Quake III Arena
Template:Infobox Template:Infobox Quake (series)
For the free-to-play version, see Quake Live
Key points
- Engine is open source with modern multi-platform ports available; see Source Ports
- Runs well on low end hardware
- Active community
- Easy to mod for
- Most people have moved on to using Quake Live for multiplayer
General information
- Quake Wiki - A detailed wiki for every Quake game made.
- Steam Users' Forums - The Steam forums for the Quake series.
- Planet Quake - Very old hub for all Quake games. Has mods, guides, and news on the Quake communities.
- Func_Msgboard - The mapper hub, new map releases, technique improvements.
- bit7.org/quake - Community site with extensive mirrors section, reviews and details on editions of the game.
Availability
Versions
Vanilla
The original, closed-source versions of the game still work for online multiplayer and are the ones distributed via the Steam platform. Many users may prefer to use more recent, improved engines based on the source code release.
Quake Live
id Software launched a free-to-play browser-based port of Quake III titled Quake Live. Most players have migrated to this service to continue playing, as it adds new features and game modes, and improves compatibility with newer systems.
Source Ports
While the original Quake III Arena point releases still work on modern systems, the release of the engine's source code has enabled the creation of additional variants that improve upon the game but are backwards compatible for multiplayer play. These versions do not support PunkBuster anti-cheat and thus cannot connect to servers using it, though very few still exist.
ioquake3
ioquake3 is a port of the engine to SDL to assist in multi-platform development of stand-alone mods for the Quake III engine. It adds several features to the engine:
- Ports to new platforms
- Off-server data downloads (http redirection) via HTTP and FTP with cURL
- OpenAL sound rendering allowing for surround (5.1 and 7.1) speaker layouts and generally improved sound
- quality. Especially on the Windows Vista Operating System.
- Ogg Vorbis audio decoding.
- In-engine VOIP support, with optional Mumble player-location support.
- IPV6 Networking. We’re ready to frag on the net of the future!
- SDL backend for the OpenGL context, window management, and input. This also improves portability.
- Anaglyph stereo rendering (for viewing with 3D glasses)
- Full x86-64 architecture support
- Rewritten PowerPC JIT compiler, with ppc64 support
- New SPARC JIT compiler, with support for both sparc32 and sparc64
- Compilation with MinGW and cross-compilation for Windows from Linux
- Improved console command auto-completion
- Persistent console command history
- Improved QVM (Quake Virtual Machine) tools
- Colored terminal output on POSIX operating systems
- GUID System
- Multiuser support on Windows systems (user-specific game data is stored in their respective Application Data folders)
- PNG format support for textures
- Inter-Quake Model support
- Numerous security fixes
Game data
Cloud Syncing
Template:Save Game Cloud Syncing
Video settings
Aspect Ratio and Field of View
The game does not automatically adjust the aspect ratio to match widescreen resolutions. Certain cvars may be set to fix this:
r_mode -1
sets the display mode to the custom resolution specified by the following cvars.r_customwidth, r_customheight
set the custom display mode.r_customaspect
sets the aspect ratio for the 3D scene (not the HUD or menus!). Set this to the horizontal screen ratio (i.e. for 16:10, set this to 1.6)