Fortnite Update 5.1 Fixes Ghost Peeking, But It Creates A New Problem

Fortnite might currently be celebrating its first birthday with exuberantly large in-game cakes and additional challenges, but the jubilation was somewhat dampened by the issue of ghost peeking, which has been a troublesome exploit affecting the game’s loot-loving, trigger-happy player base. The folks at Epic Games have been trying to fix it for months now, and had mixed results.

If you’re unaware, ghost peeking essentially lets players fire over cover without being seen and exposing themselves to the enemy. This is particularly problematic in a game where you can build your own cover at almost any time. It comes into practice when a player crouches uphill. As Fortnite’s animation system makes adjustments to ensure your character’s feet are correctly positioned on slopes, it also alters their mesh–even when your relative position hasn’t changed–allowing you to remain completely behind cover while also being able to shoot over it.

If you’ve ever been shot by that sniper in the opposite tower without seeing his head peek out, the handy diagram below (posted on Reddit by Epic’s Nick Donaldson) shows you why. “The yellow line is a trace from the center of your camera. The green line is supposed to be the bullet trace,” he explained. As you can see, ghost peeking effectively removes the risk inherent in sticking your neck out of cover to pop off a shot.

Ghost peeking has been a widespread issue; you only need to search for the term on YouTube to uncover myriad video tutorials teaching players how to successfully pull it off. In the latest v5.1 update, however, Epic claimed to have fixed it, and based on the current evidence that seems to be the case. Huzzah! But don’t get too excited just yet: this solution comes with a caveat. Fixing ghost peeking has had an adverse side-effect that impacts your ability to aim down sights.

Reddit user Grass—Tastes_Bad first pointed this out, showing how the Cuddle Team Leader premium skin will cover half the screen and your aiming reticle when you’re positioned sideways on a ramp. The effect isn’t always as pronounced with other skins (though hunting rifles seem to be universally bad as they zoom into the back of your head), but it still blocks the entire left-hand side of the screen, forcing you to disengage from these kinds of situations unless you want your viewpoint to be severely hampered.

Ghost peeking was a problem that needed to be fixed, but the current solution has introduced a more serious…