CS2 character animations completely broken (sliding/no leg movement)

[LAGenjoyer666]

I am completely losing my mind with a bizarre issue in CS2 that started out of nowhere about 5 days ago. I haven't changed any settings, drivers, or hardware prior to this.
The Problem:
When playing on community servers (Faceit, Cybershock DM, etc.), enemy and teammate character animations are completely broken. Their legs don't move at all, and they just "slide" around the map. However, the game engine still knows their actual position.
The Bizarre Twist:
If I load up an offline bot match (local server DM), the leg animations work perfectly fine, but the game pacing doesn't feel completely smooth (likely due to the CPU rendering 24 bots locally).
My network metrics are perfect: Loss: 0, Jitter: 0, and stable low ping.
My Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K (E-cores limited to 8 / forced P-cores only in CS2)
GPU: RTX 5070 (Latest drivers)
OS: Windows 11 (Completely clean install)
Temps: Great, around 70°C under load.
Everything I have already tried (and none of these fixed it):
Clean Windows Reinstall: Did not fix the issue.
Network Hardware: Swapped routers (tested with and without Flint 2), tried different Ethernet cables, and bypassed the router straight to the wall fiber terminal. No effect.
In-game Network Settings: Tried altering buffering options (Buffering to smooth over packet loss to 1 or 2 packets).
Network Card Settings: The issue originally got worse when I disabled Interrupt Moderation. I have tried it Enabled (Low/Medium/High rate), disabled green/power-saving ethernet, and tweaked receive/transmit buffers.
Browser Settings: Disabled hardware acceleration and background processes in Microsoft Edge (in case it messed with hardware timers).
Full BIOS Reset (Clear CMOS): Removed the motherboard battery for over 10 minutes to wipe NVRAM. Ran the game on 100% stock BIOS settings (RAM XMP/EXPO disabled, running at base DDR5 speeds).
Since a full Windows wipe, a full CMOS reset, and completely different network hardware didn't fix it, I am out of ideas.
Has anyone with a 14th gen i9 or a new RTX 50-series card experienced anything similar recently? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DudeBeFishing]

Are configuration changes saved in Steam cloud? Maybe try turning the cloud saving off for CS2. That's the only thing I can think of that won't change when reinstalling the OS.

Going off topic. I was going to check the forums, but Valve doesn't have a bug report section on the Steam forums. They have a trading forum though. Is this a casino disguised as a shooter?

[bwainzz]

The same thing here, and it's been like this for a while now, as you yourself said, the telemetry graphs, ping, jitter, remain in perfect condition.

In my game even the allies and grenades sometimes exhibit unusual movement.

[LAGenjoyer666]

Are configuration changes saved in Steam cloud? Maybe try turning the cloud saving off for CS2. That's the only thing I can think of that won't change when reinstalling the OS.

Going off topic. I was going to check the forums, but Valve doesn't have a bug report section on the Steam forums. They have a trading forum though. Is this a casino disguised as a shooter?

I checked this and unfortunately i had it already off.

[LAGenjoyer666]

Update: I think I finally found the cause.

I tested literally everything I could think of:

* Clean Windows installation
* CMOS reset
* BIOS defaults
* Different BIOS settings
* XMP on/off
* Different RAM timings
* Different NVIDIA drivers
* Intel onboard NIC
* ASUS PCIe NIC
* Different LAN drivers
* Router resets
* Mouse polling rate
* OCCT CPU + RAM (2.5 hours, 0 errors)
* OCCT Memory (0 errors)
* MemTest86 (0 errors)
* No WHEA errors in Event Viewer

I was convinced it had to be my CPU, motherboard, RAM, networking, or even CS2 itself.

I honestly never thought the problem could be caused by a keyboard.

Around the same time the issue started, I had bought a used Wooting 60HE+ because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Since I bought it second-hand, I never considered it as a possible cause and spent weeks troubleshooting everything else.

Today I switched back to my previous Akko Hall Effect keyboard.

Immediately:

* Enemy animations looked normal again.
* The “sliding legs” during peeks disappeared.
* Hit registration felt normal again.
* My aim felt exactly like it did before.

I even tested using the Wooting USB cable with the Akko keyboard to rule out the cable. The game still felt perfectly normal.

At this point, the only thing that consistently changes the behavior is the Wooting keyboard itself.

I’m not claiming that every Wooting has this issue, but if you’re experiencing strange enemy animations, sliding players, inconsistent hit registration, or your aim suddenly feels completely different after ruling out the obvious hardware issues, try a different keyboard before replacing expensive PC components.

I genuinely never imagined that a keyboard could cause symptoms that made me suspect my CPU, RAM, motherboard, networking, or even the game itself. If this saves even one person from weeks of unnecessary troubleshooting and spending money on new hardware like I almost did, then this post was worth updating.

[SammYrai]

That's interesting my some of my Issues also started when I bought my first wooting. Now I don't have any spare keyboards at home... can you try to disable tachyon mode on your wooting, set it to 1000hz and turn down your RGB to 49% so below 50 and try again?

[crack]

Update: I think I finally found the cause.

I tested literally everything I could think of:

* Clean Windows installation
* CMOS reset
* BIOS defaults
* Different BIOS settings
* XMP on/off
* Different RAM timings
* Different NVIDIA drivers
* Intel onboard NIC
* ASUS PCIe NIC
* Different LAN drivers
* Router resets
* Mouse polling rate
* OCCT CPU + RAM (2.5 hours, 0 errors)
* OCCT Memory (0 errors)
* MemTest86 (0 errors)
* No WHEA errors in Event Viewer

I was convinced it had to be my CPU, motherboard, RAM, networking, or even CS2 itself.

I honestly never thought the problem could be caused by a keyboard.

Around the same time the issue started, I had bought a used Wooting 60HE+ because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Since I bought it second-hand, I never considered it as a possible cause and spent weeks troubleshooting everything else.

Today I switched back to my previous Akko Hall Effect keyboard.

Immediately:

* Enemy animations looked normal again.
* The “sliding legs” during peeks disappeared.
* Hit registration felt normal again.
* My aim felt exactly like it did before.

I even tested using the Wooting USB cable with the Akko keyboard to rule out the cable. The game still felt perfectly normal.

At this point, the only thing that consistently changes the behavior is the Wooting keyboard itself.

I’m not claiming that every Wooting has this issue, but if you’re experiencing strange enemy animations, sliding players, inconsistent hit registration, or your aim suddenly feels completely different after ruling out the obvious hardware issues, try a different keyboard before replacing expensive PC components.

I genuinely never imagined that a keyboard could cause symptoms that made me suspect my CPU, RAM, motherboard, networking, or even the game itself. If this saves even one person from weeks of unnecessary troubleshooting and spending money on new hardware like I almost did, then this post was worth updating.

Lucky you, I just tried my old Chicony KB-0503 PS/2 keyboard from the time I didn't have input lag at all, it didn't make a difference for me.

[LAGenjoyer666]

That's interesting my some of my Issues also started when I bought my first wooting. Now I don't have any spare keyboards at home... can you try to disable tachyon mode on your wooting, set it to 1000hz and turn down your RGB to 49% so below 50 and try again?

I can try after weekend.

[vnb]

i'm currently having the same issue but in my case it is related to AMD AntiLag / Nvidia Reflex.

Whenever i turn AMD AntiLag ON (on 9070 xt + 9800 x3d) even though i feel like my crosshair is snappier, the animations are completely broken (ennemies skating / no leg movement ) or i'm literally getting lasered by enemies (dying in like 0,05 sec)

I'm on Fiber with constant 0ms jitter. When i set AntiLag / Reflex off game feels a little better but i always feel like i need more time to kill than to get killed...

Let's say there is an enemy in front of you if he shoots me i would die in 100-150 ms? ( meaning time for him to see me + 4 bullets + server registering ) while for me it would take like 500 ms.

I especially noticed that when I spec ppl in Cybershoke DM.

I have a feeling that either the lower your total latency is (PC + network) the more the server put you at a disadvantage or there is a difference between incoming packet latency vs outgoing packet latency in my case. Do anyone else feels something similar ?

[wasted42]

i'm currently having the same issue but in my case it is related to AMD AntiLag / Nvidia Reflex.

Whenever i turn AMD AntiLag ON (on 9070 xt + 9800 x3d) even though i feel like my crosshair is snappier, the animations are completely broken (ennemies skating / no leg movement ) or i'm literally getting lasered by enemies (dying in like 0,05 sec)

I'm on Fiber with constant 0ms jitter. When i set AntiLag / Reflex off game feels a little better but i always feel like i need more time to kill than to get killed...

Let's say there is an enemy in front of you if he shoots me i would die in 100-150 ms? ( meaning time for him to see me + 4 bullets + server registering ) while for me it would take like 500 ms.

I especially noticed that when I spec ppl in Cybershoke DM.

I have a feeling that either the lower your total latency is (PC + network) the more the server put you at a disadvantage or there is a difference between incoming packet latency vs outgoing packet latency in my case. Do anyone else feels something similar ?

This is exactly what happens, bro: when I play on a Cybershoke DM Russlan server, where I have around 60 ms ping, the game feels much better like GREAT. I have full control over my movement and aim, the game feels stable, and everything feels consistent. (i can one tap everyone like its so ez)

But when I join Faceit, where I have around 24-28 ping, or any server with very low ping, the game becomes almost unplayable.

How is this possible? Why does the game feel smoother and more responsive on a higher-ping server, while low-ping servers feel terrible?