Are you struggling to control cursor movement when gaming? Maybe you can solve the problem by turning off or disabling mouse acceleration.
What is mouse acceleration?
The movement speed of the mouse pointer increases as the physical speed of the mouse increases. Specifically, on the mouse pad, if the mouse pointer moves over a distance of ten centimeters at a faster speed, the mouse pointer moves farther.
Mouse acceleration refers to the distance that the mouse cursor moves across the screen when you move the mouse. You can turn off mouse acceleration to slow cursor movement or turn it on to speed up cursor movement.
If you ask many people, they will tell you that mouse acceleration is bad for gaming because it destroys your aiming. Thus, it’s good to turn off mouse acceleration when gaming to enhance your ability to make accurate commands with your mouse.
Here is a guide on how to do it on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Windows 10
Windows 10 default settings automatically turn on mouse acceleration. Here is a systematic guide on how to turn off mouse acceleration.
Step 1: Go to the search bar on the bottom left of your computer screen, type the “Mouse settings” command without quotes and open it.
Alternatively, you can use the Windows Key + R command to open the “Run” dialog box. Enter the “main.cpl” command without quotes to open “Mouse Settings.”
Step 2: Once you open the “Mouse Settings,” go to the “Additional mouse options” and click it to open “Mouse Properties.”
Step 3: Go to the “Pointer Options” tab
Step 4: Access the “Motion” section and unmark the box to the “Enhance pointer precision” option.
Step 5: Click the “Ok” option to finish changes and have mouse acceleration disabled.
Mac
Mac users also experience the problem of mouse acceleration when gaming, just like their Windows users counterparts. However, you can use two methods to turn mouse acceleration off, the system settings approach and the terminal approach.
1: System setting approach
Step 1: Go to the Apple icon on your computer, select “System Preferences,” and open it.
Step 2: Once you access “System Preferences,” click the “Mouse” option.
Step 3: On the page that opens, you will find various mouse settings options such as “scroll direction,” “secondary click,” and “tracking speed” options.
Step 4: Go to the “tracking speed” option and use the slider to adjust the speed of your mouse pointer.
Please note that this method can slow the cursor movement speed, but it can’t turn it off completely.
2: Terminal approach
Step 1: Open the spotlight search bar by entering the Mac keyboard shortcut “cmd” + “spacebar” without quotes.
Step 2: Now that the search bar is open, enter the word “Terminal” on the search field and select the first item on the displayed results.
Step 3: Enter this command without quotes in the terminal to turn off mouse acceleration.
Step 4: To complete the process, log in and back in.
Linux
1. Use the system to set
Step 1: Install gnome-tweaks, also known as gnome-tweak-tool.
Step 2: Once the installation is complete, open the program through the applications/launcher.
Step 3: Go to the “Keyboard and Mouse” category and select the “mouse” subheading.
Step 4: Set the “Acceleration Profile” to “flat” to turn off mouse acceleration.
2. Use command operations
This approach is suitable if you want to disable mouse acceleration permanently using a script.
Step 1: Create and own the /opt/ folder (optional software) where you will save the script
Step 2: Take ownership of the/opt/ folder using the following commands “sudo chown $USER /opt/” or “sudo chown $USER /opt/*.” That way, you can easily edit the content saved in the folder.
Step 3: Copy and paste this code “while true; do sleep 1s && xset m 0 0 && gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse accel-profile flat; done” (without quotes) into the editor
Step 4: Save the editor and quit. Press Ctrl-X (together), press Y, and then hit the Enter button to save the editor.
Step 5: Set the script to run automatically and as a startup program. Set this program “bash /opt/disabled accel.sh” as a startup program in your startup-applications GUI. By doing so, you turn off mouse acceleration permanently.
1. What is the use of mouse acceleration?
Better control for FPS games. Most of these games require swift responses that you can execute easily with mouse acceleration. It also comes in handy if you have a small desk and want to move the mouse a lesser distance and make a full turn on the screen.
2. Is mouse acceleration related to DPI?
The two are different, but they are related to performance. DPI stands for Dots per Inch, which refers to the speed the cursor moves across the screen when you physically move the mouse. Both mouse acceleration and DPI affect the speed at which the cursor moves across the screen of your computer when you move the mouse.
3. Should I disable or enable mouse acceleration when playing games on my computer?
It’s good to disable mouse acceleration so that you can make accurate commands using the mouse. However, you can still play with mouse acceleration, but many gamers prefer to disable mouse acceleration.
