Intro

As true professionals, who we are, we won't leave apart the technical aspect of every single trick/technique, which means I'll explain everything as good as I can, to make clear why it is like it is and why it acts like it does. Well, strafe jumping. The best-known bug in the quake3 engine, was used even before defrag was born.

Let's first understand what strafing means. Roughly said, this is an opportunity to pick up speed in q3. And, of course, do not forget that the so-called strafe keys allow you to move left and right. But the topic of this article is about the first meaning. Strafe is one of the most important skills in deathmatch and most important in defrag.

Strafing is possible on almost any map, even during tricking with a weapon, and often tricking is even impossible without strafe. Formally speaking, strafe is a method of accelerating in the air by hitting velocity vector at a certain angle, different for each value of the velocity vector. On the ground, this acceleration is 26u / s2 (u / s) the air has way less friction - 2.56u / s2, however, due to this acceleration, 5 good jumps can take you to 900ups, whereas normal running speed is 320ups. So how, you ask, to do that?

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The two parts we are trying to concentrate on are the red bar marked with 1, and the two green bars marked with 2

The two green bars mark the zones where you must aim to get speed. Pretty easy to keep your mouse inside them while strafing.

The red bar is the acceleration bar. It shows you if you are acceling or if you are losing speed.

Now the middle is that tiny purple bar. If the red bar is on the left (<-) side, you are losing speed. If it is on the right (->) side, you are accelerating. This red bar can be useful for beginners to see if they are making progress.

Velocity Snapping

Vsnap, what is that? Lets divide up the word: v = velocity snap = snapping, so -> velocity snapping

a way to gain even more speed through skipping certain zones of no accel. there are two ways to do it with huds:

(how to skip: by pressing "+forward" only and moving the mouse over the anti-speed-zone, afterwards continuing your strafe. it's a very quick move)

1) Using the cgaz accel bar

You can use the cgaz hud, the part that shows whether you're acceling or not, to vsnap (=skip zones of no speed gain). It's easy: as soon as the red bar disappears, you skip the "anti-speed-zone" and keep on strafing. This is the original method to vsnap, prior to snaphud.

2) Using the nt.runaos' iodfe-included snaphud

You can use a formerly very controversal (nowadays every newbie usifies le eet :0) tool called "snaphud" which was invented and implemented into a new defrag engine in 2011. Developed by Nt.run it became one of today's most used "helpers" on strafe maps. Many people say its a cheat, I think it's a good replacement for cgaz =X

the hud itself shows you the exact zones of "anti-speed" which you want to skip. W/o haste, you have the normal snap zones shown. The small bars you want to skip, with the skip technique explained above. The broad ones are zones of more accel, you might want to stay inside them, as they give 2u more per frame than normal zones.

Circle Jump (cj)

This is the first thing you do on a map. It's a technique to get some speed walking on the ground before actually starting to strafe. This technique should be learned along with strafing. In cpm a good cj is 605+, a good vq3 cj is 545+, with haste a good cj is 800+, in vq3 700+ (everything in units/second). So basically, you walk a circle on the ground quickly and jump.

It's a practise thang too, yet pretty easy to learn. >luci< made a humorous yet pretty useful video on how to cj (=

Telejump (tj)

A cpm-only trick, which can get you 600+ u/s after going through a teleporter and doing a special movement.

A required knowledge to understand is understanding how the groundboost(gb) works. I explain this in another section, I recommend checking that one before this.

So it works basically as a gb, with slick effect letting you get some additional speed (to tele's 400u default speed) while teleporting. The telejump can only be used if the teleporter has been mapped the correct way, e.g. the mist_teleporter_dest/(not recommended, yet usable) target_position being close enough to the floor, directly above the floor.

Let's try to explain how to do it practically. The telejump consists of a jump when you're spit out of the teleporter, doing it(also have to mention that it does not matter which form the teleporter has)when you are inside the teleporter. While inside, you will have to gain the needed speed, performing a kinda cj in there.

Depending of your cj performance, you will be thrown out the tele with your achieved speed. Telejumps give you a height boost also, so you fly higher than a normal jump, if you do it right (=

vid2explayn: 

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cpm_9, one of the classic TJ maps in df=)

It's included in the likewisely famous cpm mappack, which includes cpm_1-10, kewl maps to get to know the physic. There's a pack for vq3 aswell, IIRC both packs are 1 pk3, called 'promode&vanilla.pk3' :?

This map, however, requires 4 tjs to finish, and quite frankly, it's the best tj map out there.

PROTIP: watch any strafe demo in timescale & w/ keypresses to get better understanding of what's going on. for that, drop down console and type:

df_chs0_draw 1

timescale x (values from .1 to .9 are useful)

few strafe related tr1ckz!

few strafe demos, showcasing styles & trickz,

downloadable @ intro

Though the term strafe turn might not bee a popular one, it certainly ain't wrong on any level: in CPM physics, le strafe keys A & D are used to perform a turn, and this is a very useful and common thing. But not only those keys allow to perform such tricks, also +forward (+back too, but backwards strafe is neglected in this desctiption, veri much sorri) can let you make turn-shaped movements across le grid. Turns w/ A+D only, and smooth movement of the mouse depending on speed, are used to turn around tight spots in CPM physics, also for prejumps, which are basically, a way of gaining extra speed be4 passing through map's startTimer, in a way that player keeps speed. Small losses of momentum are normal, it's caused by being human being, and not bot.

Well, before I answer that I'll have you know: it takes short to learn, but years to master (=
first of all, you are going to need a basic command in defrag:
press ~ to drop down the console and write:
/df_hud_cgaz 9 
Now you'll see some weird green and red bars on your screen. This is how to read and understand them:
 

After so much theory, its time to finally use it in-game (=
the strafing is a pretty simple repetitive process:

jump -> press A and W -> move your mouse to the left (inside the green bar) -> use the air accel -> land -> instantly jump again -> press D and W ->move your mouse to the right (inside the green bar :p) -> use the air accel -> land

This is how to do it. Yes, you do it in both directions, consistenly switching beween left and right, to adjust your direction.
Important for strafes are the jump pressing time: 
you have to instantly press jump when you landed, or else you will get ground friction aka speed loss/no speed gain in the best case. 
As a second important thing you mustn't press jump too long. If you press jump for more than 100ms you will get -10% acceleration. 
One third thing for beginners: aim for the inner end of the green bar, not the outer! 
After some hours, maybe not even 1, you might have gotten the feeling for strafe jumping. Now its just year long practice until you become good =)
 

How to strafe