Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena

Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	Activision
Engine	id Tech 3
First release date	December 2, 1999

Quake

Quake	1996
Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
Quake II	1997
Quake II: The Reckoning
Quake II: Ground Zero
Netpack I: Extremities
Quake III Arena	1999
Quake III: Team Arena
Quake 4	2005
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars	2007
Quake Live	2010

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

Source(s)	Store unlock	Notes
Steam

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. For improvements this port provides, see the Improvements section.

Game data

In-game general settings.

In-game graphics settings.

	Location
Windows (Retail)
Windows (Steam)	C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Quake 3 Arena
Mac

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Team Arena is also supported.
GameSave Manager		Team Arena is also supported.

Video settings

Graphics option	Native	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Aspect Ratio and Field of View.
Multi-monitor			A source port is required. See Source Ports.
Field of view (FOV)		See Aspect Ratio and Field of View.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		A source port is required. See Source Ports.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		A source port is required. See Source Ports.
Vertical sync (Vsync)

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)

Input settings

In-game input settings.

Input Settings	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Controller support

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Windows 95/Windows NT 4.0	Windows 98/Windows ME/Windows 2000/Windows XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium 233 MHz or Pentium II 300 Mhz or AMD 350 Mhz K6-2 processor or Athlon processor.	Pentium 233 MHz or Pentium II 300 Mhz or AMD 350 Mhz K6-2 processor or Athlon processor.
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	25 MB	500 MB