Windows Mouse | Provides absolute pixel coordinates of the cursor if the mouse is in the renderer window. | |
DirectInput Mouse | Provides relative mouse movement information for any mouse activity. |
The Windows Mouse node is used for querying positional information on where in the renderer window the mouse cursor is. The node provides this information both in pixels and as values between -1 and 1. In addition, there are also various events that are fired when buttons are pressed, the mouse wheel is turned or the cursors leaves the rendering area.
In most situations, the Enter-/LeaveOutput and Enter-/LeaveWin properties will fire at the same time. Depending on the aspect ratio set in the Project Properties, the size of the renderer window and the fullscreen mode (virtual vs. exclusive mode), there can be a difference. If the aspect ratio of the project is different than the aspect ratio of the display and the application goes to virtual fullscreen, the window will be the size of the complete screen but the output area will only be a part of it (in fact a subwindow inside the fullscreen window). In this case, mouse coordinates will only be sent when the cursor is in the output area. In exclusive fullscreen, there is only one fullscreen window and the ratio adaption is done on the graphics cards. There the whole window including the borders will detect mouse movement.
In contrast to the Windows Mouse, the DirectInput Mouse node is used to measure relative movement. The Relative output properties contain the number of pixels traveled during the last frame the mouse was moved.
The DirectInput Mouse is completely independent of the renderer window. Even if the mouse is moved over the display boundary and the mouse cursor will stop, the correct "speed" of the movement will still be returned.