TF2 crosshairs: how to change yours and add a custom one

There are three ways to change your crosshair in Team Fortress 2: the game's own options, a crosshair that comes with a custom HUD, and a different crosshair for each weapon. The first takes a minute. The other two give you more shapes and more control. To draw your own, open the TF2 crosshair maker.

Change the crosshair in the game options

1. Open Options and go to the Multiplayer tab.
2. Pick a crosshair shape from the list. None is what the game starts on. It does not hide the crosshair: it gives each weapon the crosshair it was made with.
3. Set the size and the colour in the same tab. Both also apply to the default crosshairs.

TF2 crosshair commands

The same settings exist as console commands:

• cl_crosshair_file crosshair1 picks a shape by its file name. The shapes are crosshair1 to crosshair7 and one called default, which is a shape like the others and not a reset. To reset, run cl_crosshair_file "": each weapon gets its own crosshair again.
• cl_crosshair_scale 32 sets the size. 32 is the default, and a smaller number gives a smaller crosshair.
• cl_crosshair_red, cl_crosshair_green and cl_crosshair_blue set the colour, each from 0 to 255. All three start at 200, which is light grey. For a bright green crosshair, run cl_crosshair_red 0; cl_crosshair_green 255; cl_crosshair_blue 0.
• crosshair 0 hides the game's crosshair and crosshair 1 brings it back.

TF2 saves all of these, so you only type them once. To keep them in an autoexec.cfg with your other settings, use the TF2 config maker. The game's crosshair has no opacity setting; a HUD crosshair does.

Use the crosshair from a custom HUD

62 HUDs on tf2hud come with their own crosshairs: see TF2 HUDs with custom crosshairs. Among them are budhud, rayshud, FlawHUD, ahud and m0rehud.

A HUD crosshair is a character in a font. The HUD prints it in the centre of your screen, and each letter of the font is a different shape. That gives you many more shapes than the game has, in the size and colour you choose, with an outline or some transparency if you want it. The HUD draws it, so it is the same for every weapon, and the options and commands above do not change it.

1. Install the HUD. See how to install a TF2 HUD.
2. Turn its crosshair on. A HUD's crosshair is usually off until you enable it. Some HUDs have a menu for it in the game, such as JumpHUD and Community HUD Fixes. In the others you edit a file: find the crosshair block, set "visible" to "1", and change "labelText" to the letter of the shape you want. The HUD's own instructions say which file that is.
3. Hide the game's crosshair. Run crosshair 0, or you will see both.
4. Reload the HUD. Run hud_reloadscheme, or restart TF2.

If your HUD has no crosshairs, you can add them. Hypnotize's TF2 HUD Crosshairs pack puts the well-known sets (Knuckles, Fog, Broesel, Seeker and others) in one font, and its readme lists the three lines to add to your HUD.

A different crosshair for each weapon

TF2 has one script file per weapon, named like scripts/tf_weapon_scattergun.txt, and each one has a crosshair block that names an image. Weapon-specific crosshairs replace those files, so a Scattergun and a Rocket Launcher can each have their own crosshair. Three tools write the files for you:

• The tf2hud crosshair maker runs in the browser: draw your own crosshairs, choose one for each weapon and download the files.
• The cfg.tf crosshair generator also runs in the browser: pick one of its ready-made crosshairs for each weapon and it generates the files.
• Venom Crosshairs is a Windows program that installs and updates them.

All three need the crosshair in the game options set to None, which is cl_crosshair_file "". With any other shape selected, the game draws that shape for every weapon instead.

The crosshair images go in materials/vgui/replay/thumbnails, a folder that servers with strict file checks (sv_pure 2) leave alone, so the crosshairs work there too. To write the files by hand, follow the original guide on teamfortress.tv.

If the crosshair does not show

• There is no crosshair at all. crosshair is set to 0. Run crosshair 1.
• There are two crosshairs. A HUD crosshair is on and the game's crosshair is too. Run crosshair 0.
• The HUD crosshair is missing. Its block still has "visible" "0", or its font did not load. On Linux and macOS a HUD's fonts usually have to be installed on the system, and the crosshair is a font too: see the install guide.
• Weapon-specific crosshairs do not appear. The crosshair option is not on None. Run cl_crosshair_file "". If you installed the files while TF2 was open, restart it.
• The crosshair disappears in the Sniper scope. The option to hide it when zoomed in is on. Run tf_hud_no_crosshair_on_scope_zoom 0.

Which one to use

For a quick change, use the game options. For one crosshair that stays the same on every weapon, with more shapes to choose from, use a HUD: start with the HUDs with custom crosshairs. For a crosshair that changes with the weapon, use weapon-specific crosshairs, which are separate from the HUD and work with the default one too: make yours in the crosshair maker. Whichever you use, pick a colour that stands out against the maps, and keep the crosshair small enough to see what is behind it.