KillCam



The KillCam, short for Kill Camera, shows a player's death from the perspective of the killer. The KillCam is displayed in the view of first or third person, whichever is the last that the viewer spectated in. First person is the default view. The KillCam is useful for identifying how the player was killed, identifying possible hackers, or to locate enemy positions.

The KillCam has been updated in recent Call of Duty games, which now feature a camera system that will lock on and follow grenade trajectory, bombs from airstrikes or artillery strikes, a thrown Throwing Knife, and the perspective of air support or dogs. C-4, Claymores, and Satchel Charges will be shown in third person as the camera tracks the player's path to the explosive's detonation. If the viewer is not hosting, the maximum rate of fire that the KillCam can display is usually around 600 RPM. It is often seen as an annoyance by snipers and campers as it gives away their location easily once the victim is familiar with the map. However, for snipers, this can be easily avoided by staying scoped in after killing someone, thus making it harder for the victim to pinpoint the killer's position.

The KillCam can be skipped if the player does not wish to view it by simply pressing 'Square' on the PlayStation 3, 'X' on the Xbox 360 and 'F' on the PC. If the player is permitted to respawn, skipping the KillCam will immediately do so. Otherwise, the player is taken into spectator mode until the next respawn time or round, depending on the game type. Note that claymores and C4 only disappear upon respawning, so in instant-respawn games it may be advisable to not skip the KillCam in the hope someone will run into your claymore and die.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the KillCam has been improved with a Game/Round Winning KillCam, where the player witnesses the winning kill in the game or round.

Tactics

 * The KillCam can be used to determine the position of a camping enemy who would otherwise be invisible (because of Camouflage, Suppressors, Flash Hiders, etc.)
 * Players can use the KillCam to determine how they were killed, and learn from that information to prevent such deaths in the future.
 * Players can see the weapons and perks of the player who killed them, and if desired, copy those in the future in a Custom Class.
 * Bouncing Betties which a player has placed will not disappear until they've respawned. Therefore, watching the KillCam will keep those Bouncing Betties in position that much longer, possibly resulting in kills.
 * Any kills a player gets while watching a killcam will count towards their existing killstreak, possibly resulting in a Killstreak Reward. However, once they've respawned that killstreak will be lost.

Limitations
The KillCam is a log of actions rather than a video recording. When the KillCam is played, the game automatically plays back the sequence of events according to the log. As a result, the KillCam does not show certain elements that are not recorded in the playback, such as lag. This is more recently evident in Modern Warfare 2, in which players do not properly appear on the Heartbeat Monitor in KillCam. Also because of this method of recording, KillCam does not show real-time changes to the map or terrain. For example, bullet holes, smoke trails from a launcher and broken glass will retroactively appear in the KillCam despite having not already occurred at that particular point in time.

The Nintendo Wii versions of the games do not have the KillCam feature due to lack of RAM, according to the developers.

Some servers and gametypes, such as Hardcore modes, disable the KillCam to prevent players from easily finding enemy locations upon dying. However, the camera always turns toward the player's killer, although this feature is much more useful in Hardcore modes due to the lack of a KillCam.

Glitches

 * In Modern Warfare 2, opening the menu while watching the killcam will display the positions and movements of the enemy team.
 * A glitch can occur in both Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War where the KillCam is not shown in the usual 1st person view, but in 3rd person. If this happens, the player can rotate around the person that killed them as if he/she were a spectator.
 * Another glitch with the KillCam can be activated when changing classes while watching the KillCam, but this only happens in game modes that have a respawn delay (e.g. Headquarters, Hardcore Team Deathmatch, etc.). Once the viewer has switched classes, the KillCam ends immediately, and the viewer will be spectating either the place where they just died or the place where their killer was standing when they had changed classes.
 * Using Second Chance in Call of Duty: World at War can cause KillCam errors if the user stays alive for long enough - it seems as if the game's KillCam memory gets glitched after a period of heavy killing.
 * Another glitch is that if a player is killed by a stationary explosive device belonging to a player who has just died in an instant-respawn game type, the KillCam will focus on the enemy player's next spawning position instead of the explosive.
 * Interestingly enough, kills from exploding barrels and cars do not show the item, but the killer, even if they had just shot the barrel, and are now on the other side of the map.
 * Sometimes if the player that is killed fires their weapon right before getting killed, it will not show in the killcam.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, getting an 'afterlife' kill while watching killcam will count towards the prone shot challenge, regardless of whether or not the player was prone while making the kill.
 * Recoil is not always displayed on the KillCam. It is only displayed when it had a factor in whether the enemy hit or missed. This is probably done to save frame rate.
 * Sometimes in World at War, when a player dies from bleeding out while in Second Chance, the KillCam will simply show what their killer was doing at the time of the bleed out.
 * In either Modern Warfare game, the M16, FAMAS and M93 Raffica often fire only two shots per burst in the KillCam.
 * Players can sometimes see the edges of the terrain and the black area underneath most maps when viewing the KillCam from an Air Strike. This is most prevalent in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, the KillCam can occasionally be "zoomed-in", although this effect is not present while aiming down the sights. This only happens when viewing a player in third person before watching the Game Winning KillCam.
 * Some weapons, especially sniper rifles, will sometimes appear to miss the player, this is due to lag.
 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a glitch can occur where the KillCam is 20-30 seconds long; it is unknown how this is caused. Another glitch can occur when connection is interrupted whilst watching the path of the grenade that just killed you. Humorously, the grenade will pass through the floor like a ghost.
 * The killcam will not show the "pro" in front of the perk's texts if you do not have "pro" for that perk
 * Sometimes being killed by a harrier,attack helicopter or pave low will cause the player to be unable to skip the killcam.