How to Switch Hands in CS:GO Guide

Switching (or changing) the hand in which you hold your weapons in CS:GO (or, better said, the position of the weapon on your screen) is not a complicated procedure, but sadly, the option for this does not seem to exist in the game settings menu of CS:GO. We have a quick guide for you here at Prima Games which will help you a great deal with this matter.

How to Move Weapon in CS:GO to Left or Right Hand

To switch the ViewModel hand in CS:GO, you can follow these steps:

• Open the Console in CS:GO by pressing the ~ key on your keyboard (check the linked guide if this doesn’t work)
• use the console command cl_righthand 0 to switch the ViewModel to the left-hand side
• use the console command cl_righthand 1 to switch it back to the right-hand side.

You can also bind a key to make it possible to switch hands at will with a press of a button:

bind L "toggle cl_righthand 0 1"

Now, the question is, in which hand you should hold your weapon in CS:GO? The answer can be either “personal preference” or “science”.

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In Which Hand Should I Hold My Weapon in CS:GO?

It’s common that left-handed people will hold the weapon in their left hand, and that right-handed people will hold the weapon in their right hand. However, what about ambidextrous people? And is there any scientific reason for your to hold the weapon in either of the hands specifically? There have been some talks about “Dominant Eye” and we’re here to explain that as well.

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How to See Which of Your Eyes is Dominant?

To check and establish which eye is dominant in your case, you can perform a very simple and fast test:

1. Make a small hole with your hands by touching your thumbs and index fingers together, or you can just create a small circle with your thumb and index finger.
2. With both of your eyes open, focus on an object through this hole/circle so that you can barely see the object.
3. Look at the object with one eye only (keeping the other closed).
4. If the object stays in view when you look at it with one eye but disappears when you look at it with the other, the eye that keeps the object in view is your dominant eye.

Knowing which eye is dominant can be helpful in many activities, including shooting, archery… Now, as an ambidextrous person I opted to hold the weapon in my left hand in CS:GO because my right eye is the dominant one. It’s perhaps a placebo effect, but I find it easier to have the right side of my screen clear of useless stuff (and the weapon is, mind you, just something that’s blocking your view, and many old-school players used to disable the ViewModel of the weapon in old-school FPS games). Speaking of Weapon Size, let’s downsize it as much as possible so that it takes as least of your screen as possible.

How to Change the Position and Size of Your Weapon on Your Screen in CS:GO

There are a few commands that you can use in the Console of CS:GO to change the position and size of your weapon on the screen. Let’s go through them quickly. Of course, there’s the Game Settings option for “Desktop”, “Couch”, and “Classic” but let’s fine-tune this to our advantage and actually experiment a bit.

1. viewmodel_fov: This command sets the field of view for the ViewModel (the gun and hands in first-person view).
   The minimum value is 54, and the maximum value is 68. If you keep this value low, the gun will be closer to you and will take up less space.
2. viewmodel_offset_x: This command sets the horizontal position of the ViewModel. Negative values move the ViewModel to the center of the screen, and positive values move it to the right/left edge of the screen, depending on which hand you’re holding the gun in. Values are between -2 and 2.5. If you hold it at -2 your gun will be at the center of the screen, occupying just the bottom part of your screen.
3. viewmodel_offset_y: This command sets the vertical position of the ViewModel. Negative values move the ViewModel down to you (similar to the viewmodel_fov command), and positive values move it away from you. The value range is between -2 and 2 and keeping it at -2 keeps the gun very close to you.
4. viewmodel_offset_z: This command sets the distance between the “projected” position of the eyes of your player model, and the gun ViewModel, or to put it in different words, the height of your gun. Negative values move the ViewModel down, and positive values move it up. The value range is between -2 and 2, and moving it close to 2 makes you look like you’re aiming down the sights, and keeping it low puts the gun down.

Now, I will continue to advocate the lowest values for all four of these commands, except for the “X” axis which could be a personal preference thing, but in all honesty, something might happen in the corner of the screen which you might miss because the ViewModel is blocking it. But oh no, my fancy skin is not fully visib-shut up, CS:GO is not a fashion contest. “Remember! This isn’t the killing house anymore! This is real life.”

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We hope this guide has been helpful and that it will further optimize your gameplay and improve your rank. Make sure to check out our game tags under the article for more related content. See you soon at Prima Games!