When Quake 3 Arena starts a map up, it sends the GL_RENDERER string to the Message Of The Day server at id. This responds back with a message of the day to the client. If you wish to switch this option off, set CL_MOTD to 0 (+set CL_MOTD 0 from the command line).
Manual Addendum
Medals
Medals measure and instantly reward outstanding combat performance. When a player receives a verbal praise award, such as "Excellent!" the medal for that award appears above the gladiator's head. It swiftly fades away. All your medals of that type earned in this match are displayed for you. They also swiftly fade. When the match ends, all medals earned in the match are proudly displayed. Between matches you see the grand totals for all medals earned since the game began. The RESET control will wipe these values out.
When choosing models from the Player Menu you may encounter a low memory message. This tells you that memory space is currently not available to display your selected model. This is not a problem and will not interfere with your game. Select the portrait of the model you wish to play and exit the menu as normal. Your new model will display in the game. To "flush-out" the memory, you can also restart your video by pulling down the console (accessed by pressing the ~ key) and typing:
\vid_restart
This will restart your video and enable you to view additional models.
In order to maintain the best game play, Quake III Arena may wait to load a model until you press the Tab key (or your Show Scores key), or die and respawn into the arena. A red "negation" circle over your face in the status bar indicates your desired player model has not been loaded or is being 'deferred.' In the same manner, other players' deferred models will not load immediately. They will appear the same as your model in the game. Once again, press Tab (Show Scores key) to update to the appropriate models.
The command com_hunkmegs is used to increase or decrease the size of memory used by the game. By default it is set to 56 which allows the game to run on computers with 64 megs of ram. If your system has more than 64 MB of RAM, you can adjust this value to allow for the loading of more unique models.
For example: If you have a machine with 256 megs of RAM you can use the command com_hunkmegs 128 to allocate more memory to the program. You would do this by accessing the game console (press the ~ key), and typing in:
\com_hunkmegs 128
(substitute the amount of memory that you would like to dedicate for the "128" in the example above).
NOTE: You can only allocate up to 3/4 of your total system memory before you may experience problems with your computer system.
Please refer to the Dedicated Server document for an example of how to alter com_hunkmegs on dedicated servers.
We have noticed that if you are running a machine with multiple monitors, and each video card is an OpenGL compliant video card (i.e. Voodoo3 and TNT2), you may experience problems running the game, as the game will recognize both video cards.
Simply disable one of the monitors in the Windows« Display Properties.
You will notice in Quake III Arena that the weapon re-spawn times are slower during teamplay games (Team Deathmatch and CTF). This was done for increased playability in the way the arenas resources are controlled.
In single player, if during the victory sequence after a level, you do a vid_restart from the console, the screen will return without buttons for continuing. At this point you will only be able to access the menu by pressing the Esc. key. From the Esc. menu you can then go to the main menu, restart the arena, or exit the game. You can also progress to the next level by going back to the level selection menu.
Also, in single player, if during the victory sequence, you press the Alt. and Enter keys to change between windowed mode, and non-windowed mode, the menu buttons at the bottom of the screen will not appear. At this point you will only be able to access the menu by pressing the Esc. key. From the Esc. menu you can then go to the main menu, restart the arena, or exit the game. You can also progress to the next level by going back to the level selection menu.
Since the release of Q3DemoTest, the loading and saving of personal config (.cfg) files through the game menus has been removed. The ability to "exec" a config file is still available through the console (accessed by pressing the ~ key while in the game). A config file is saved when you change any of the game or system options. The name of this file is the same as the name you type in for your "in-game" character name. You can exec this file by accessing the console and typing:
\exec name.cfg
In the example above, substitute the name that you have given your character, for the word "name."
Quake III Arena has been tested on many, but not all of the major cards incorporating the chipsets listed below. As with any piece of advanced computer technology, Quake III Arena requires the latest video card drivers available, and as drivers change results may also change. Below is a list of compatibility results based on our most recent pre-release tests.
3dfx:
Voodoo 1 (Voodoo Graphics) - No known issues.
Voodoo Rush - Unstable with current drivers.
Voodoo 2 - No known issues.
Voodoo 3 - No known issues.
Voodoo Banshee - No known issues.
3DLabs:
Permedia 2 - Problematic - Please always check with card manufacturer for updated drivers.
Permedia 3 - Problematic - Please always check with card manufacturer for updated drivers.
ATI:
Rage Pro - No known issues. Please refer to the Improving Performance section of this help system for ways to increase frame rate using this chipset.
Rage128 - No known issues.
Intel:
i740 - No known issues.
Matrox:
G200 - Playable. Will not work with the texture detail set to high. For best results, keep the texture detail set in the mid to lower levels.
G400 - No known issues.
NVidia:
Riva128 - Very playable. Will not work with the texture detail set to high. For best results, keep the texture detail set in the mid to lower levels.
TNT - No known issues.
TNT2 - No known issues.
GeForce256 - No known issues.
Rendition:
Verite 2200 - This chipset was not officially tested.
S3/Diamond:
Savage 3D - This chipset and the current drivers do not support multi-texturing.
Savage 4 - Playable. Currently, video cards employing the Savage 4 chipset have significant problems on maps that include volumetric fog.
If your computer is slow to connect to a game server (load times in excess of 2 minutes), it may be due to having both TCP/IP and IPX protocols installed. This can be remedied by removing either protocol and leaving only TCP/IP or IPX bound to your network adapter.
If you are running the game on a Windows NT machine, try installing the latest service packs (4, 5 or 6). This should remedy most issues with long load times.
If you are experiencing any problems opening the on-line manual, please make sure that you are using a browser that support frames. You will need a copy of Internet Explorer 3.0 or later, or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later.
Advanced users can create configuration (or .cfg) files that will execute many commands at once. One application for this is in creating a multiplayer game where the game cycles to the next arena listed in the "config" file and sets a new fraglimit for that arena. An example config file is listed below. To create this or a similar config file, you will simply need to create a new text file, copy everything listed below, save it, then rename it to FFA.cfg (or whatever name you choose). You should place these files in your \baseq3 directory.
//This config file cycles through all the maps in the game. Free For All mode.
set g_gametype 0
set m1 "fraglimit 10; map q3dm1; set nextmap vstr m2"
set m2 "fraglimit 10; map q3dm2 ; set nextmap vstr m3"
set m3 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm3 ; set nextmap vstr m4"
set m4 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney1 ; set nextmap vstr m5"
set m5 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm4 ; set nextmap vstr m6"
set m6 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm5 ; set nextmap vstr m7"
set m7 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm6 ; set nextmap vstr m8"
set m8 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney2 ; set nextmap vstr m9"
set m9 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm7 ; set nextmap vstr m10"
set m10 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm8 ; set nextmap vstr m11"
set m11 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm9 ; set nextmap vstr m12"
set m12 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney3 ; set nextmap vstr m13"
set m13 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm10 ; set nextmap vstr m14"
set m14 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm11 ; set nextmap vstr m15"
set m15 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm12 ; set nextmap vstr m16"
set m16 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney4 ; set nextmap vstr m17"
set m17 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm13 ; set nextmap vstr m18"
set m18 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm14 ; set nextmap vstr m19"
set m19 "fraglimit 20; map q3dm15 ; set nextmap vstr m20"
set m20 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney5 ; set nextmap vstr m21"
set m21 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm16 ; set nextmap vstr m22"
set m22 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm17 ; set nextmap vstr m23"
set m23 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm18 ; set nextmap vstr m24"
set m24 "fraglimit 15; map q3dm19 ; set nextmap vstr m25"
set m25 "fraglimit 10; map q3tourney6 ; set nextmap vstr m1"
vstr m1
To execute a server setup configuration file, you should bring down the console (accessed by pressting the ~ key) while in the Quake III menu system and type:
\exec ffa.cfg
Substitute the name of your config for "ffa" in the example above.
Mplayer is an optional online service included with this product. All support questions for playing Quake III Arena on Mplayer should be directed to Mplayer.com Customer Support at:
In order to maximize the performance of Quake III Arena, you must have at least 50 MB of free hard disk space for the Windows« virtual memory swap file.
Changing to fastest alters more than video settings.
When you select fastest from the video options menu, more items are changed than listed on just the video page. Simple Items are also set to on, this displays icons instead of 3D meshes for the powerups and weapons on the map.
