Mouse acceleration
Acceleration makes your turn distance depend on how fast you moved, which means the same hand movement produces different results at different speeds. That is not automatically bad. It is, however, a much harder thing to learn, with no demonstrated ceiling advantage.
What acceleration does to the mapping
Without acceleration, the relationship between your hand and your character is one line:
With acceleration, the constant is no longer constant. It becomes a function of how fast you were moving:
That change has one immediate consequence: you can no longer answer the question "how far do I move to turn 90 degrees" with a single number. The answer depends on how fast you do it. Every flick you make becomes a two-variable problem instead of a one-variable one.
The three places acceleration hides
| Layer | What it is called | How to disable | Bypassed by raw input? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Enhance pointer precision (Windows), pointer acceleration (macOS, Linux) | Uncheck it in mouse properties | Yes |
| Mouse firmware | Acceleration, angle snapping, straight-line correction | Disable in the mouse's configuration software | No |
| Game engine | Mouse acceleration, mouse smoothing, filtering | Set to zero or off in game settings or a config file | No |
The layering matters. Raw input solves only the first row, and people frequently believe they have disabled acceleration when they have disabled one of three sources.
Smoothing is a separate problem with the same symptom
Smoothing averages your input over several samples before applying it. It does not change the total angle you turn for a given distance, so it is not acceleration, but it delays the response and rounds off sharp changes of direction. It feels like input lag, and on some engines it is the difference between a flick landing where you aimed and landing slightly behind.
Smoothing is often on by default and often not labelled clearly. Search your game's settings for anything mentioning filtering, smoothing, or interpolation of mouse input, and turn it off.
Why acceleration is not simply a mistake
It is worth being precise about this, because the usual internet answer is that acceleration is for people who do not know better, and that is not true.
Acceleration exists to solve a real problem: it lets a single setting serve both fast reorientation and slow precision, which is exactly the trade that the high-versus-low argument is about. In principle it gives you the fast turn of a high sensitivity and the fine control of a low one. Some players have used it at a high level, particularly in older arena shooters where reorientation demand was extreme.
The reasons to avoid it anyway:
- The mapping is harder to learn. You are training a surface rather than a line, and every point on that surface needs its own repetitions.
- It is not portable. Acceleration curves differ between games and operating systems, so the skill does not transfer the way a linear mapping does.
- It punishes fatigue. Your movement speed changes when you are tired or tense, which under acceleration changes your aim.
- The empirical record. Across every competitive title with a large professional population, essentially nobody uses it. That is not proof that it cannot work, but it is the strongest evidence available and it points one way.
Verify rather than assume
The test takes thirty seconds. Do a slow 360 degree turn and measure the distance. Do a fast 360 degree turn and measure again. If the two distances differ by more than a couple of percent, something in your chain is accelerating your input, and you should work down the table above until you find it.
Related reading
- Windows pointer speed: why 6/11 and nothing else.
- cm/360, which only has a stable value if acceleration is off.
- Finding your sensitivity, which assumes a linear mapping throughout.
Frequently asked questions
What is mouse acceleration?
Any system where the angle you turn depends on the speed of your movement, not just its distance. Move slowly across 10 cm and you turn one amount; move quickly across the same 10 cm and you turn more. Without acceleration, distance alone determines the angle.
Is acceleration objectively bad?
Not objectively, but practically. It is a valid mapping, and people who grew up on it can aim very well. The problems are that it makes the mapping speed-dependent (so you have to learn a two-dimensional relationship instead of a one-dimensional one), that implementations differ between games and operating systems, and that nothing at the top level of any competitive title uses it. The last point is the strongest evidence available.
How do I turn off all acceleration in Windows?
Settings, Bluetooth and devices, Mouse, Additional mouse settings, Pointer Options tab, and uncheck "Enhance pointer precision". Then set the pointer speed slider to the sixth notch of eleven. Also enable raw input in your game, which bypasses the Windows pointer pipeline entirely.
Does raw input disable acceleration?
It disables the operating system's acceleration, because raw input reads the device's report stream directly rather than the processed pointer position. It does not disable acceleration applied inside the game itself, which is a separate setting.
What about the acceleration in my mouse's own firmware?
Some gaming mice have an acceleration or "angle snapping" option in their configuration software. Both should be off. Angle snapping in particular straightens near-horizontal movements, which is actively harmful: it means the mouse is deciding you meant to move in a straight line when you did not.