Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena

Developers   id Software Linux Loki Software

Publishers   Activision

Engines   id Tech 3

Release dates Windows December 2, 1999 Linux December 27, 1999 Mac OS 2000

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

Key points

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

General information

Quake Wiki - A detailed wiki for every Quake game made.

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums for game 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	DRM	Notes	Keys
Retail
Steam		Quake III: Gold
GamersGate		Quake III: Gold

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

Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions

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

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.

Essential information

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.

Configuration file(s) location

	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\baseq3
Mac OS
Linux

Save game data location

	Location
Windows
Mac OS
Linux

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
GameSave Manager

Video settings

In-game graphics settings.

Graphics option	Option	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			A source port is required. See Source ports.
Field of view (FOV)
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)
High frame rate		Capped at 90 FPS by default, change maxfps value in q3config.cfg to desired frame rate - 5 (default cap setting is 85, resulting in a 90fps cap)

Widescreen resolution

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.

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Limited modern controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller Y-axis inversion		Needs to be manually mapped to the specific direction.

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		A3D 2.0 only Broken since one of the first patches (possibly 1.17)

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	CC	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
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

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP (outbound)	27950, 27952, 27960, 27965
UDP (outbound)	27950, 27952, 27960, 27965

Issues fixed

Video glitches on the main menu

Main Menu Graphics Glitches Disable the Steam Overlay (right-click the game in your Steam library -> Properties, untick "Enable Steam Community In-Game"). Launch Quake III Arena. Go to Setup -> System -> disable GL Extensions.

Game crashes on exit

Game Crashes Upon Exit Right-click the game in your Steam library. Click Properties. Uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game".

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	1.1
64-bit executable		A source port is required. See Source ports.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, NT 4.0	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 233 MHz or Pentium II 300 MHz or AMD K6-2 350 MHz or Athlon.
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	25 MB	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM 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 400MHz of any ISA.
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	25 MB	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM