A simple guide on how to get Quake III to run on modern systems and find servers.
 
 

Introduction

This guide will teach you how to get Quake III to work on modern operating systems (including GNU/Linux distributions), as well as ways to find servers.
 
 
 

Installing a modern engine.

For some people, the original launcher works out of the box with no issues, but it is still recommended that you use a modern, up-to-date engine, and there are a few options, which you can see here – [github.io] .
 
 
The engine I personally use and recommend is Quake3e – [github.com] . It is a simple engine, compatible with all original Q3A mods, but with modern additions, such as a Vulkan renderer, raw mouse input support, raised filesystem limits and so much more. As well as tons of bug fixes and other improvements.
 
 
The following steps are for the Quake3e engine.
 

• Download the latest release – [github.com]  of the Quake3e engine.
• Place the contents of the archive in your Quake III folder. (the default installation is inside \steamapps\common\Quake 3 Arena\).
• Rename the original quake3.exe to quake3.ex_ and choose your prefered launcher. After that you want to rename it to quake3.exe, so it can be launched directly from Steam.

 
 
 

A few tweaks.

No matter what engine you are using, you can always use a config file to get a few commands to run automatically at startup. To do that, just create a new file named ‘autoexec.cfg’ in your ‘baseq3’ folder, and put the commands there.
 
 
In case you are using the original launcher, you might want to set your resolution to something that suits your monitor better.
 
You can do that using the following commands :
 
 

set r_mode -1 // for using custom resolutions.
// you can replace the values with your preffered ones
set r_customwidth 1920
set r_customheight 1080

 
 
The following tweaks work for all engines.
 
 
The original Quake III fov is unbearable. To change it, you can use:
 
 

set cg_fov 120 // default is 90.

 
 
If you want to go further, you can also change the mouse settings.
 
 

sensitivity 2
cl_mouseAccel 0 // if you encounter weird mouse movements, you can set a negative value. Just find the right one for you

// if you modified the mouse acceleration, you may want to modify the following as well
m_yaw 0.022 // post-acceleration horizontal sensitivity
m_pitch 0.022 // post-acceleration vertical sensitivity
// the default value is 0.022.

 
 
To show the FPS :
 
 

cg_drawFPS 1

 
 
To change the maximum fps :
 
 

// NOTE : The maximum FPS for Multi-Player is capped to 125 and cannot be changed. This only works in Single-Player.
r_swapinterval 0 // disable v-sync
com_maxfps 250

 
 
Remember, you can either use these commands in a cfg file, or you can input them in the console.
 
 
 

Finding servers.

You can find server either by using the in-game multiplayer server browser, or even better by using this website – [quakeservers.net] .
 
 
 

For GNU/Linux users: Greater Proton Compatibility.

If you are using a GNU/Linux distribution, chances are you are most likely using Proton. Keep in mind that there are also ports of those modern engines for Linux as well.
 
 
If you want to keep using Proton, you may want to make a small modification, in case you are experiencing weird graphical glitches.
 
 
Depending on your Proton version(I personally use Proton-GE), go into your Proton folder and find your user_settings.sample.py. Rename it to user_settings.py, so Proton will use the settings we are going to apply.
 
 
Inside the user_settings.py file, find the following line, and uncomment it.
 
Before :
 
 

 #Use OpenGL-based wined3d for d3d11, d3d10, and d3d9 instead of Vulkan-based DXVK
# "PROTON_USE_WINED3D": "1",

 
 
After:
 
 

 #Use OpenGL-based wined3d for d3d11, d3d10, and d3d9 instead of Vulkan-based DXVK
 "PROTON_USE_WINED3D": "1",

 
 
As the comment suggests, this will disable the Vulkan-based DXVK and use OpenGL-based wined3d, which should work better with Quake 3 (in my experience, it does.)
 
 

 
 
This is all about Quake III Arena – A simple guide on how to run on modern systems and find servers; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!