The crosshair is an integral part of the gunplay of CS:GO, aiding players in bullet placement and helping to account for the recoil involved when firing automatically. Highly customizable through the use of different console commands, players can change the size, shape, color, and opacity of their crosshairs to fit their needs and preferences as a player.
However, as the crosshair covers the very centers of players’ screens at all times, there are many circumstances in which it takes visual precedence over the action behind it. Especially large, bright, or contrasting crosshairs can often clutter screenshots or demo footage, obscuring an otherwise perfect shot.
Fortunately, CS:GO shipped with a feature that temporarily disables the crosshair to prevent it from displaying, and later re-enables it when the player needs to aim again. Both functions can be executed through the use of specific console commands.
Disabling the Crosshair
Accessing the console by pressing tilde, which is the ~ symbol at the top left of qwerty keyboards, players can type toggle crosshair 0 into the entry bar at the bottom. This command will stop CS:GO from rendering the crosshair in gameplay or demo recordings for as long as it is active. To re-activate the crosshair, simply change the 0 to 1, entering toggle crosshair 1 instead.
This feature can also be bound to a key, toggling the player’s crosshair with a single key input. By entering bind [key] “toggle crosshair 0 1” into the console, the game will cycle between enabling and disabling the crosshair every time the specified key is pressed.
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