[rocket jumping] Rocket jumping, also known as rjumping or rjing, is something that dates back to quake 1 if I remember correctly. It was deemed a "bug" in the game and has since been a trademark to not only idsoftware's quake series of games, but other games have adopted the technique. There are even mods out there (rocket arena) where rjumping is encouraged. But it's best to know that there are various ways to rjump and various uses for each. Height The most basic form of rjumping, is also the way you get the most height. In this series of screenshots I keep to the basics. Here is the overview shot. Starting from the yellow "O" and ending at the yellow "X". This is the easy part... stand still and aim straight down (right where your toes would be, if the quake 3 engine drew them). Now if you were to shoot at the ground, you'll take a lot of damage and it will propel you in the air. BUT, if you press jump and shoot at (roughly) the same time, you'll go even higher. Hence the name rocket jump. What this does is, when you jump, the rocket will explode on the ground, and you should already be heading towards the heavens from your jump. Now that explosion (and resulting splash damage) will propel you higher and faster up into the air. Pretty nifty, huh? Now, when in single player games or when playing with a low ping (I consider low 70ms and under), You can get away with pressing the buttons at the same time. Once you factor in latency, packetloss, and higher pings, the timing is going to be different. It will appear that your rocket comes out much later, and you will just have to figure the timing of jump and shooting on your own. It's different for everyone out there, but you'll get it. It just takes practice and experience. So look at the screenshots below and then watch the demo! Now the following screenshots will visually show the rocket jump: Left to right, we see the starting point and I'm looking up at where I'm going to land (on the "X"). The next two are me looking straight down, one from first person and the next a sideview. Then I press jump and fire at the same time.. Look at me go! The last image is me on top, and the explosion below is where we started from. Voila! You're on top of the world now. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrjump-height; map used: q3dm17 Distance Now there are times when you want to jump over a large gap, and strafe jumping just isn't cutting it anymore. What do you do? In this overview shot, we will be rjumping from the left "O" and landing on the "X". Large gap? Yes! Can we make it? Yes! (Marv Albert impression) Now the basic form of getting distance in your jump is to move in the direction you want to go, and rjump. But this time we're going to add a twist to it... literally! There are two ways to do a distance rjump: 1) To run forward, turn around very quickly (180 degrees), do your rjump looking straight down (jump and fire at the same time), and quickly turn back facing forward (all within the matter of a second) 2) To run forward, turn 90 degrees very quickly (left or right), do your rjump looking straight down (jump and fire at the same time), and quickly turn facing front (again, all in the matter of a second). Both ways require you to be fast in your movements, and to coordinate your movement keys with your mouse turning (as well as air control). So if you do a distance jump the first way, when you do your 180 degree turn, you'll want to switch to your back pedal key when you rjump, quickly turn back around and hold your forward key. If you use the second method, when you turn, you'll want to press the OPPOSITE strafe key when you rjump, and then switch to the forward key when you face front. This way your flight is a straight line towards your destination. I 90% of the time use the second method for distance rjumps. Here we see method 2, and the origin spot "O" and the destination spot "X". So you see I'm facing left of my destination and I'm holding the right shift key now. If you don't hold the correct key, (such as continuing to hold forward) you'll lose momentum. But, that isn't always 100% true. If you get the hang of either styles of distance rjumps, and you can do the motions VERY quick, it won't matter. But starting out, I know I had the problem of holding forward still and when I'd look to the left still holding forward, my trajectory went slightly off course (to the left) until I straightened out. Now, rocket jumping is very 2nd nature I can do it very quick and not worry about directions cause I'll go where I want to go. Now this isn't always the best course of rjumping as it's a mix of Height and Distance... and that height makes you an easy rail target. But I'm touching on the next subject. One last thing I'll touch upon before I give you the demo, is speed is very important. If you run and do a distance jump, you'll go far. If you are up to speed (no pun intended) at strafe jumping, when you do a distance jump, you'll go even farther. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrjump-distance; map used: q3dm17 Here is a demo of a distance rjump in a useful setting: «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRdm6rjump; map used: q3dm6 Angles So you don't want to be rail bait do you??? Then have a look see at this next section In this shot, I'm at my destination spot looking down at my origin (the rocket launcher). Here, I'm at my origin spot, looking up at my destination. Now getting the right angle to get there without being an easy target, isn't easy. It will take some practice. In this screenshot, I used the machine gun with cg_marks "1" to show where to shoot. The yellow is for low angles... ledges that are just out of reach from a normal jump. The yellow area will also propel you horizontally at a greater speed (or at least give you a boost). The green is for medium high ledges, such as this one on q3dm17. The red shows where straight down is (a height rjump). These angles are something that you will have to practice alot as well. The speed at which you are going when you rjump will also affect your angle and height. The faster you are going, the more towards the red you want to be. The slower, more towards the green. Practice practice practice and you'll get the feel for what angle to use and when. The demo below shows me using the two methods talked about in the Distance section. Below that is a demo in which I show a useful angled distance rjump. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrjump-angles; map used: q3dm17 «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrjumpdm6weeee; map used: q3dm6 I see you eyeing the clock! Class is almost over. And yes, you will be getting a homework assignment. Billy stop pulling Suzie's hair! There are some demos I want you to watch showcasing some more fun you can have when rjumping. I expect a full report on it tomorrow, minimum 100 words, spell checked and double spaced. But there are ways of using rockets and the splash damage more creatively (remember how I urged being creative in the tips section?). One of the ways I will talk about in the speed running section briefly, but the other creative ways take more skill to do. First off.. who says you have to rocket jump on the ground/pavement or whatever? See those accel and bounce pads on q3dm17... yep you guessed it, you can rjump off those and fly far away, or fly up into the clouds. Those demos are below. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrjump-various; map used: q3dm17 But there are other rocket tricks. 1) Multiple rocket jumps 2) Multiple rockets jump Confused? Me too... Let's use a double rocket 'trick' for this example (but there are triples, quadrouples and so on) Using the names above in 1 and 2, the first one is called a double rocket jump because it uses two rockets. The second one is called a double rocket jump because it uses two rockets as well. What's the difference? They both only really jump once. Still confused? Good, because I'm about to explain it all. I'll use the term "Multiple rocket jump" for both only to confuse you... well not really, but both variants are called the same thing. Here goes. The first way is to rjump as you normally would to get some height. This time, hold down fire so when you reload you shoot again, and hold forward and keep the same angle (looking straight down or so). So at about the climax of your rjump, you'll shoot again, and that splash of the second rocket will propel you up even higher. The downside is you'll lose lots of health unless you have god mode on, or on a server with self damage off. If you are graced with a Haste rune/powerup, you can propel yourself up with rockets till your hearts desire (or until the haste runs out). So in a way, you can do a quadrouple rocket jump up a wall. The second way is a bit tricky. You either need to be really high and fall to the ground... or get yourself in the air high enough to release a second (or third or fourth) rocket when you land. So this way if you are high enough (or far enough) to shoot out 3 rockets, then land and shoot your fourth, you have done a quadrouple rocket jump. The trick to this way (besides getting that distance between you to let out that many rockets) is the timing. A rocket travels at about 1000 ups I think. I don't know the exact speed but it's around 1000ups give or take. But say you are on a high ledge, drop off and as you gain momentum from gravity, fire a rocket at the ground down below. Now when you land (where you shot the first rocket) do a rjump when that rocket hits the ground (your own rockets will not hit you). If you are able to fall from a ledge even higher, here's the trick. Fall off and shoot like you just did. But as you increase your downward flight, you'll catch up to your rocket (and even pass it).. but when you catch up to it, shoot another rocket. So now there are 2 rockets coming down behind you... land, rjump when those two buddies of yours impact with the ground. You just did one rjump with 3 rockets. Here are some demos showing both. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRrdblrjump; map used: q3dm6 «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRdbltrbl; map used: q3dm17 This screenshot relating to the first demo. But after watching the demos what do you think? I hope you still aren't confused. Here are the demos in text form: "dblrjump" shows me doing a 'height' rjump and when the rocket launcher reloads, I shoot again going up higher. Fairly straight forward after watching the demo. "dbltrbl" shows me falling from the quad ledge on dm17, and as I fall I shoot a rocket (eventually passing it) then doing a 'height' rjump just as I land and as the first rocket hits as well. Both used 2 rockets to get me higher than you normally would with one. The second half of the "dbltrbl" demo shows that you can in fact get 3 rockets to hit that wall with enough speed, leaving you to use a 4th when the 3 impact on the wall. Michael Flately has a great trick utilizing 4 rockets and landing back at the railgun platform (where I started from and shot 3 rockets as I flew). So there you have it... everything you need to know about rockets and jumping. Now class is over, and I'll see you here again tomorrow. Same time, same place.