Mouse input has a delay and feels unresponsive
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- Dominant language
- C
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Description
This certainly isn't a big problem, but it's an annoying issue that has always existed with RA. There's an input delay when using a mouse, it feels unresponsive, and occasionally the delay will cause me to click on the wrong thing.
In the image below i'm moving my mouse upwards, and the Windows system cursor is in orange and the RA cursor is in white. You can see the RA cursor lags significantly behind...

To reproduce:
- Open RA in fullscreen
- Press F11 twice to see both the RA cursor and the system cursor at the same time
- Move the mouse around. With both cursors visible it will be more obvious
The problem becomes worse when moving the cursor over playlists because now the cursor will also show visible stuttering if you have thumbnails displayed for each game (RA loading thumbnails causes this stutter). But the system cursor doesn't stutter at all. You can also see that menu buttons are not highlighted and selectable until the RA cursor moves over them, so the OS system cursor can be on top of a button, but you can't actually select it until the RA cursor moves over it.
RetroArch 1.10.3 was used (but it happens in all versions).
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the issue in fullscreen RetroArch: press F11 twice, compare the RA and Windows cursors, and move over playlists with thumbnails enabled. No source file or test is named in the report; done means the RA cursor and menu interaction no longer visibly lag or stutter behind the system cursor.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c
- Domain
- desktop, performance
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100