DeFRaG (also capitalised as defrag, abbreviated as df, and its name comes from « Défis Fragdome ») is a free software modification for id Software's first-person shooter computer game Quake III Arena (Q3A). The mod is dedicated to player movements and trickjumping.Trickjumping is an integral part of the game allowing a player to jump higher, further and move faster. For further reading, see techniques section. It aims at providing a platform for self-training, competition, online tricking, machinima making, and trickjumping. Hence it constitutes an exception among other Q3A mods.
The mod includes a variety of features—timers and meters, ghost mode, cheat prevention and learning tools. Specially designed maps are provided that will rely on the player's movement abilities to be completed up to the finish line, while standard Q3A maps and Capture the Flag (CTF) fast captures are supported as well. Furthermore, gamespace physics from both the original Q3A and the Challenge ProMode Arena (CPMA) mod are supported.
The modification was released to the public in ca. September–October 2000. In 2002, DeFRaG was selected as "Mod of the Week" at Planet Quake.
Overview
DeFRaG was initially designed for making possible a new kind of competition based on timed runs. Those competitions called "DeFRaG runs" differ from common speedruns in several ways. Unlike speedruns, DeFRaG runs are not done in maps from an out-of-the-box original game, but in specially designed and customed DeFRaG maps, and there are no opponents to be vanquished during the run. Due to their design, many of these maps cannot be completed by normal player skills. Instead, trickjumping skills are required. Furthermore, start-, checkpoints-, and stop-triggers are built into the maps. As a proof of the accomplishment the mod automatically records a demo of every map completed successfully. Along with the demo, the precise time in which the map was completed is stored.
Competition and community The mod's competitive method is lent to it by an online infrastructure which has triggered the formation of a transnational community. Players download custom-designed maps (more than 16,000 DeFRaG maps are available) and aim to complete the map's objectives in the shortest time possible. The best times can be submitted to online high score tables, which are keeping track of the fastest times for particular maps. These online scoreboards can be global or encompass certain regions only. During the mod's highest popularity, the DeFRaG development team periodically released new map packs, containing a number of officially sanctioned maps. These are generally the only maps on which times are accepted for the official website high score tables. In consequence, the DeFraG community's individual members engage and specialize in one or more different practices: trickjumping itself, movie making, map making, coding, maintaining websites, portals (for interaction and as archives for maps and movies), and online scoreboards.
Violence The DeFRaG modification completely removes violence (except for the ability of the player to explode into bloody chunks) from the otherwise visceral first-person shooter. The gameplay mode or discipline called "deathmatch" came of age with Doom and was also in Q3A, the latter being dedicated to multiplayer competition.Carmack, John in From these games electronic sports, and particularly its professional variant emerged. The same games drove the computer games and violence controversy to unprecedented heights. While the Doom series was heavily criticized for its gory content, the problem with Q3A was seen to be its focus on deathmatch, because in this discipline the ultimate objective is to kill ("frag"), as many other players as possible. In DeFRaG's gameplay modes killing opponents has no place whatsoever. DeFRaG gameplay is all about improving the skills to exploit the peculiarities of the Q3A physics in order to move faster, to navigate along courses through the map topographies formerly deemed to be impossible, or to perform moves as yet unseen. In consequence, the in-game weapons are no more regarded as instruments of destruction. DeFRaG players use them as tools for moving around the game. This transformation of a first-person shooter into a vehicle for "virtual gymnastics" meanwhile has gradually been recognized by mainstream media. It is thrown into the public discourse as a counterweight to the stereotype of computer games fostering violent behavior. The DeFRaG mod stars prominently in this.
Movie making The high-skill requirement of the game, along with the fast pace, cause that game movies are often made using content created by playing DeFRaG game modes. Within the community's tradition, especially the fastest runs, difficult trickjumping techniques are included in sequence. The DeFRaG demo-playback system includes settings to view the primary player from various angles and perspectives. This is in line with the history of the machinima phenomenon which originates from the speedrun community of Quake, the first game in the series. By following the argumentation of Stanford historian of science and technology Henry Lowood, DeFRaG can be called an instance of transformative high-performance play.
Some of these movies won gaming industry awards. For instance, the freestyle trickjumping movie Tricking iT2 by Jethro Brewin "jrb" won five Golden Llamas Awards in 2004. The categories were: Best Picture, Best Audio, Best Tech, Best Editing and Direction, and Best Quake Movie. In the following year, the trick-stunt movie Reaching Aural Nirvana by "mrks" won a Golden Llamas Award in the category Best Audio. Also in 2005, the art-house short movie defragged directed by Margit Nobis, an instance of Q3A machinima (its name is borrowed from the DeFRaG mod) was shown at numerous prestigious festivals, including the Vienna Independent Shorts festival.
Gameplay Major versions history1.92.02 (unstable) September 11, 20101.92.01 (unstable) July 9, 20091.91.21 January 3, 20131.91.20 October 11, 2009 1.91.08 October 2, 2005 1.91.02 March 30, 2005 1.91 April 4, 2004 1.90 July 11, 2003 1.80 October 19, 2002 1.70 August 10, 2002 1.50 March 19, 2002 1.43 January 4, 2002
All maps share the common objective of finishing in the fastest time possible, but there are variations on how this is achieved. Run mode is a flat-out race to the finish line. In accuracy mode, the map is completed after a certain number of targets have been hit with the railgun (a Q3A sniper rifle). Level mode is similar to run, but the map provides a number of alternative ways of reaching the finish line. In fast caps mode, the time is measured once the flag has been taken. Training mode usually requires the successful usage of a particular technique in order to complete the level. There are also "freestyle" maps where the player may practice particular techniques without any primary objectives. The type of map can usually be seen in its name, although some do not follow this convention.
There are two game physics and ruleset modes—Vanilla Quake 3 (VQ3) and Challenge ProMode (CPM). VQ3 is an original Q3A physics and game ruleset; CPM is an altered game physics delivered from Challenge ProMode Arena modification. It provides a gamemode which includes physics allowing for better air-control, rebalanced weapons, fast weapon switching and improvements of jumping techniques.
Techniques The completion of a DeFRaG map requires the use of a variety of trickjumping techniques. Most Training maps involve only one or two methods, but some more complicated Run and Level maps can require any number. Various map sections can require quick timing, combination, and flawless execution of several techniques.
Jumping techniques Jumping techniques allows a player to move faster, further and/or jump higher. The most common techniques included in Q3A and DeFRaG itself includes bunny hopping, air strafing, strafe-jumping, circle-jumping, ramp-jumping, etc.
Bunny-hopping is the most basic method of fast movement where the player is jumping repeatedly instead of running in order to move faster. Strafe-jumping (SJ) is a technique necessary to complete the majority of DeFRaG maps, and is considered to be the most fundamental technique in trick jumping. It is only possible because of a specificity of the game's physics unintentionally allowing moving vectors to add up to greater acceleration. Basically, no matter if the player's character is moving on the ground (running) or is airborne (jumping), the game engine always strives to limit its speed. However, already in the original Quake, it was discovered that by non-trivial timed sequences of striking the direction keys (involving moving sideways, "strafing" in gamer language) and movements of the mouse, this limitation of speed could be overcome. As the Quake engines are the basis of many games, the possibility of strafe jumping also exists in other games. Q3A's trickjumping community developed several distinct sub-techniques including single-beat strafe-jumping,Single-beat strafe-jumping is the most common variant of strafe-jumping. The player runs forward, jumps off the ground, in addition to the forward key immediately presses and holds one of the sidestepping keys, and, by moving the mouse, looks into the same direction as the initiated sideways movement. Very shortly before hitting the ground again, the player once more hits the jump button (this way contact with the ground is minimized and friction cannot set in) and immediately strafes and looks into the other direction. By flawlessly repeating this sequence, acceleration can be increased. However, with gaining velocity, the angle of the mouselook has not only to be adjusted, but has also to be ever more precise, which makes strafe-jumping a demanding task. single-beat strafe-jumping with airchange,Single-beat strafe-jumping with airchange is essentially the same as single-beat strafe-jumping with the difference that the direction of the sideways movement and of the mouselook is turned to the opposite side in the middle of the second jump after takeoff instead of immediately turning after the first jump. After those first two jumps, the players usually do not apply this technique anymore. double-beat strafe-jumping,Double-beat strafe-jumping is essentially the same as single-beat strafe-jumping with the difference that the direction of the sideways movement and of the mouselook is turned to the opposite side not every, but only every second jump. half-beat strafe-jumping,Since acceleration only depends on the vectors of input, there are alternate ways to strafe-jump. The basic idea of half-beat strafe-jumping is to reduce the mouse movement by starting with a normal strafe-jump and then continue by only pressing the sideway movement key of the other direction. The vector (and thus the place where to point the mouse) is very close to the vector of the first normal strafe-jump. Hence the name half-beat. and inverted strafe-jumping.Inverted strafe-jumping is, since all strafing techniques are one kin, just another way to use the acceleration vectors. The idea is to only use the sideways movement keys, which will result in the exactly inverted movement of normal single-beat strafe-jumping. The DeFRaG mod includes a helping tool, the Camping Gaz Head-Up Display (CGazHUD), that provides conveniently graphically formatted real-time feedback on acceleration and angles involved.