Welcome to the Quake Technical Information file! TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- Introduction to the Console.............. Video Subsystem Documentation............ Sound Subsystem Documentation............ CD Audio Subsystem Documentation......... Network Subsystem Documentation.......... Modem Strings............................ Win95 Documentation...................... Key Binding and Aliases.................. Quake Keys and Common Commands........... Making a Config File..................... Demos.................................... Reporting Quake Bugs..................... ========================================== == Introduction to the Console == ========================================== Throughout this document, examples of commands are given, all of which are typed in at the console. To bring up the console, press the tilde ('~') key or press ESC to bring up the menu, select Options, and select Console... from the options menu. To exit the console, press ESC. The console provides a way to change console variables and also accepts commands that change game settings such as movement keys, video mode, as well as providing an interface for key binding and command aliasing (more on that later). The console also has a command history with which you can browse through previous commands. Use the up and down arrows to navigate through the command history and press <enter> to re-issue a command. Partially typing a command and then pressing the TAB key will complete the currently typed text with the first matching console variable or command. (Yes, this is a good way to look for console commands.) To review previous actions by page, use the PGUP and PGDN keys. ========================================== == Video Subsystem Documentation == ========================================== The Video Modes menu -------------------- Video modes can most easily be selected from the the Video Modes menu, which is brought up by selecting the Video Options choice in the Options menu. All the resolutions that Quake can support on the current computer are displayed. Please note that higher-resolution modes require correspondingly more system memory in order for Quake to run, and that some high-resolution modes may not be available when running Quake on 8 Mb machines. Such modes are not listed in the Video Modes menu. Please do not report video modes that do not appear in the Video Modes menu as bugs; either those modes are not supported by your video adapter, or there is not enough system memory for Quake to support those modes. The video modes listed in the Video Modes menu can be tested, set, and made the default mode for Quake from the Video menu, as follows: * The arrow keys can be used to move the blinking indicator to any of the modes listed in the Video menu. * Pressing the 'T' key tests the mode the blinking indicator points to, by setting the mode, leaving it set for 5 seconds, and returning to the previous mode. This lets you verify that your computer does in fact support that mode. We highly recommend that you always test modes with 'T' before setting them permanently by pressing the Enter key, in case some sort of hardware or software glitch causes a mode to function incorrectly and produce a garbled screen. It is unlikely but possible that testing or setting a mode will cause your computer to hang or crash; if this happens, there is a serious hardware or software bug, and you should not attempt to select that mode again. * Pressing the Enter key sets the mode the blinking indicator points to, leaving it set so Quake will then run in that mode. We suggest that you test a mode by pressing the 'T' key before setting it by pressing the Enter key. Note that a selection made with the Enter key remains in effect only until Quake is exited (or a new mode is set). You must explictly make a mode the default mode by pressing the 'D' key in order to automatically set that mode when you start Quake up in the future. * Pressing the 'D' key makes the current mode the default mode that Quake starts up with. Note that the current mode is the mode that's displayed in white in the mode list, not necessarily the mode that the blinking indicator points to. The current default mode is listed in the description of the 'D' key at the bottom of the Video Modes menu. * Pressing Esc exits the Video Modes menu. Please see "Bug Reporting," below, for information on how to report any problems you encounter. Video modes from the console: Quick start ------------------------------------------ More comprehensive but more complex video control is available through the Quake console. This section describes the commands necessary to perform basic mode setting through the console (this is similar to what can be accomplished through the Video Modes menu), and following sections describe console video control in detail. To see all the video modes that are available, bring up the console (either press tilde ('~'), or press Esc to bring up the menu, select Options, and select Console... from the Options menu). From the console, type vid_describemodes<enter> to see all available modes. Type vid_mode <mode #> to set a mode, where <mode #> is the mode number listed for the desired mode by vid_describemodes. Higher-resolution modes generally require more extra system memory in order to run, and many are not available in 8 Mb systems; modes that are supported by the video adapter but are currently unavailable due to system memory limitations will still show up in the mode list from vid_describemodes, but will have "**" in place of a mode number. (Such modes will not show up at all in the Video Modes menu.) If you try to set a mode for which there is insufficient system memory, you will receive a message to that effect, and the video mode will remain unchanged. More detail ----------- This version of Quake supports software drawing in a variety of video modes. It does not support any 3-D hardware accelerators. Video modes that are built into Quake are: 320x200, 360x200, 320x240, 360x240, 320x350, 360x350, 320x400, 360x400, 320x480, 360x480 However, the higher-resolution modes on this list require additional memory, and may not be available in 8 Mb systems. In addition, all VESA 2.0 256-color linear framebuffer modes supported by the video adapter are supported. Further information about VESA 2.0 is provided below. Video mode reporting and selection ---------------------------------- Quake assigns each available video mode a mode number, which can then be used to query information about the mode or to select the mode. The first 11 mode numbers are always as follows: 0: 320x200 1: 320x200 2: 360x200 3: 320x240 4: 360x240 5: 320x350 6: 360x350 7: 320x400 8: 360x400 9: 320x480 10: 360x480 You will notice that modes 0 and 1 are both 320x200; mode 1 is a Mode X-style version, which may someday allow support of page flipping for cleaner graphics, but right now it's just slower with no advantages, so use mode 0 for 320x200 resolution. Modes 2-10 are all higher resolution than mode 0, and look very nice, but are also all slower than mode 0. Mode 0 is the fastest of the 11 built-in modes. In addition to the built-in modes, Quake checks for the presence of a VESA version 2.0 driver. If such a driver is detected, the driver is queried for all 8-bit-per-pixel linear framebuffer (LFB) modes that are supported; also, if no LFB 320x200 mode is available, a banked 320x200 VESA mode is queried for. All such modes are added to the mode list starting at mode 11. The available modes will vary depending on adapter, graphics chipset, amount of video memory, and VESA 2.0 driver. The higher the resolution, the lower the performance, and the higher-resolution modes will often be too slow for good gameplay on most machines. (Also, higher-resolution modes often need more memory than is available in an 8 Mb system.) The screen can be sized down to improve performance in higher-resolution modes, but then of course the effective resolution of Quake is reduced. At the same resolution, VESA LFB modes are often faster than the non-VESA modes 0-10, because adapters often have faster memory access in LFB modes. If a given VESA mode can support page flipping, then it defaults to page- flipped operation. A VESA mode can be forced to non-page-flipped operation by setting the vid_nopageflip console variable to 1, then setting the mode (note that vid_nopageflip takes operation on the next, not the current, mode set, and note that it then stays in effect permanently, even when Quake is exited and restarted, unless it is manually set back to 0). If there is not enough memory for two pages in a VESA mode, or if the adapter doesn't support page flipping, then the mode will automatically be non-page-flipped. Page flipping can have higher visual quality, but may be either faster or slower, depending on the graphics adapter and other hardware. (See the discussion of the Pentium Pro, below, for a discussion of why page flipping can be faster but is sometimes much slower on that processor.) Page-flipped modes use less system memory than non- page-flipped modes. Quake's VESA support, including VESA driver detection, can be disabled by using the -stdvid command-line switch, and can also be disabled, along with sound, network, and other hardware support, by the -safe command-line switch. The maximum resolution supported by Quake is 1280x1024. Modes with higher resolutions will not be reported by vid_describemodes, and cannot be set. There is no support for any 3-D accelerator boards in this version of Quake. Coming soon. Quake always starts up in mode 0, and m...
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