ST-CS-10-339-75
March 2002

5.  Damage Direction Indicator Error  (U)

This is a very rare error, and is often mispercieved to have occured when it has not. This occurs because when a player dies, his view is rotated by ninety degrees. This also rotates the damage direction indicators.

When a damage direction indicator illuminates, it lasts, fading out slowly, for about two seconds. If a player is instantly killed from in front, his damage direction indicators will be turned along with his view point, and he will "see" the hit as having come from the right.

During the initial rush at the start of a round, it is often the case you catagorically know you could not be killed from the right since there is no time for a hostile to have reached that position - ergo, a conclusion the damage direction indicator was in error when in fact the player was misled by not appreciating the indicator also rotates along with his view when he dies.

However, there have been enough incidents during combat (not involving death) to lead to a suspicion that the indicator is sometimes in error.

The author has only one example of this occuring. This is taken from a demo (rather than real-time play) since at the time experimentation into new methods of video capture was in progress.

Indicator error	Hostile's locations

This event occured during the initial rush on de_aztec. The player in the video was on point and had performed a near optimal rush from the terrorist start; as such it was not possible for a CT to have moved over to the right without being seen by the player as he ran down the water.

As can be seen in the screen capture, there are at least two hostiles at the other end of the water. While the player is jumping and moving forward, they open fire. The shot could not have come from above, as this would have lit up all four indicators (shots from above or below register in this way).

Note the knife disappears at the moment of the hit because the player is changing over to his main weapon.

Given that bullets do not actually travel through the air in the simulation, but rather their path is instantly and completely calculated at the moment of firing (e.g. effectively they move with infinite speed) it is also not possible to argue the player ran into a bullet as he moved forward, appearing to be hit from the right.

All in all, given the lack of other explainations, it would appear the direction indicator is in error.