I've been curious in my qw travels what custom crosshair I should use. Now I know people go on about your crosshair being a personal preference, but it's not like the crosshair was a new invention for FPS games... obviously guns have been around for a very long time. So I was wondering if some crosshairs are better for aim then others?

I'm an engineer so I'm freaking scientific about these kinds of things, so sue me ;-)

I was reading guns on Wikipedia, and I came across this article. It suggests that most modern scopes use some form of the duplex crosshair. Which means there's a theory with crosshairs that you want to "get in the right ballpark" i.e. center something approximately in the target, and then you fine-tune the shot so it's right on the money. Any rifle or hunter-type guys want to comment on this?

Anyway it seems to point to a crosshair that's fairly big so you can see it in most conditions, but then in the center you have an open space or dot for your precision shot. Now it's not like in qw we have guns that are one-shot kills and need to be super precise, but I think it makes sense to have a crosshair that's big enough with the cross so that you can get value out of the up/down/left/right approx, and then whatever you want in the middle to help you get the precision shot.

Any thoughts on this? Maybe we could have a poll? (Yea whatever I like polls!)

1) Standard X cross
2) Standard X with dot center
3) Standard X with open center
4) Circular (imho good for shotgun to show u where the pellets go, but otherwise pretty useless)
5) Dot (imho no real up/down/left/right aim just want a general idea where shots will go)

Big enough to be visible (great for shafting), transparent enough not to block too much view (otherwise it would probably be too big) and finally having small cross on the center to get more precise rockets over distance.

little dot only,

1. Its always precise
2. Doesn't block any view
3. its good for close combat, and very long range, you just might see a little pixel from under sng lifts (dm3) to sng mh area.
4. I don't see ANY advantage in having a big crosshair

i use dot in center (with v_viewheight -6 or something like that), and for lg i use straight line from the dot down to the screen

edit: up/down left/right aim not sure wht you mean there... you aim at the center of your screen. not up/down left/right from the center. so an X or + type crosshair is useless imho

I totally agree. Also maps with light textures cause problems, but changing the crosshaircolor helps if it's really required (outpost basically sucks for any color).

I tried similar crosshair that's shown on your picture (my own made of course), however while it was more visible the size became problem. It was either too small or too big depending on the distance and different crosshairsizes (too small for near targets and too big for distant precision shots (check oldcrat.bsp)).

I would say that: The longer you have played the game, the less important the crosshair gets.

I tested playing some games first with crosshair (small green dot) and then without, and I was surprised about the little help the crosshair was. Think most people that have played qw for a time now just use their feeling to aim and tend not to look at the crosshair much at all.

Mostly used shaft and yeah sure that is the weapon where it's least important to have a crosshair, try it out and see what results you get?

It's more important to have proper effect set for the impact of the shots because your brain can learn from such info better - "ok, this rocket ended too much to the left side from the target; ok, this shot was quite precise". Just imagine you would not see the sg-shells "spots" in a sg fight. No matter how good xhair I'd have, I'd be lost.

I disagree Johnny. You would know if you clicked +attack while the crosshair was on the enemy or not regardless of whether you see the blood/sg spots.

And to answer the first post's question: no.

I think its important to actually like the crosshair you chose. and from that angle, imho, yes. it "improves" aim.

That's why everyone should use crosshair 6 :-)

I agree with Johnny from the czech republic. Because with different pings the outcome of the shot would be different. So if u can see where it hit (blood etc..) you can better adjust next shot. Also you get a better idea of how much dammage you've done to the opponent (perhaps not aim related, but important during game play).

And pellet distribution is random. You can't know where they go unless you hit a player.

i agree, especially my experience with shaft. the crosshair is useful to zero in the shaft for the first couple of moments, but then it is more of a "feel" for the movement of the opponent, and then the crosshair becomes less important

Totally disagreed, at least on my part.

I've always gotten best results for shafting with my crosshair I shown above. Anything smaller than that and I'm in severe problems especially if enemy gets close enough (since I lose track of the ch if it's too small). At longer distances it doesn't matter that much tbh. That's the way it goes even if I have 21" monitor.

And no, this isn't just some highly boring povdmm4 tweak. In fact it doesn't matter even if you had such a crosshair that blocks all your view in povdmm4, you'd still hit as good as normally since povdmm4 is horseshit.

Offtop:

I opened this thread and my post was copied x4. I logout, closed browser and then log in. The same, 4 x post. I deleted last one of them and now all are deleted. Somebody have clue what's wrong with it? o_O

Yeah the forum software bugs, you should have left the thread as it is and it would have become normal sooner or later.

ty, next time i will know

I guess the big yellow circle helps you with direct rocks especially at close-mid range. And then you have the cross for shooting through holes, precision shooting etc.

Interesting idea.

Sad in eyes

Clearly he meant to say, "since all dmm4 is horseshit."