News

Mon Jun 18 16:39:35 CDT 2007

Quake4 1.4.2 has been released. There is both a full installer and an update from 1.3

bd2cb8164ede4272adcc091f724855ac  quake4-linux-1.4.2.x86.run
1b9031e831035f40aaf624cd4851c984  quake4-linux-update-1.3-to-1.4.2.x86.run

old news

Quake4 Demo Information

The Quake4 Demo is a free download, which you can obtain from the FTP server or the BitTorrent tracker (see below).

Where to download

You can download from id Software's ftp server, or one of it's mirrors. You can also download the files via our local BitTorrent tracker.

Installation Instructions

Minimum System Requirements

- GNU/Linux system
- Pentium(r) 4 2.0 GHz or Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ processor
- 512MB RAM
- Kernel 2.4, 2.6 is recommended
- glibc >= 2.2.4

3D acceleration ( not required for dedicated server ):
   - SDL >= 1.2
   - latest OpenGL drivers, correctly configured
   - ATI(r) Radeon(r) 9700
   - ATI Radeon 9800
   - ATI Radeon X300 series
   - ATI Radeon X550 series
   - ATI Radeon X600 series
   - ATI Radeon X700 series
   - ATI Radeon X800 series
   - ATI Radeon X850 series
   - Nvidia(r) GeForce(TM) 3/Ti series
   - Nvidia GeForce 4/Ti series
   - Nvidia GeForce FX series
   - Nvidia GeForce 6 series
   - Nvidia GeForce 7 series

Audio ( not required for dedicated server ):
   - sound card with OSS or Alsa support, stereo and surround sound are supported wth both APIss
   Alsa >= 1.0.6 is required for alsa sound backend

Multiplayer:

   - Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported
   - Internet play requires broadband connection

Installation instructions

NOTE: The instructions below apply to the updates for the full version of the game. If you are installing the Demo version, the full retail release of Quake 4 is not needed, and all the media files are provided in the installer.

A licensed copy of Quake 4 retail for Windows(r) is required.
You will copy the assets files from it and use the CD key.

PLEASE NOTE:  The Linux version of Quake 4 is NOT supported by
Activision Customer Support.

The following files must be copied from the install CDs [1]
to your q4base/ directory ( md5 sums provided as reference ):

If you copy them before running the installer you will need to
create the paths, by default /usr/local/games/quake4/q4base
If you copy after running the installer, make sure not to
replace any paks the installer might have provided.

a9f6a2e4bf8e193591954f75d1d39f85  game000.pk4
b201b914167f47061fa5f975af527122  pak001.pk4
dabe2c88e004198947431250e3f4ca1d  pak002.pk4
8573f05af4c9568880cc464d06292079  pak003.pk4
12ff4006a7f7181ac16835d05c59905f  pak004.pk4
3576213f4e00f06baf3cd5de089a538a  pak005.pk4
aec7bb418b9a86256f9e5daee894dee2  pak006.pk4
0f53b4fb4df2c14fcd10012baf8b2f87  pak007.pk4
b099d75869f0ffcbcb8e5166374af345  pak008.pk4
cb2b44bf573559dc19b488d9e1e5bec3  pak009.pk4
d024073349dc917b4feab49e6abc417b  pak010.pk4
98c854d94ce1da5272952b77821823df  pak011.pk4
e77a2fda6656495d38773e05bbffda33  pak012.pk4
669d6d9a30b798d19434972475b98c53  zpak_english.pk4
2cabddd692e214c78c20a464da43f1ef  zpak_french.pk4
4ee7eb637cde6bcfe3a9ffac5e4579dd  zpak_italian.pk4
36eee38e6c2dce12986f7192a5a996e5  zpak_spanish.pk4

Note: the Linux installer will reinstall the game*.pk4.

Note: the German version of the game uses a completely
different set of assets. See the FAQ entry below for
details.

Start the game with the command: quake4
Start the dedicated server with the command: quake4-dedicated

[1] - note that if you have the DVD release, all the files are in
the same directory. Otherwise they are spread out on each CDs.
For the DVD edition, the files are in Setup/Data/q4base

game modding and server administration documentation

The official website for Quake 4 modding is http://www.iddevnet.com/

In particular, you can read some elements of server adminstration on the Quake 4 modding site.

FAQ

Check the DOOM III FAQ

Topics already covered in the DOOM III FAQ are not duplicated here. In particular, please read about third party installers.

German release of Quake 4

The checksums of the pak files to be copied for the German version of Quake 4 are below. Note that it will only work in multiplayer with other german copies of the game.

The installation instructions are otherwise the same.

b4b1f8e5d3dd0a4a862453a6abf9a424  game000.pk4 
e4c42f172ee4d81c7c43a82761e9816c  pak001.pk4
6ceb1be5ffe81a1da5795a4bd129eb85  pak002.pk4
c35fce5cb94bd4dfd5a8305ed9c93097  pak003.pk4
ce95f67b0e385683fae6d8dab28d85c5  pak004.pk4
ad9421a76cda3786c83f1e7b95196a1a  pak005.pk4
e0ef17afebbb088e7139986ba9e417d6  pak006.pk4
52cc00f832e643f51c42bafbbdf30b60  pak007.pk4
854e063fd4944bbdf10ed213b9f3a731  pak008.pk4
c66b39400bf688d8ed78222c28be3d7b  pak009.pk4
099899344357f204ff8ac9362d0986e7  pak010.pk4
c3a93f43ce0e505fa8acf12be6929f4b  pak011.pk4
684df5107936fbc0f946a2019fb7c370  pak012.pk4
b8e075ddbfc6b5cf41bc49cafd8aeaea  zpak_english.pk4

Crashes on startup when loading the game module

Only applies to releases 1.0.x of Quake 4. Bug is fixed 1.1 upwards

Some Debian and Debian-based distributions ( like Ubuntu ) are crashing during startup. It appears this is caused by the SDL packages selection. You need to install libsdl1.2debian-alsa or libsdl1.2debian-oss instead of libsdl1.2debian-all.

FYI, it is not clear what happens with this crash. Happens during initialization of static variables, has to do with a cvar named g_log and goes away if renamed to something else. So it would look like this version of SDL has g_log already defined from somewhere else and the dynamic loader getting confused over it.

How do I toggle the console?

Use Ctrl+Alt+~ to toggle the console. If you set com_allowConsole to 1, you can use ~ only ( also note that shift-~ gives you a smaller console ).

Some tips on map cycling

You can use si_mapCycle to set a list of maps to play through. Something like "mp/q4dm11v1;mp/q4dm3;mp/q4dm6;mp/q4dm7;mp/q4dm8;mp/q4ctf5" for instance ( that's the Tourney maps ). si_tourneyLimit counts how many tournaments will run before going to the next map ( other game types always switch ).

You can also use g_mapCycle and execute a script for each map rotation. Powerful but a bit more involved. Look at the one we provide to get an idea how you can customize it.

The game comes with some ready made .cfg files for the various gametypes and maps. e.g. you can type exec dm.cfg at the console to start a deathmatch server with the default configuration settings.

Server passwording

If you want to require a password to join your server, set the value of g_password to the password. Then actually enable/disable it with si_usePass. Don't set the password in si_usePass, that won't work.

Network ports

Some information for firewall configurations to play nice with quake4:

• all game traffic is UDP

• by default servers listen on port 28004 ( if you run several servers on the same machines, it will use 28004, 28005 etc. )

• your server needs to be able to talk to the master server at q4master.idsoftware.com on port 27950

Cannot connect a Linux client to a Windows 1.0 pure server

Only applies to release 1.0.x of Quake 4.

This is because the Windows version was released first and didn't come with a game code pak for Linux. There is a simple fix, server admins need to put the Linux gamecode pak file game100.pk4 into the q4base/ directory:

61513eab61e80621c5337bc1a309af01  game100.pk4

game100.pk4

NOTE: That this only applies to version 1.0 ( gold ) and the updates compatible with it ( all the 1.0.x versions ). Make sure that file is named game100.pk4, looks like some web browsers or proxies like to rename it to game100.zip.

NOTE: The Linux demo has the same issue and cannot be fixed. Windows clients can connect to a Linux server, but Linux clients will only see and connect to Linux servers.

File permissions on install CDs

The install CDs have Rock Ridge extensions which may get in the way of copying the files to your hard drive. You should make sure to mount the CDs ignoring the extension ( "-o norock" ) or setup appropriate mounted partition ownership / copy files as root and fixup manually.

AntiAliasing/MultiSampling / Windows are opaque

Multisampling can be enabled through the engine by setting r_multiSamples to an appropriate value ( Quake4 1.3 ). If you enable multisampling through GPU specific interfaces like nvcontrol, make sure you set r_multiSamples to match. If you get opaque transparent surfaces after enabling it, make sure r_alphaToCoverage is set to 1.

If you are getting opaque grey windows, and are not using multisampling, make sure r_multiSamples is set to 0

Known Issues

• internal server browser in 1.0.0.0 / build 2147 will only show 1000 servers max. Third party browsers like xqf can retrieve and filter the complete list.

• if you have a non US keyboard, you may not be able to get to the console. Use an applet in gnome or kde to switch to a qwerty layout before playing, or use xmodmap to remap the console key you want to emit keycode 49.

• the game is crashing when loading the game dynamic modules on some Debian and derivates distros. See the workaround

• you can't use savegames across different operating systems. Games you save on Windows(r) are likely to crash if you load them up on GNU/Linux.

Reporting Bugs

If you want to report an issue with the game, you should make sure that your report includes all information useful to characterize and reproduce the problem.

• check the Linux Gamers' FAQ for any issue not covered here

• search on Google

• include the computer's hardware and software description ( CPU, RAM, 3D Card, distribution, kernel etc. )

• include the output of glxinfo

• if appropriate, send a console log, a link to a save game, a screenshot, an strace ..

Note that we can't help you with OS-specific issues like configuring OpenGL correctly, configuring ALSA or configuring the network.

If you are sending a console log, make sure to enable developer output:

$ quake4 +set developer 1 +set logfile 1

( the log is written to ~/.quake4/q4base or ~/.quake4/yourmod ) Do not cut the log to the part you think is relevant. We often want to see the initialization of the renderer and filesystem.

As a rule of thumb, a bug is unlikely to be investigated unless it has been reported by different people or on different systems.

If you have a complete and precise bug report, email it to me: ttimo at idsoftware dot com

Links

• Official Quake IV website

• id Software

• Linux Games

• Linux Gamers' FAQ