Removing Mouse Acceleration OSX

Hey,

Google brought me to this thread several times while trying to "fix" my mice under MacBook Pro. I'm used to no acceleration under Windows / xorg and I couldn't manage to disable it on OS X 10.6 in a satisfactory manner:

- Razer Deathadder, OS X mouse tracking speed to minimum: 3500 DPI max speed from the Razer driver is too slow (Starcraft II, Quake Live)

- Steelseries XAI - seems OK at around 4000 DPI, OS X speed at its leftmost position (where the acceleration seems to be 0).

The scroll wheel also has the issue. For example, as I'm writing this in Chrome, if I move my scroll wheel 1 notch, the page scrolls a few pixels; if I move the scroll wheel 3-4 notches, the page scrolls 1 or 2 screens (set to minimum from the settings panel).

I find the Razer presentation to be pretty OK - 1 slider for sensitivity, which simply multiplies the counts from the sensor with a user defined number and 1 slider for acceleration, which does the magic based on the first derivative of the speed.

Till a proper solution appears I'll do my gaming on the "boxes" and not on the MacBook and keep my Deathadder in the desktop computer.

PS. tried so far USB Overdrive and Mouse Acceleration - which seems to be OK at -6, though the settings get reset at strange times.

Let me start by saying that in a year of using OSX I really have not managed to adapt to the mouse curve / behaviour. I've given it time and to this day it still feels unnatural to me. I've been a Windows users all my life and switched to OSX a year ago but the erratic feeling mouse still drives me nuts on a daily basis and it's a very real problem.

Before the Mac defenders on this forum come out to defend OSX, let me stop you right there to say I am not here attacking OSX so there is no need to defend it. Perhaps you should appreciate that this is a real problem for some users and we're not here to trash the OS but to seek a solution and the spirit of a user community like this is to offer support to your fellow users and not shoot them down in flames.

I absolutely love OSX but I have this one tiny little gripe and that's the mouse behaviour and I have REALLY given it a lot of time to try and adapt and get used to it but that is just not happening.

I have tried different mice Logitech, Microsoft, Ikari, Apple and I have tried manufacturer specific drivers, I have tried USB Overdrive, I have tried SteerMouse and I have tried MouseFixer. I have also tried the command line option to set scaling to -1. Some of these make mouse performance better but it still does not feel 100% to me. The closest I came to a natural feel was a Microsoft Mouse with the Intellpoint software for OSX but it's still not quite perfect.

For me this is a very real problem and I appreciate those who say they don't notice it. If I had been on OSX all my life perhaps I wouldn't notice it either but being a switcher (and Apple really works hard to attract switchers) I just cannot adapt to the mouse behaviour and NO I don't want to switch back to Windows at any cost.

I have lodged this problem (in great detail) with Apple Feedback and I hope somehow, somewhere the problem report lands in front of the correct person.

I have not only written to Apple about the Mouse Acceleration Curve issue but also about the inability to customise the mouse pointers in OSX. The default tiny black pointer is very hard for me to see and increasing its size in Universal Access is no solution because all it makes is a horribly pixelated mouse pointer. Black with a white edge may be ok for some people but I find a white cursor with a thin black edge much easier to find on screen YET there is absolutely no system inherent ability to change the mouse pointer and you're stuck with the tiny black pointer. The ability to do this is available in every single OS I have ever used, it's been there in Windows since ver 3.1, every Linux distro I've ever used has this ability so why are we stuck with one pointer on the worlds most advanced OS?

I bought and paid for pinpoint but that's really not a solution because all I want is a mouse pointer that is 3 times bigger than the current one and is reversed in color, offering that to users is not rocket science. Finding this tiny black pointer on a 32 inch high res monitor is tiresome to say the least.

Computing is there to make our lives easier and even though the majority of Apple users do not notice this problem it does not mean that there is a percentage out there who DO indeed experience it, who do need a solution, and who do NOT want switch away from OSX either.

Microsoft spent millions of dollars on R&D into User Accessibilty, so should Apple. Apple surely cannot think everyone in the world thinks and reacts the same because they do not. You have visually impaired people, you have color blind people, and you have switchers from other OS's who need to be looked after just as much as the masses.

To get to some specifics on how I have improved this (still not perfect but much better)

I bought a Logitech G500 gaming mouse (wired mouse which rules)

Installed all the 4.5 g weights in the weight cartridge

Removed Microsoft Intellipoint

Plugged the mouse into a Windows Computer

Loaded Logitech Setpoint

Set Polling Rate to 125

Set x and y rates to be the same

Set speed steps (controlled by button on mouse) to 400dpi, 600 dpi, 800 dpi, 1200 dpi

Plugged Mouse back into OSX

Installed MouseFixer2 and using mouse speed control set it to 2 lights on (600 dpi)

Now it actually feels a lot smoother and more accurate

Also the weights give me a much more comfortable feel on my wrist, I find today's mice far too light

I'm still playing with settings to get it as perfect as possible but I'm tied up with important work right now. I'll post more findings soon as I have any.

It's not a cheap mouse but I am finally feeling a bit more at home with this one.

Just so you know, I understand very well how annoying it can be not to find pointer/mouse settings that feel comfortable. Since I have used the Mac GUI since the beginning, I have the same problems you do with Macs when I switch to Windows. There is no solution I have found on the Windows side that does a credible job of emulating the Mac's pointer/mouse characteristics.

You're trolling, right, R C-R?

Try any mouse with drivers (at least logitech, razer and steelseries) have adjustable acceleration curves.

Thanks for the tip, MKZA, I see that the fine folks at TeamLiquid also recommend that as a fix.

No, I'm not trolling. Windows & Macs implement acceleration differently at a fundamental level, which is why neither can emulate the ballistic characteristics of the other completely, even with specialized drivers.

There is much more to this than many people realize. For example, check out this Microsoft developer white paper that discuses the theory of pointer ballistics. Windows calculates ballistics based on (among other things) screen resolution in pixels. But there is no directly comparable calculation in OS X because the Quartz display model isn't based on pixels.

It is a fundamental, OS level difference that no device driver can completely compensate for.

I still couldn't get 1 inch of mouse movement to be translated into 1800 pixels even with mousefixer (1800 dpi). It's rather 1 inch -> 50 pixels. I'll stick to Starcraft 2 under Windows for the time being. 😕

foxx1337 wrote:

You're trolling, right, R C-R?

I have the same opinion. I can't stand the Windows mice. You've use Windows all your life, just like we've used Mac OS all our life. Your muscle memory is geared towards the Windows mouse feel. Ours is geared towards the Mac OS feel. Windows cursors stutter and jump all over. It's hard to hit targets. I slide the mouse across the screen to click a button, and as I slow down the cursor is jittery and hard to hit the target.

My god **** magic mouse is ridiculous, because of the acceleration.

It just makes me crazy everytime when I'm using it, sometimes i want to smash on the ground but too pretty to do that -_=.

I hope apple fix stupid mouse as soon as possible as this mouse is not cheap.

Actually partly my fault cuz I didn't try before I buy....how stupid ..

No trolling, just Mac users asking Apple to provide them additional mouse control settings to increase their satisfaction with the product. I serve 300+ clients. By far the two largest complaints I receive about the Mac revolve around the mouse. The two complaints are:

1. Mouse Pointer Size - OSX is about the only operating system that does not have small, medium, and large mouse pointer options that are not jagged. Not everyone has eighteen year old eyes! (Oh how I wish I did have 18 year old eyes).

2. Mouse Tracking - The Magic Mouse is very slow when the hand movement is slow even at the highest tracking setting. Clients cannot believe how unresponsive the mouse is when they are not moving their hands quickly. However, when they move their hands quickly they are surprised at how far the mouse has moved. Clients are very frustrated, they tell me that they have either an unresponsive mouse or a twitchy, hyper mouse.

For most users mouse control is absolutely fundamental! That is why it is imperative that Apple offer users a broader range of mouse control options so that all users can be satisfied. I am not seeking to change the current mouse settings for users who like the status quo! Far from it! My clients and I are simply asking for additional controls so that all users can adjust the settings to their satisfaction.

I have already had a few clients refuse to switch to a Mac because they did not like mouse pointer size or acceleration.

Here is a direct quote from one of my clients that I emailed to Steve Jobs:

"The cursor movements with the mouse are too jerky, and the mouse pointer is too small. Unfortunately these two features will force me to continue down the Microsoft OS path."

Finally, if the Mac market is to continue to grow it will have to grab customers from the Windows world. Without addressing these two fundamental issues, Apple will be making it harder on themselves than it need be.

P.S. Thank you to all of the posters who have made this Apple forum so useful!

azpc wrote:

1. Mouse Pointer Size - OSX is about the only operating system that does not have small, medium, and large mouse pointer options that are not jagged. Not everyone has eighteen year old eyes! (Oh how I wish I did have 18 year old eyes).

System prefs > Universal Access >Mouse & Trackpad > Cursor size.

I don't see it jagged at largest size.

I'd like each count, of the 450 / 900 / 1800 / 3500 CPS my mouse is capable of to translate into exactly "Factor times 1 pixel" on screen. And I require that "Factor" be a fractional number, controlled through a slider similar to the one currently existing in the System preferences, between, say, 0 and 10 with increments of, say, 0.2. That behavior, regarless of the speed of my hand swipes, between 0 and 5 meters per second, which is about the malfunction speed of my mouse.

<Edited by Host>

Chris, on my iMac8,1 running 10.5.8 the maximum pointer looks like it is made out of Lego.

Not defensive, just responding to you asking if RC-R was trolling. I hoped to explain why you think there is something broke and we don't really see it that way (in fact, I see it the opposite).

As RC-R already pointed out, we can't fix it. We're just users here. There's no Apple here.

If you want it changed, submit feedback to Apple or file a bug report in the Apple Developer Center.

<Edited by Host>

So now that we've established that in your view the lack of user options is the opposite of broken, and that we understand that the product suits you just fine and it shouldn't be changed in your oppinion (how does that help with my problem I wonder), waiting for the rapidshare / mediafire / etc links to hacks 😀.