Poll: Mouse acceleration

[Dirty Hipsters]

I prefer not to have mouse acceleration, but to be honest it doesn't bother me that much when it's on, unless it's a competitive game.

I accidentally turned mouse acceleration on in Bioshock Infinite, and didn't even realize it until I'd finished half the game. It felt much better when I turned it off, but it's not like I was struggling with the game for the first half or anything.

 

[Zipa]

There is nothing wrong with it per say - as long as it can be adjusted or turned off totally. After all some people may like it while others like myself prefer not to have it.

It is however completely unacceptable when a shit port has it forced on and it is so obtrusive that it makes doing basic stuff like mouse based camera control unusable.

A good recent example that comes to mind is Ride to hell - Retribution.

 

[Yellowbeard]

As much as I hate mouse acceleration in-game, it doesn't piss me off nearly as much as when the mouse is fucked in the menus, or when the menu sensitivity and game sensitivity are wildly different.

Bioshock 1 is just fucked in the mouse department.

 

[aelreth]

I use the RAT 7 and utilize the same DpI until I need to increase DpI for precision. Consistency is best.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Here you go http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/763/cpl-mouse-fix/

Quite popular in the counter strike scene to use this to remove mouse acceleration.
Haven't used this in a few years since I played css but I presume it still works.

I'll second that. Well, I'm using something else (can't remember the name of it) but it essentially does the same, it removes any mouse acceleration options from the registry, so even if it was forced on, it won't work. Unless, the game itself has mouse acceleration for some reason (usually the game just uses the in-built Windows one).

OT: Well, I'll put it as mildly as I can, mouse acceleration can go die in a fire and I'll feel sorry for the fire. It's a horrid abomination that I can only work with if I'm using a touchpad, even then, I'd rather swipe a couple more times than turn it on, to be honest.

Recently, I started playing HL2 again. And as with any other game, I immediately flipped to the options to tinker with stuff when I encountered something I haven't seen before, since it must have been brought in with a recent update of the Source engine. The option read "Raw input" and was under "Mouse" in the options. When I read what it did I decided that, like, EVERY game should have that now. No excuse. Raw input bypasses the Windows Control Panel settings and...well, uses the raw input of the mouse. No acceleration, smoothing or adjustments.

Note that CPL itself only works in Windows XP and below. For more recent versions of Windows, check out this site: http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html

OT: I used to think I could play with mouse acceleration turned on. Then I actually turned it off. Now I can't stand it even in general Windows programs, let alone games.

 

[DoPo]

Note that CPL itself only works in Windows XP and below. For more recent versions of Windows, check out this site: http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html

Ah yes, that's the one I'm using.

Mouse acceleration should allow you to do pirouettes with fast movements and aim accurately with slow movements. If it's so sensitive that even a gnat's cough spins you 360 degrees then your problem isn't really mouse acceleration, it's that your mouse sensitivity is too damn high.

That's a rather technical view, in reality it doesn't work like that. With no mouse acceleration, you know exactly how much to move the mouse to get from point A to point B. You can then move it less or more to get half or twice the distance and etc. Point is, you are in complete control. With mouse acceleration, that goes right out the fucking window - going from point A to point B either over- or undershoots the targer, which you'd instinctively try to correct, but you most probably miss the mark again, as you either move back the mouse too little or too much. It is indeed jerk-y.

Windows uses it by default. Try jerking your pointer halfway across the screen and slowly moving it back. Unless you turned it off you will have to move your mouse a lot more on the return journey. Do you have trouble with the Windows pointer? Probably not.

I don't know about OP but I do. If you see me using a PC with acceleration on, it looks like it's probably the second or third time I'm picking up a mouse - I'm fumbling around and I can't hit the things I'm aiming for and more often than not, I just decide to go with constant speed to not miss the button/icon/whatever which turns out to be rather slow-ish.

The main reason to avoid it in games is that without it you can move the mouse and shoot on a reflex, but you can't move the mouse a certain distance at a certain speed . If you have a good mouse you can be fast and precise without mouse acceleration, but with it you can be fast or precise but not both at the same time.

Which is something you knew, yet I don't know why it needed explaining.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Note that CPL itself only works in Windows XP and below. For more recent versions of Windows, check out this site: http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html

Ah yes, that's the one I'm using.

Mouse acceleration should allow you to do pirouettes with fast movements and aim accurately with slow movements. If it's so sensitive that even a gnat's cough spins you 360 degrees then your problem isn't really mouse acceleration, it's that your mouse sensitivity is too damn high.

That's a rather technical view, in reality it doesn't work like that. With no mouse acceleration, you know exactly how much to move the mouse to get from point A to point B. You can then move it less or more to get half or twice the distance and etc. Point is, you are in complete control. With mouse acceleration, that goes right out the fucking window - going from point A to point B either over- or undershoots the targer, which you'd instinctively try to correct, but you most probably miss the mark again, as you either move back the mouse too little or too much. It is indeed jerk-y.

Windows uses it by default. Try jerking your pointer halfway across the screen and slowly moving it back. Unless you turned it off you will have to move your mouse a lot more on the return journey. Do you have trouble with the Windows pointer? Probably not.

I don't know about OP but I do. If you see me using a PC with acceleration on, it looks like it's probably the second or third time I'm picking up a mouse - I'm fumbling around and I can't hit the things I'm aiming for and more often than not, I just decide to go with constant speed to not miss the button/icon/whatever which turns out to be rather slow-ish.

The main reason to avoid it in games is that without it you can move the mouse and shoot on a reflex, but you can't move the mouse a certain distance at a certain speed . If you have a good mouse you can be fast and precise without mouse acceleration, but with it you can be fast or precise but not both at the same time.

Which is something you knew, yet I don't know why it needed explaining.

To add to your last statement, it doesn't even take a good mouse. Get the cheapest optical or laser mouse you can find. It's gonna have a DPI of 1000 or better, which is sufficient for pretty much anything. It's not like we're talking ball mice or first gen lasers here.

I should know, I game with a low end logitech mouse, it's not even a gaming model.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I have mouse acceleration and smoothing off. But I played shooters for well over three years on the PC with both on, and I didn't notice when either were turned on or off. I don't know, might be my mouse sensitivity that changes that.

It's always off now, though.