Mouse acceleration fix: Does it do anything? Do I need it?

[taq8ojh]

I've been hearing about it now and then in past, but never really paid much attention to it, especially since I disable the enhanced mouse precision option already anyway. But out of curiosity I googled it up today and gave it a brief read, and am a bit confused.
Specifically, the fix I have in mind is this. Apparently there are a few of those floating around.
Is it really true games switch the acceleration back on automatically? I find it hard to believe.

 

[taq8ojh]

bump

 

[Dankk]

Is it really true games switch the acceleration back on automatically? I find it hard to believe.

I don't know. IMO, you should probably ask yourself: Do you notice any mouse acceleration being applied while playing games? Does it feel off kilter? Does it bother you? If not, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

That page you linked to puts it a little more succinctly: If you don't know you need it, then you don't need it.

Also keep in mind that mouse acceleration isn't necessarily a bad thing. The whole purpose of acceleration is to allow you to make quicker movements while still retaining accuracy. I actually prefer having a little bit of it in first person shooters. It's personal preference, but it's not inherently bad.

 

[imaheadcase]

This was already fixed in a MS update.

 

[balloonshark]

I asked about it in the BF4 topic as was told it was fixed. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35892753&highlight=#post35892753

I would also like to know more about the subject as I need all the help I can get right now.

Also, do you use this trick? If so do you think it helps? http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2955065222834999746/

 

[taq8ojh]

This was already fixed in a MS update.

Oh, cool. Do you remember which one and when?

Also, do you use this trick? If so do you think it helps? http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2955065222834999746/

I don't know, this looks very much like placebo to me. That kind of thing people invent out of the blue and then start believing it makes awesome significant immediatelly noticeable differences. The more people say it the more masses of sheep believe it.
Bottom line is, this would result in completely different mouse sensitivity than what works for me, so it's basically useless and makes no sense in the first place.

 

[RaulF]

This was already fixed in a MS update.

I have read this too.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It's a tricky subject, basically mouse acceleration makes mouse input non-linear, when you move the mouse over X cm ideally you want that to represent Y pixels on the screen, or a certain degree of rotation/input in a game.

With acceleration turned on it alters the amount of measured input depending on how fast the Xcm of movement was made, say you move the mouse slowly 5cm to the left, that might give you 180 degree turn in game. Now if you want to do a 180 turn in game very quickly and you move the mouse the same 5cm to the left but really fast you find yourself turning 360 degrees in game, for most people it makes control extremely unpredictable and unnatural.

In windows the "enhance pointer precision" in the mouse controls enables that, any game which samples windows mouse movement will be effected.

To make it worse some games sample the movement and apply their own internal acceleration in the game engine, that differs from game to game and some gamaes (although not all) have mouse acceleration options in the menu.

Lastly I think the windows 8.1 update broke acceleration and forced it on which was an issue and was then later patched to return correct behaviour.

 

[BrightCandle]

Its actually simple enough to test in a game to see if its impacted by acceleration.
You need a marker object of some description that is accurate, I use a ruler.

The basic procedure is as follows:
1) Find something to look at in game that is nice and distinctive vertical object so you can compare the horizontal movement and tell accurately whether you are looking in the same place.
2) Place your mouse in the centre of the mat, or one edge and place the marker/ruler to mark the postion of the mouse.
3) Move the mouse quickly to the edge of the mat.
4) Move the mouse slowly back to the marker position.
5) Check the onscreen position and if its not basically the same as when you started then there is acceleration being applied.

You might want to repeat it a few times and at different speeds, especially if you want to test the failure speed of your mouse and its behaviour at that high speed rather than just detecting general acceleration.

The other reason for doing it with a ruler is to calculate the actual dots per inch your are achieving with something like a 180 degree spin. I try to normalise all my games to the same 180 degree spin movement distance on the mat and that ensures muscle memory built in one game translates to other games.

PS (edit) - The problem in Windows 8 has something to do with high DPI screen support and was partially fixed. There is a setting in the properties that you can turn off if Windows doesn't detect the game correctly. All the modern games work as they should AFAIK but some older titles still have problems.