Watch_Dogs Fix: Mouse Acceleration / Lag, Port Forwarding, FOV

Game developers seem to have gotten it into their heads that gamers want mouse acceleration in all of their games. Skyrim is an example of this. In fact, my guide for removing Skyrim's mouse acceleration is one of our most popular articles on the site, showing just how much gamers want the feature. Apparently Ubisoft's decided to take a crack at forcing unpredictable, oft-sluggish / laggy-feeling mouse controls into Watch_Dogs.

Luckily, a quick configuration file tweak can remove mouse acceleration, reveal ports for forwarding, field of view, and other graphics settings. Before getting started, check out our recent Watch Dogs video card & CPU benchmark.

Update: We've posted an additional crash fix guide! If you're experiencing crashing to desktop, blue screens, and inability to connect to Uplay servers, check out our newest guide.

Update: Our very critical review of Watch Dogs is now online here.

Mouse Lagging, Smoothing, and Acceleration 

I feel like this is some sort of WebMD article: If you're experiencing symptoms of sluggish movement, difficulty aiming, and unpredictable acceleration, you may have Watch_Dogs. Luckily, it's not terminal.

Follow these steps to remove mouse acceleration and smoothing in Watch Dogs:

• Navigate to %HOMEPATH%\documents\My Games\Watch_Dogs\folder name.
• Open GamerProfile.xml.
• Set 'Sensitivity' to 1 (from 0). Set Smoothness to 0 and set UseMouseSmooth to 0.
• Mouse acceleration is now removed.

Tutorial video:

Sluggish controller or mouse input in Watch Dogs 

If the controller or mouse still feels somewhat 'laggy' after these changes, try the following:

• Navigate to Display Settings.
• Change GPU Max Buffered Frames to 1.

You can read about this setting more in our Watch Dogs settings guide & benchmark.

Watch DogsPort Forwarding Numbers 

For those with manually-configured firewalls or fine-tuned settings, the default ports used for Watch_Dogs multiplayer are 9000-9005. In the event this doesn't work, try revealing the ports to ensure you've got the correct numbers. This is done by opening the same %HOMEPATH%\documents\My Games\Watch_Dogs\folder as we opened previously; locate "NetworkProfile Settings" to find the port assignment.

Watch Dogs Field of View Adjustment 

FOV adjustment is sorely lacking from the Watch Dogs menu, but tweaking the "WidescreenFOV" line item in the GamerProfile.xml config file can reach the same ends. This will require playing with to get just right, but starting at '120' isn't a bad first guess.

Let us know if you have questions about any other Watch Dogs crash fixes or tweaks!

- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.