headshot marks

Okay, well until recently i rarely played the sniper, however Ive gotten on a roll with him a time or two in the last week, so Ive been playing him a bit more, and the thing I have noticed is that I get a lot of headshots that don't seem like they should be. Ill accidentally move my mouse and aim more for my targets neck, or upper toros, and it's still a headshot. I'm wondering, where does the headshot hitbox end. I mean half of the time i feel sorry for that guy because it was a quick shot, and the dot didn't even seem to be on the guys head. Now im not complaining, hell ill take a headshot if i get one, but some of the times it just seems weird, because i'll be aiming and what would seem like a bodyshot comes up as a crit...and it happens quite a bit actually, which makes the headshot area seem really large. Does it cover more than just the head, what are your experiences with this?

To me, neck head or shoulder area are my targets, if you get an advantage you should use it.

And it's easier to aim for the shoulder area than the head. Am i right or right

It's a combination of hitboxes and lag probably. Hitboxes often trail behind or in front of a player's visible model which can cause weird things like missing and hitting or the frequent point-blank headshot that doesn't register on a scout (my life story t.t)

Ah. thank you.

I would love to know how lag affects my headshots, but I don't. I recently (today actually) reached an all time high of 43 points in one life (17 headshots). I was very happy with this, but this was on a server in the EU, so my ping was 80 something.

My real question is, why don't I get that headshot when I see blood all over the revving heavy's face? It was a blatant face-bullet that just didn't register. I think those tear me up more than anything else.

ya,
we all get those from time to time..


you should appreciate them

There have been time when my crosshair isnt even on the guy I'm aiming at and it registers as a head shot because my finger slipped or something.

Here is one of GMan's vids from Gamevee that I just happened to watch for the first time last night:

http://www.gamevee.com/viewVideo/Team_Fortress_2/PC/TF2_Hitbox_Demonstration/202426

Entitled "Hitbox demonstration" he shows what the hitboxes look like. According to this video, when moving, the model's hixbox actually moves just in front of the actual model itself. Depending on your setting of what is called "cl_lagcompensation", it changes it up. If you set cl_lagcompensation 0 (turning it off), then you must aim for the actual hitbox which moves in front of the player to score  a hit. However, if you set cl_lagcompesation 1 (on, default), then steam attempts to align the model with the hitbox in which case you must aim for the model itself. 

If you are lagging, it may screw with the lag compesation, thus causing you to miss. Sound good?

No offence, but you're all wrong about lag compensation.

Unless you've totally screwed with your cvars, your lag is compensated even at very high ping, and there is no difference between the models you see and the "hitboxes". "Hitboxes" are a nonsense concept for bullet weapons, just fire at the models, all lag is compensated for.

That video of gman's is deceptive, since it shows what happens if you disable an unusual cvar, which should never usually be touched.

good to know