Hitboxes
2012.03.20 - 
Some of the changes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are visible and some are felt. All of the changes interplay with the others.
One change that people may have missed, and whose impact might be mis-attributed to other factors, is that the hitboxes in CS:GO are smaller. You can mouse-over the above image to see the differences.
In Counter-Strike: Source the generous hitboxes expanded on the character’s model. In CS:GO the hitboxes more accurately portray the character. A near miss? Is a miss.
How does this compare to Counter-Strike: 1.6? The actual hitboxes surrounding the characters in 1.6 are generous, like in CS:S, but the models are smaller, so they’re harder to hit. So this was one change where we wanted to split the difference between the two games. We use the more appealing larger model size but still force players to be more accurate.
Armed with this knowledge, does this change your opinion on weapon accuracy? Let us know.
Beta Status
2012.03.16 - 
The beta so far has been great and being a great beta means it has been rocky. We have had crashes, we have had bugs, and we have had great feedback that has changed the game. All of that makes sense. This is a game in development, a development you are part of.
Since this is our first game together, we should explain a few things up front and show you how we incorporate feedback.
Some feedback we simply act on, others we will look at the cause of the problem, and some we will get more data on. No feedback is ignored.
For some feedback, we simply want to collect more data. How are the changes in money working? Let’s have people play and then analyze the changes.
Other bits are straight forward. Lengthen the rounds in Arsenal: Demolition. Sure, makes sense. You will see that change this week.
Other bug reports are simple and tucked away. There is a bug with the scoreboard. Yep. Thanks for reporting it. We now know it is there and will fix it, we just have more important bugs to fix first.
Some are like fog or weapons. They are ongoing. For example, we have again adjusted the fog level in all maps with this update. You also helped us identify a bug in the particle systems that we will update next week.
This week’s update includes de_dust2_se. You will be able to access it through the map command “map de_dust2_se” in the console. This is a version of Dust2 with the fog off, props removed, cables removed, and particle effects removed. It was created especially for pro-competitive play and leagues.
We are consuming the feedback. We are listening to all and acting on some.
Our Friday updates are not the sum of all our work. It is what we have ready and tested for that week.
We don’t post what is coming in two weeks because of your feedback and how we work. While some of the update is planned in advance to test a feature or change, for feedback you have raised we are more iterative. So if you asked us a few weeks ago about how we would solve a specific problem – we might have told you a different answer than what we shipped today.
Our process allows us to adapt and make changes along the way so we aren’t locked into to just one solution.
Thanks again for all the feedback; we do read it. If it is a discussion, we normally do not like to voice our opinion on the forums because it is much more interesting to see the community work through the problem. This is why we suggest posting bugs to the forums. The discussion and solutions always get better with more people looking at them.
Enjoy this week’s update which includes Italy and chickens.
Arsenal Mode
2012.03.09 -
Today we are releasing the first Arsenal: Demolition map into the beta. Along with the new mode and map, there are numerous bug fixes and graphical updates. The complete release notes can be found here.
Arsenal Demolition is a fast paced mix of bomb planting and gun progression. There are no buy menus, you start with a rifle and if you get a kill that round – you get a progressively weaker weapon in the next round.
After 5 rounds the sides switch and you do it again, for a total of 10 rounds.
This mode is based on the Gun Game mod. The traditional version of Gun Game will appear later in CS:GO as Arsenal: Arms Race.
Special thanks to the GG Team for all their help.
We are also adding 10,000 more players into the beta today.
Intel Extreme Masters
2012.03.06 - 
The action starts today in Hanover Germany at CeBit for one of Counter-Strike 1.6’s biggest tournaments of the year – Intel Extreme Master’s Championship.
This year not only has some great teams but great stories as well. cArn has recently announced he will retire for CS after this tournament, will this be his swan song with fnatic? Can SK Gaming with two ex-fnatic members spoil his retirement?
Do either of them have a chance against Na’Vi going for their record third straight IEM championship?
Or will of the other 9 teams come out ahead including last minute ESC Gaming?
You can follow all the action here.
So who do you think is going to win? Who do you want to win? Any incredible action you want to share – tweet it our way.
The Science of Fog
2012.03.05 -
Counter-Strike players need to quickly identify their targets, so it’s important that those targets stand out. But as environments have become more richly detailed, it has gotten harder to separate a player from the background. This affects players by slowing their searches for targets, and can be the difference between life and death.
Atmospheric haze (‘fog’) is one of the tools we use to solve this problem. It reduces the visual impact of the distant environment, and when the appropriate amount is used in a map, players become far more distinguishable:
Spot the terrorist and then mouse over the image to add fog.
Did you spot both terrorists?
In today’s update, we have adjusted the levels of haze in de_train. The adjustment balances the need to make out players at long distances with the benefit of separating players from the background. We’re going to keep de_train the map to play as we collect more data to measure the impact of this change.
It’s true that eliminating haze would allow snipers to see very distant targets more clearly. However, aside from helping in that isolated case, removing it entirely would slow searches in the vast majority of player interactions. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, a little fog can help you see much more clearly.
