thats pretty interesting, is hitscan like this too? idk anything about this game's physics

What the fuck I never realised the hitbox didn't change when you rotate. That's actually pretty damn significant.

I want this video to be followed up by an investigation into how you are aligned in different areas of different maps!

The map's axes are usually aligned with most of the straight wall segments; any hallways usually run parallel the the axes. This hitbox is only for projectiles and players, as well as map geometry. I'm fairly sure the flamethrower particles may use it as well, but not 100%.

What about custom maps? Are there sightlines that would be more beneficial to spam because you're hitting diagonals?

Badlands is a good example of where this might come into play; spamming point from choke to point is less likely to hit people directly than spamming from house or the sides of yard.

this guy sounds like a text to speech voice

Damn. I'm really worried about the sliding bit as well. Close-range fights, as well as sliding around props vs. getting stuck on them.

The biggest impact for this is with spies; getting around someone on a diagonal approach is much easier than on a
"head on" approach.

you know maybe this explains a lot of bullshit stabs i've had on me

Hitbox =/= bounding box

Seems to be a bug with projectiles that it reacts to the bounding box rather than the hitbox.

The bounding box is used for all projectiles as far as I know; try it out for yourself with the command. Let me know if you get different results with different weapons - I used the needle gun as it does a small amount of damage compared to a lot of other projectile weapons, and makes for a very clear way to demonstrate the boundaries of the hitbox.

Yeah, it seems to work like this for all projectiles except sticky launcher. I guess it's like this because of performance issues - theoretically it's easier for the server to calculate collision and splash damage this way. Practically, it's not a huge issue, it makes directs slightly easier to do, but the most empty bounding box space is at head level, and obviously it makes no sense to aim at headshot level unless you want to deny someone from surfing your rocket. Although it would be nice for more accurate hitboxes.

A cylinder would work well, but the main problem with that sort of change is that the shape of a player's collision has been the same since HL1 and Quake before it - while the method is definitely dated, changing it could have unintended consequences. The change would have a very small impact on performance, but these days that impact would be negligible. The decision to implement player physics as an AABB (axis-aligned bounding box) was originally made in the late 90s, where bandwidth and performance were very limited resources.
I would say that it's a pretty large issue, as it changes your apparent size greatly depending on the angle you are being viewed or attacked from. This definitely plays a huge role in how often projectile weapons hit, and the nearly invisible nature makes for a huge source of inconsistency.

I just tested what you said about stickies - that's really strange behavior. It seems to collide with the actual model, instead of a simplified bounding box.

i tested this out. hitscan doesn't follow this box, it only seems that projectiles end up hitting the box. (this includes particle weapons such as the pomson)

sorry if this was already cleared up i didnt read the posts please dont hurt me

I'll update the description on the video to make it more clear what the box is used for.

what does teh cappper fall under?

i have no idea but i would assume hitscan since it is just a reskin of the pistol

Does this have any effect on rocket jumping?

.

3 years later it finally makes sense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNm1b2-E2w

This is a big part of the reason facestabs happen and are so bullshit

http://technofovea.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/weirdstab.png

However, with projectiles, I honestly don't think this makes a huge amount of difference in terms of being broken and it'll probably just feel really fucking weird if they change it.

I think it could be an issue because this is not just about model inaccuracy (large empty space around the head), but about the fact that angles make a huge difference (40%) in likelihood to hit a direct. For example, if I'm looking at this correctly, jumping spire from balcony (because you are jumping along the axis) would mean you are less likely to get airshot than when jumping from lobby/shutter or trash

well this agrees with the whole 'pipes flying past ur head and still hitting u' thing ive noticed

At least the projectile explosions are spherical, instead of a cubic (which it used to be).

Would implementing a cylindrical hit box make rocket jumping different? How large of a gameplay difference would it make?

I'm more worried about rockets going inside of slight cracks and doing zero damage as a result...

nice find. never thought about this stuff, but it totally makes sense.
nice video btw!

i presume that when you duck, nothing really changes except for the box having less height?

i remember watching a video of a sniper using the SMG on an engie's stomach. He didn't hit him because of how engineer's hitscan-hitboxes are made:

http://puu.sh/mktK2/558126c8fd.PNG

A single solid cylinder wouldn't have any gaps, like the hitscan weapon hitboxes may have.

It shouldn't change how you are propelled, but it will change how you collide with other players and map geometry - however, the changes would not be very noticeable, and the behavior would be more consistent overall.