Basic Tricks

Understanding the basic tricks here will give a better insight to how they factor into simply running down a hall or walking up a flight of stairs. Many sections of the game can be run through faster simply by changing the movement key or by using a different trick.

Player Velocity

Unlike most games, the key you're using to move can greatly affect how fast you move. Another interesting aspect, is that male characters do NOT move the same speed as female characters. Speed is shown in units per second. F=forward, B=backward, L=left, R=Right, J=jump.

• Male - F=188, B=205, L=207, R=207.99, FR=201.53, FL=203.69, BL=179.01, BR=203.65
• Female - F=193, B=126, L=156, R=156.01, FR=218.50, FL=209.35, BL=109.81, BR=125.16
• Male Crouched - F=65, B=62, L=69, R=68, FR=64.07, FL=65.22, BL=70.72, BR=64.07
• Female Crouched - F=67, B=64, L=71, R=70, FR=65.46, FL=63.81, BL=72.86, BR=70
• Jump (male/female standing/crouched) - J=175.40 (subject to acceleration ramp)

Air Control

While in the air, you have a lot more control over your character's velocity direction than most games. The easiest is by using the strafe (sidestep) keys, while other (flashier) methods combine other movement keys. The basic idea is that your movement keys always point to the center of a circle, and your mouse is used to turn in the direction of that circle. Just remember that this only works while your character is off of the ground.

• Strafe only - When holding only a strafe key, turn the mouse in the same direction. If you're holding left strafe, turn the mouse left. Same goes for turning right. If done correctly, you can steer your character in the air while moving forward.
• Other key combos (forward/backward+strafe, only forward/backward, etc) - This is where things can get tricky. Remember that whatever combination of keys you're holding HAVE to point towards the center of your circle and your mouse movements will steer your character around that circle. Your screen may be looking at something completely different, but as long as you turn at the correct angle you will steer yourself in that circular motion.

A side effect of being able to turn in the air is acceleration. The simple act of turning can increase your forward velocity, but once your feet hit the ground friction takes over and slows you down to normal running speeds. The longer your character is airborne, the more potential you have to speed up. Slower speeds allow for sharper turning to accelerate, but faster speeds require slower turning. Turning too sharp will slow you down, as will not turning in a smooth motion.

Wallstrafing

By walking forward and holding strafe to push along a wall you can be accelerated. But like normal walking speeds, male and female characters will have different speeds. Turning towards the wall will increase your velocity but the angle can't be higher than roughly 15 degrees. At the perfect mouse angle, males can achieve up to 300 both on the left and right sides. Females can average 310 on the left and 320 on the right.

This trick can also be used in the circular sewer tunnels that lead to/from the exit ladders. Males can achieve a max speed of about 95 (average about 88), while females can easily get 95. An alternate method to get a hair more speed is to just use one of the strafe keys alone and looking away from the wall at about a 50 degree angle. Males can achieve 100 while females can achieve 105.

Zig-Zagging

This is achieved by walking forward and rapidly tapping the left and right strafe keys in succession. Males can achieve an average range of 230-250 while females can achieve an average range of 250-260.

Vent Boosting

While crawling through a vent angled upwards, press and hold jump while at full forward speed to get a burst of speed. This appears to be a side effect of the way jumping is handled. In most games, the jump action gives your character an immediate push upwards, and bumping into a ceiling brings your speed to 0. In VTMB, the jump command gives your character a constant upwards push for a given amount of time (about 500ms) so long as the key is pressed. Once the jump timer runs out, gravity takes over. In a vent, holding jump has the same effect as wallstrafing, except the wall happens to be the ceiling and the boost is a lot stronger. This effect is calculated per frame until the jump timer runs out, so the boost is stronger at higher framerates. At 60fps, your speed has the potential to average around 230, but at 300fps (fps_max 300 in console, the default for the game) the boost can get as high as 850.

Fast Ladder Climbing

The normal way to climb a ladder is to look straight up and hold forward, which results in a speed of 101. If you lower your viewing angle to about 45 degrees, your speed will increase to 141. If you use forward and a strafe key AND aim at a 45 degree angle (on the up/down axis) your speed will be further increased to 157. This applies to both male and female characters. The only problem to avoid is walking off of the ladder itself, which is easily corrected by aiming to about 15 degrees to the opposite side of your chosen strafe key (look left if holding strafe right, etc).

Quick Dialog

To skip dialog, simply press a number key or jump. If jump is held as soon as dialog begins it will instantly skip the first conversation piece and go onto the next set or your first dialog choice. Note that only the very first line of dialog can be entirely skipped, as every other line following can only be skipped after a certain amount of time. Spamming an input key is a fast method to speed through conversations, but using the key you need for your dialog choice is the fastest method.

Hitbox Shifting

When playing the game in first person, your point-of-view doesn't always represent exactly where your character's model/hitbox are. If you're in the air and try to duck, you see your pov moved lower to the ground, indicating that your feet have been pulled up and appearing as if your hitbox has been shrunk. This is not really true. On the ground your model/hitbox are smaller, but in the air the engine shifts your model/hitbox up higher to simulate the effects of pulling your feet up into a ducked position. This can allow you to activate level triggers that are located through floors and other objects.

Known locations for use:

1. Santa Monica pier - Used to activate the level change trigger from under the last set of stairs when going to get the Astrolite.
2. Asylum - Walk to the upper level next to the elevator shaft and stand to the right side of the left-most window, then do the shift into the ceiling. This can activate the angry Therese dialog after you either accept or refuse to slash the paintings.

Skipping Fade-in

Whenever the game finishes loading a level, the loading meter will flash, then the screen will crossfade from the load screen to your own point of view. During this fade-in you're free to move around and interact with objects, but you can't see what's going on. To skip this effect, open any in-game menu once the load bar flashes, then close the menu. The easiest is the player's inventory. Wait for the load bar to flash, double-tap the inventory key, and the entire fade-in is skipped.