What is mouse acceleration?
Mouse acceleration is a function that controls the speed at which the cursor moves across the screen. It works like this: the faster you move your mouse, the faster the cursor moves. By default, acceleration is automatically enabled in Windows, that’s why a number of players have no clue that it is on and play with it.
Why do pro-players use or don't use mouse acceleration in CS2?
Professional players speak negatively about mouse acceleration and almost everyone plays without it. However, there are some exceptions: XANTARES plays with acceleration on and this doesn’t prevent him from showing amazing shooting skills.
The key problem of acceleration is the instability of cursor movement on the screen. In order to shoot well, it’s important to feel your crosshair and put it in the right spot, but acceleration may significantly complicate this task. Players who tried to play with the acceleration for a long time felt that hitting an enemy with the first bullet was somewhat harder than doing so without the acceleration.
But mouse acceleration has its own advantages: for example, while having a low sensitivity when shooting (which makes spraying easier), you can also have a high sensitivity when moving around the map. That’s why it wouldn’t be difficult for you to control your character and perform hard jumps.
How to toggle on/off the acceleration in CS2?
Counter-Strike 2 uses Raw Mouse input by default (you can also put m_rawinput 1 into in-game console to check it out), so you don't need to use old CS:GO lauch options such as noforcemaccel -noforcemparms -noforcemspd. All you have to do is to change some Windows settings to on or off mouse acceleration. If you want the best mouse settings for most competitive shooters, you should turn this setting off in Windows before playing CS2.
How to disable Mouse Acceleration in Windows for CS2:
- Hold down the Windows Key and press "R".
- In the command box that appears, type "main.cpl" (without quotes) and hit Enter.
- In the Mouse Properties window, select the "Pointer Options" tab.
- Untick the "Enhance pointer precision" box and then click "Apply".
How to compare your game with acceleration and without it?
Besides comparing your basic stats (K/D, ADR), you can use analytical resources by SCOPE.GG. Thanks to getting familiar with your stats (especially your overall accuracy and first bullet accuracy specifically), you can determine how better or worse you feel you’ve become in engagements number-wise.
Opinions about mouse acceleration
There are many quarrels about mouse acceleration and whether it is useful. Many people tend to think that the acceleration is an inconvenience when playing shooters and will interfere with most players: it’s hard to get used to, it affects your in-game stability. However, if you end up getting used to it, it can benefit you greatly – especially if you have a small table or a very low sens.
This short video about mouse acceleration states that sometimes it can help you and sometimes it can do the opposite. Even the video is made on a CS:GO basis, all the pieces of advice and tips are working for CS2. To use the acceleration or not is completely up to your personal preference and style. Try it and decide for yourself.
