Do you use cursor acceleration?

[jamsomito]

Do you use cursor acceleration?

I ask because recently I've had to turn it on. I strongly prefer no acceleration whatsoever, because I like moving my mouse from one spot to another, then moving back to where I was and have the same spot on my mousepad be the the same spot on my screen every time. With acceleration, if you move more quickly or slowly, you have to pick the mouse up a lot more to move it back to a comfortable position.

The thing is, with no acceleration, I don't have the precision I want. If I want to make some fine adjustments to a table in Word or something, I can't just move a line by one pixel. Or, if I want to resize a window, sometimes I can't even get the cursor on the line that I want to move! That's extremely frustrating. So, I've recently succumbed to turning acceleration on and it's quite an adjustment.

Am I missing something? Do I need a better mousepad or something? This has happened on a Logitech MX510, Microsoft Intellimouse, and Microsoft Sculpt Ergo Mouse.

 

[Ultima99]

Cursor acceleration is a personal issue best left between a family and their doctor.

 

[Megalith]

Hell no.

 

[sharknice]

Lower your sensitivity. Mouse acceleration is for noobs with terrible motor skills.

 

[jamsomito]

Lower your sensitivity. Mouse acceleration is for noobs with terrible motor skills.

I would, but then I'd have to pick up my mouse anyway when I get to the edge if my mouse pad. Same effect so I don't really see the difference.

 

[Skripka]

Lower your sensitivity. Mouse acceleration is for noobs with terrible motor skills.

Higher resolution mouse sensors FTW.

 

[HeavensCloud]

Acceleration was causing stuttering for some reason on CS:GO. Turned it off, problem went away.

 

[Nenu]

The mousepad can matter a lot (as can the mouse and its config)
Try using a piece of plain undamaged/uncreased cardboard and see if tracks better, its a pretty good surface to track but has too much drag.
If it does track better, the cursor may move a little faster so it may be necessary to reduce sensitivity to get single pixel movement again.

There are mouse surfaces that can track as well or even better.
I use the cover of a hardback blank cartridge paper book, like students have.

 

[ithehappy]

I don't know what is this "acceleration" some professional gamers talk about, but never felt it! Never used any optical mice until now. I have always kept that "Enhance pointer precision" on, to me it always felt much more controlled, much precise indeed, the cursor movement sycned with my hand's movement, whenever I turned it off the cursor kinda jitters, and seems uncontrollable.

Should I really turn this thing off? I am serious about gaming, but no, nothing near to be a professional gamer, and never will be. Also gaming isn't my "only" priority either, normal works along with some Lightroom is equally important along with gaming.

 

[Nenu]

You mouse, other mouse settings or the mousemat may be the problem, or a combination.

When you turn off "Enhance Pointer Precision" you will probably need to reduce the sensitivity in your mouse application.
The "speed" setting in the Windows mouse config should be left dead in the centre.
Only use your mouse application software to make adjustments, dont use the Windows settings.

 

[qbanb8582]

I always turn off mouse acceleration and mouse smoothing. I can never get used to it for some reason.

 

[jamsomito]

You mouse, other mouse settings or the mousemat may be the problem, or a combination.

When you turn off "Enhance Pointer Precision" you will probably need to reduce the sensitivity in your mouse application.
The "speed" setting in the Windows mouse config should be left dead in the centre.
Only use your mouse application software to make adjustments, dont use the Windows settings.

This might be my problem... I only ever use the windows settings. However, I don't recall installing any special software for my mouse. Definitely not with my MX510. But I suppose microsoft has a bloated program they force you to install with their products.

 

[Nenu]

Download the application from Logitech for the MX510.

 

[ithehappy]

You mouse, other mouse settings or the mousemat may be the problem, or a combination.

When you turn off "Enhance Pointer Precision" you will probably need to reduce the sensitivity in your mouse application.
The "speed" setting in the Windows mouse config should be left dead in the centre.
Only use your mouse application software to make adjustments, dont use the Windows settings.

Absolutely.

For past six hours I have been testing with Acceleration off, I really don't know if I like that! I like when it's on, that's for sure, and I am not talking about gaming, normal stuffs, some photo editing in Lightroom and all.
With Acceleration off, I find 850-900 CPI is okay for me, with it being on, I find 1000-1050 is okay. Polling set at 1000 Hz of course! This is a G400s.

Maybe in games turning off acceleration is nice for aiming and all, but I don't know, I am doubtful for anything other than gaming!

 

[sharknice]

This might be my problem... I only ever use the windows settings. However, I don't recall installing any special software for my mouse. Definitely not with my MX510. But I suppose microsoft has a bloated program they force you to install with their products.

I made this guide for people like you.

 

[jamsomito]

I made this guide for people like you.

Hey, great write up my friend. I think I'm doing all of that already though. Maybe I just like my sensitivity too high for what I'm trying to do.

FWIW I tried the cardboard as a mouse pad and it's not any better.

 

[andrewfee]

The simplest way to explain it is that with acceleration enabled, you are using speed to control your movements, and with acceleration disabled you are using distance.

With acceleration disabled and a mouse set to 400 CPI, for every inch you move the mouse, the cursor will always travel 400 pixels on-screen, no matter how quickly or slowly the mouse moves.
Using acceleration with a mouse set to 400 CPI, if you move the mouse quickly it might travel 800px, and only travel 200px if you move it slowly.

So if you're playing a competitive game, disabling acceleration is the best option for accuracy since your inputs ignore the speed at which you move the mouse.
It doesn't matter how quickly you react, your accuracy is always going to be the same, since it is only distance which matters.
If you use acceleration, you are very likely to over-shoot your target if you react quickly, since the distance your aim travels is completely variable.

It's a lot easier to build muscle-memory for distance than it is to try and control the speed of your hand precisely.
With acceleration disabled, it feels like your inputs in the real world are directly connected to what is happening on the display.
When using acceleration there is a disconnect between your inputs and what happens on the screen.

On the desktop, I can understand why some people prefer acceleration. It lets you keep the mouse at a lower sensitivity and still cover the whole screen without traveling much distance if you move the mouse quickly, or it lets you use a very high sensitivity but still maintain some level of control if you move the mouse slowly.
I still don't like the disconnect between the mouse and the display, and the unpredictability that acceleration brings though, even on the desktop.

 

[sharknice]

The simplest way to explain it is that with acceleration enabled, you are using speed to control your movements, and with acceleration disabled you are using distance.

With acceleration disabled and a mouse set to 400 CPI, for every inch you move the mouse, the cursor will always travel 400 pixels on-screen, no matter how quickly or slowly the mouse moves.
Using acceleration with a mouse set to 400 CPI, if you move the mouse quickly it might travel 800px, and only travel 200px if you move it slowly.

So if you're playing a competitive game, disabling acceleration is the best option for accuracy since your inputs ignore the speed at which you move the mouse.
It doesn't matter how quickly you react, your accuracy is always going to be the same, since it is only distance which matters.
If you use acceleration, you are very likely to over-shoot your target if you react quickly, since the distance your aim travels is completely variable.

It's a lot easier to build muscle-memory for distance than it is to try and control the speed of your hand precisely.
With acceleration disabled, it feels like your inputs in the real world are directly connected to what is happening on the display.
When using acceleration there is a disconnect between your inputs and what happens on the screen.

On the desktop, I can understand why some people prefer acceleration. It lets you keep the mouse at a lower sensitivity and still cover the whole screen without traveling much distance if you move the mouse quickly, or it lets you use a very high sensitivity but still maintain some level of control if you move the mouse slowly.
I still don't like the disconnect between the mouse and the display, and the unpredictability that acceleration brings though, even on the desktop.

Yeah pretty much. A really good example is if your target is 10 pixels to the right of your cursor looking at you and about to shoot at you.

With mouse acceleration you can't quickly move your mouse 10 pixels because if you move it quickly it will move further and you'll overshoot the target, you have to move it slowly to the target. Without mouse acceleration you can move the mouse as fast as you want and hit the target much quicker.

 

[flod]

i've heard some quake pros use in-game mouse accel (not the terrible default windows setting)
in cs, ibuypower swag uses accel

mouse accel isn't intrisically a bad thing as many people like to believe, as it allows quicker flicks without losing precision in small adjustments. it's just that the default windows accel curve is really terrible...

 

[SirMaster]

Wow, I'm surprised most people don't like acceleration. I love it. My brain doesn't seem to have a problem correlating mouse speed with distance.

Just because speed now affects total travel distance doesnt mean that it's unpredictable, it;s just an extra variable.

I think that for those who have learned to control the acceleration it can be an advantage. If you let your brain get used to acceleration for tens of thousands of hours I promise it will learn it.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Wow, I'm surprised most people don't like acceleration. I love it. My brain doesn't seem to have a problem correlating mouse speed with distance.

Just because speed now affects total travel distance doesnt mean that it's unpredictable, it;s just an extra variable.

I think that for those who have learned to control the acceleration it can be an advantage. If you let your brain get used to acceleration for tens of thousands of hours I promise it will learn it.

I like it, well only because I've always used it and I've developed a muscle memory that knows how the extra acceleration is applied based on how quickly I move the mouse. I agree it's nothing more than an extra variable. I also like it only with 400 dpi or so though, the acceleration tend to get more obvious at higher dpi which almost makes it feel "laggy" somehow but at 400 dpi I like it. I'm also the weirdball that plays with 125Hz because the movement gets "too smooth" and requires higher DPI the higher the polling rate.

For me acceleration on / 400 dpi / 125Hz feels the most natural and it also works perfectly for desktop use so no need to switch dpi for windows. But I guess it's a matter of what you've gotten used to. If I try acceleration off my aim goes really bad and I'm too lazy to adjust to acceleration off so therefore I just kept using it since it doesn't seem to hinder my aiming at all (I've played UT series competitively) and in these games it also brings an advantage in the sense you can do very quick 180 turns since I like to play in the way mostly my palm moves but the hand keeps still in the same place.

 

[jamsomito]

Ok, so 1.5 years later, I finally got a new mouse, and it fixed the problem. The sensitivity of my old mouse, 800dpi, was just too low for the resolutions I had on my monitor (actually, too slow for my tastes for 1:1 tracking on my monitor). I got a G502, and I keep it right around 2000 dpi for regular desktop use. Seems about right. Oh, and I turned the windows mouse sensitivity to 6 out of 11 (middle).

FINALLY... I've been missing this for 10 years.