A crosshair overly program is one way to add crosshairs to a game with crosshairs you don’t like, or a game that has none at all. It is highly recommended for people who have a hard time looking at the crosshairs that come with a game, or for games that don’t have a built in animation for the crosshairs.
There are two ways that you can add a crosshair overlay to your game, with a program and with an external device. In this article, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both.
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Custom Crosshair Overlay
There is an option to add a software program to your computer and it will provide an additional crosshair to games you play and enhance the playability of first person shooters and certain MMO’s. There are a variety of programs to choose from, including Custom Desktop Logo and Hud Sight.
Custom Desktop Logo
There are a few people out there who hate their in game crosshairs. Some of the crosshairs on MMO’s and first person shooters are genuinely terrible. They don’t have enough contrast with the background to be effective, are horribly positioned for your eye level, or are a displeasing design.
If you don’t have crosshairs for your game, or have “Where the hell is my crosshair?” syndrome, then a third party program is right for you. This also applies to others who enjoy editing their game and making it feel more like their own, with different customizations.
If you’re in either one of these camps, or just curious about what is out there, you might enjoy looking into the programs. Custom Desktop Logo is actually a program that was created for business. Funny enough, Custom Desktop Logo does the job better than Mumble, the features on Asus monitors, and some of the programs that were created especially for crosshair overlays.
Custom Desktop Logo allows you to easily center your on screen crosshair and edit the position, the alpha, and the animation for the crosshairs. You can even make this an FPS crosshair and have it display the active frames per second your computer is registering.
The only problem with Custom Desktop Logo is that, because it does give you the ability to have crosshairs in games that don’t already supply an animation for them, it gives you an advantage over other players. When you use this with a game from a service, like an MMO or a Steam community game, if you are reported and investigated, it carries the risk of your account being banned.
Hud Sight
Hud sight is another software program that will add crosshairs to your game and allow you to utilize a full screen crosshair overlay. You can choose from a list of pre-installed crosshairs or select your own image and you’re ready to play. Run any game, and the Hud sight software will do the rest of work for you. The image you have chosen for your crosshairs will be automatically centered on the game screen.
The nice part about HudSight is that it is designed to be used with games, and it draws the crosshair overlay right over the game frames and it doesn’t matter what video mode you are using. This is an FPS crosshair overlay which automatically works with the framerate the computer is registering as well.
That means you can switch your game to fullscreen mode and you will have minimal input lag over using a windowed version and manually overlaying a transparent crosshair program.
Hud Sight software will work with games based on DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, OpenGL and Vulkan graphics. It does not matter whether the game you are running is a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version. All games are welcome. It works on all currently supported versions of Windows: Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Like Custom Desktop Logo, Hud Sight could be considered a cheat program by some stringent gaming authorities, and you do run the risk of having your account banned if you are caught using a third party crosshair program that gives you an unfair advantage over your fellow players.
Physical Overlays
Gaimglass
Gaimglass is a physical, external crosshair that does not require any software installations, you don’t have to worry about the possibility that someone or something will detect it as a cheat program, and you don’t have to deal with the fact that a software program would be taking up memory or processing power. It is a monitor crosshair overlay that takes all the guesswork out of gaming sights.
The Gaimglass website boasts that it “gives you a fixed ultra bright, ultra small aim point that never moves.” This is a panel that sits in front of your monitor and offers a fixed, lighted crosshair sight so that you can easily lock onto your targets and fire upon your enemies with precision and alacrity.
Gaimglass features
The other nice part about Gaimglass is that when you aren’t using it for gaming, you can take it out of the way and have no changes to your computer system. It is a bright green dot that is highly visible, both in well-lit conditions and low-light settings, but because it is green and not blue, or red, it doesn’t have the associated eye strain, particularly when you are using it in a dim room.
Regardless of the background color of your game, the Gaimglass aiming sight it will be easily visible, but it is still minimalistic. The aiming dot itself is only 1/25 of an inch, or 1 millimeter across. This provides the ability to sight in and aim at enemies in-game without significant interference in the visual aspect of the game.
Because Gaimglass sits in front of the monitor itself, there is a three dimensional aspect to it. The slight offset between the Gaimglass and the screen means that there is more of a feeling of using an actual aim reticle, but some users may find it distracting to always have something in their field of view.
Gaimglass Design
Gaimglass is designed with precision and manufactured from clear acrylic cut with a CNC machine. The fact that it is not made from actual glass makes it crack and shatterproof, but scratches may be an issue if you are not careful with handling it when you are setting it up, tearing it down, or storing it between gaming sessions.
The frame of the Gaimglass is aluminum for a lightweight feel, making it easily portable if needed, and not a chore to store away when it is not being used. The aluminum frame has been anodized black so that it fades into the background for one less distraction from the game when you are using it to sight your enemies in combat.
Because the aluminum is anodized, rough handling will scrape off the black finish on corners and wherever there is damage to the frame itself, so just be careful when you are handling the Gaimglass so that it stays looking fresh and nice.
Conclusion
Crosshair overlay programs are a versatile way to enhance your gaming experience. They allow you to customize your aiming reticle to your desired specifications including color, contrast, position and design. They require a little bit of manipulation, because the crosshair overlay programs are rarely plug and play.
At the very least, as part of setting up the on screen crosshair you will have to select options that you want for the display, and make sure that it runs with the games you want to use. If you have set it up incorrectly, the last thing you want in the middle of a heated player vs player match is for your game client to crash or the crosshairs to disappear.
Be careful of using a crosshair overlay program with any sort of highly regulated MMO because the game system itself might detect that you are using a third-party program, or other players who feel that you have an unfair advantage could report you to the developers.
A great example of this would be Overwatch, which bans aiming bots, and while an external crosshair program does not technically fall into that category, the decision to ban people is highly subjective and someone who is having a bad day or week may choose to lock down your account rather than read deeper into the specifics.
If you want the ability to set up a crosshair over your monitor itself, where you don’t have to worry about software settings, then something like the Gaimglass would be a good option for you.
It is a fixed piece of specialized equipment which provides the opportunity to use an LED and pinpoint the shot target on the screen without installing or running any programs, and it doesn’t care what video mode your game is in because it does not require any input from the computer in order to run.
The only disadvantage to having something like the Gaimglass, an external piece of hardware, is that there is one more thing taking up space on your desk. Sure, it’s low profile, but if you are packing up your desk to move, it is one more item to take with you.
If you don’t want to have it up all the time, you have to set it up when you want to play games and tear it down when you don’t want to play anymore, and this increases the chance that you will have damage to either the frame with the anodized finish wearing down, or there will be scratches on the acrylic itself.
Ultimately it comes down to a matter of user comfort. If you know that you can set up a software program to give you the crosshairs that you need and you are willing to take the risk that you will play in a fashion that doesn’t lead you to be reported for cheating, then a crosshair overlay program is a good choice for you.
If you are not technically savvy and would prefer an external solution that points the sight on your monitor when you need it for gaming, and it is out of sight and out of mind the rest of the time without an extra piece of software on your machine, then something like the Gaimglass external crosshair is a better option.
