Those who play CS2 competitively know that knowing all callouts on a map and relaying brief and accurate information about what’s going on the map is crucial to winning. Valve has granted us the ability to see some of the stuff that’s going on around the map in CS2 (and it is actually very useful, unlike the radar in the original Counter-Strike). In this Prima Games guide, we will help you build your own Radar Settings, which will help you see things better and get you in a position where you will be able to relay important information with more precision.
Best CS2 Radar Settings
The default Radar (as you may have noticed) really doesn’t show you anything important. Even when it does, it points you in the direction of what’s happening, which, you will likely agree, is not precise enough. We will explain every relevant setting parameter you can change by yourself to accommodate your needs and preferences, and we will show you what we have done for our radars at the end of the article.
How to Change CS2 Radar Settings
First, you need to Enable the Developer Console and open it. You can do this before a game, during a game, or whenever you want. We recommend that you boot up a random map session with bots so that you can edit the commands in peace.
cl_radar_always_centered
This setting has two modes: “1” and “0”. If it’s on, it means that the radar is centered around you. We have it disabled because it makes the map visibility better (you can straight-up see the entire map at all times).
cl_radar_scale
This setting is essentially the level of zoom on the radar. The default one is zoomed too much, as we have pointed out, so you can try putting a lower setting like 0.3.
cl_hud_radar_scale
This setting changes the size of your radar (the circle in the corner) and ideally, you want it to be as big as possible. We have set it to the maximum value of 1.3. For us, it does not get in the way, but if it’s too big for you, you can tone it down a bit. Play around and find your own value. Make sure to also visit the hud_scaling command and max that out (1) for better visibility.
cl_radar_icon_scale_min
This one determines how big the icons are on the radar. In order to reduce clutter, we’ve toned it down all the way to the minimum value of 0.4, but, you can, of course, increase it a bit.
cl_radar_rotate
There will be different opinions on this setting. You can either have it at 1 or 0. 1 makes it so that your radar is constantly spinning, and 0 fixates the map in one position. We have opted for the 0 option because it requires less thinking time to process what’s happening because you already know the map layout by heart.
safezonex and safezoney
A lot of guides are missing this crucial piece of information. It not only allows you to move your entire HUD closer to the middle of the screen but also puts less strain on your peripheral vision so that you do not lose your focus as much.
Safezonex moves your HUD closer to the center of the screen on the X axis, and Safezoney does it for the Y axis.
Depending on the dimensions and proportions of your screen, you will be able to change these values so that you’re most comfortable.
For our standard 16:9 monitors, we didn’t touch the safezoney value. However, with the safezonex value, we have toyed a bit and tried to emulate what we would be experiencing with a 4:3 screen. We went for 0.7 (0.6 was too unpleasant) but you can try stuff like 0.75, 0.8, or 0.85, etc.
Since CS2 is a tactical shooter, you will almost always keep your crosshair on a corner or any other point of interest, and peripheral vision is not as important as in fast-paced arena shooters, for example, so having the radar closer to your screen shouldn’t be that big of a deal and it does wonders when you do not need to advert your eyes elsewhere.
As mentioned, try out yourself, and tinker with the values until you figure out what’s the best for you. Our values are summarized below:
cl_radar_always_centered 0
cl_radar_scale 0.3
cl_hud_radar_scale 1.3
cl_radar_icon_scale_min 0.4
hud_scale 1
cl_radar_rotate 0
safezonex 0.7
safezoney 1
A lot of things have changed in CS2, and a lot of players are trying to figure out if they can hold their weapon in their left hand in CS2.
