Roccat Tyon Black: hybrid mouse and gamepad

    Hello GT! Not so long ago we studied Razer mice, but in addition to Razer, there are other vendors on the market that produce products for players. The most famous competitors, focused exclusively on the gaming peripherals - certainly - Roccat and SteelSeries. Today, our guest is one of the most “fighting” mice of all that I have ever met: Roccat Tyon . Eleven buttons, 8200 DPI, 32-bit processor, half a megabyte of internal memory, powerful software and an analog stick to control technology.





    Appearance, packaging and equipment


    Roccat Tyon looks at least unusual. The case of a traditional ergonomic shape bristled with angular buttons on all sides:



    A spring-loaded lever flaunted on the side, a mini-button in the bottom of the mouse, a “comb” or “fin” under the wheel, which you like, also a switch that can be swung left or to the right.



    Tyon has two colors - mice are dark gray-green and white, and in this case the difference is only in the color of the top panel. The sides will remain black regardless of the version of the mouse - it’s understandable, so it will get less dirty.



    Of course, like in any other "fashionable" toy, there is a backlight. This time, the engineers came up with a solution quite original: instead of how to make the logo and wheels all illuminated, they installed a luminous contour rim. Something reminds a neon illumination of the bottom of cars of times of Need For Speed ​​Underground and any "Fast and the Furious" beginning of this century.



    Case materials are pleasant. Two different types of plastic are used, the usual rough-matte on the sides and polished (but still matte) with a very nice tactile component - on the back.



    One minus - how many hands are not mine - the mouse is still quickly slammed. Even despite the matte plastic.

    The mouse is large, designed exclusively for full grip with the palm of your hand. Moreover, the shape is close to ideal: the hand rests precisely on the mouse, the notch under the thumb is perfection itself. All buttons are at a reasonable distance, pressed easily and confidently. There is not the slightest sensation that they saved on anything, made a blunder or did not think about the form.



    A similar approach not to praise simply will not work. There were some flaws: for example, in addition to the mouse in the box you can find ... nothing. Well, not nothing - a few pieces of paper with a guarantee instruction. Stickers? Replaceable “paws”? Forget it.

    Characteristics and iron


    For a start - a few dry numbers. In Roccat Tyon there are:

    - 11 buttons;
    - The scroll wheel (where are you without it!);
    - X-cellerator (analog stick);
    - Laser sensor with a sensitivity of 8200 DPI;
    - adjustable polling frequency of the USB port (up to 1 KHz);
    - 32-bit microprocessor;
    - 576 kilobytes of memory for storing settings;
    - Adjustable lift-off ranging from 1 to 5 mm;
    - Easy shift function.



    Well, I want to start with the Easy-Shift + technology, already classic for Roccat mice, allowing each button to additionally assign a second function. Clutch the “clutch pedal” (the mini-button that hangs at the bottom of the mouse) and the entire layout of the mouse changes to an alternative. Let go - everything returned to normal. Convenient, fast, practical - no need to create a separate profile. For example, you can hang macros on messages in a game chat and send all sorts of “PLEASE HELP ME” and other “COVER ME” via alt + side mouse buttons, and in one click. And since the buttons are as many as 11 pieces ... In general, there is plenty of room for creativity.



    Separately, it is worth noting the unusual side stick switch, which is located in the access zone of the thumb. Roccat came up with the name X-Celerator for this thing, but don’t call this thing - the essence will not change. An analog stick with only one degree of freedom, but an amazing sensitivity to the degree of depression. An indispensable thing when controlling the thrust of a helicopter in Battlefield 4. It is also applicable to other equipment, but not so necessary. In the system, you can assign it, for example, volume control or horizontal scrolling.

    A similar thing, but having a "discrete" position, is available directly under the wheel. The small comb lies exactly between the index and middle fingers, with light movements of which it “clicks” to the left or right.

    Another interesting iron feature is the built-in lift-off tracking and control module, due to which the cursor fluctuations due to the detachment of the mouse from the surface, are suppressed. It is convenient if you are accustomed to playing with the mouse swap: the jitter of the cursor when returning to the "surface" is practically excluded.

    Software


    As in any other self-respecting gadget for e-sportsmen and geeks just keen on games, the Roccat Tyon mouse becomes what it is, only with a proprietary configuration utility. It is downloaded separately from the official site and at the first start it immediately offers to update the mouse firmware. If the update fails and you see this sign:



    First of all, check if the drives and card readers are connected to the computer. Usually disabling flash drives and hub readers at once solves the problem of updating the mouse, without which the proprietary software will not even think about starting up.

    Well, after the launch, we are waiting for - the familiar structure of several tabs, in which various settings are thematically grouped.

    The first tab - Main Control - contains the most basic parameters for the mouse.



    You can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor from 200 DPI to 8200 DPI in steps of 200 units. The remaining settings duplicate what you can get from the classic settings of the Windows mouse, namely: the scroll wheel speed on both axes, the double-click speed, as well as ready-made sensitivity settings profiles that correspond to the most common peak values.

    By the way, if anyone does not know how to take advantage of the high DPI on the mouse and not suffer from the insane cursor speed: we set the system speed settings to minimum or almost-minimum, and adjust the sensitivity and cursor speed to comfortable values ​​with the DPI setting. This will ensure maximum disclosure of the high DPI capabilities and the cursor will not behave inappropriately.

    Here, a choice of language takes place, but Russian is supported very, very conditionally: it is in the list, but the interface remains in English.



    The second tab, Button Assignment , contains options for setting up and reconfiguring all the buttons and controllers of the mouse. Design - two-panel, and not casual. The left part is the “normal” state of the mouse. The right one is the “alternative” one, which is activated by clamping the Easy-Shift + modifier.



    By the way, each button hides lists with the most popular functions and shortcuts for popular games and applications. From here you can go to the macro editor. The interface is simple and clear, so there is nothing to describe here: anyone who understands the words “new”, “save” and “start” can create, save, record a macro.



    For the most accurate delay adjustment, there is an advanced interface with which, in principle, it is also more or less clear: it resembles a sequencer for Midi-music generators.



    This “button assignment” does not end there: since Roccat did not make any systematic approach, and for each mouse you need to download a separate driver, and the control panel window does not change in size ... then a separate sub-tab is provided for setting the side buttons - everything did not fit into the main . There, almost everything is the same, adjusted for the location of the controls.



    And one more thing: you can assign X-Input inputs to almost any button ...



    Or D-input and thus adapt the mouse to old toys that require an appropriate gamepad.



    The next tab is the most interesting - Advanced Control. It should dwell in more detail. This is how it looks:



    The first option here on the left side of the tab is an advanced sensitivity setting along the X and Y axes. It is rarely used, mainly for first-person shooters, or rather for shooting from sniper rifles. Although for this, you can simply adapt the EasyAim feature, which temporarily decreases sensitively when the button is pressed:



    The settings for the tracking and distance control modules are located below, which serve to amortize the parasitic movements of the mouse due to its accidental tearing off from the surface and hand trembling. By default, it does not work, since it requires calibration, which we perform in this menu.



    The difference "before" and "after" is noticeable in the eye. No jitter of the cursor, no “blur” in movement, ideally clear movement of the pointer exactly where you need + minimal changes in the position of the cursor when “moving” the mouse.



    In addition, “classic” settings are available: port polling frequency, duplicated system multiplier settings for cursor speed. In the same section, X-Celerator is configured and the button for resetting to default settings (for sure, absolutely everyone will be useful at first, because getting lost in such an abundance of options is easier than it sounds).



    In the upper right part there are settings that must be disabled: voice alerts about trophies, switching profiles and modes. For the first time I came across this thing in the dead of night, when after another click of the mouse the headphones shouted “Congratulations! You have won a trophy! ". I almost fell off the chair.

    Next is the Color Control tab with the settings of the folk entertainment, i.e. backlight. They overdid the interface, at first it seemed that the backlight settings did not affect anything - the mouse as it shone with all the colors of the rainbow, and continued to shine. To select a specific color, set the Color Flow mode to OFF.



    There is also a switch for a warning system about game events (the one with the head of an alien). As conceived by AlienWare, when something happens in the game, your peripherals begin to glow in a dangerous color and warns of an incident. I don’t know how anyone, but in the game I look at the mini-map and listen to notifications through the headphones, and I don’t stare at the mouse, which is not even visible in the battle in general. Doubtful feature.

    Separately, it should be mentioned such a section, to put it mildly, unexpected for mouse software, such as RAD . Here's what it looks like:



    Yes, yes, this is a tab with achievements! Here they are called trophies, but the essence is the same. They are given for mileage / clicks / scrolls - that is, simply for the use of the mouse itself. The trend of computer games smoothly creeps into other digital realms and even crawled here. Of course, if in a good way, RAD should be recognized as a classic "whistle", because there really is little use from it, but it’s funny, of course. Other manufacturers (Razer, for example) instead of useless achievements give a map of clicks, activity zones, sensible statistics. Of course, the gadget’s overall mileage can also be tracked here, but Razer’s approach in this case is prettier to me.

    The last tab Update / Support is a form for sending requests to technical support, as well as checking for driver / firmware updates. The mouse’s ROM is updated, by the way, at the first connection, so that there are no unnecessary questions “why it doesn’t work”. The policy is somewhat reminiscent of Apple, which knows better what the user needs, but in this case it’s for the better: you have already been given the freedom to configure and customize, but nobody wants to rake out errors and rake letters in support because of old firmware.



    At the bottom of the utility window, regardless of the tab that is currently open, global profile settings options are displayed. Create Profile, Load Profile, Save Profile, Edit Profile - I think it makes no sense to explain what is what. And for each profile - five settings slots. In short - it’s very convenient, especially you are an avid gamer or sharpened the mouse under Photoshop, an illustrator and some other editor.

    Summing up the description of the software, we can say that everything is absolutely standard for an advanced gaming mouse, with the exception of the innovative RAD section (however, it is still more for pampering). Softina is simple, intuitive and gives really wide possibilities for customizing the gadget for your beloved one, and it works without connecting to a network. Of the minuses, perhaps only one and the one is not directly unambiguous - the lack of Russification.

    Oh, yes, I almost forgot: all the settings are written to the mouse memory, and saving them takes thirty seconds, even if you change the sensitivity or color of the backlight. At first, I blamed the slow software, the slow memory, or some other troubles, but it turned out that the solution to the problem lies in a completely different sphere. It is enough to turn off the anti-virus scan of the folder with the Roccat Tyon driver and loading the settings into the mouse will take only a couple of seconds.

    Behavior in games


    The cursor itself is at its best. Not to say that I am a great first-person shooter player, but everyone will feel the difference between a hundred-ruble Janius and a good mouse. Integration of analog controls into the mouse is much more interesting: flying in Battlefield 4 by helicopter without it is a hell. No, of course, zadro ... enthusiastic players are not used to it, but having an accurate and convenient control right under the thumb is, nevertheless, a plus.



    You don’t use most of the additional key-buttons-switches in battle - you either have to be a frantic fan of customization of control and get used to the custom layout for a long, long, long time, or just do not bathe using additional buttons occasionally. Assign, there, a grenade throw or a butt strike on one of the additional buttons, a card on the other. The left hand will have to be moved smaller on the keyboard.

    Summary


    The mouse is excellent. Ergonomics for five with a plus. Customization is awesome. The accuracy of moving the cursor - you can’t find fault, especially after calibration under the playing surface. The price just does not please (especially in retrospect) - but it's all a dollar, damned, will not return to normal values.

    Pros:
    - Excellent in the hand;
    - Moderately easy;
    - Pleasant body materials;
    - An abundance of buttons;
    - Analog stick;
    - Clear operation of the wheel and all buttons: the force is perfectly calibrated;
    - In software, you can configure everything or almost everything, and without any troubles;
    - EasyShift + helps out, sometimes more than a scattering of buttons;
    - Auto-update applications and firmware;
    - The cable is perfectly braided, it is soft and does not cause resistance to movement, the braid itself is tight and does not wear out.

    Cons:
    - Only one grip: full palm. Lovers of compact mice are not suitable;
    - The weight of the mouse does not change. I am completely satisfied with the "native" weight, but some like heavy mice .;
    - The software interface is heavy, there is no systematic approach;
    - For adequate use, the mouse requires painstaking customization; Unconfigured - just a mouse, no more, half the buttons just take up space and increase the price of the device;
    - Saving the settings in the mouse memory takes two eternities and a little more, but this is being treated,
    - Protection from the kink of the wire is nonexistent.



    Verdict


    A device for fans of games and customization for themselves. Ready to spend an hour on settings to punish and conquer? Tyon to help you. Yes, even if from some angles he looks more than funny, but this is a very sensible fighting rodent.



    Many buttons for all occasions, excellent sharpening for shooters of different grades and colors, as well as for MMO, an excellent sensor that fully opens only on a good carpet with calibration.



    The mouse is a direct competitor for the Razer Naga: even though there are fewer buttons on the Roccat, but there are as many features.



    If you are more inclined towards plug-n-play and minimal customization of the mouse for yourself - there is Roccat Kone XTD , devoid of all that is superfluous and possessing the same level of quality and performance. We’ll talk about her some other time.

    Shoot accurately and win! Yours

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