This page is for the original 1997 game. For the ray-tracing capable version, see Quake II RTX.
Key points
- Engine is open source with modern multi-platform ports available; see Source ports
- Active modding community.
- The Microsoft Store and Steam versions lack the soundtrack, but this can be fixed.
- Vanilla Quake II sometimes has trouble running on modern machines. It is recommended to use one of the numerous Source ports.
General information
- Func_Msgboard - The mapper hub, new map releases, technique improvements.
- FAQ on Steam forums - A starting point for new Quake II players.
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- A demo is available. Can also be installed via Steam:
steam://install/9130
.
- A faithful higher quality icon can be found on Archive.org.
- The native Linux version has been ported by both id Software and Macmillan Digital Publishing. The Ryan C. Gordon "Icculus" version can be downloaded from this page, which includes both binary and the source code to compile the software with specific settings.
- This game can also be played on OS X and DOS using a source port.
- GOG.com's launcher for Quake II is fully customizeable by editing
Q2Launcher.ini
allowing you to add more mods or even modify the exe files the launcher should use.
Monetization
DLC and expansion packs
Name |
Notes |
|
Mission Pack: Ground Zero |
|
|
Mission Pack: The Reckoning |
|
|
Netpack I: Extremities |
Included in the GOG version only. |
|
Version differences
- Quake II: Quad Damage includes the base game along with all expansions. The GOG.com version comes with the soundtrack and a special launcher.
- Quake II: Colossus is the retail Linux package that includes the base game with only the first two expansions.
Essential improvements
Official patch
- 3.20 - Latest official patch.
Unofficial patch
- Ultimate Quake II Patch - Designed for the Steam version but is also compatible with retail versions. It includes KMQuake 2 (Albeit outdated) along with the soundtrack.
- Unofficial v3.24 Patch - A simple patch that fixes bugs and adds certain things to the engine such as widescreen-support. Easy to install and use.
Source ports
Since the release of the source code various engine overhauls and source ports have been created to enhance or modify the game in different ways. Which one to use is a matter of taste.
- Yamagi Quake II is recommended for authenticity to the original; KMQuake II is also recommended for quality-of-life features to the original; Q2PRO or Quake II Starter is recommended for a multiplayer-oriented experience.[2]
Name |
Description |
|
Fruitz of Dojo Quake II |
A Cocoa port of the engine, it allows Quake II to be played on modern Macs. |
|
KMQuake II |
Enhanced client, allows for customization of textures, game interface etc. |
|
QuakeIIxp |
Enhanced port with improved graphics using an updated rendering engine. |
|
LWJake2 |
A LWJGL based source port focusing on compatibility and bug fixes. |
|
Q2DOS |
A port that features DLL loading through DJGPP, Online play with a packet driver, Intel HD audio support, HTTP downloading with libCURL, Yamagi Quake II's game dll code enhancements and all of the v3.24 unofficial patch. |
|
Q2PRO |
Multiplayer focused source port, available with r1ch.net anticheat module. It is also used for speedrunning. |
|
Q2VKPT |
Tech demo source port focused on adding full path tracing using Nvidia RTX ray tracing in Vulkan. |
|
Quake II RTX |
Fork of Q2VKPT officially licensed by Nvidia. Has its own page. |
|
Quake II Starter |
Free and standalone installer that uses the Quake II demo and patch, along with Q2PRO, to create a fully functional and multiplayer enabled version of the game. |
|
R1Q2 |
Multiplayer focused source port, available with r1ch.net anticheat module. |
|
Yamagi Quake II |
Enhanced client focusing mainly on bug-fixes, compatibility with modern systems and code improvements. |
|
vkQuake2 |
Enhanced client using the Vulkan renderer. |
|
Some multiplayer servers require clients to use the r1ch.net anticheat module, supported source ports are listed on its website.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
- It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
- Yamagi Quake II moves this to
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\YamagiQ2\baseq2\*.cfg
unless launched with -portable
.
Save game data location
Video
In-game general settings.
In-game graphics settings.
Custom resolution (Yamagi port)[citation needed]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\baseq2\ .
- Open
autoexec.cfg or create one if it doesn't exist.
- Add
gl_customwidth "X" where X is the horizontal resolution.
- Add
gl_customheight "Y" where Y is the vertical resolution.
- Add
gl_mode "-1" to enable custom resolutions.
|
Edit config file[citation needed]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\baseq2\ .
- Create and open
autoexec.cfg .
- Add
fov X where X is the desired FOV.
Notes
- Values above 90° may hide the gun model; see Issues fixed.
- If using Yamagi Quake II, the weapon's FOV can be set separately through
r_gunfov ; it defaults to 80. A value of 75 should look identical to 90° in Vanilla Quake 2.[3]
|
Console command[citation needed]
|
- Open console with ~.
- Type
fov X where X is the desired field of view.
|
- Use a source port to avoid physics issues at high frame rates.
Edit config file[citation needed]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\baseq2\ .
- Create and open
autoexec.cfg .
- Add
cl_maxfps X where X is the desired FPS cap.
- Add
r_maxfps X instead if you're using KMQuake II. Add vid_maxfps X instead if you're using Yamagi Quake II.
|
Console command[citation needed]
|
- Open console with ~.
- Type
cl_maxfps X where X is the desired FPS cap.
- Type
r_maxfps X instead if you're using KMQuake II. Type vid_maxfps X instead if you're using Yamagi Quake II.
|
Texture quality
- Use
gl_texturemode gl_nearest_mipmap_linear
to disable texture smoothing while avoiding distant texture aliasing. Can be combined with anisotropic filtering.
- The
8-bit textures
option, when disabled, uses 16-bit textures. This is independent of the texture filtering options.
- The game uses non-power of two textures for models, which were supported by the software renderer, but not by the OpenGL renderer. Therefore, textures in OpenGL have to be resized to a power of two; this is controlled through the console command
gl_round_down
. By default this is set to 1, which downsamples textures to the nearest power of two, reducing quality noticeably in the process. This was used due to limitations of contemporary 3D hardware. Setting gl_round_down 0
(and doing a vid_restart
, or putting it into an autoexec.cfg
) improves texture quality noticeably.
Input
Disable mouse acceleration (source port)[citation needed]
|
- A source port is required (e.g. KMQuake II). See Source ports.
- Go to
<path-to-game>\baseq2\ .
- Create and open
autoexec.cfg .
- Add the line
m_noaccel 1 .
|
Mouse wheel for switching weapons
Use the console to create custom keybinds [4]
|
- Press the tilde key (
~ ) to activate the console.
- Type
bind MWHEELUP "weapnext" and hit enter.
- Type
bind MWHEELDOWN "weapprev" and hit enter.
- The values of the two binds (weapnext and weapprev) can be swapped if desired.
|
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Only for sound effects, not for CD music. |
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
|
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
|
EAX support |
|
A3D, EAX (via IAS patch[5]). Use a source port such as Yamagi Quake II or Q2Pro for OpenAL Soft HRTF. |
Red Book CD audio |
|
On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions. |
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
Spanish |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
Network
Multiplayer types
- All official maps are designed for at most 16 players. However, dedicated servers can be set to have the max player limit at 256
Connection types
Ports
Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
UDP |
27910 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
Issues fixed
Saves not working in 'The Reckoning' and 'Ground Zero' (GOG.com version)
If you are getting "function pointers have moved" error in console after trying to load game, install fan-patch 3.24. Issue noted in GOG.com release.
No music playback
The music plays directly from the CD so the Steam and Microsoft Store versions unfortunately lack it. Try applying the Ultimate Quake II patch mentioned above.
If you prefer to use the original engine you can download the soundtrack from the Steam discussions. Either burn a new CD from the image file or use a CD emulator like WinCDEmu to mount the image.
- Microsoft Store version requires enabling mods.
- GOG.com version does not require this method, as the whole soundtrack is in OGG format, which the game was modified to use it instead.
Windows Vista and 7 colours issue (Software mode)
- Windows Vista and 7 can have issues with displaying true colours in Software mode
- This issue does not occur on Windows 8 and later.
- See rainbow color problems in older games for further details.
Window border visible in fullscreen mode (Software mode)
Game is uncapped in software mode
- Unpatched game in software mode comes with no fps limit which causes it to run at high fps and causes physical problems official patch 3.20 fixed this problem by adding 83fps limit to software mode.
Game does not launch (Intel HD Graphics)
[citation needed]
|
- Install Nglide
- Select in game 3DFX OpenGl Driver
|
"No Input arguments" when running the launcher (GOG.com version)
This problem occurs only if you try to run the main EXE file. It must be ran from the Launch Quake 2 shortcut to make it work. This is due to the fact that it contains a code in the Launch options.
Stuttering frame rate (yquake2)
- Might occur when using fractional display refresh rates.
Set vid_displayrefreshrate[7]
|
- Install Yamagi Quake II.
- Open the console.
- Set
vid_displayrefreshrate to 60 .
|
Play the expansions with KMQuake II
Use launch parameters[8]
|
Use the following command line arguments with kmquake2.exe :
- For The Reckoning, use
+set game xatrix
- For Ground Zero, use
+set game rogue
|
Other method[citation needed]
|
Create a quake2.bat file with the following content. Make sure you have the support files for the expansions ready. Available here.
@echo off
echo Quake II + expansions
echo 1: Quake II
echo 2: Mission Pack 1: The Reckoning
echo 3: Mission Pack 2: Ground Zero
set /p userinp=choose a number (1-3):
goto %userinp%
:1
goto end
:2
set game%=xatrix
goto end
:3
set game%=rogue
goto end
:end
kmquake2.exe +set game %game%
|
See gun with wide FOV
Apply hex edit[9]
|
- Open
quake2.exe with a hex editor such as HxD.
- Go to the address
47B00
- Change the values
00 00 B4 42 to 00 00 33 43
|
Add quick saving hotkey
Use the console to add custom keybinds to enable quicksaving[10]
|
- Open the console and enter
bind F5 "echo Quick Saving...; wait; save quick" and bind F7 "echo Quick Loading...; wait; load quick" .
- Change the keys to whatever keys you would like.
- If this doesn't work, try
bind F5 save quick and bind F9 load quick .
|
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
OpenGL |
1.1, 1.4, 3.2 |
3DFX and PowerVR MiniGL included. Yamagi Quake II updates the 1.1 renderer to 1.4 and adds a 3.2 renderer. |
Glide |
|
3dfx MiniGL |
Software renderer |
|
Broken by default on Win7 x64 (Rainbow color problems in older games). Yamagi's' software renderer can render the whole game without artifacts. |
Vulkan |
|
A source port is required. See Source ports. |
Executable | PPC | 16-bit |
32-bit |
64-bit | ARM |
Notes |
Windows | | |
|
| |
A source port is required for native 64-bit. See Source ports. ARM source ports must be built from source code, with one fanbuilt binary known to exist.[11] |
macOS (OS X) | | | |
| |
A source port is required for OS X. See Source ports. |
Linux | | | |
| |
A source port is required for native non-32-bit. See Source ports. |
Mac OS (Classic) | | | |
|
|
|
Middleware
|
Middleware |
Notes |
Audio |
DirectSound, OSS, ALSA1 |
OSS is used in official native Linux version. 1 ALSA support can be added by compiling the source code from Icculus version. |
Technical information
Quake II Facelift mod
The ingame method uses a simple linear filter; an alternative exists in the form of the mod "Quake II Facelift", released in 2007, which supports Lanczos upsampling for even further improved texture quality. It also includes several other changes, like an implementation of the water screen distortion effect from the software renderer, an option to toggle texture filtering off (via setting the "8-bit texture" option to "on"), and desktop resolution support (via selecting sub-640x480 resolutions).
This mod also has a few shortcomings; widescreen support is essentially broken as objects at the left and right side of the screen are culled out, so keeping to 4:3 resolutions is recommended. Also, load times between levels are increased, text and HUD elements are forcibly upscaled and look rather ugly, and the brightness setting now affects the skybox.
System requirements
Windows | Mac OS (Classic) | Linux |
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
95, NT 4.0 | |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 90 MHz
| Intel Pentium 133 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
16 MB |
24 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
25 MB |
400 MB |
Other |
|
3D accelerator card recommended. |
Mac OS |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
7.5.3 |
Processor (CPU) |
PowerPC 603e |
System memory (RAM) |
48 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
|
Other |
4X CD-ROM drive |
Linux |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
Linux kernel v2.0.24 | |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 90 MHz
| Intel Pentium 133 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
16 MB |
24 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
25 MB |
400 MB |
Notes
References