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 Home > AG Guides
& Tips> Creating Crosshairs
Creating Custom
Crosshairs
What are crosshairs?
In half-life the standard crosshair set are not the best for spot on aim and
almost every pro gamer will have a custom set installed that are either small
sharp for spot on aiming or high-vis coloured with added extras for improved
aiming.
How do I install custom crosshairs?
To override the default crosshairs all you do is place a files called
'crosshairs.spr' into your half-life\valve\sprites\... folder or
for AG you place it in the half-life\ag\sprites\... etc. To override all
game mods placing the crosshair.spr into your half-life\sprites\...
folder will do the trick. This also goes for the new half-life Steam version
located in program files.
Also you will need to have the following line in your config.cfg: crosshair
"1"
The 'crosshairs.spr' file is a specail graphic sprite format file that
contains your custom crosshairs. You can download these custom crosshair.spr
files pre-made from the Pro-HL Crosshair
section. Doing this will save you time creating your own which to those new
to half-life development is the easier option.
How do I create my own crosshairs?
It's really simple, First you need the following tools:
1) A graphics editing program, for example I'll be using Adobe Photoshop
2) A sprites viewer (see below to download)
3) A sprites creator (see below for download)
Once you have all of these tools you are ready to begin.
Step 1 - Work from a template
The way half-life crosshairs work you need to meet a set of requirements such
as, colours used, size used, position of each crosshair. If you don't meet
these requirements your custom crosshairs will fail to work correctly so I find
it best to work from a basic template. For example download a crosshair set
already made that works and then using the 'Sprite-Viewer' open the
crosshairs.spr & then save copy as a .bmp ready to edit.
For this example I've opened up my crosshairs that can be found on the
Pro-HL Crosshair section under 'Sandz-xhairs'
Then by clicking File, Save As .BMP now I'm ready to edit them.
Step 2 - Editing to your liking
Fire up your graphics package... Here I'm using Adobe's Photoshop, then open up
the crosshairs.bmp that you've created from step 1. Now by using the same
colour table you can redesign your crosshairs to how you like them. Remember
don't move the centre points as you may find the aim will be off when in the
game. Also don't use colours that are not found in the current design as this
may cause problems when you come to saving them later on. The location of each
weapon's crosshair is set and you must keep them in the set order for them to
work so you will need to know what crosshairs are for what weapons if you are
to have any idea to which crosshair you are designing.
Here you can see I've tweaked the look of a few of the crosshairs like the
RPG, Crossbow & Shotgun with the aim to improve the visibility yet
maintaining the small & sharp pin point aim and fast zoom speeds.
Step 3 - Saving them back into .spr format
Once you're happy with the design of your crosshairs it's just a case of saving
them back into .spr format for Half-Life. This is done using the
'Sprite-Creator' tool.
Just follow the step-by-step instructions in the Sprite Wizard and find your
new crosshair.bmp design.
When it asks you how to convert the colour table for the .spr file select
'Indexalpha - Grayscale' If you don't you will find the grey colour
around all your crosshairs will not be transparent when in the game.
Now just place your new crosshair.spr into your half-life\sprites\... folder
and your set to play & test!!
Creating crosshairs for Counter-Strike
Use the same steps are above for creating crosshairs for Counter-Strike the
only difference is that for CS crosshairs you can only create custom hairs for
the sniper weapons only! You can not create custom hairs to replace the likes
of the AK47 or M4A1 etc. Custom hairs for those weapons that have zooming hairs
when moving are classed as hacks/cheats and almost every server is set-up to
detect such cheats & will ban players who hack the system.
Related Links
Scripts & Aliases
AG Commands
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