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Active: 1082 users

Pro and cons of acceleration

Forum Index > BW General
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1 2 3 4 Next All
tomson
Profile Joined November 2002
Poland641 Posts
September 12 2003 13:26 GMT
#1
At first glance mouse acceleration seems to be great for starcraft. There are moments where you need decent accuracy (for example shift-clicking on a running speedling), there are also those in which insane speed is required (running through gateways etc.). There are even ones where you need both simultaneously (cloning overlords to spread them over the map). Without acceleration it's hard to find a compromise in your sensitivity settings to be equally efficient in all of them.However I can think of only one notable player that uses it (blackman). The only flaw of it that comes to my mind is that if you miscalculate your move you make a tripled/quadrupled error, but it's not that big of a disadvantage to restrain you from using it.

What are your thoughts ? Share your views and try to justify them.

__
tomsOn
smartcat
Profile Joined May 2003
Russian Federation172 Posts
Last Edited: 2003-09-12 13:54:16
September 12 2003 13:32 GMT
#2
["What are your thoughts ? Share your views and try to justify them."]
AutumnLight
Profile Joined July 2003
Ukraine2488 Posts
Last Edited: 2003-09-12 13:54:40
September 12 2003 13:33 GMT
#3
[Don't be an idiot.]
Pray for War.
tomson
Profile Joined November 2002
Poland641 Posts
September 12 2003 13:40 GMT
#4
?...

__
tomsOn
bi11y
Profile Joined December 2002
United States169 Posts
Last Edited: 2003-09-12 13:53:44
September 12 2003 13:46 GMT
#5
[post something usefull or don't post]
play me online u know that ill beat u, if i ever meet u, ill control - alt- delete - u
mensrea
Profile Joined September 2002
Canada5062 Posts
September 12 2003 13:51 GMT
#6
Interesting post tomson.

I prefer acceleration on for all the reasons you stated.

I heard that HeMan (the War3 champion who's now playing in Korea) lost one of his recent matches partly because he couldn't turn off the acceleration under Korean XP prior to the game. If this is true, it suggests that he prefers to play without acceleration. In fact, it suggests that he finds acceleration bothersome enough to seriously affect his game play. Not sure about the reasons tho. I'll ask.

Or maybe he can comment on this himself...
actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea.
Ymar
Profile Joined July 2003
65 Posts
September 12 2003 13:59 GMT
#7
Not that my experience would be worth much, but recently turned acceleration off, and now I find micro a lot easier...
Jar_Ly
Profile Joined March 2003
Cuba133 Posts
September 12 2003 14:14 GMT
#8
I don't use aceleration, i'm much less precise with it. I've also reduced the mouse speed since i'm playing. Look at it in this way: when u use slow mouse pointer u can move faster your hand if u need and u have an acceptable accuracy, but if u have a fast pointer u have to slow down too much to get a nice accuracy.

I think that the best combination is no acceleration with a medium+ pointer speed.

I think that blizzard should put in the game options something like what ID Software did to Quake 3: a mouse speed measured in numbers and Windows independent, not the Windows confusing bar. Everytime i reinstall windows i have to spend several minutes tunning up my mouse speed again cause i never remember were in the goddam bar i putted it last time!
Bill307
Profile Blog Joined October 2002
Canada9103 Posts
September 12 2003 14:31 GMT
#9
I imagine that it would be a lot easier to play without acceleration, because it would be easier to know how far to move the mouse in order to move the cursor a desired distance on the screen (without having to think about it). With no acceleration, the relationship is linear, something that our brains are very good at perceiving and calculating independent of our conscious thought. With acceleration turned on, however, the relationship becomes exponential (or similarly curved), something that our brains are not good at perceiving or calculating in an instant.

On the other hand, I suppose that eventually, given enough practice, your brain will start to remember how far to move the mouse in order to move the cursor x distance on the screen anyway, so once you "get used" to acceleration you should have few problems with it.

The benefits of acceleration seem trivial to me, though. I mean, how hard is it really to move the cursor quickly from one gateway to another without acceleration (given that your speed isn't too low, of course)? Similarly, is it really that hard to move your mouse just a tiny bit to move the cursor only a tad in any direction? I have to admit that I don't know whether my mouse uses acceleration or not (probably some low accel.), and I don't have a setting for it, either . But I can't see how this (imperceptible because it's exponential, mind you) variability of speed/accuracy would give you any real advantage, since these mouse movements aren't exactly physically demanding tasks (please correct me if I'm wrong, though). If anything, it increases the extent to which speed and accuracy are mutually exclusive.

In short, we have some possible benefits that don't actually seem to be beneficial at all, at the expense of being able to calculate mentally how far to move your mouse in order to move your cursor a desired distance (without knowing from a great deal of experience and trial+error). Given that all of this is sound, I just don't see how acceleration would be a good idea =/.
Casper...
Profile Joined October 2002
Liberia4948 Posts
September 12 2003 14:38 GMT
#10
i find the double threshold of low accel to be much too low.
noaccel is thx.

some players do use accel and dominate with it. q3 pro cooller is the guy that immediately comes to mind.
JAM THE FUCKER!
XaI)CyRiC
Profile Joined October 2002
United States4471 Posts
September 12 2003 14:45 GMT
#11
This may be obvoius, but for most people it's probably just a matter of what you're used to. The linear movement speed comment is one to note, but if you're used to acceleration it doesn't really matter.
Moderator
Liquid`Nazgul
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
22427 Posts
September 12 2003 14:45 GMT
#12
On September 12 2003 22:51 mensrea wrote:
Interesting post tomson.

I prefer acceleration on for all the reasons you stated.

I heard that HeMan (the War3 champion who's now playing in Korea) lost one of his recent matches partly because he couldn't turn off the acceleration under Korean XP prior to the game. If this is true, it suggests that he prefers to play without acceleration. In fact, it suggests that he finds acceleration bothersome enough to seriously affect his game play. Not sure about the reasons tho. I'll ask.

Or maybe he can comment on this himself...

it merely means you can't just switch from no-accel to accel like that
Administrator
tomson
Profile Joined November 2002
Poland641 Posts
September 12 2003 14:54 GMT
#13
Bill307, this is the kind of post I was looking forward to. I've also heard that argument about linear relationships, but I don't think it's something you can't overcome. After a few weeks all moves should be done on a subliminal level. There might be more to it thought, like some boundaries coded in us which we are uncapable to surmount. However it is also worth pointing out that, afaik acceleration is quite common among FPP players (i'm pretty sure fatal1ty used it), where precision is crucial.

No matter how trivial it might look, a benefit is a benefit. And of course there's no problem in clicking on gateways, yet it would be helpful if you could increase the speed and precision of doing such things. It's the small things that count.

__
tomsOn
BlackJack
Profile Blog Joined June 2003
United States10574 Posts
September 12 2003 14:57 GMT
#14
What is acceleration?
Iron[NM]
Profile Joined August 2003
United States57 Posts
Last Edited: 2003-09-12 15:08:51
September 12 2003 15:01 GMT
#15
[banned]
hmmm
Profile Joined May 2003
China299 Posts
September 12 2003 15:14 GMT
#16
Accerleration is great if you're used to it, otherwise its counter productive, personally I don't like it =/.
Roman
Profile Joined November 2002
United States2595 Posts
September 12 2003 15:45 GMT
#17
In my opinion acceleration isnt worth the effort to get used to it. If you want faster speed, move ur mouse speed settings higher and move ur hands slower. Otherwise, if u have fast hands, might as well use normal speed. I can see many scenarios where you need to click somethng next to ur cursor right away, but your mouse acceleration will move your mouse across the screen.
Nevera
Profile Joined May 2003
Finland677 Posts
September 12 2003 15:55 GMT
#18
I was allways under the assumption that nobody who plays seriously uses it. Surprising that there are people as good as Blackman who use it... Obviously I don't use it, haven't even tried to get used to it, hated the thing from the start. I can't hit anything with it.
Moo i say
FroZZoR
Profile Joined October 2002
China925 Posts
September 12 2003 16:00 GMT
#19
I use full mouse speed no accel, used to use accel, but it was a little harder to be accurate. But if u can, by all means go for it? Btw i don't even move my hand when playing, only wrist
There can be only one
Mynock
Profile Joined September 2002
4492 Posts
September 12 2003 16:03 GMT
#20
On September 12 2003 23:54 tomson wrote:
Bill307, this is the kind of post I was looking forward to. I've also heard that argument about linear relationships, but I don't think it's something you can't overcome. After a few weeks all moves should be done on a subliminal level. There might be more to it thought, like some boundaries coded in us which we are uncapable to surmount. However it is also worth pointing out that, afaik acceleration is quite common among FPP players (i'm pretty sure fatal1ty used it), where precision is crucial.

No matter how trivial it might look, a benefit is a benefit. And of course there's no problem in clicking on gateways, yet it would be helpful if you could increase the speed and precision of doing such things. It's the small things that count.

__
tomsOn


I'm no good at either (FPS/RTS) but even I use acc. in Q3, whereas ofcourse none in BW. Exactly coz of the obvious benefits I think.

-Mynock
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