View Model Commands

Counter-Strike is a game that requires enhanced movement and precision, which is affected by what the player can see on their screens to react. Fortunately, Valve has allowed its players to explore the realm of Counter-Strike settings, giving them the chance to tweak all of their customization settings to meet their preferences.

Players are able to change the way their viewmodels and FOVs appear, which can help them see the screen more effectively, ultimately helping them play better. In this article, we will talk about all viewmodel and FOV related commands in Counter-Strike, what they do, and why they are useful.

Understanding Viewmodel and FOV In CSGO

Before we get into talking about the commands, we want to make sure you have a good understanding of what the viewmodel and FOV are in Counter-Strike. Let’s briefly talk about what they are.

What Is The Viewmodel In CSGO?

The viewmodel determines how your weapon hand is displayed on your screen, which includes your gun and your hand. Normally, using the default viewmodel settings might seem like your weapon hand is taking up too much space, which will cover a large portion of your screen.

However, the viewmodel settings can be adjusted to be moved, and also to appear smaller. As a result, many players have used the best viewmodel settings to slide their weapon hand to the side, or change it so it appears to be held at a lower point.

What Is the Field of View (FOV) In CSGO?

The Field of View, or FOV, is a factor in a viewmodel. Like in other games, it determines the extent of the observable game world you can see at any given moment. In simple terms, it is how close or how far your weapon hand is displayed from your screen.

If you are playing on a lower FOV, your viewmodel will appear very close to your screen, which means it will look bigger and take up more screen space. This is why players prefer playing on a high FOV, meaning their weapon hand will appear further, taking up less of the screen.

How To Change Viewmodel And FOV In CSGO?

Normally, most settings can be adjusted in the in-game settings menu through the game client. However, for some reason, Valve has not allowed its players to change their viewmodel settings through the regular settings page.

Instead, it is only possible to adjust the viewmodel using the developer console and console commands. Though it may sound a little confusing at first, it really isn’t that difficult, and we’ll show you how.

Using Console Commands

As mentioned earlier, the only way to change your viewmodel and FOV is to use console commands. Here is everything you need to know about the developer console and using console commands.

Enabling The Console

Though the developer console is a free feature, every account does not start with it enabled. Fortunately, activating it is very easy. Follow the steps below.

1. Launch Counter-Strike and go to your in-game Settings menu.
2. Next, look for the “Game” category.
3. You should see “Enable Developer Console” at the top.
4. Change the setting from “No” and select “Yes”.

With these simple steps, you would have enabled your developer console permanently.

Inputting The Commands

Once you have the console enabled, you can begin typing in console commands. To use commands, follow the steps below.

1. Press the tilde key (~) to open your console.
2. Type in the console command and add a value to the back (which is usually required).
3. Once the command is ready, hit your Enter key.
4. Close the console by pressing the tilde key again.

And that’s pretty much it. Using the console is not as difficult as you think, and it is a powerful tool that will allow you to change almost all of your Counter-Strike settings, including your viewmodel and FOV.

All CSGO Viewmodel Commands

Now that we know the basics about the viewmodel and console, we can put all these things together and start changing your in-game settings for the better. Here is a list of all viewmodel commands and what they do.

viewmodel_offset Commands

Adjusting your viewmodel is primarily based on three main factors, which are the X, Y, and Z offsets. These three offsets are used to determine how your viewmodel is moved, and where the ending result of it will be placed on the screen. So, the commands for these offsets are very similar but have varying purposes.

viewmodel_offset_x 

The X offset of the viewmodel is used to move the weapon left and right, following the X axis in a 3D environment. You can adjust the command using values between -2 to 2.5.

If you are looking to move your weapon to the left, use negative values. If you are looking to move your weapon to the right, use positive values.

viewmodel_offset_y 

The Y offset of the viewmodel is used to move the weapon forward and backward, following the Y axis in a 3D environment. You can adjust the command using values between -2 to 2.

If you are looking to move your weapon closer to the screen (backward), use negative values. If you are looking to move your weapon further from the screen (forward), use positive values.

viewmodel_offset_z 

The X offset of the viewmodel is used to move the weapon up and down, following the Z axis in a 3D environment. You can adjust the command using values between -2 and 2.

If you are looking to move your weapon downward, use negative values. If you are looking to move your weapon upward, use positive values.

As a result, these three commands are used to help you customize where your viewmodel is placed. Generally, you want a nice balance between the three so your screen does not get covered up too much, but your weapon hand is still properly visible.

viewmodel_presetpos Command

If you aren’t too sure of how you are going to tweak your viewmodel offsets, you can actually use a preset of viewmodel commands that were created by Valve. You will have three different preset positions for viewmodels by using the viewmodel_presetpos command in combination with one of the five values.

• 1 – Desktop Preset Position
• 2 – Couch Preset Position
• 3 – Classic Preset Position

For example, if you would like to give the Classic preset a go, you would type in the command viewmodel_presetpos 3.

These preset positions vary in appearance, so you should definitely try all of them out to see which one you like the best.

Additional Viewmodel Changes

Aside from the primary components of the viewmodel commands discussed above, there are additional ones you can tweak that might be helpful to you.

Left Hand Viewmodel

You might have seen professional players having their weapons placed on their left hand, and want to try that out. Fortunately, there is definitely a way to toggle your hand placement between left to right.

Professional players have determined that this choice should be made depending on your dominant eye. It is recommended to use the hand placement opposite to your dominant eye.

• If your right eye is dominant, use the left hand viewmodel. 
• If your left eye is dominant, use the right hand viewmodel.

There are three ways you can change this setting in Counter-Strike.

• Through the in-game settings.
• Using the console command: cl_righthand 0.
• Using the new keybind available for it, which is set to “H” by default. 

You can switch between left and right hand viewmodels strategically when you are peeking angles from a certain side. Let’s say you are looking to clear an angle on the left side. In that case, you could switch to your right hand viewmodel before peeking so your weapon hand won’t cover your screen on where the enemy player is.

Viewmodel Bobbing

Another setting worth noting is viewmodel bobbing, which refers to your weapon hand moving up and down whenever you are walking. This is a detail that makes the game more realistic, but it can also help you determine whether you are in a moving or stationary state, helping you understand if you are accurate or not.

Though it can be useful at times, most experienced players already know when they need to stop and shoot, and the bobbing of the viewmodel is simply distracting and unnecessary.

You can use the CSGO command cl_bob_lower_amt to adjust how much bobbing movement happens when you are walking or running. We recommend using lower values to reduce the movement.

All CSGO FOV Commands

Now that the viewmodel is out of the way, let’s get into the FOV commands, though there aren’t that many.

viewmodel_fov Command

You pretty much only need one FOV command, which is viewmodel_fov. This singular command serves the purpose of changing your FOV value. It affects how close or far your weapon appears from your viewmodel.

You can decide on a value between 54 to 68. Playing on a lower value means your weapon hand is much closer to your screen, appearing much bigger. Meanwhile, playing on a higher value means your weapon is further from your screen, taking up less space. Generally, the majority of professional players prefer playing on a high FOV since fewer of their screens are being blocked. We recommend using the maximum value, which is 68.

Going Beyond The FOV Limit

There is another FOV command that will help you exceed the FOV limit of 68. However, it is a cheat command that can only be used on private servers or match demos. By going beyond the FOV limit, your weapon appears super far from your viewmodel, which adds very cool effects. This command is only useful for making cinematic videos. The set of commands you must use are.

• sv_cheats 1
• fov_cs_debug 105

Again, you can only use these commands on servers that you have admin permissions on. It cannot be used on official Valve matchmaking servers.

Crashz’ Viewmodel Generator

If you are having a hard time changing your viewmodel and FOV, you can always download one of the best CSGO workshop maps ever released: crashz’ Viewmodel Generator.

After downloading this map, you can load into it and see a large menu that will customize your viewmodel settings for you. You can start changing your settings and then continue tweaking them until you are satisfied.

The map also features several viewmodel examples of Counter-Strike content creators that should be good enough to give you a reference of how a basic viewmodel looks. The map is free to download on the Steam Workshop.

You can download the map using this link.

Pro Player Viewmodel and FOV Settings

To end off the article, we will showcase what viewmodels and FOVs the best Counter-Strike players in the world are using, in case you need more references.

s1mple

• viewmodel_offset_x : 2.5
• viewmodel_offset_y : 0
• viewmodel_offset_z : -1.5
• viewmodel_fov : 68

ZywOo

• viewmodel_offset_x : 2.5
• viewmodel_offset_y : 0
• viewmodel_offset_z : -1.5
• viewmodel_fov : 68

NiKo

• viewmodel_offset_x : 2.5
• viewmodel_offset_y : 0
• viewmodel_offset_z : -1.5
• viewmodel_fov : 68

XANTARES

• viewmodel_offset_x : 1
• viewmodel_offset_y : 1
• viewmodel_offset_z : -1
• viewmodel_fov : 60

m0NESY

• viewmodel_offset_x : 2.5
• viewmodel_offset_y : 0
• viewmodel_offset_z : -1.5
• viewmodel_fov : 68

Overall, we can conclude that there is one set of viewmodel and FOV settings that is very popular among professional players. We can say that at least 90% of professional players are using the same viewmodel and FOV settings as s1mple, ZywOo, NiKo, and m0NESY.