Hopefully this hasn’t been asked before on this sub, but I was wondering why so many games struggle with good hit boxes? Why are they even “boxes” in the first place? I would assume they would just be carbon copies of the character model instead of having individual boxes that stretch out over the characters body.
In: Technology
Number 1: They aren’t always “boxes”. Often they are spheroids.
Number 2: Hit boxes simplify the calculation of collision detection so the computer can calculate it in real time without killing your frame rate. Detecting collision with multiple moving objects in different states of animation is already a pain in the arse with this simplification. You *could* have hit boxes that perfectly match the character model (essentially, eliminating the need for separate hit boxes at all), but those models are often thousands of polygons. It’s not feasible to do this even on the most powerful machines.
Number 3: Ignoring the technical limitations, there are often gameplay design reasons for hit boxes that don’t match one-to-one with the model. Sometimes you want to make it easier for the player to shoot an enemy even if they’re a few pixels off (first person shooters), or avoid taking damage even if a bullet technically touched them (top-down shooters/bullet hell). Or in a 2D fighter for balance reasons you want certain punches to land even if the opponent is crouching and it visibly misses them. Platform games often use larger hit boxes on platform edges to implement “coyote time” – an additional window where the player can still jump or land despite having technically fallen off the visible ledge.
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