Why does everyone hate mouse acceleration?

Everyone always recommends turning off 'enhance pointer precision', and a zillion other hacks to get absolutely no acceleration. They always give the argument that the mouse should move the same distance no matter what the speed is, however, am I the only one that loves mouse acceleration for work and gaming? For example, say I'm playing Quake. With acceleration turned on, I get a lot more accuracy trying to rail someone at a distance, and at the same time, if someone appears beside me, I can quickly flick my wrist and spin right around. The same applies to general work; both accuracy and speed exactly when you need it. Now, don't mix this up with mouse smoothing, or whatever algorithms some of these games apply. That drives me crazy.

Are there any applications for controlling the mouse acceleration curve in windows? Aside from just turning it on and off, it would be nice to manually tweak the curve.

It's a matter of taste. If you've always used Mouse Acceleration, then you'll have no problem with it in games. Most of us never use it anyway, so naturally when it's forced in games it'll throw us for a loop.

It's similar to the Look Inversion preference.

its all to the person, ive never had to turn it off. but im sure if you tried it for a while then went back to a game with acceleration on again you'd be bothered by it.

I was the same way with AA, never noticed jaggies till i get a gpu that could handle them, now lack of AA bugs me in games lol.

I never really notice

depends on the game.. for arcade style games like quake it works great.. but when your playing a game that has correct size hit boxes then its better to have the acceleration off since you have better control.. honestly i hate mouse acceleration.. which is why i bought my razer lachesis so i can manually control my mouse speeds while im in the game.. im constantly changing the DPI settings on my mouse as im playing and even when im in the middle of a firefight with some one.. when you have the acceleration on(even if you turn acceleration off in a game windows has its own mouse acceleration which can still effect games) it exadurates the DPI changes.. to the point where i have to set my DPI as low as possible just so i can control my character otherwise he will spin around like a top if i have my DPI set at 2000 and mouse acceleration turned on..

Did they also tell you the following:

* lower your resolution because low resolution = more accurate?
* laser mouse sucks, optical mouse rocks!
* turn off vsync
* 100fps or go home
* REG REG REG, bullet registration!!!

It's counter-intuitive. Two centimeters of mouse movement should correlate to a rotation of X degrees, and X shouldn't change because you moved the mouse two centimeters more slowly or more quickly. I genuinely don't think the brain copes well when it's presented with so many variables it needs to take into consideration to just to perform a simple task.

Frankly, I have no issue with mouse acceleration and with people using it if they wish, but what I do take issue with is when it cannot be disabled.

You're still playing Quake?

Originally Posted by phide

Two centimeters of mouse movement should correlate to a rotation of X degrees, and X shouldn't change because you moved the mouse two centimeters more slowly or more quickly. I genuinely don't think the brain copes well when it's presented with so many variables it needs to take into consideration to just to perform a simple task.

I agree, I believe you will always improve your aim and consistency of being on point every time if you disable mouse acceleration (removing one variable from the equation).

Also agreed that the only time it's bothersome is when it can't be disabled.

I use it in Quake Live. I would use it every FPS game if it was implemented as well as it is in QL.

Precision .

Originally Posted by Jynio

Everyone always recommends turning off 'enhance pointer precision', and a zillion other hacks to get absolutely no acceleration. They always give the argument that the mouse should move the same distance no matter what the speed is, however, am I the only one that loves mouse acceleration for work and gaming? For example, say I'm playing Quake. With acceleration turned on, I get a lot more accuracy trying to rail someone at a distance, and at the same time, if someone appears beside me, I can quickly flick my wrist and spin right around. The same applies to general work; both accuracy and speed exactly when you need it. Now, don't mix this up with mouse smoothing, or whatever algorithms some of these games apply. That drives me crazy.

Are there any applications for controlling the mouse acceleration curve in windows? Aside from just turning it on and off, it would be nice to manually tweak the curve.

I don't want to sound like a dick here but... you clearly don't know how much better it is to not have mouse acceleration.

Maybe if you went to Apple's OSX operating system you'd understand how poor mouse acceleration is. Apple uses some horrific mouse acceleration curves and they don't even provide any way to disable it. Probably the only reason why I refuse to use OSX as my primary operating system on my MacBook.

Mouse acceleration is just such a poor idea for those who require precision of any sort. My hands already accelerate accordingly to the situation at hand, I don't need some outside influence further interfering with what I do in an attempt to "help me along". The bottom line is, those who require precision want the computer to interpret their input as closely to the movements they make in reality as possible. It isn't even just mouse acceleration, I've altered the USB driver files to alter the polling rate on my system from the default (terrible) 125 hz to 500 hz. It DOES make a difference and I can clearly tell when a system is running 125 hz.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think people should be excluding mouse acceleration, because I know people who genuinely need it for one reason or another. But then again, those people tend to be those who find it necessary due to some physical condition and are happy to be able to use a computer at all, let alone play a game competitively and pull off headshot after headshot in a game. It's just that there's a problem when a game or operating system doesn't let you choose to turn it off.

Originally Posted by xSnowmaNx

My hands already accelerate accordingly to the situation at hand, I don't need some outside influence further interfering with what I do in an attempt to "help me along". The bottom line is, those who require precision want the computer to interpret their input as closely to the movements they make in reality as possible.

Thats pretty much how I am, my hands already know what to do and acceleration just gets in the way. If I had always played with accel on I would probably be used to it.

No accel leads to quick wrist flicking to make up the distances, which I believe caused the optical vs laser issue. Early laser sensors could lose track, I dont have that problem now in the G9x though.

Originally Posted by Stiletto

You're still playing Quake?

Whats wrong with that? I still play QuakeWorld all the time.

I hate mouse acceleration and smoothing, it just feels awkward. It makes precise movements on the mouse feel inaccurate.

Originally Posted by xSnowmaNx

Maybe if you went to Apple's OSX operating system you'd understand how poor mouse acceleration is. Apple uses some horrific mouse acceleration curves and they don't even provide any way to disable it. Probably the only reason why I refuse to use OSX as my primary operating system on my MacBook.

Yup. I can't stand using a mouse in OSX. It always throws me way off. Luckily I love the multitouch touchpad on the MacBooks and never feel the need to use a mouse.

i turn mouse acceleration off because i want full control over my mouse, i dont want something else interfering with my movement/aiming

Originally Posted by P4rD0nM3

Did they also tell you the following:

* lower your resolution because low resolution = more accurate?
* laser mouse sucks, optical mouse rocks!
* turn off vsync
* 100fps or go home
* REG REG REG, bullet registration!!!

AND they're right ( except the lower resolution part, sharpness > smoothness in my book )

0 or close to zero mouse acceleration is vital, i've been using mouse fixes since 2004 and I just can't go back, using accelfix20060417 by anir on XP SP2 and cheese moufix on windows 7 atm

Btw the only decent mice for low sensers are : Qpad 5K - steelseries Xai - logitech g500 - g9x, too bad that they all suffer from a little bit hardcoded positive mouse acceleration from what i read http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1767295

Because doesn't feel like precise movement, it feels as though my pointer is lagging behind my movements.

Originally Posted by xSnowmaNx

Maybe if you went to Apple's OSX operating system you'd understand how poor mouse acceleration is. Apple uses some horrific mouse acceleration curves and they don't even provide any way to disable it.

You can use USB Overdrive to disable the acceleration curves in OS X or use vendor-specific drivers with your mouse.

Originally Posted by phide

You can use USB Overdrive to disable the acceleration curves in OS X or use vendor-specific drivers with your mouse.

It doesn't fully eliminate mouse acceleration. And I'd rather not have to have the trouble with dealing with a pop up every time I start nor pay for a program I shouldn't have to buy.