Warnings
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
General information
- Quake Wiki - A detailed wiki for every Quake game made.
- Planet Quake
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- A free client provided by id allows Quake 4 to be played natively on Linux machines. It requires either a full retail copy or the demo to use it. Details can be found on the GamingOnLinux article.
- A faithful higher quality icon can be found from IconArchive.
- Game is not available in Germany, except for Gamesplanet version.
- The Special DVD Edition for Windows features Quake II and additional bonus content.
Demo
Demo is available here.
Monetization
Source ports
Adapted from the released source code for the id Tech 4 based Doom 3
- Not compatible with the retail version.
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 1.4.2 (2007) is the latest version. GOG.com and Steam versions are already patched.
- Patch 1.3.0 (2006)
- Patch 1.2.0 (2006)
- Patch 1.1.0 (2006. Bugged widescreen feature. Add support for multi core CPUs)
- Able to change the FPS limit to above 62, fix graphical issues on modern hardware, adjust the despawn time of corpses, change the FOV, skip intro videos and force custom display resolutions.
- Only works on 64-bit computers.
- Only 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10 resolutions are supported. Other resolutions will be stretched.
Skip intro videos
Use the +disconnect command line argument[2]
|
Notes
- For the GOG digital release, the command will not work when applied to the 'launcher' shortcut that GOG Galaxy creates. Create your own shortcut pointing directly to Quake4.exe, and apply the command to that.
|
Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
- This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Save game data location
System |
Location |
Windows |
<path-to-game>\q4base\savegames\[Note 1] |
Microsoft Store |
|
macOS (OS X) |
$HOME/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.quake4appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Quake 4/q4base/savegames |
Linux |
$HOME/.quake4/q4base/savegames |
Steam Play (Linux) |
<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2210/pfx/[Note 2] |
Video
In-game general video/audio settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
Set custom resolution in configuration file[citation needed]
|
- Open
<path-to-game>\q4base\Quake4Config.cfg .
- Search the line
seta r_customHeight , replace with seta r_customHeight "768"
- Search the line
seta r_customWidth , replace with seta r_customWidth "1366"
- Search the line
seta r_mode , replace with seta r_mode "-1"
- Search the line
seta r_aspectRatio , replace with seta r_aspectRatio "1" .
Notes
- Use
seta r_aspectRatio "0" for 4:3, "1" for 16:9, and "2" for 16:10.
|
Set custom anisotropic filtering[citation needed]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Create and open
autoexec.cfg .
- Add
seta image_anisotropy 8 for the highest quality.
|
Input
In-game key map settings.
Audio
In-game advanced audio settings.
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Only a single volume slider. |
Surround sound |
|
First enable surround speakers setup in the Windows control panel.[3] |
Subtitles |
|
|
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
|
EAX support |
|
EAX 4.0, EAX 5.0 (via OpenAL)[4] |
Royalty free audio |
|
|
- Hidden EAX 4.0 mode is available by using Creative ALchemy and selecting Generic Hardware driver in sound options.[5] Currently broken in DSOAL v1.31a.
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
Czech |
|
|
|
Retail only. |
French |
|
|
|
|
German |
|
|
|
Retail only. |
Hungarian |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
Italian |
|
|
|
|
Polish |
|
|
|
Retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Brazilian Portuguese |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
Russian |
|
|
|
Retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Spanish |
|
|
|
Retail and GOG.com only. Patch for digital release here. |
Turkish |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
Network
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Ports
Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
TCP |
27650 |
UDP |
27650 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
Issues fixed
Poor image quality on modern systems
- The game does not properly recognize the available VRAM on modern graphics cards, and as such forces the game to use lower image quality settings.
Force high image quality[citation needed]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Create and open
autoexec.cfg .
- Add the following and save.
seta com_machineSpec "3"
seta com_videoRam "768"
seta r_shadows "1"
seta r_skipSky "0"
seta r_skipBump "0"
seta r_skipSpecular "0"
seta r_skipNewAmbient "0"
seta r_multiSamples "4"
seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0"
seta image_downSize "0"
seta image_downSizeBump "0"
seta image_downSizeSpecular "0"
seta image_useCache "0"
seta image_useCompression "0"
seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "0"
seta image_lodbias "-1"
seta image_anisotropy "8"
seta image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
seta g_brassTime "2"
|
Stretched UI on 16:9 widescreens
Install Quake 4 widescreen fix by Wizzard[6]
|
- Download widescreen fix
- Copy and paste the content into the installation folder.
|
Steam Overlay doesn't work
Run the Steam client as administrator[7]
|
Add registry key[8]
|
- Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers .
- Right-click → New → String Value.
- Put the full path to
Quake4.exe in the name.
- Open the newly created string and type in
RUNASINVOKER and confirm it.
Notes
- For the GOG version, the string value is already created. The only thing to do is right-click on
Quake4.exe and modify the value data with the RUNASINVOKER to confirm it.
|
Sluggish mouse view
Use raw input[9]
|
- Open
<path-to-game>\q4base\autoexec.cfg .
- Add the line
in_mouse 2
- Save the changes.
|
ReShade overlay inaccessible to mouse
Bypass the game's mouse bind[10]
|
- Open
<path-to-game>\q4base\Quake4Config.cfg .
- Search the line
seta com_allowConsole and set the value to "1".
- Start the game.
- Press Alt+Tab ↹ to switch into windowed mode
- Press ~ to open the console
- Access the ReShade GUI
|
Microstutter
Instructions[11]
|
- Open
<path-to-game>\q4base\autoexec.cfg .
- Add the following lines.
seta r_swapInterval "1"
seta com_fixedTic "1"
Notes
- This solution may cause speech lipsync to go out of sync, but gameplay should be unaffected.
r_swapinterval controls VSync.
|
Fix font scaling
Configuration Files[citation needed]
|
- This may cause some menus to have their text cut off in multiplayer.
- Open
<path-to-game>\q4base\Quake4Config.cfg or <path-to-game>\q4base\autoexec.cfg .
- Add the following lines.
seta gui_mediumFontLimit "0"
seta gui_smallFontLimit "0"
|
Issues unresolved
Poor performance/"slow-motion" effect on Nvidia cards
Quake 4 and other id Tech 4 games seem to suffer from some sort of driver-related issue on modern Nvidia GPU's that causes the game to go into what appears to be a "slow-motion" phrase during some intensive scenes, where the framerate technically remains the same but game logic is slowed down and negatively effects performance, and it persists even when using the microstutters fix and Quake 4 Tweaker. This issue's not known to affect all hardware configurations but a definitive fix is not currently available.
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
OpenGL |
2.0 |
|
Executable | PPC |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows | |
|
|
|
macOS (OS X) | | |
|
32-bit only.[12] |
Linux | | |
|
|
Middleware
|
Middleware |
Notes |
Audio |
OpenAL |
|
Anti-cheat |
PunkBuster |
|
Modifications
- Upscales the original texture's resolution 4x by using Topaz AI Gigapixel neural network.
- Large download at over 6.5 GB, including patches. Around 27 GB once extracted.
Sikkmod
- Sikkmod is a mod that was ported from Doom 3, which adds such effects as bloom, color grading, HDR and FXAA, and is easily configurable via the in-game menu.
- The game's multi-core rendering may cause problems with this mod, disable that setting if there are graphical glitches.
- Using the Retail version can case the game to crash.
False Dawn
- False Dawn is a non-linear, multiple-goal mission with up-to-date graphics (powered by Sikkmod).
Next & Better Shaders
- Next & Better Shaders is a more up-to-date collection of shaders for Quake 4, with some ported from Doom 3. They add effects like parallax textures, dynamic lighting, HDR, and more. The author has adjusted the shaders to keep Quake 4's original look and reduce the plastic effect.
- Move the desired shader folder to the Quake 4 base install directory and select it from the in-game Mods list, or use the provided .bat file to launch the game.
Advanced tweaks
- TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for tweaking the game.
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
2000 |
XP |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ | |
System memory (RAM) |
256 MB |
512 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
3.2 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon 9700 Nvidia GeForce3 Ti 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible
| ATI Radeon X1800 XL Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT 512 MB of VRAM |
- Windows 98 has been tested to work with Quake 4, but this is not officially supported.
macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
10.3.9 |
10.4.4 |
Processor (CPU) |
1.67 GHz
| 2 GHz |
System memory (RAM) |
512 MB |
4 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
3 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon 9600 Nvidia GeForce 6600 64 MB of VRAM
| 128 MB of VRAM |
Linux |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
Kernel 2.4.x, Kernel 2.6.x |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ |
System memory (RAM) |
512 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
|
- Supported ATI chipsets: Radeon 9700 series, Radeon 9800 series, Radeon X300 series, Radeon X550 series, Radeon X600 series, Radeon X700 series, Radeon X800 series, Radeon X850 series
- Supported Nvidia chipsets: GeForce 3/Ti series, GeForce 4/Ti series, GeForce FX series, GeForce 6 series, GeForce 7 series
Notes
References