So, you’ve just jumped into South of Midnight, and something about the mouse movement feels… off. Well, many players like yourself have noticed a bit of floatiness or imprecision when trying to look around. This is likely due to mouse smoothing or acceleration being enabled by default. While it may add cinematic flair, it can make precise aiming or fast turns feel sluggish. Thankfully, there are ways to tweak or disable it for a more responsive, raw input feel. Here’s how to do it.
Mouse controls in South of Midnight seem tuned with controllers in mind, which leaves keyboard and mouse players dealing with some frustrating input behavior. Noticeable drift, unpredictable acceleration, and that ever-present smoothing that makes camera movement feel floaty. It can make even basic movement feel sluggish or imprecise, especially in fast-paced scenes. Unfortunately, there’s no in-game toggle (yet), so players have been digging into config files to try and wrestle back full control of their mouse. If you too are interested in knowing how to disable mouse smoothing/acceleration in the game, consider reading this guide until the end.
South of Midnight Disable Mouse Smoothing/Acceleration: How to do it
Fortunately, devs have heard the feedback and have acknowledged the mouse input issues. They’ve already responded with a workaround that can help reduce or eliminate the smoothing and acceleration effects. It’s not a perfect solution just yet, but it’s a solid start. In addition to this, a patch was released that extended the range of the mouse sensitivity slider to allow for finer control over sensitivity settings. So, the first thing you need to keep track of is to just download the latest version of the game. However, if the issue persists, here are some workarounds that you can try:
How to disable Mouse Smoothing/Acceleration
First of all, it is worth checking your mouse sensitivity settings at the Windows level. If your pointer speed is set too high or “Enhance pointer precision” (which adds acceleration) is enabled, it can carry over into games like South of Midnight and worsen the input feel. Head over to Windows Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Options, and make sure “Enhance pointer precision” is disabled. Then, adjust your sensitivity to a comfortable level. Now for the temporary workaround, make sure South of Midnight isn’t running. Then, open File Explorer and type this into the address bar: “%LOCALAPPDATA%\SouthOfMidnight\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor”. Inside that folder, locate and open the Input.ini file. If it doesn’t exist, you can create one manually. Paste in the following block of text inside the file:
[/script/engine.inputsettings]
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName=”MouseX”,AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.000000,Sensitivity=0.700000,Exponent=1.000000,bInvert=False))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName=”MouseY”,AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.000000,Sensitivity=0.700000,Exponent=1.000000,bInvert=False))
This disables smoothing and applies a more responsive feel to both horizontal and vertical mouse movement. You can tweak the Sensitivity=0.700000 value to your liking. A higher value means faster movement. Just remember: the game only reads this config on startup, so you’ll need to restart it every time you make changes. A proper in-game option is reportedly in the works.
Controller Fix
For those using a controller, you can fine-tune the right stick sensitivity and get rid of that sluggish, floaty feel by editing the same Input.ini file. Just add the following lines:
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName=”Gamepad_RightY”,AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.1,Sensitivity=7.000000,Exponent=1.000000,bInvert=False))
AxisConfig=(AxisKeyName=”Gamepad_RightX”,AxisProperties=(DeadZone=0.1,Sensitivity=7.000000,Exponent=1.000000,bInvert=False))
This massively boosts responsiveness compared to the default 0.07 value. That said, 7.0 might be too much. Try dialing it down to something like 1.5 or 2.0 to start. It’s already a big improvement, but some fine-tuning may be needed to hit that sweet spot for your play style.
And there you have it, all you need to know about disabling Mouse Smoothing /Acceleration in South of Midnight. For daily guides and news on all the latest games, keep an eye on DigiStatement. And since we are talking about South of Midnight, click here to find out how to fix the game’s not-launching issues.
