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Movement
After reading this and trying it out, if you have any troubles or questions you should give #cpma.na @ quakenet a visit, they offer personal tutorials to help you understand the movement of promode.
The following was written by swelt at cpma.org.uk
any thoughts or comments concerning this page should be sent to swelt@cpma.org.uk
The guide endeavours to keep things simple and real. If you want a more detailed look at the science, ix's column on promode.org I believe is the definitive statement.
Getting started
The world of Quake is governed by rules. In CPM, some of these rules have been bent - others have been broken completely. Before we talk about techniques, let's understand the basic rules of CPM movement:
Air Control: Holding down just the forward, backward or any of the strafe keys, you will move in the direction you are facing. Holding down two buttons at the same time will result in Q3 air control.
Double-jumping: Jumping twice within a period of 400ms will give an extra height boost
Ramp Jumping: Jumping on a ramped surface will give a height boost
Those are the basic changes made to the standard Quake 3 physics. To understand them, you need to go back to previous incarnations of Quake: QuakeWorld had air control and ramp jumps, Quake 2 introduced double jumps and strafe jumps (more effective than in QW) but took away air control. With vanilla Quake 3, we were left with just strafe jumps, which disappointed many players who had built movement skills with a wider toolset. CPM restores the toolset by bringing together for the first time all the movement tricks from previous Quakes and adds to it by allowing the tricks to be combined, resulting in some mad combinations.
Basics
The majority of CPM players will have already played vanilla Quake 3. For those, there are some techniques which they should have learned which will still be valuable. These are the circle jump and the strafe jump.
To perform a circle jump, you start from a standing position, use the speed generated by a tight turn to gain extra speed. In practice, this means standing with your intended destination to your left or right, then turning around 90 degrees, forming a quarter circle on the floor with your footsteps, then pressing jump at the apex of this turn to leap directly towards your target. Smaller angles than 90 degrees work as well, but start with 90 for the purposes of learning.
Strafe jumping is the method in vQ3 for moving at higher speed than simply running. It involves a series of jumps, one after another, in which acceleration is gained by holding the forwards and strafe keys, and moving the mouse in a curve as you go. Note that it's gentle turning of the mouse that generates more speed. Also remember that while both forwards and strafe are held, the player has no air control.
When a vQ3 player picks up CPM, the first technique that they will see and want to learn is that of Bunny Hopping. Bunny hopping, developed originally in QW, allows the player to move fast and retain directional control. The classic way to explain how to bunny is this: Start by performing a circle jump:- both forwards and strafe are held, tight circle, get as far and as fast as you can. As you land, release the forward key so that only one of the strafe keys is held. Now bounce along, hitting jump just before you land, holding only a strafe key. You should be able to accelerate, again this is done by moving the mouse. Move your mouse in the same direction that you are strafing (ie. left strafe, move mouse left).
The Sweet Spot
The general aim of all these movement techniques is the same: move faster and further than simply running and jumping by normal means. The way that greater speed is achieved is that each of these exploits bugs/features of the physics code. Explaining the maths is beyond me, but try to follow this: If I'm running forwards and jumping, the speed I achieve is the normal forwards jumping speed. If I'm running sideways and jumping sideways, the speed I achieve is the normal jumping sideways speed. If I'm running + jumping diagonally (?!) then what's my speed? Forwards speed plus sideways speed? Or a combination of the two? Well it's this question, and some more complex questions surrounding circles, which gets you speed.
Now that we understand that we are exploiting the maths of the physics code, we can understand 'the sweet spot'. Basically, this is the precise way of performing the movement to exploit the 'bug' to the maximum effect. So, in the case of a bunny jump, finding the sweet spot means turning the mouse to the side in just the right angle to get maximum acceleration.
Sadly, noone can be told about the sweet spot, you have to see it for yourself.
Trick Jumps
The concept behind double jumps and ramp jumps is simple - gain extra height. Performing them is fairly simple. Ramp jumps couldn't be easier - find a ramped surface and, while moving up it, jump. What actually happens is that some of your forward speed is converted to vertical speed. How much depends on the angle of the ramp. A double jump requires that you find a place on the map where there are two surfaces on which you can stand at different levels. You should be able to jump from the first surface (the ground) to the higher surface (the ledge/box/etc). If you do this quickly (perform the 2nd jump within 400ms) you will gain extra height. One rule really affects both these tricks: the faster you are moving when you 'hit' the jump, the higher you go. Thus the secret to gaining real height normally lies in judging your strafe jump or bunny run such that you hit the trick at the highest speed you can.
The double jump implementation in CPM has opened up some exploits that Quake 2 didn't have. Remember, the rule is more than one jump in 400ms. Teleporters give you an unexpected opportunity - jump just before you go into a teleporter, then jump again on the other side (within the golden 400) to get a high jump. Another oddity is the 'head bounce'. If you jump in an area with a very low roof, you bang your head and come prematurely to the floor... allowing you to jump again. If your second jump is in a place where there is nothing to bang your head on, you'll get the height boost. Q3DM14tmp's RA tunnel is the classic example of this: Jump just before you reach the end of the tunnel and then, having moved forward and under the hole above RA, jump again to pop out the top. Also note that even the smallest difference in height can give you the boost - stairs are a very common example, but even small differences in floor height can be used if timed correctly.
The most extreme jumps are achieved when double and ramp jumps are combined. Taking my previous example of the double jump of two surfaces - what happens when the 2nd surface is ramped? Big jumps! CPM4's knoble lights at lower rocket launcher are the prime example of this: a double-jumpable height, but the surface is ramped. Double jumping off these will give you both the double and ramp jump height bonus. Hit them at good speed and you'll go flying.
A quick note on Rocket Jumps. Thanks to air control, rocket jumps are 10x more flexible than in vQ3. For 'height' rocket jumps (where you fire looking downwards), you can take control of your direction by holding forwards OR strafe (strafe if you want to do a tighter turn). Note also that rocket running (shooting a rocket into a wall, launching you forwards rather than up) is the quickest way to gain mad speed.
Exercises
Beginners:
Before you start jumping around, turn on the in game speedometer: /ch_drawspeed 1. Load up a map with a bit of space and jump about a bit. Try circle jumps from a standing start - see just how fast you can get it. You really want to be getting at least 450 UPS (units per second) from a standing jump every time - higher speeds are possible. Now try going from a circle jump into strafe jumping. See how quickly you can get your speed up to over 600 UPS, then see how fast you cna get, just strafe jumping. Now do the same thing, but instead of going from a circle jump to strafe jumps, go from a circle jump bunny hops.
Advanced:
Load up pro-q3dm6 and go to the pillars between the ra and the rl. Cirle jump towards a pillar without pressing jump, if you get it right you will make it across the gap. Q3tourney4 middle jump, from small health to small health: Easy with forwards and strafe, try it using only forwards or strafe. Pro-q3dm6 again, jump from the RA to the second set of pillars in one go.
Tricks:
CPM4, lower RL: Face the RL from the middle of the room. Use the jump on the side facing you to jump first up to the RL, then to the ledge above it. Turn around, and do the same type of jump but by the grenade launcher. Easy to get to the middle level, but harder to get to the top level. For another challenge, go to the YA in 'losers hall' and jump from the ramped stairs up the the YA.
Resources
This demo by [-1]pl gives a practical demonstration. It's a bit old now, requiring Quake 3 PR 1.27 (backup your current quake3.exe first).
acidcpma2 speed map by AciD (not f<acid>f :)), see just how fast you can go.
Defrag mod now supports CPM movement, and will give you plenty of challenges.
Cinclants Bunny Guide. Written for QW, but still applicable.
Also, any of the many CPM Movement AVIs, in particular Shamblers promode movement (or search your favourites P2P app for promodemoviedivxvlow or promodemoviedivxhq)
Summary: The Art
To begin, practice is the key. Noone ever makes their first jump. Get yourself a teacher and learn each of the techniques described above. It's not uncommon for new players to get significantly worse in games when they start learning CPM movement, as they start trying to use new movement skills taking concentration away from their aim.
As you becomes comfortable with the basics, you'll come to understand the truth about promode movement: the real skill is not in any one of these techniques, it's in combining them to the greatest effect. Strafe jump when appropriate, bunny when appropriate, trick jump to maximum effect, but not just because you can.
After reading this and trying it out, if you have any troubles or questions you should give #cpma.na @ quakenet a visit, they offer personal tutorials to help you understand the movement of promode.
The following was written by swelt at cpma.org.uk
any thoughts or comments concerning this page should be sent to swelt@cpma.org.uk
The guide endeavours to keep things simple and real. If you want a more detailed look at the science, ix's column on promode.org I believe is the definitive statement.
Getting started
The world of Quake is governed by rules. In CPM, some of these rules have been bent - others have been broken completely. Before we talk about techniques, let's understand the basic rules of CPM movement:
Air Control: Holding down just the forward, backward or any of the strafe keys, you will move in the direction you are facing. Holding down two buttons at the same time will result in Q3 air control.
Double-jumping: Jumping twice within a period of 400ms will give an extra height boost
Ramp Jumping: Jumping on a ramped surface will give a height boost
Those are the basic changes made to the standard Quake 3 physics. To understand them, you need to go back to previous incarnations of Quake: QuakeWorld had air control and ramp jumps, Quake 2 introduced double jumps and strafe jumps (more effective than in QW) but took away air control. With vanilla Quake 3, we were left with just strafe jumps, which disappointed many players who had built movement skills with a wider toolset. CPM restores the toolset by bringing together for the first time all the movement tricks from previous Quakes and adds to it by allowing the tricks to be combined, resulting in some mad combinations.
Basics
The majority of CPM players will have already played vanilla Quake 3. For those, there are some techniques which they should have learned which will still be valuable. These are the circle jump and the strafe jump.
To perform a circle jump, you start from a standing position, use the speed generated by a tight turn to gain extra speed. In practice, this means standing with your intended destination to your left or right, then turning around 90 degrees, forming a quarter circle on the floor with your footsteps, then pressing jump at the apex of this turn to leap directly towards your target. Smaller angles than 90 degrees work as well, but start with 90 for the purposes of learning.
Strafe jumping is the method in vQ3 for moving at higher speed than simply running. It involves a series of jumps, one after another, in which acceleration is gained by holding the forwards and strafe keys, and moving the mouse in a curve as you go. Note that it's gentle turning of the mouse that generates more speed. Also remember that while both forwards and strafe are held, the player has no air control.
When a vQ3 player picks up CPM, the first technique that they will see and want to learn is that of Bunny Hopping. Bunny hopping, developed originally in QW, allows the player to move fast and retain directional control. The classic way to explain how to bunny is this: Start by performing a circle jump:- both forwards and strafe are held, tight circle, get as far and as fast as you can. As you land, release the forward key so that only one of the strafe keys is held. Now bounce along, hitting jump just before you land, holding only a strafe key. You should be able to accelerate, again this is done by moving the mouse. Move your mouse in the same direction that you are strafing (ie. left strafe, move mouse left).
The Sweet Spot
The general aim of all these movement techniques is the same: move faster and further than simply running and jumping by normal means. The way that greater speed is achieved is that each of these exploits bugs/features of the physics code. Explaining the maths is beyond me, but try to follow this: If I'm running forwards and jumping, the speed I achieve is the normal forwards jumping speed. If I'm running sideways and jumping sideways, the speed I achieve is the normal jumping sideways speed. If I'm running + jumping diagonally (?!) then what's my speed? Forwards speed plus sideways speed? Or a combination of the two? Well it's this question, and some more complex questions surrounding circles, which gets you speed.
Now that we understand that we are exploiting the maths of the physics code, we can understand 'the sweet spot'. Basically, this is the precise way of performing the movement to exploit the 'bug' to the maximum effect. So, in the case of a bunny jump, finding the sweet spot means turning the mouse to the side in just the right angle to get maximum acceleration.
Sadly, noone can be told about the sweet spot, you have to see it for yourself.
Trick Jumps
The concept behind double jumps and ramp jumps is simple - gain extra height. Performing them is fairly simple. Ramp jumps couldn't be easier - find a ramped surface and, while moving up it, jump. What actually happens is that some of your forward speed is converted to vertical speed. How much depends on the angle of the ramp. A double jump requires that you find a place on the map where there are two surfaces on which you can stand at different levels. You should be able to jump from the first surface (the ground) to the higher surface (the ledge/box/etc). If you do this quickly (perform the 2nd jump within 400ms) you will gain extra height. One rule really affects both these tricks: the faster you are moving when you 'hit' the jump, the higher you go. Thus the secret to gaining real height normally lies in judging your strafe jump or bunny run such that you hit the trick at the highest speed you can.
The double jump implementation in CPM has opened up some exploits that Quake 2 didn't have. Remember, the rule is more than one jump in 400ms. Teleporters give you an unexpected opportunity - jump just before you go into a teleporter, then jump again on the other side (within the golden 400) to get a high jump. Another oddity is the 'head bounce'. If you jump in an area with a very low roof, you bang your head and come prematurely to the floor... allowing you to jump again. If your second jump is in a place where there is nothing to bang your head on, you'll get the height boost. Q3DM14tmp's RA tunnel is the classic example of this: Jump just before you reach the end of the tunnel and then, having moved forward and under the hole above RA, jump again to pop out the top. Also note that even the smallest difference in height can give you the boost - stairs are a very common example, but even small differences in floor height can be used if timed correctly.
The most extreme jumps are achieved when double and ramp jumps are combined. Taking my previous example of the double jump of two surfaces - what happens when the 2nd surface is ramped? Big jumps! CPM4's knoble lights at lower rocket launcher are the prime example of this: a double-jumpable height, but the surface is ramped. Double jumping off these will give you both the double and ramp jump height bonus. Hit them at good speed and you'll go flying.
A quick note on Rocket Jumps. Thanks to air control, rocket jumps are 10x more flexible than in vQ3. For 'height' rocket jumps (where you fire looking downwards), you can take control of your direction by holding forwards OR strafe (strafe if you want to do a tighter turn). Note also that rocket running (shooting a rocket into a wall, launching you forwards rather than up) is the quickest way to gain mad speed.
Exercises
Beginners:
Before you start jumping around, turn on the in game speedometer: /ch_drawspeed 1. Load up a map with a bit of space and jump about a bit. Try circle jumps from a standing start - see just how fast you can get it. You really want to be getting at least 450 UPS (units per second) from a standing jump every time - higher speeds are possible. Now try going from a circle jump into strafe jumping. See how quickly you can get your speed up to over 600 UPS, then see how fast you cna get, just strafe jumping. Now do the same thing, but instead of going from a circle jump to strafe jumps, go from a circle jump bunny hops.
Advanced:
Load up pro-q3dm6 and go to the pillars between the ra and the rl. Cirle jump towards a pillar without pressing jump, if you get it right you will make it across the gap. Q3tourney4 middle jump, from small health to small health: Easy with forwards and strafe, try it using only forwards or strafe. Pro-q3dm6 again, jump from the RA to the second set of pillars in one go.
Tricks:
CPM4, lower RL: Face the RL from the middle of the room. Use the jump on the side facing you to jump first up to the RL, then to the ledge above it. Turn around, and do the same type of jump but by the grenade launcher. Easy to get to the middle level, but harder to get to the top level. For another challenge, go to the YA in 'losers hall' and jump from the ramped stairs up the the YA.
Resources
This demo by [-1]pl gives a practical demonstration. It's a bit old now, requiring Quake 3 PR 1.27 (backup your current quake3.exe first).
acidcpma2 speed map by AciD (not f<acid>f :)), see just how fast you can go.
Defrag mod now supports CPM movement, and will give you plenty of challenges.
Cinclants Bunny Guide. Written for QW, but still applicable.
Also, any of the many CPM Movement AVIs, in particular Shamblers promode movement (or search your favourites P2P app for promodemoviedivxvlow or promodemoviedivxhq)
Summary: The Art
To begin, practice is the key. Noone ever makes their first jump. Get yourself a teacher and learn each of the techniques described above. It's not uncommon for new players to get significantly worse in games when they start learning CPM movement, as they start trying to use new movement skills taking concentration away from their aim.
As you becomes comfortable with the basics, you'll come to understand the truth about promode movement: the real skill is not in any one of these techniques, it's in combining them to the greatest effect. Strafe jump when appropriate, bunny when appropriate, trick jump to maximum effect, but not just because you can.