Thread: Removing mouse accel: tutorial thing (fairly long >.<)

Hey all, been playing in the servers a bunch lately (you guys are great and make me lol) and figured I would try and give back to the community by giving this lil tutorial on getting rid of mouse accel. I'm sure a lot know of this but for those who don't this should help in any FPS, not just CS:S.

Basically, mouse accel is a default Windows setting that makes it so that you move farther the faster you are moving. Great for scrolling around but not for accurate FPS shots.

Take this situation for example: You are carefully holding a spot when suddenly a shot comes from directly behind you. Without mouse accel, you have the muscle memory and such worked in for turning around, so you quickly whip your crosshair right behind you. With mouse accel, since you are reacting quickly your crosshair will move even faster, and so you will have to react again and re-adjust once you get close to the enemy's head.

Anyway, the main thing to do is to hop into Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointer Options. Uncheck "Enhance Pointer Precision," as this is where most of the mouse accel comes from. If you have a fancy gaming mouse or something else with its own drivers, there should be an option regarding mouse accel there for you (though I can't say for sure).

The next step is to hop online, then google and download the file called "CPL Mousefix." You simply run this file, kind of like an .exe. This works on Vista and XP.

Finally, right-click CS:S in Steam -> Properties -> Set Launch Options.
Put the following commands in the launch options: "-noforcemparms -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd"

These "noforce" commands simply tell the game to switch off some in-game mouse settings that also contribute to mouse accel. Some pros describe getting different "feels" from various combinations of noforce commands, or even from combinations of the three mouse accel removing actions. Whatever changes are negligible however (as leaving certain things out just means leaving some mouse accel in place), so it's probably best to just put them all in (though you are free to experiment on your own xP).

That's it! From there, you will find that you will probably need a higher sensitivity, and it will definitely take a bit of time getting used to since your brain won't be constantly re-adjusting.

To find a new sensitivity, make your own empty server, pop in "sv_cheats 1," "impulse 101", and "sv_showimpacts 1." This'll give you max money and red/blue blocks showing where your shots are landing, leaving you free to practice your shooting and finely tune your sensitivity to where you like it. Just make sure you find a nice balance between articulate aiming ability (low sens) and ease in huge/sudden movements (high sens).

While you can run an uninstall version of the CPL mousefix and put all the settings back, I highly recommend that you play on these new settings for at least a week or two, so you can get used them. It should help a lot in all your FPS playing!

This may be a stupid question, but when input the commands for the launch options, do you use the dashes?

Originally Posted by rock_lobster

This may be a stupid question, but when input the commands for the launch options, do you use the dashes?

Yeah, when you put in commands for launch options it always starts with the hyphen, so you can just copy/paste what's in the quotes.

Like if you change DirectX level (for better performance) and force your a 1280 resolution at start up it looks like this:
"-dxlevel 81 -w 1280 -h 1024"

One last question....how would you reverse those commands?

It makes aiming dependent on a single variable instead of two therefore theoretically aiming should be easier. Its not a mental thing, there is math behind it.

Without mouse accel: Shooting bad guy #1 top window then turning to shoot bad guy #2 in the house to the left is dependent only on moving your mouse "x" centimeters. Whether you move your mouse fast or slow, you can measure the centimeters of mouse movement it takes to make that shot with a ruler and it will never change based on how fast your hand moves. Its always going to take say 4 cm of mouse movement.

With mouse accel: Shooting bad guy #1 then bad guy #2 is dependent on moving your mouse "x" centimeters based on "y" speed of mouse in your hand. Increase the variable speed "y" by moving your mouse fast means less centimeters of "x" to travel. Decrease how fast you move your mouse and it reverses. So the shot could take 4 cm or 8 cm depending on how fast you move the mouse. It will change based on mouse speed.

I think you can set the accel value "y" somewhere to lower its effect if you prefer some level of mouse accel but not the full amount.

^^That's about what it all boils down to, since your mouse speed is never going to be the same you are going to constantly be trying to anticipate the change in scroll amount. With the accel off there's a direct connection from mouse distance to in-game movement that never changes.

Anyway I say give it a shot for a while even if you are skeptical , like alpine said it really does help (and yeah, sometimes right away ) even it seems kind of odd.

Reversing is simple, take out noforce, run an uninstall version of the CPL mousefix (it should have come with it when you d/led the file), and click back on "Enhance Pointer Precision." Just the reverse of the steps in the original post.