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.
Acceleration in CS:GO
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 in CS:GO 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 acceleration?
If you use Windows – you can do this right in its settings. You need to open the control panel, go to mouse properties, then pointer options and uncheck (or check) the box saying “enhance pointer precision”. If the box is checked, it means that the acceleration is enabled.
If you want to turn the acceleration off in CS:GO, but also use it in your system, you can turn it off via Steam launch options: find the game in your Steam library, go to the “general” tab and type this commands in your launch options: -noforcemaccel -noforcemparms -noforcemspd
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. To use it or not is completely up to your personal preference and style. Try it and decide for yourself.
