English

Noun

hitscan ‎(plural hitscans)

1. (computing, video games) A calculation to find the point at which a given line intersects an object in the game world, commonly used to determine whether a bullet or projectile hits a target.
   • 2013, Alan R. Stagner, Unity Multiplayer Games

     With this code the server now has enough information to perform hitscans: it has the position of the player, the player orientation, and the player look direction (camera rotation).

   • 2014, L. Galli, P. L. Lanzi, D. Loiacono, Applying data mining to extract design patterns from Unreal Tournament levels

     Duel maps usually do not contain super weapons (eg, the Redeemer which fires a small nuclear warhead), but have one or two hitscan weapons (which when fired instantly hit whatever they are pointing at) and one or two projectile weapons (eg, a rocket launcher).