Noclip mode
Encyclopedia
In some video games, noclip is a video game cheat command that prevents the first-person
player character
camera from being obstructed by other objects and permits the camera to move in any direction, allowing it to pass through such things as walls, props, and other players.
in the 1990s. The name is derived from the command traditionally used to activate it: typing "idclip" in the game's command PC game console
for Doom II (the previous one was "idspispopd"). The cheat is commonplace, particularly in action-oriented first-person shooters such as Quake or Half-Life. The first instance of the "No-Clip" code probably came from id Software
's popular game series, Commander Keen
.
Noclip modes (and other similar modes) often originate as a means by which developers test games. If a new feature is implemented in a game but requires play to determine whether it works, it saves time if a developer can quickly reach the relevant portion of the game by avoiding death or by "flying" over time-consuming regions of the game environment. This source of God modes often manifests itself in the route by which players activate these modes - for example, running a game with a development mode flag.
The equivalent code for a given game may also turn off clipping
, but this is not the reason why the player can walk through walls. The code turns off collision detection
, an entirely separate toggle. The code generally does not turn off back-face culling
, which is why the other side of a one-sided wall is not drawn when you use "no collision" mode to walk through it. It is unclear why id Software chose to call a "no-collide" code a "no-clip" code, unless the code also turned off clipping, and that was the (developer-intended) point to the cheat: to test the system when everything in the level was being drawn at once, and also remove collision so that one could quickly inspect the level for problems.
Some developers have continued in the fashion of id Software, and refer to this cheat as "clipping" even when it only turns off collision detection, perhaps due to user familiarity with id's code. Other developers call the toggle by its proper name.
Generally speaking, walls and objects have no "substance" unless advanced in-game physics is being used. Collision detection refers to the intersection of a wall or object with the player's avatar
. If there is an intersection (collision is on), the game stops the player's motion, as if they had bumped into the intersecting object. Otherwise, the avatar will not interact with the object and will pass through it. This is a relatively simple method of implementing in-game physics with walls.
No-clipping can conflict with other elements of the game. For instance, in Duke Nukem 3D
, and the aforementioned Commander Keen Series, having no-clip and walking outside the level area causes death—and if the player has god mode activated the game will be left in an infinite loop or crash due to the way god mode was implemented. In most source port
s for Duke Nukem 3D, this problem is corrected and it instead behaves more like Doom.
In the multi-purpose video game Garry's Mod
, no-clipping can be used to fly about and increase the versatility of your construction. This is one of the few games where no-clip is not considered a cheat, and the function is bound to a key by default.
is present), an effect known as the 'Hall of Mirrors' can occur as a result of design error or player experimentation.
Games of the day had been programmed under the assumption that the player's viewpoint would always be completely contained within sealed areas.
This made it unnecessary to erase the contents of the screen before drawing the next frame; the new frame would completely cover its predecessor anyway. However, when the player used noclip mode to maneuver the virtual camera so as to violate this assumption, the game would generate frames with "holes" in them where there was no content to display. These frames would fail to completely cover the older ones, leaving whatever had been drawn a moment before still visible in certain regions of the screen. As the player further moved the virtual camera, numerous un-erased regions would blend together to produce visual patterns resembling those encountered in a physical hall of mirrors
.
Typing "gl_clear 1" in Quake engine
games will empty the buffer of its contents and replace anything left on screen with the default 'Void' color, which will allow the player to navigate while in the Void.
s, there are certain areas that can be moved through and in most games that the player controls the camera can cause you to see beyond the walls.
There are bugs in games such as Sonic Adventure 2
, Dead Rising
, Lost Planet
and We Love Katamari at which the character's shadow appears on all floors below the character instead of only the floor immediately beneath the character.
This can also happen in Half-Life engine games, where if a mapmaker has not set the correct properties on a floor (disable shadowing, etc), the shadows of the players above will show through. This is not helpful in the least for players in upper rooms trying to hide or avoid detection from players below them.
In the original Metroid
for the NES
, there is a secret world that can be found by taking advantage of an in-game glitch
involving bomb jumps and an open door. The area where the player ends up is similar to spaces you can find using a Noclip code, in that it stores sprites
that were not used in the final game.
In Rygar for the NES, there is a place on the overworld "Garloz Plains" there is a spot where the player can shimmy through the wall and onto the green grass. Once there, the player can go left and will see a 2-D "hall of mirrors" like effect, with the room full of the same sprite.
In Super Mario Bros.
for the NES, there are three ways to walk through walls, an example being the trick to access the minus world (World -1) and the shortcut on World 4-2 or by simply using a Game Genie
code.
In Mega Man
and Mega Man 2
, speedruns of the games exhibit "shortcuts" in which glitches allow the player to no-clip through several screens worth of walls at a time after scrolling through areas.
In Team Fortress 2
, no clipping can be used to build buildings in spawns; walk through walls; float everywhere; receive health, ammo and metal; and move players into enemy spawns, if enabled by the server.
In many Unreal Engine
games there are several cheats that can be typed to enable noclip mode. The most common one is a single typing of the ghost cheat. The player typing the cheat will be able to fly aroung the level and through geometry.
In the MMORPG
RuneScape
a glitch
was discovered that gave players certain properties of noclip, such as being able to go past almost any barrier and allowed players to cheat in in-game activities. This glitch was patched some months after its discovery in 2008.
In the racing game "LA Rush" for the PSP, players can leave the map by driving through a store window in the Hollywood section. They can then reach areas blocked off before.
In Counter-Strike
and the Left 4 Dead
series, after the player has died, they have the option to select "free mode" as they wait to respawn or are a spectator. This allows the player to move anywhere on the map. This ability also helps to find secret areas of the map that are unreachable or unable to be seen in normal play. Such as seeing the credits for the map de_Dust2 (and many other maps) outside the Counter Terrorist's spawn.
In the games Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
, Call of Duty: World at War
, and Call of Duty: Black Ops
for the Xbox 360
and more recently the PlayStation 3
, players could copy their game save data to their computer and modify it so they could use noclip in online multiplayer matches. Players primarily used the noclip mode to cheat, as it allowed them to "fly" across the map with great speed and access normally inaccessible parts of the map in addition to turning off the hit detection
(which effectively made them invincible). However, while the noclip mode was active, players could in no way interact with the game environment (i.e. shoot other players). This exploit has since been patched for both versions of the game on the Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3
. However, some games, such as Team Fortress 2
have not patched this on the console version. On PC versions the noclip mode is accessible in single player maps as well by entering "noclip" into the console.
Noclip mode is available in numerous open source games based on the GPL
Quake source code.
First person (video games)
In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...
player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
camera from being obstructed by other objects and permits the camera to move in any direction, allowing it to pass through such things as walls, props, and other players.
Description
The term was popularized by the games of id SoftwareId Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
in the 1990s. The name is derived from the command traditionally used to activate it: typing "idclip" in the game's command PC game console
PC game console
A console is a command line interface where the personal computer game's settings and variables can be edited while the game is running. Consoles also usually display a log of warnings, errors, and other messages produced during the program's execution...
for Doom II (the previous one was "idspispopd"). The cheat is commonplace, particularly in action-oriented first-person shooters such as Quake or Half-Life. The first instance of the "No-Clip" code probably came from id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's popular game series, Commander Keen
Commander Keen
Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software in the early 1990s. The series focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". The series was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of...
.
Noclip modes (and other similar modes) often originate as a means by which developers test games. If a new feature is implemented in a game but requires play to determine whether it works, it saves time if a developer can quickly reach the relevant portion of the game by avoiding death or by "flying" over time-consuming regions of the game environment. This source of God modes often manifests itself in the route by which players activate these modes - for example, running a game with a development mode flag.
The equivalent code for a given game may also turn off clipping
Clipping (computer graphics)
Any procedure which identifies that portion of a picture which is either inside or outside a picture is referred to as a clipping algorithm or clipping.The region against which an object is to be clipped is called clipping window.-Examples:...
, but this is not the reason why the player can walk through walls. The code turns off collision detection
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
, an entirely separate toggle. The code generally does not turn off back-face culling
Back-face culling
In computer graphics, back-face culling determines whether a polygon of a graphical object is visible. It is a step in the graphical pipeline that tests whether the points in the polygon appear in clockwise or counter-clockwise order when projected onto the screen...
, which is why the other side of a one-sided wall is not drawn when you use "no collision" mode to walk through it. It is unclear why id Software chose to call a "no-collide" code a "no-clip" code, unless the code also turned off clipping, and that was the (developer-intended) point to the cheat: to test the system when everything in the level was being drawn at once, and also remove collision so that one could quickly inspect the level for problems.
Some developers have continued in the fashion of id Software, and refer to this cheat as "clipping" even when it only turns off collision detection, perhaps due to user familiarity with id's code. Other developers call the toggle by its proper name.
Generally speaking, walls and objects have no "substance" unless advanced in-game physics is being used. Collision detection refers to the intersection of a wall or object with the player's avatar
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
. If there is an intersection (collision is on), the game stops the player's motion, as if they had bumped into the intersecting object. Otherwise, the avatar will not interact with the object and will pass through it. This is a relatively simple method of implementing in-game physics with walls.
No-clipping can conflict with other elements of the game. For instance, in Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software. The full version was released for the PC . It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
, and the aforementioned Commander Keen Series, having no-clip and walking outside the level area causes death—and if the player has god mode activated the game will be left in an infinite loop or crash due to the way god mode was implemented. In most source port
Source port
A source port is a software project based on the source code of a computer game's engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Source ports are created by fans after the original developer hands over the...
s for Duke Nukem 3D, this problem is corrected and it instead behaves more like Doom.
In the multi-purpose video game Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod is a sandbox physics game using the Source engine. Garry's Mod has been available on Steam's content delivery service since November 29, 2006...
, no-clipping can be used to fly about and increase the versatility of your construction. This is one of the few games where no-clip is not considered a cheat, and the function is bound to a key by default.
Uses of noclipping
Noclipping can be used to cheat, avoid bugs (and help developers debug), find easter eggs, and view areas beyond a map's physical boundary."Hall of mirrors" effect
In the classic first-person shooter Doom (but less common in newer titles, and completely removed when a skyboxSkybox (video games)
A skybox is a method of creating backgrounds to make a computer and video games level look bigger than it really is. When a skybox is used, the level is enclosed in a cuboid; and the sky, distant mountains, distant buildings, and other unreachable objects are projected onto the cube's faces , thus...
is present), an effect known as the 'Hall of Mirrors' can occur as a result of design error or player experimentation.
Games of the day had been programmed under the assumption that the player's viewpoint would always be completely contained within sealed areas.
This made it unnecessary to erase the contents of the screen before drawing the next frame; the new frame would completely cover its predecessor anyway. However, when the player used noclip mode to maneuver the virtual camera so as to violate this assumption, the game would generate frames with "holes" in them where there was no content to display. These frames would fail to completely cover the older ones, leaving whatever had been drawn a moment before still visible in certain regions of the screen. As the player further moved the virtual camera, numerous un-erased regions would blend together to produce visual patterns resembling those encountered in a physical hall of mirrors
House of mirrors
A house of mirrors or hall of mirrors is a traditional attraction at funfairs and amusement parks. The basic concept behind a house of mirrors is to be a maze-like puzzle. In addition to the maze, participants are also given mirrors as obstacles, and glass panes to parts of the maze they cannot...
.
Typing "gl_clear 1" in Quake engine
Quake engine
The Quake engine is the game engine that was written to power 1996's Quake, written by id Software. It featured true 3D real-time rendering and is now licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License ....
games will empty the buffer of its contents and replace anything left on screen with the default 'Void' color, which will allow the player to navigate while in the Void.
Other instances of no clipping
In many games, due to bugs or power-upPower-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s, there are certain areas that can be moved through and in most games that the player controls the camera can cause you to see beyond the walls.
There are bugs in games such as Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2 is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast video game console. It was released in North America on June 19, 2001 and in Japan on June 23, 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. It is the sequel...
, Dead Rising
Dead Rising
is an action-adventure, survivor horror video game, developed by Capcom and produced by Keiji Inafune. It was released on August 8, 2006 exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game console. The game was a commercial success. It has been introduced into the Xbox 360 "Platinum Hits" lineup, and a cell...
, Lost Planet
Lost Planet
The Lost Planet video game series was published and developed by Capcom. The series consists of two installments, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Lost Planet 2, and a gold edition, Lost Planet Colonies...
and We Love Katamari at which the character's shadow appears on all floors below the character instead of only the floor immediately beneath the character.
This can also happen in Half-Life engine games, where if a mapmaker has not set the correct properties on a floor (disable shadowing, etc), the shadows of the players above will show through. This is not helpful in the least for players in upper rooms trying to hide or avoid detection from players below them.
In the original Metroid
Metroid
is an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, there is a secret world that can be found by taking advantage of an in-game glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...
involving bomb jumps and an open door. The area where the player ends up is similar to spaces you can find using a Noclip code, in that it stores sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
that were not used in the final game.
In Rygar for the NES, there is a place on the overworld "Garloz Plains" there is a spot where the player can shimmy through the wall and onto the green grass. Once there, the player can go left and will see a 2-D "hall of mirrors" like effect, with the room full of the same sprite.
In Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
for the NES, there are three ways to walk through walls, an example being the trick to access the minus world (World -1) and the shortcut on World 4-2 or by simply using a Game Genie
Game Genie
The Game Genie is a series of cheat systems designed by Codemasters and sold by Camerica and Galoob for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega Game Gear that modifies game data, allowing the player to cheat, manipulate various...
code.
In Mega Man
Mega Man (video game)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the first game in the original Mega Man series and the entire Mega Man franchise...
and Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2, known in Japan as , is a platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second installment in the original Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years. Mega Man 2...
, speedruns of the games exhibit "shortcuts" in which glitches allow the player to no-clip through several screens worth of walls at a time after scrolling through areas.
In Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, no clipping can be used to build buildings in spawns; walk through walls; float everywhere; receive health, ammo and metal; and move players into enemy spawns, if enabled by the server.
In many Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
games there are several cheats that can be typed to enable noclip mode. The most common one is a single typing of the ghost cheat. The player typing the cheat will be able to fly aroung the level and through geometry.
In the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
a glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...
was discovered that gave players certain properties of noclip, such as being able to go past almost any barrier and allowed players to cheat in in-game activities. This glitch was patched some months after its discovery in 2008.
In the racing game "LA Rush" for the PSP, players can leave the map by driving through a store window in the Hollywood section. They can then reach areas blocked off before.
In Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
and the Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...
series, after the player has died, they have the option to select "free mode" as they wait to respawn or are a spectator. This allows the player to move anywhere on the map. This ability also helps to find secret areas of the map that are unreachable or unable to be seen in normal play. Such as seeing the credits for the map de_Dust2 (and many other maps) outside the Counter Terrorist's spawn.
In the games Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and...
, Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is generally considered to be the fifth mainstream game of the Call of Duty series and returns the setting to World War II. The game was...
, and Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and more recently the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, players could copy their game save data to their computer and modify it so they could use noclip in online multiplayer matches. Players primarily used the noclip mode to cheat, as it allowed them to "fly" across the map with great speed and access normally inaccessible parts of the map in addition to turning off the hit detection
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
(which effectively made them invincible). However, while the noclip mode was active, players could in no way interact with the game environment (i.e. shoot other players). This exploit has since been patched for both versions of the game on the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. However, some games, such as Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
have not patched this on the console version. On PC versions the noclip mode is accessible in single player maps as well by entering "noclip" into the console.
Noclip mode is available in numerous open source games based on the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
Quake source code.