Airtime References: other jump and movement games
These are the games Airtime learns from. Each file covers what the game is, how its movement works, how it handles timing, replays and community, and what Airtime takes from it (and what it does differently).
| File | Game | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| urban-terror-jump.md | Urban Terror jump mode | Our physics and our community: the base |
| mirrors-edge.md | Mirror's Edge, Mirror's Edge Catalyst | The look and the body: first-person flow |
| vholume.md | VHOLUME (2026) | A current pure-parkour game: what 2026 players expect |
| defrag.md | Quake 3 Defrag | Timer entities, demos, records culture, physics depth |
| cs-surf.md | Counter-Strike surf | Ramps, air strafing, stages, zones, replay bots |
| cs-bhop.md | Counter-Strike bunny hop and KZ | Bhop timing, styles, KZ checkpoints, jump stats |
| others.md | Kinetic, Trackmania, Momentum Mod, TF2 jump, Warsow race, Titanfall 2, Ghostrunner, Neon White, Tribes | Single lessons from each |
Movement mechanics, explained#
The same handful of ideas run through all these games. Airtime has the Quake 3 / UrT versions exactly; the others are for comparison.
| Mechanic | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Air strafing | In the air, acceleration is applied only up to a cap along the wish direction. Turning the view while strafing keeps the wish direction just off your velocity, so each frame adds a little speed sideways and the total grows. | Quake, UrT, Source (surf, bhop), Defrag |
| Strafe jumping | Air strafing chained with jumps: you jump on landing, so ground friction never bites, and gain speed in the air every jump. | Quake 3 / Defrag (VQ3), UrT |
| Circle jump | A quick turn on the ground into the first jump, to start with more than run speed. | Quake 3, UrT |
| Bunny hop (bhop) | Jumping the moment you land, so friction (applied on ground frames) doesn't slow you down. In Source, timing the jump to the landing tick is the skill; auto-bhop servers remove it. | CS, TF2, Source mods |
| Surfing | Sliding along a surface too steep to stand on. Gravity pulls you down, the surface turns that into sideways speed, and air strafing into the ramp holds you on it. | CS surf, Momentum Mod, TF2 |
| Walljump | Jumping off a wall to get a push away from it and up. UrT: +200 ups off near-vertical, non-slick walls while falling slower than 450 ups, up to g_walljumps per jump. | UrT, Warsow, Titanfall 2 (wall-run kick) |
| Wall-run | Running along a wall for a while without falling. | Mirror's Edge, Titanfall 2, Ghostrunner, VHOLUME |
| Ledge grab / climb | Catching an edge you barely missed and pulling up. | UrT, Mirror's Edge, VHOLUME |
| Slide / power slide | Crouching at speed to keep momentum along the ground. UrT: landing crouched above 300 ups starts a power slide. | UrT, Titanfall 2, Mirror's Edge, VHOLUME |
| Slick / ice | A surface with no friction: speed is kept, but you can't walljump off it. | UrT, Q3 maps, Defrag (slick) |
| Overbounce | A physics quirk: landing at exact heights and speeds bounces you up instead of stopping you. | Quake 3, Defrag, UrT |
| Rocket / grenade / plasma jump | Your own explosive pushes you. Splash damage gives a velocity kick. | Quake 3 / Defrag, TF2 |
| Skiing | Sliding on slopes with no friction, gaining speed downhill. | Tribes |
| Drop-in | Landing on a curved slope (pipe, bowl) at the right spot and angle to turn falling speed into forward speed. | UrT icy maps, surf, skate games |
What all good jump games share#
- Instant retry. Restarting costs nothing, so trying again is the game.
- A clock you trust. Clear start and stop, the same rules for everyone.
- Ghosts or demos. You learn by watching the best, and you race them.
- Leaderboards with tiers. Not only the record: medals and ranks give everyone a goal.
- Maps from the community. A few official levels, then thousands from the players.
- Physics with a skill ceiling. Simple to start, years to master.