So I understand Marathon uses a cylinder to represent the hit detection. However, this leads to situations where the player can shoot at the transparent parts of the monster and still register a hit. Is there a technical reason why Bungie decided not to do a transparency check on the sprite to allow the bullets to pass through the empty portions?
I'm thinking it has to do with how the monster's sprite pitches during aiming, or maybe even multiplayer to ensure consistency during quick sprite spins.