You might have read my tutorial on how to play “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” using iortcw in a enhanced way. Quake 3 Arena is another classic shooter I like. As the source code of the engine is available as open source, there is also a enhanced version available for Quake 3: ioQuake 3.
What kind of features does ioQuake3 offer? Here are some features:
- SDL 2 backend
- OpenAL sound API support (multiple speaker support and better sound quality)
- Full x86_64 support on Linux
- VoIP support, both in-game and external support through Mumble.
- MinGW compilation support on Windows and cross compilation support on Linux
- AVI video capture of demos
- Much improved console autocompletion
- Persistent console history
- Colorized terminal output
- Optional Ogg Vorbis support
- Much improved QVM tools
- Support for various esoteric operating systems
- cl_guid support
- HTTP/FTP download redirection (using cURL)
- Multiuser support on Windows systems (user specific game data is stored in “%APPDATA%\Quake3”)
- PNG support
- Many, many bug fixes
Yes, this is similar as iortcw of course, as the engine is based on it. Just in case you were wondering.
What do I need to install and play ioQuake 3?
- An installation of the original game with patch (point release) 1.32c. I used the GOG version, which included all the patches already.
- The latest test release for your platform (Windows for this tutorial). Grab it here.
In case you don’t own a legal copy of Quake 3 Arena yet, purchase a copy here and support the site. Thank you.
Apply the ioQuake3 engine
- Open the test release file “Windows.zip” for Windows
- Go to your Quake 3 installation folder, e.g. c:\GOG Games\ Quake III Arena
- Extract all of the files in your installation folder and overwrite if prompted
- That’s it. Enjoy Quake 3 Arena in the enhanced version by starting “ioquake3.x86_64.exe”
High-resolution textures installation
The project offers also higher resolution textures, which are definitely worth installing.
- Go back to the project site to Extras
- Go to “High-resolution textures“
- and download the file “xcsv_hires.zip“
- Open the archive and extract the file “xcsv_bq3hi-res.pk3” to your “baseq3” folder in your installation directory.
- Start the ioQuake3 executable “ioquake3.x86_64.exe” to play.
Cosmetics
- If you like to keep all your shortcuts, rename the file “ioquake3.x86_64.exe” to “quake3.exe”. Done.
Any question or feedback is always welcome.