Counter-Strike crosshair setup
Why is the crosshair important?
In a First Person Shooter, no object on your HUD is more valuable than your crosshair. It is your way of targeting exactly on the screen where you want to shoot. This is especially important for newer players as it takes time and guidance to get a feel for aiming in Counter-Strike.
Picking the right size
No player can tell you what cross-hair size will work for you, so it's best to try out a few and see how you do. I personally prefer having my crosshair set to a relatively small size to make my shots more accurate, but big enough to see the effects of recoil. This allows me to get precise aim at close or very long ranges. If you're more of a sprayer, it's probably better to set your cross-hair to a larger value. In retrospect if you prefer to burst fire your shots, you'll demand a greater accuracy, so it's better to go for a smaller sized crosshair setting.
Some common Counter-Strike crosshair console settings:
- cl_crosshairscale "0" - This is the default value for Counter-Strike Source (N/A in Counter-Strike 1.6, Thx guys!)
- cl_crosshairscale "1000" - This is a good value for people who tend to spray more
- cl_crosshairscale "1700" - The value that I use: a good mix between accuracy and controlling recoil.
- cl_crosshairscale "3500" - Very small, does not show effects of recoil much, but again, very accurate.
What color it the best?
No color is really the best, but I've heard that red, yellow and green are the more 'noticable' colors (they're used in traffic lights for a reason). That been said, what it really comes down to is choosing a color that really makes the cross-hair stand out which is very dependent on whatever particular map you're playing. For example, if you're playing a dark map, choose a lighter color and on a bright map choose a darker one.
Counterstrike Cross-hair Colors:
- cl_crosshaircolor "0" - Green - Default crosshair color
- cl_crosshaircolor "1" - Red
- cl_crosshaircolor "2" - Dark Blue
- cl_crosshaircolor "3" - Yellow
- cl_crosshaircolor "4" - Light Blue - I personally use this setting
Practice without the crosshair
A really good way to train your Counterstrike aiming awareness is by disabling the crosshair entirely. Now I'm not saying turn it off and leave it off forever, but rather train yourself to "just know" where the crosshair exists without actually relying on it.
This skill is great to train if you want to master and control your recoil. This technique is also useful in other situations, specifically when 'noscoping' with an Awp or Scout (you don't have the luxury of a crosshair with these weapons). Remember that truly good players barely even need to play with a cross-hair at all as they have adapted their aim to just 'feel' where they would like to shoot. If you master this practice you're one step closer to becoming an FPSGOD.
Extra Tip
Make sure that your mouse is tweaked properly so you can reach your full aiming potential. Make sure to grab the following files from our Tweak Downloads section:
Read up on our Mouse Related tweaks too!
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