Enhance pointer precision (acceleration)?

[Deleted]

Hello,

What do you think about mouse acceleration? Do you use it? I've never kept track if I do, but now that I've got a new mouse, I'm trying to decide if I like it or not. People say it's terrible, but honestly, if I don't have it on it feels like it's hard to control the mouse, whereas with acceleration the pointer seems to slow down when I'm near the thing I want to click. (I don't know if that's what it actually does, I've just always assumed that)

[chazus]

Well, there's two aspects to it.

Personally, I use max acceleration and speed, because otherwise it would take a week from me to get from one side of my desktop to another (5760x1080).

Secondly, a lot of people 'get used' to the movement of the mouse, and acceleration. So... It might be difficult at first for some people, but you eventually get used to it, if you use it.

[noteworthynerd]

I started turning it off a couple of years ago when I really got into StarCraft 2. It was weird at first, but I got used to it fairly quickly and now I can't stand to have EPP turned on. Pointer precision is imperative in gaming, so enhanced pointer precision can really mess you up.

For those who are not aware of what EPP is, here's a quick-ish explanation: with enhance pointer precision turned on, your computer basically "predicts" where you meant for your cursor to go based on the speed at which you moved your mouse (instead of the distance in which you moved it). For example: let's say you move your mouse one inch across the mouse pad (or whatever surface your mouse is on) with EPP turned on. If you moved it very slowly, your cursor won't move very far, but if you moved it very quickly your cursor will go much further (usually to the edge of the screen).

If you'd like to do a simple test to see this in action, open up Microsoft Paint and draw two straight lines across the page. Drag your mouse the same distance both times, but for the first one drag it slowly and for the second one drag it very quickly. If you have EEP on, the second line should be much longer than the first even though the mouse traveled the same distance.

For gaming, especially fast paced genres like RTS and FPS, this is mostly a bad thing. In those genres (and every other genre as far as I'm concerned) you want your cursor to go exactly where you told it to go, you don't want your PC "predicting" where you wanted it to go, because it often predicts wrong.

To turn it off: Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointer Options -> Uncheck Enhance pointer precision. Note: you will probably have to turn the pointer speed up a few notches after doing this, I always seem to.

[Daeveren]

I started turning it off a couple of years ago when I really got into StarCraft 2. It was weird at first, but I got used to it fairly quickly and now I can't stand to have EPP turned on. Pointer precision is imperative in gaming, so enhanced pointer precision can really mess you up.

For those who are not aware of what EPP is, here's a quick-ish explanation: with enhance pointer precision turned on, your computer basically "predicts" where you meant for your cursor to go based on the speed at which you moved your mouse (instead of the distance in which you moved it). For example: let's say you move your mouse one inch across the mouse pad (or whatever surface your mouse is on) with EPP turned on. If you moved it very slowly, your cursor won't move very far, but if you moved it very quickly your cursor will go much further (usually to the edge of the screen).

If you'd like to do a simple test to see this in action, open up Microsoft Paint and draw two straight lines across the page. Drag your mouse the same distance both times, but for the first one drag it slowly and for the second one drag it very quickly. If you have EEP on, the second line should be much longer than the first even though the mouse traveled the same distance.

For gaming, especially fast paced genres like RTS and FPS, this is mostly a bad thing. In those genres (and every other genre as far as I'm concerned) you want your cursor to go exactly where you told it to go, you don't want your PC "predicting" where you wanted it to go, because it often predicts wrong.

To turn it off: Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointer Options -> Uncheck Enhance pointer precision. Note: you will probably have to turn the pointer speed up a few notches after doing this, I always seem to.

While your experience is your own, it's worth noting that there's no prediction as you imply here (that would be disastrous anyway). It's simply a pointer speed variation based on the speed that you move your mouse. Move it fast and yoy can then cover more than 1 monitor worth (this is the bests choice for those using multi monitor setups), or move it really slow for pixel precision.

[Twoddle]

Turned it off when I started playing HotS, never looked back.

[Puupi]

Holy necro!

I've always disabled acceleration. Ever since windows 95 or whenever it came around.

[Will]

Most gamers, especially FPS gamers, will turn acceleration off because you grow used to how much moving your mouse moves the cursor, and acceleration changes the speed of the cursor dynamically which influences your precision, because you have to account for the acceleration's various rates of effect.

When you disable acceleration your mouse sensitivity remains static (IE: moving the mouse a physical mm on your pad always moves it the same number of pixels on the screen) which, after practice, you become fully accustomed to. Like if I want to move the mouse 1/10th across my screen, I move it X distance on the mat. If I want to move it 1/2 way across my screen, I move it X*5 distance on the mat.

With acceleration enabled, the further your cursor travels, it begins to 'accelerate' and travel further when you move the mouse on the mat the same distance. So using the example above, moving the cursor 1/2 way across the screen may only require X*4 distance instead, because the cursor picks up speed the further it travels. It's an extra element your brain has to subconsciously learn to track and I just don't think that's useful when you're playing something like an FPS and reaction times are absolutely vital. You really don't want to risk overshooting your target because your muscle memory under-or-over-accounted for acceleration. But for general desktop use, it's fine!

- - - Updated - - -

While your experience is your own, it's worth noting that there's no prediction as you imply here (that would be disastrous anyway). It's simply a pointer speed variation based on the speed that you move your mouse. Move it fast and yoy can then cover more than 1 monitor worth (this is the bests choice for those using multi monitor setups), or move it really slow for pixel precision.

I am curious why you were digging around and replying to threads from FIVE years ago though.

[Daeveren]

I am curious why you were digging around and replying to threads from FIVE years ago though.

Google search for enhance pointer precision bought me here. Did not even noticed it was from 2013, I thought it was from march this year, somehow.
Was reading a lot today about EPP, because I grew accustomed to have it enabled (both for playing mmo's and for navigating my desktop, 2x monitors) and not sure how I can live without it on 2 monitors - it takes an eternity to move the cursor across both monitors and setting a higher dpi makes for completely inaccurate/precise movement when I need to click specific buttons in Windows or specific buttons in games (say the X close button in various mmos). Been trying today on laptop to use it with EPP off and it drew me crazy how many times I have to lift of the mouse of the mousepad (several times per minute).