Hitboxes: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:12, 14 November 2018

Behind the scenes of a fighting game, the properties of attacks and characters are defined by hitboxes. These show where exactly an attack can hit and where a character can be hit.

What the player sees and what the game engine sees

Definitions

Hitbox: Refers to all types of boxes discussed in this section such as attackboxes and hurtboxes

Attackbox: Where the attack can hit the opponent. These are typically colored red.

Hurtbox: Where the character can be hurt if struck. These are typically colored blue or green.

Collisionbox: Where the character currently takes up space. These do not have a color commonly used.

These are just some of the common types of hiboxes. Depending on the game there may be specific boxes for throws, assists, etc.

Common Behaviors

Let's look how some hitboxes behave and see what we can learn.

Extended Hurtboxes

Most attacks extend their hurtbox during the entire attack

Hurtboxes don't have to make sense in the real world, only in the context of game balance

A typical attack extends the character's hurtbox. This means that attacking at neutral usually has some risk as you are briefly making yourself a bigger target. You can be hit out of the startup of your attack or be punished for whiffing.

Reduced Hurtboxes

File:HitboxReducedHurtbox.png

Sometimes body parts are just not hittable

Some moves shrink your hurtbox significantly. This is especially prevelant in Guilty Gear's 6P anti air attacks.

Attribute Invincibility

File:HitboxAttributeInvincibility.png

There's usually a distinct visual effect when you are attribute invincible to an attack

While not directly hitbox related, Attribute Invincibility is worth mentioning now since a lot of ASW games use it. In some games like BlazBlue and Dragon Ball FigherZ each attack is tagged with an attribute, such as Head, Body, Foot, or Projectile. Certain attacks have invincibility to certain attributes for a a set amount of time.

A common example of this is 2H attacks in Dragon Ball - they have invincibility to Head attribute attacks and almost all airborne attacks are Head attribute. Thus you could say that you effectively have no hurtbox versus airborne attacks.

Hitting an Opponent

File:HitboxAttack.png

A common scenario

An attackbox intersects with the opponent's hurtbox. While this sounds easy, certain interractions will appear "strange" without slowing things down or applying the concept of extended/reduced hurtboxes.

Clash

Most ASW games have some kind of clashing mechanic

An attackbox intersects with the opponent's attackbox. Not all attacks can clash and some games do not have clashing at all.

Estimating Hitboxes Without Datamining

Not all games will have hitboxes available - this is especially true with new games on new engines. But that doesn't mean you don't have any hitbox information at all, you can test things yourself and make estimates on the location of hitboxes/hurtboxes.

Observe In-Game

First assume that the hitboxes are exactly where the animation shows it to attack. And the hurtboxes are located in the same space the character occupies.
Notice when unexpected hits/misses happen
1. Did your move have more/less range than you thought?
2. How easy/difficult is it for the opponent to hit you out of a specific move?
3. Did you dodge an attack unexpectedly?
Make a note of it in your mind and experiment in training mode.

Experiment in Training Mode

In training mode, try to hit the opponent from different angles that you don't usually use to get an idea how big the hitbox/hurtbox for any attack are in a specific direction.
1. For example,

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 [[File:HitboxExtendedHurtbox1.png|thumb|Most attacks extend their hurtbox during the entire attack]]
 [[File:HitboxExtendedHurtbox2.png|thumb|Hurtboxes don't have to make sense in the real world, only in the context of game balance]]
-A typical attack extends the character's hurtbox. This means that attacking at neutral usually has some risk as you are briefly making yourself a bigger target.
+A typical attack extends the character's hurtbox. This means that attacking at neutral usually has some risk as you are briefly making yourself a bigger target. You can be hit out of the startup of your attack or be punished for whiffing.
 <br clear=all/>
 ===Reduced Hurtboxes===
 [[File:HitboxReducedHurtbox.png|thumb|Sometimes body parts are just not hittable]]