Sticky: Different jumps in quake2

[daelmun]

I know there are tons of guides for jumping, and this one is probably the worst one yet. But for those who are a little unaware what different jumps there are in the game, I'll try to explain some of the most used ones. All examples are taken from q2dm1 if not mentioned otherwise. Don't expect to read yourself to good jumping, only thing that works is practice. You can read and totally understand what to do, and still completely fail to perform a certain jump. So go on a server and try out, and don't be afraid asking players you see for help.


Strafe jumps
The most used jump in the game, and it ranks from very easy to quite hard jumps. The basic idea is to press the moveleft or moveright key while pressing forward and hitting the jumpbutton.

example: jump from the box by ammopak to the megahealth


Circle Strafe Jumps
To futher increase the distance, you can perform what is called a circlestrafe-jump which is basically the same as a strafe jump, but you also smoothly turn the mouse in the direction you're jumping. Nowadays people refer to these jumps as plain strafe jumps, but they are a bit harder to do than the standard strafe.

example: Jump from yellow armor to the box by ammopack / jump from the bullets ledge by water to the shards by rockets


Speed Jumps
Pretty much timed strafe jumps, where you press jump right as you land the previous jump or just press and hold in jump while being midair in order to "bounce" off the ground when landing. Keep holding in strafe and forward while performing these jumps, and also be sure to take advantage of the extra speed slightly turning in the same direction as you strafe gives you. In order to speedjump in a straight line, just alternate the direction in which you strafe and turn for each jump. This is the most used way of moving around, and most players have potential to improve their speedjumping technique. Also be sure to take advantage of the extra boost of speed doublejumps and slopejumps give you. Start of by a doublejump and keep up the speed by speedjumping while turning slightly.

example: speedjump from cells to the upper rocketlauncher and all the way to the rockets by water / speedjump from yellow armor to the ammopack crate to the light by mega

Double Jumps
Hit jump twice fast while standing by a crate or a step, and it will propell you straight up into the air. Easy to learn, but hard to master, as there are a lot of different varieties of these jumps. The two main goals from pefroming these jumps are #1: gaining height #2 gaining speed/length or the two of them combined. Combine doublejumps with strafe jumps in order to gain speed/length to the jump. Also remember that doublejumping up stairs is a lot faster than just running them, for additoinal speed, strafe while doublejumping and for the extreme speed try to slowly turn the mouse in the direction you strafe.

example: Jump by ammopack crate straight up to the box / from the ammpack carte to the yellow armor box

(Also notice that there is a way to perform doublejumps when standing still (look at my demo from grom_dm3, where i jump from the light straight up to the red armor). In order to do these jumps, walk as close to the ledge you're gonna jump off as you can, then just stand still, press jump, then while in the air quickly press jump and press forwards at the same time. Done correctly and fast, it will propell you straight up into the air. Usefull when there is limited space to perform jumps, and also when jumping as straight as possible. Practiced this technique is fairly usefull in normal DM play.)


Slope Jumps
While perfoming jumps while being moving upwards on a slope you will actually jump higher. Combine this with speed/strafe jumps in order to gain length/speed.

example: Jump from the health side of the stairs by water to the shards by jumping off the slope / jump on the slope coming up from lower rocket launcher to the ledge by spawnpad


Those are the most used standard jumps, and if you master each one of those you will probably enjoy the game even more.

Wallstrafing
Not a jump, but a way to gain speed. Run against a wall while strafing towards it, and adjust your crosshair to face more inwards/outwards to gain optimal speed. Try it out running by the catwalk by water, and notice how the speed increase slighlty when you have the right angle between the wall and your corsshair. This can be used to move fast in the water tunnel, and also helps out performing some jumps. Also if done correctly you can get out of water without jumping out. This is done by strafing against the wall while pressing forward to get upwards (not use jumpkey).

Ladderjumps
Advanced jump, not really used much in standard DM play. There are several ways to perform this jump, and the goal is always to be propelled upwards as high as possible. Climb a ladder untill the top reach about your waist, stand still, press forward and jump at the same time (press strafe for additional height). May be easier with some cl_maxfps (66/31 for instance, depends on the ladder).

example: q2dm2: quadwater-ladder to the ledge above

Waterjumps
Another advanced jump that is not really used much in DM play. The idea is that going out of water can propel you higher into the air. It requires some practice and even then it's hard to get right. Gonna qoute the guide on http://q2jump.wireplay.co.uk/:

This is probably the hardest jump in the game to master, and its god damn annoying to do. The idea is to shoot out of the water and propel yourself upwards. Well, here is how to do it (whether it works for you is another thing).

The first way to do it is to go under the water and touch the side of the pool that you want to jump out from. Then face upwards and go forward to launch yourself out of the water, and as you are being ejected from the water, press jump (or tap it to make it easier) to boost yourself off the ledge of the pool. This is the general method and should work most of the time.

The other method is to stay on the surface of the water and hold strafe against the side of the pool you want to jump out from. Then, whilst you are holding strafe (so you are pushing against the wall and facing along the line of the pool) slowly move the mouse inwards towards the pool, which generally propels you up and out of the water.

There are other methods to water jumping, but finding the best method is best left up to yourself after trying to the above two methods. Good luck!

example: q2dm2: stand in the corner where the rocketlauncher ledge hits the wall by the small lift (not the big lift) and perform a waterjump to probel yourself all the way to the top of the small lift


Weapnjumps
Pretty much use the explosions provided by grenades and rockets to gain speed to either jump higher or longer or a combination of both. Simplest is a standard rocketjump. Look straight down, and press fire and jump at the same time. With higher ping it gets harder, so some practice is required if you play with high ping. Also every weaponjump can be combined with most of the jumps mentioned above. Strafe/speed/double/slope will help out getting you higher and to jump further.


Rocketjump out of water/lava/slime
This is very usefull to learn. There are basically 2 ways of rocketjumping out of lava/water/slime

#1:  if the lava is shallow enough, you can hold in jump so you stay in the sufrace, then look staight down and press fire. This should get you high enough to get out of lava on some places on q2dm3/match1.

#2: To jump even higher, this is the way to go. Instead of staying on the surface, go straight to the bottom. Then, look straight down, then press fire and move backwards at the same time, or hit fire a little bit later to be sure you wont get stuck. Be sure to still look down while pressing backwards. And DO NOT PRESS JUMP!


Think that covers most of the jumps needed to know. The key is to learn the basics, then you can start combining jumps. When you can combine a circlestrafe with a doublejump then continue with a speedjump you can do stuff like doublejumping off the steps by chainstairs, get the armor and immediately launch off the speedjump from armor to ammopack to the light and take mega. That way you have cleared out the megaroom for items in no time at all That's when you get paid back for the hours spent practicing those jumps. Good luck

[adrenal1ne]

gotta love dael always full of usefull info

[Art]

... and this boys & girls is what makes (in my opinion) quake2 the greatest game ever. It's unique physics allow what daelmun describes above, which makes the learning curve for this game extremely difficult. I'm afraid there will never be another game like it. Quake2 is, and always will be a one-of-a-kind.

[Punk_FAS]

Speed Jumps
example: speedjump from cells to the upper rocketlauncher and all the way to the rockets by water / speedjump from yellow armor to the ammopack crate to the light by armor (I think you mean mega here)

Minor correction here, I believe what you meant to say is in bold.

#2: To jump even higher, this is the way to go. Instead of staying on the surface, go straight to the bottom. Then, look straight down, then press fire and move backwards at the same time, or hit fire a little bit later to be sure you wont get stuck. Be sure to still look down while pressing backwards. And DO NOT PRESS JUMP!

AWESOME!  On Q2DM7, I had seen a jump demo ages ago, showing a guy RJ'ng out of the slime under the upper RL.  I never could figure out how he did it, as there was no explanation on how to do so.  Well, with your instructions, I decided to give it a try, and I did it!  Only took 2-3 mins if that to get it right.  And I think I can do it somewhat reliably now.  I threw in a little strafe right, then left I think after I'm airborned, seems to help me get the height somehow.

Awesome info man, very nice of you to share this info with the masses =)  Many Thanks =)

[daelmun]

You got a good eye. There, fixed that now

Yeah, I don't know why not so many know how to do the jump out of lava that way.

[Laurelin]

Perhaps you could host a short "Jumping Session" on the server, 

So you could show me how to do the Trick-Jump to SSG from Stairs. I can't figure it out even though I watched the demo aplenty.

Regards,
Laurelin

[daelmun]

Well, the jump that I call the ssg-jump is the jump from the steps below the ssg at arena to the healthpacks above. It's hard to explain the one way to do it, cause I've seen people use different ways of doing it. But I'll try to explain it in words what the deal is:

#1: your goal is to doublejump off the top step (4th step), to get up to the health. Because the jump can not be done from any of the other steps as the healthpacks are too high to reach.
#2: you can NOT stand on the floor and doublejump off the top step to reach the health.

This means you need to actually stand on the 2nd step and doublejump off the 4th. Now, notice how the stairs are slightly curved, meaning that the 2nd step is quite close to the 4th. Try while ducking, and move to the most left of the 2nd step while standing on it, looking directly at the wall underneath the healthpacks ( in the dircection of the window above rocketlauncher), and try to postion yourself "on the left side of the 3rd step while still standing on the 2nd". Now you get the postion you wish to reach when you doublejump off the 4th step, as close to the step you can possibly get while still standing on the 2nd step.

#3: you need as much speed as you can in order to jump as high as you can. This can be done a by either
1) speedjump
2) strafing/circlestrafing

So, knowing where to jump, all you need now is to either speedjump so the last jump lands exactly where I tried to explain above, and press jump twice fast. If you're lucky it will propell you straight up to the healths.

Or you can do as I do, angle the runup so you run in a line exactly 90 degree on the healthpacks/wall in front of you. Then as you move next to the 3rd step while still standing on the 2nd step, quickly strafe right, turn right and press jump twice in order to doublejump off the 4th step.

This jump takes a lot of practice. I'll make a short demo of it right away, so people can see what I am talking about above. I'll put it up once I've made it

[Art]

Good examples here ... how many of us have played this game for 25 years

[X'tyfe]

i found this awhile back
http://www.planetquake.com/jumps/

download this here
http://asp.planetquake.com/dl/dl.asp?jumps/unrjumps.exe
it has demos of all possible jumps on all stock dm maps (i think)
plus, it comes with a slick program to start um up

[Laurelin]

Or you can do as I do, angle the runup so you run in a line exactly 90 degree on the healthpacks/wall in front of you. Then as you move next to the 3rd step while still standing on the 2nd step, quickly strafe right, turn right and press jump twice in order to doublejump off the 4th step.

Great. I got it three times after hundred times. I aim at the 'corner' of the Wall in front (healthpack), and proceed forward on 2nd step, then strafe & turn right.

I just need to repeat it over and over.

Regards,
Laurelin

[daelmun]

Well, just made a short demo showing in real quake2 what I was trying to say in my explaination. Just look at the demo I attach to this post Maybe not the most advanced tutorial, but at least it is a tutorial

[Punk_FAS]

I was able to get it a few times too.  I think you're actually jumping off the left edge of the step, as if coming at it from the left?

Also, a jump that may be doable Daelmun, on DM5.  The lift by the RL, if you take it up, I think you may be able to double jump off the ledge as the lift gets near it, and jump across to where the spawn/rockets/health are.  I'm able to get close, but perhaps you'll be able to do it, or determine if it's doable or not.  Also, on DM5 you can jump from the GL to the little window straight across with the shards, on the way to railpool area.  And, on that same GL platform, where people like to camp that ladder a lot, to the left when at the GL, facing the window.  You can jump from there into the window, if you get what I'm saying.  Another tricky jump, but perhaps has some usefulness =)

[Punk_FAS]

Excellent demo Daelmun.  As advanced as it needed to be =)  Explains it pretty clearly I think.  Now to practice it some more! =)

[Laurelin]

Great demo!

So Obvious yet I miss it most of the time.

[daelmun]

Thanks guys

And yeah, all the jumps you mentioned are possible punk. I find that first one quite hard to do, and I have no patience on the lift jumps as it is a pain in the ass waiting for the lift to go up and then down again when you miss it (as you will do a lot), but it is possible. Check out unholy jumping bible linked in my Jumpdemos post earlier. It should be in that one. And the speedjump from gl to window is also doable, and not really hard when practicing it some. The circlestrafe jump from the shards to the window is a little tricky, but not impossible either. Some great jumps all of them.