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Quake III Arena

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena cover
Developers
id Software
macOS (OS X) The Omni Group
Linux Loki Software
Publishers
Activision
Engines
id Tech 3
Release dates
Windows December 2, 1999
Linux December 27, 1999
Mac OS (Classic) December 28, 1999
macOS (OS X) January 4, 2002
Quake III Arena guide on StrategyWiki
Quake III Arena on Wikipedia
Quake
Quake 1996
Quake II 1997
Quake III Arena 1999
Quake 4 2005
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 2007
Quake Live 2010
Quake II RTX 2019
Quake Enhanced 2021
Quake Champions 2022
Quake II Enhanced 2023

Key points

Engine is open source with modern multi-platform ports available; see Source ports.

General information

ESReality - Community hub for competitive Quake.
Func_Msgboard - Mapper hub, new map releases, technique improvements.
Planet Quake - Very old hub for the Quake franchise. Has mods, guides, and news on the Quake communities.
Quake Wiki - Wiki for the Quake franchise.
Worldspawn Archive - Map repository.
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
CD key
Some copies may have 16-bit installers, which hampers installing on 64-bit operating systems.
However, not all copies did and shipped with 32-bit ones.
Windows
Mac OS
Linux
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Bethesda.net
Bethesda.net Launcher
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Quake III Gold. Cannot be purchased in Germany.[1]
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Quake III Gold.
Windows
A demo is available.
A faithful higher quality icon can be found from IconArchive.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Quake III: Team Arena Included with Quake III: Gold.
Windows

Version differences

Quake III: Gold includes the base game along with the Quake III: Team Arena expansion.

Vanilla

The original, closed-source versions of the game still work for online multiplayer. 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, that has since migrated to Steam and is no longer free-to-play. Most players have migrated to this service to continue playing, as it adds new features and game modes, and improves compatibility with newer systems.

Essential improvements

Official patch

Digital distribution platforms such as GOG and Steam are already have the latest version.
The latest official patch is 1.32c, it can be downloaded from Quake 3 World.

Graphics improvements

Increase LOD (reduce pop-in)

After starting the game, open the console, write /r_subdivisions 1; r_lodbias -1 then press Enter. The first command increases world geometry detail, whereas the second command uses high-quality models regardless of the viewing distance.

High resolution menus and HUD

A source port is required.
An additional mod is required for Team Arena support.
New assets are faithful to original HUD and menus.

Neural upscaled textures

All in-game textures, upscaled with Waifu2x and SFTGAN.
Upscaled textures are faithful to the original textures.

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.
The port now contains an auto updater which automatically updates the software when the new version gets a release.[1]

Quake3e

Fork of ioquake3.
Quake3e introduces many bug fixes, security and performance improvements as well as some quality of life features for competitive play.

Spearmint

Fork of ioquake3.
Development has stopped as of October 2018.[2]
Spearmint supports XInput controllers and split screen multiplayer up to 4 players.

Modifications

Quake 3 servers often use modifications in order to enhance the game in some way.

Challenge Promode Arena

Challenge Promode Arena (CPMA) is a modification which supports two gameplay styles (vanilla and promode) and many different game modes. It is often used for competitive play.

Defrag

Defrag (q3df) is a modification that removes the deathmatch from Quake 3 (de-fragging it), replacing it with obstacle courses for bunnyhopping, trickjumping, and surfing, to name a few.
Secondary resource here.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\baseq3\q3config.cfg[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2200/pfx/[Note 2]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\baseq3\q3config.cfg[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2200/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Instructions[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game at least once then close it.
  2. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  3. Open q3config.cfg with a text editor.
  4. Change the following lines to set the resolution.
    • seta r_customwidth "XXXX"
    • seta r_customheight "XXXX"
  5. Change the following line to this value.
    • seta r_mode "-1"
FMVs may be blank and character models in the model viewer may be distorted.

Field of view (FOV)

Edit the configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game at least once then close it.
  2. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  3. Open q3config.cfg with a text editor.
  4. Change the following line to the desired value.
    • seta cg_fov "XX"

Notes

Changing FOV affects the weapon viewmodel.

Input settings

In-game control settings.
In-game control settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D, DirectVR
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
4 A source port is required. See Source ports
LAN play
16
Online play
16
All official maps are designed for at most 16 players. However, dedicated servers can be set to have no max player limit.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27950, 27952, 27960, 27965
UDP 27950, 27952, 27960, 27965
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game crashes on exit

Game Crashes Upon Exit[citation needed]
  1. Right-click the game in your Steam library.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game".

Random FPS drops

Edit a line in config: r_finish 0[2]
Use a Source port[2]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
OpenGL 1.1
Vulkan
Use Quake III Arena Kenny Edition.
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
A source port is required for native 64-bit. See Source ports.
macOS (OS X)
The original version of the game on OS X only supported PowerPC.
A source port is required for Intel 64-bit support to work on OS X 10.7 and later. See Source ports.
Linux
A source port is required for native 64-bit. See Source ports.
An alternate source port supports PowerPC.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Anti-cheat PunkBuster [citation needed]

Brightness issues

By default, Quake III Arena has brightness issues and may appear very dark.
Edit the configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\baseq3\
  2. Open q3config.cfg with a text editor.
  3. Find the line r_overBrightBits 2.
  4. Set the value to 0.
seta r_overBrightBits "0"

Notes

You can change the gamma level by finding the line r_gamma 1 and increasing it to brighten the screen or lowering it to darken the screen.
r_intensity can also be set to a value above 1 to multiply texture intensity, making them appear brighter.

View bob

By default, Quake III Arena has view bob that may cause motion sickness.
Edit the configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\baseq3\
  2. Open q3config.cfg with a text editor.
  3. Find these three lines: cg_bobup 0.005, cg_bobpitch 0.002 and cg_bobroll 0.002.
  4. Set their values to 0.
seta cg_bobup "0.000"
seta cg_bobpitch "0.000"
seta cg_bobroll "0.000"

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95, NT 4.0
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz
Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
AMD K6-2 350 MHz
AMD Athlon 500 MHz
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 25 MB
Video card (GPU) 8 MB of VRAM
OpenGL 1.1 compatible
DirectX 7 compatible
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Any distribution (ports of the engine available in most distros' package repositories)
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 233 MHz / Pentium II 300 MHz or AMD K6-2 350 MHz / Athlon. Also suitable are CPUs exceeding 400 MHz of any ISA
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 25 MB
Video card (GPU) 8 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/2200/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (2200) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References