When you shoot an enemy in CS:GO, you rightly expect your shot to register.
CS:GO’s hitboxes have been the cause of many complaints over the years, to the point
where Valve totally redid them, replacing the basic blocky hitboxes with sexy smooth
balls.
So how do they perform now?
I put them to the test.
I’ll be covering the terrorist models today, starting with the Anarchist, which you’ll
only find on Office.
From the side you’ll see that the hitboxes are much larger than the legs that they represent.
Ideally they should be the same size, but if they don’t match I’d rather that the
hitboxes were larger than the models.
Why?
Well, let’s look at the opposite.
The front of the hoodie is beyond the hitbox, meaning that a headshot here won’t count.
You could argue that this is realistic.
Why SHOULD the clothing count as the player?
I’d argue that in a more realistic game this would be less of a problem, whereas as
you move towards the twitch-shooting nature of Doom or Quake, the player models serve
less as player models and more as simply being hitboxes to aim at.
CS:GO is somewhere between these two extremes.
This is very much down to opinion, though I can understand people feeling cheated if
they missed a killing shot because they expected this sort of shot to register.
And of course the bag on the back is a NO NO.
NO.
You don’t add bags to player models.
For those shooting at the player it’s frustrating to have such a large target that doesn’t
count, and as the player himself it’s annoying to have a bit of your model poking out, giving
away your position when otherwise you’d be hidden.
I appreciate the detail and effort that have gone into these character models, but I’m
not a fan of bags.
Moving onto the Balkan model now.
These guys don’t skip leg day as much as the anarchists do but you can still see that
the hitboxes are bigger.
It seems to be the limitation with the new hitbox shape- it can’t get narrower on one
end like the upper leg does, and they’d have to use 2 of them to properly model the
lower leg.
I’m not a fan of the bags around their waist either, you can see them sticking out both
from the side and in front.
The fluffy bit of their coat that keeps their neck warm also sticks out and although their
hat seems like a sensible choice, this also pokes out a bit, but not enough for me to
complain too much.
The front view shows a more concerning issue that the head hitbox model itself seems too
far to one side.
You’ll notice this with most models.
The Leet Crew have fantastic sausage-y legs that really work well with the hitbox designs.
They just need to work on their quads a bit more.
You know.
So they can be shot there.
They could also build up their shoulders a little more and to perhaps tuck their hanky
helmets in around the back, but otherwise I think that this model is the best we’ve
seen yet.
Clearly why Dust 2 is the best map ever.
OH but wait a second!
The Phoenix Connection are here!
One of the models to have been updated rather recently.
Their baggy trousers are the first to fill up the hitboxes.
Perhaps going a little too far the other way.
Even their hefty boots can’t fill up the box they’re given.
It’s not exactly a bit of the model you want to be aiming at, though it’s certainly
generous with the hitreg.
Their forearms are way too small.
There are a couple of suspect things dangling from their waist that poke out too far but
I think we can safely say that they have one of the most sensible head designs in the game.
Unless they want to protect themselves.
I dunno.
The pirates aren’t really seen a lot outside of the less popular gamemodes.
Their backpack is a crime, their head’s too big, their upper legs too small but I
will give them credit for sporting some of the largest and most fashionable shoes in
the game.
From the front you can see their upper body and arms aren’t very well represented either.
The professional also chooses to carry a bag and a collar 5 sizes too large, but other
than that he’s not too bad.
The shoulders still fail to match up, but at least any shot that should register on
this guy will do.
I said earlier that the head hitbox is too much to one side.
Well, for this guy it’s too much the other way!
And lastly is the controversial separatist model.
In general he comfortably fits inside his hitbox but the standard problems of belt items
and sticky-out collars still apply.
Not to mention a stupid, STUPID hat.
Like, seriously, it pokes out too far both sides and the top!
I would say it deserves to be shot but it wouldn’t achieve anything.
Valve, pls fix.
I’d like to stress that this is only a limited test of the standing models, from the side
and the front.
The hitboxes do move as the animations of the models do, too, though I felt that by
showing you the moving animations throughout this video that you could judge for yourself
whether you felt it matches them properly.
Personally, I think that Valve have done a good job of them in their current state, though
if you still feel you’re missing your shots in-game, be sure to also factor in the lag
and netcode.
As well as your own shots.
You might just be rubbish.