven't tried this, but from the screenshots I must say that
| the UI looks greatly more usable than what the official software
| from e.g. Logitech offers. Great job.
| gizdan wrote:
| It is! I used to be a part time Windows user (mostly games) so
| when I bought a new mouse, I installed their offical software
| to configure. It felt like they spent more time on the colours
| of the application than UX.
|
| Anyway fastforward many years to a few months ago. I am now
| full on Linux user and haven'r used my mouse in a long time.
| The configuration has reset and I needed a way to configure it
| again. Piper to the rescue. Super simple set up. It still had a
| few quirks for my mouse at the time, but it was actually easy
| to use and understand.
| codethief wrote:
| I do like the UI but is there also a way to store the config as a
| text file (i.e. a dotfile that I can commit to my dotfiles repo
| and restore if need be)?
| saulrh wrote:
| Used this a few months ago to configurate a logitech gaming
| mouse. Way better than the official software - easier to install
| and run, better UX, better, more features. The big thing I got
| out of it was the ability to easily assign any function to any
| key, which let me move mouse sensitivity off those two big
| buttons on the top-left that I kept hitting by accident because
| they were hanging out on a corner. Strongly recommend.
| satysin wrote:
| Can one finally adjust scroll wheel speed/sensitivity under Linux
| with this without it being a major pain??
| fctorial wrote:
| That doesn't have anything to do with the hardware. One scroll
| event is one scroll event as far as the mouse is concerned.
| satysin wrote:
| Correct however changing how the OS handles that is a real
| pain in the ass on Linux. On Mac and Windows it is a simple
| setting change but on Linux it requires trial and error
| terminal commands which is very annoying.
|
| This seems like the kind of thing an app like this would deal
| with no?
| robotmay wrote:
| Great application. There's a lot of good open-source tools for
| gaming PC devices on Linux (such as OpenRGB) that put the
| official tools on Windows to shame. And they universally have
| boring, practical GUIs that aren't branded for rad gamerz, which
| is such a breath of fresh air.
| zamadatix wrote:
| MSI afterburner is the worst offender of rad gamerz UI for me.
| Not be ause it is the most crazy looking, it's really
| relatively typical, but because it ships with tons of themes
| but they couldn't be bothered to make a single one look normal.
|
| Also it's a 32 bit app even though the drivers for the house it
| supports don't have 32 bit versions anymore. And it doesn't
| have a "apply OC and close" ability built in... Actually anyone
| know of an Nvidia OC tool for Windows these days that isn't so
| crap?
| mastax wrote:
| EVGA precision is okay.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Checking the latest version it comes with 19 themes these
| days...
| darkwater wrote:
| Yeah in general every single HW specific tool that has a full
| support on Linux will have a better UX design on Linux rather
| than the original Windows version from the HW vendor, because
| those are usually pestered with custom UIs, custom concepts etc
| etc
| plorntus wrote:
| Dont forget the advertisements for games and the usual
| privacy policy you have to accept to allow them to take
| whatever data they want.
| wswope wrote:
| I got a Logitech G915 keyboard about a year ago. Its default
| backlight pattern without official Logitech (Win/OS X only)
| drivers installed is a hideous RGB wave pattern with varying
| brightness. Only reason the keyboard has been usable for me is
| because someone was generous enough to make and share a program
| for custom backlighting control on Linux (g810-led on Github
| IIRC).
|
| Like you say, it completely beats out the official Windows
| drivers in terms of flexibility, not to mention it worked right
| out of the box and doesn't force telemetry on the user.
| plainnoodles wrote:
| TBH I like UIs that are built for rad gamerz. I don't like UIs
| that are built for rad gamerz that barely work because it was
| all the UI team could do to pull off the visual aesthetic and
| making the program actually work took a back-seat.
|
| I buy alienware hardware but avoid their software when I can,
| it looks cool but barely functions.
| konart wrote:
| Couldn't make it (well ratbagd actually) work with my Hero 403
| back in a day. Mouse works fine, but no matter how I tried to
| edit the config ratbagd does not see it when plugged via bt
| dongle
| Slackwise wrote:
| I've been wanting to develop a similar app, but a PWA with WebUSB
| instead, so an installation is optional, and configuration is
| available on the go.
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