Nightvision Goggles

In the Counter-Strike series, the nightvision goggles are a passive equipment item used to amplify existing light.

Overview

The nightvision goggles allow the user to see in total darkness by brightening up dark areas and giving the screen a green monochrome tint. Activating and deactivating the nightvision goggles make a distinct sound audible to all nearby players. In normal (bright) light, the goggles can make things near impossible to see.

As of yet, the nightvision goggles have appeared in all of the Counter-Strike games, excluding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Source

The nightvision goggles are widely regarded as useless on many official maps due to the abundance of light sources and high ambient light, leaving many players to avoid purchasing them unless attempting to earn the Dead of Night Achievement in Counter-Strike: Source. However, the nightvision goggles are a worthy investment when playing on dark official maps such as 747 or Nuke (in Source) or on dark custom maps to see without alerting enemies unlike the flashlight.

The default button for activating and deactivating the nightvision goggles is N.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes

In Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes, the nightvision goggles cannot be bought, but the player can automatically receive them in certain missions. The default key to turn them on is F (the flashlight key in other games).

The missions in which the player receives the nightvision goggles are:

Gameplay

Advantages

Allows its user to see in total darkness and can make it easier to see enemies in low light conditions.
Can be used to see in darker corners in bright maps, although doing so make seeing in brightly lit areas impossible.
Unlike the flashlight, using the nightvision goggles will not alert enemies (although it should be activated before entering darkened areas).

Disadvantages

Very expensive
Noisy when activated or deactivated
Can reduce performance due to extra graphical load
Needs to be switched off in bright areas
Cannot be purchased by auto-buy with either Counter-Terrorists or Terrorists.
Does not drop when the user is killed. Therefore, it cannot be "given" to teammates.
When used in lit areas it causes anything farther than medium range to fade to black. (Counter-Strike: Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes)

Achievements

Counter-Strike: Source

Special

Dead of Night
Do 5,000 damage with nightvision active.

Trivia

The Counter-Strike series incorrectly combines "night" and "vision" into a single word when referring to the "night vision" goggles.
The nightvision goggles were added in Beta 2.0, later removed, and then re-added in Beta 6.0.
The sound of the activation of the nightvision goggles was reused in Team Fortress 2 when the player has the Ze Goggles hat and moves it around in their backpack.
- The activation sound of the nightvision goggles in Deleted Scenes is the same as the flashlight.
The effect of the nightvision goggles is different in Deleted Scenes.
The player may need the nightvision goggles more in Deleted Scenes since some places in game are hard to see without one.
Bots can see other players clearly in dark areas all the time. Therefore, they never purchase this equipment.
In Deleted Scenes, if the player uses the console command "impulse 101", he will obtain the goggles but without the HUD icon.
Unlike most equipment, there is no world or player model for the nightvision goggles. Players with this equipment do not look any different from players who do not have it equipped.
It is not possible to drop the nightvision goggles for other players to obtain it and it will not be dropped when a player equipped with it dies.
In Global Offensive, two model variants of SEAL Team 6 have nightvision goggles attached on their helmets.

Behind the scenes

The Nightvision Goggles were originally planned for Counter-Strike: Xbox but were eventually cut. They still make an appearance in the preview code only version of the game.
They were originally planned for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as the latter was a Counter-Strike: Source console port.
They were likely cut as most official maps are well lit thus eliminating the need for nightvision goggles.
- Their acquisition icon and purchase icon still appear in the game files^[1], unchanged from their previous iteration.
- While the goggles are not normally obtainable, there is evidence they were only cut later in development. Using sv_cheats 1 in console, one can spawn the goggles by using the give item_nvgs command. The goggles seem to have no worldmodel or HUD icon. The only notification of their acquisition is the default player purchase/pickup sound. Once obtained, they can be activated by using the nightvision command.
- Although the goggles play no sound when activated and deactivated, their activation and deactivation sounds are used for arming, defusing, and activating the bomb.
- In-game files still contain references to the nightvision goggles, including script references and sound files.

External links

Night vision device at Wikipedia

References

↑ iconlib.swf

Template:Equipment

[1] iconlib.swf

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