• The UIArena modification, that adds maps to menus even if they have no descriptive textfile associated with them
• A description file that the game uses, called arenas.txt, found inside the scripts directory inside baseq3, or inside a directory called scripts, inside the LAST PAKFILE TO BE LOADED (alphabetical order)
• A description file called mapname.arena (mapname = the name of the map), also found in the scripts directory of a baseq3 or pak0 file

Alternatively, a map can also be loaded by using the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console) using the map command. Enter /map MAPNAME in the console where MAPNAME should be replaced by the name of the .bsp file (often located inside the pk3).

A model also needs a texture to be drawn over it, otherwise a model has only one single color and no detail at all. This texture is called a 'skin'. The name is obvious as this skin can be compared to the skin around your body and the clothes you wear. Everything that is outside of your own body and which cannot be modeled can be made visual with a skin. Thus understand that a model and a skin are not the same. There can be differend skins for one model, but a skin will only fit one model. So skins and models are not completely interchangable.

Most skins and models come in .PK3 files. Often these .PK3 files are put in a zip file. To install the skin or model, simply unzip the .PK3 file into the baseq3\ folder located in your Quake 3 Arena installation folder (default is c:\program files\quake III arena). You will often find that you can download skins for existing models without the original model being included in the package. If the model that the skin was made for is not an original model that came with the game, then you will probably need to download the model the skin was made for as well. Models, on the other hand, always come with one or more skins since a model without a skin is useless (usually the only skin included are just a default skin and a red and blue variant for Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch games).

There are 2 ways to select the new model/skin. First way is through the player menu. If the modeller/skinner set up his .PK3 correctly, it should now appear somewhere in the playermodel selection menu (setup->player->model). Select the new model/skin of your choice and you're set. However, selecting your model through the playermodel menu only sets up the model you will use it in 'Free For All' or 'Tournament' games. If you connect to a 'Capture the Flag' or 'Team Deathmatch' server you will notice you are still the default Sarge model.

The model used in teamgames cannot be changed through the menu, so this has to be done through the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console). There are four different commands to change the currently selected model/skin:

• model: This command is used to change the body of your character (thus not the head) for FFA and Tourney games.
• headmodel: This command is used to change the head of your character for FFA and Tourney games.
• team_model: This command is used to change the body of your character for CTF, TDM and other team games.
• team_headmodel. This command is used to change the head of your character for CTF, TDM and other team games.

These commands are always followed by "MODEL/SKIN" where model is the name of the model, and SKIN is the name of the skin.

Example:
If I wanted to use the Razor model with the Patriot skin, I'd enter \model razor/patriot. If I don't like Patriot's head and think Visor looks better on Patriot's body, I'd enter \headmodel visor/default If I wanted to use the Hunter model for teamgames, I'd enter \team_model hunter/default

Note that if you wish to use the "default" skin, you can remove the /default part since Q3 will automatically search for the skin named "default" for the selected model.
Also note that if you connect to a pure server using a model that is not on the server itself, you will revert to using the default Sarge model (see topic What is a Pure Server? for more info).

Skins in detail, .md3 files:
Just like every other Quake addon out there, skins come either as a .pk3 file in which case the designer of the skin knows his stuff but cares about newbies, or a .md3 file in which case the designer of the skin knows his stuff but forgets that what is easy to one person is another person's nightmare.
An .md3 file is not enough on its own - you need model textures, similar to the way a skeleton supports human muscle but doesn't dictate what they look like.

Inside the original pak file from id software, there is a 'models' directory inside. Models are all the objects within the game (health, techs, ammo, guns, players etc.)

As a skin/model we will be interested in only the 'player' subdirectory of 'models'.
Inside 'player' there is a directory for each bot, except where two bots use the same skin and model, like Grunt and Stripe. Inside, e.g. Xaero's directory (called 'xaero') we find the following files

animation.cfg //very important, textfile to tell the game where xaero's bodyparts attach
blue.tga //blue xaero graphics
blue_h.tga
head.md3 //model of xaero skull
head_1.md3
head_2.md3
head_blue.skin //skin definition file for blue xaero
head_default.skin //as above but normal xaero
head_red.skin //as above but red xaero
icon_blue.tga //blue pic of him on bot selection screen
icon_default.tga //...
icon_red.tga //...
lower.md3 //model of his legs
lower_1.md3 
lower_2.md3
lower_blue.skin //skin def file for his legs
lower_default.skin
lower_red.skin
red.tga //pictures of xaero's skin/clothes
red_h.tga
upper.md3 //xaero's torso model, his ribs etc.
upper_1.md3
upper_2.md3
upper_blue.skin //similar to other skins
upper_default.skin 
upper_red.skin
xaero.tga //bits of the guy
xaero_a.tga //pics of his armor
xaero_h.tga //pic of his face
xaero_q.tga //dunno. tiny image

If you do want to create your own shortcuts on your desktop or start menu which automatically start up Q3 with a mod loaded, add +set fs_game MODDIR to the startup command. Replace MODDIR with the foldername the mod's files are in.

Example:
If I want a shortcut to OSP, and I have Q3 installed to c:\program files\quake III arena the shortcut startup command would look like this:

What is it? What can it do?

The console is a command line type interface thing, a bit like DOS, it's not DOS, it's a custom command interface written by id software. The console can be used to change variables of the game or to enter commands. Every single thing that has a value one way or another can be changed through the console. The console contents can be scrolled up and down with the PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN keys. Commands you typed previously can be accessed with CURSOR_UP and CURSOR_DOWN keys. CURSOR_LEFT and CURSOR_RIGHT let you go back along the string you typed and edit wrong bits. The console supports TAB COMPLETION, if you type parts of a command then press the TAB key and the game will fill in the rest of the command. Note: If there is more than 1 possible match, all of the possibilities are displayed.

The difference between commands and variables

The difference between a command and a variable may not be clear at first, but it's quite easy to explain. A variable holds a value, whereas a command executes a certain function. For example, quit is a command. Entering \quit in the console will close Q3 and bring you back to your desktop. An example of a variable is cg_drawgun. Possible values are 0 (your gun will not be drawn) or 1 (your gun will be drawn). There are also a number of commands, often related to player movement, that are "key sensitive", meaning they act only while the key the command is assigned to is held down. The +forward command is an example of this. This command is used to let the player walk forward. While the forward key is held down, the player must walk. When the key is released, the player must stop walking. To check out how this works, just enter +forward in the console and you'll notice your character starts walking forward. He/She won't stop walking until you enter -forward in the console.

How to enter commands and change variables?

Whatever you wish to do with the console, always put a backslash or slash (\ or /) in front of what you type. Otherwise Quake3 will handle your entered text as a chat message.
To execute a command, simply enter the command and press enter. To change the value of a variable, enter the variable name followed by a space and the new value. When you hit enter the new value will be assigned to the variable. If you want to see what the current and default values of a certain variable are, enter the variable name without any value behind it and hit enter. The console will now show the current and default values.
Certain variables however will not show any immediate change. Mostly variables beginning with r_ (which are related to video settings) need a restart of the render system to be applied. To reset the render system enter vid_restart. If a variable value that needs a restart of something, you will see the pending value as "latched" when you only enter the variables name.

A script often consists of one or more aliases. An alias is a short one-line script put. This alias is treated like any other command in Q3, though there is only one difference. If you bind a key to your alias like normal commands, Q3 will echo (display) the content of the alias (the list of commands inside). To circumvent this problem, you need to put vstr in front of the alias name.

Example:
I have an alias named myalias and want to bind it to my 'Q' key. This is what I need to enter in the console to do this:
\bind q "vstr myalias"

You can create new aliases using the "set" command.

Example:
I want to create a script that says "I'm bored with life" and then it should kill myself. Here's how I would create the alias:
\set myalias "say I'm bored with life; kill"

The 'say' command will chat the "I'm bored with life" text to the other players, and the 'kill' command will let the player suicide.
Important note: Q3 will NOT save aliases after you quit the game. So it is advised to put the aliases in a cfg file (preferably autoexec.cfg). (see topic What are config files? for more info).

You must have a program that is able to view/open/edit *.tga files such as Acdsee, Adobe Photoshop , or Paint Shop Pro. Then you can change the file format to *.jpg to upload or save the screenshot.

The commands:
'I am the leader'. This will let bots know that you are the leader. No other bot will assume command.
The bot should follow/accompany/cover/go with the designated team member for the specified time. If no time is specified, the bot will carry out command indefinitely. (However, bots, like humans, get sick of doing the same thing over and over again. They might get fed up with you and go do their own thing.)

follow for xx 
follow forever 
accompany 
accompany for xx 
accompany forever 
cover 
cover for xx 
cover forever 
go with 
go with for xx 
go with forever 
go to Bot should go either go to the specified location or pick up the specified object. 
get 
patrol from to Bot will run back and forth between specified locations and/or 
objects for the specified time. 
patrol from to for xx 
patrol from to forever 
camp near Bot will camp (and defend) near the specified location or object for specified time. 
camp near for xx 
camp near forever 
camp here The bot will guard YOUR present location for a specified period of time.
 Bots told to Camp will NOT move around to collect items close to their targets. 
camp here for xx 
camp here forever 
camp there The bot will guard its own location for a specified periond of time. 
 Bots told to Camp will NOT move around to collect items close to their targets. 
camp Bot will camp at specified object or location for specified time. 
 Bots told to Camp will NOT move around to collect items close to their targets. 
camp for xx 
camp forever 
defend 
defend for 
defend forever 
guard 
guard for xx 
guard forever 
help Bot should find and assist other team member. 
meet 
lead the way (then give action – bot will wait for you to follow) 
Bot will go on ahead, then perform specified action. 
kill Bot will hunt down and kill specified player. 
hunt down 
dismissed Bot will stop performing the last task you commanded it to do and commence roaming. 
dismiss 
stop action 
I quit being the leader Allows a bot to become the team leader and give commands. 
I quit being team leader 
I stop being the leader 
I stop being team leader 

What is and how do I strafe jump?

A process that enables you to move at a faster-than-running pace. When you strafe jump you perform a continuous jumping cycle while running forward and strafing in alternate directions (or the same direction if you want to curve your jump)

How to do it:
Firstly, let's get you into the habit of jumping continuously, because strafe jumping is a bit hard to attempt all at once. Perform the following on a level with nice long open spaces or corridors like Deva Station.

Stage 1
Run forward. At no time in this example do you let go of the run forward key. While running, jump. When you are in the air, release the jump button and press-and-hold it again. When you land, you will jump back into the air instantly. Repeat the above until you are comfortable with doing it everywhere.

Stage 2
Perform the exact cycle as above EXCEPT: When you jump in the air the first time, press and hold strafe left IN ADDITION to what you do already (holding forward and jump-cycling).
After you land and skip back into the air, switch from holding strafe LEFT, to holding strafe RIGHT.
After you land and skip back into the air, switch from holding strafe RIGHT, to holding strafe LEFT.
Do that for as long as you want/can travel.

Note:
Playing jackrabbit can leave you a target for rail whores because your ability to change direction is limited. Also: You can do this backwards, simply by using the BACK key instead of the forward key

What are Rocket Jumps and Plasma Climbs?

Both with Rocketjumps and Plasmaclimbs you make use of the knockback of the splashdamage from the weapons. This may sound confusing, but in reality it isn't too hard to understand. Performing them is another story...

Plasma Climbs
Often referred to as Plasmacrawling. Plasmaclimbing is something new to Quake3. It is the art of using the plasmagun's knockback to lift yourself up along a wall. Stand against a wall and look down at a slight angle with your feet. Jump as you start firing your Plasmagun and hold the 'forward' key. Release the jump key as you take off. If you don't go into the air, adjust your aiming angle and make sure you aren't 'sliding' along the wall while holding the forward key.

Plasma climbs can be increddibly hard to master, and often aren't useful in real games.

Maximizing jump distances

Add/Change these settings in your q3config.cfg:
/com_maxfps "125"
/r_displayrefresh "125" (note: make sure a display refresh rate of 125 isn't harmful to your monitor)

You can calculate the perfect com_maxfps value:
1000 / x = com_maxfps value

x is a number, so 8 would result in a value of 125 as used in the example, 7 would result in 142, etc.
With these numbers you´ll reach the highest point while jumping (ie, the maximum distance possible). This is because of how the Quake3 Engine works.

Callvoting

First check to see if the callvote command is enabled on the server:

• bring down the console with (usually or else the key you bound to console) ~
• type callvote
  if callvoting is enabled you will see a list of possible commands, if callvoting is disabled you will see an error message

map_restart: restarts the current map, or if there is a nextmap voted, it will jump to that map. This command comes in handy when things got screwed up somewhere and you want to completely restart the current game. This command wont require you to reload the map.

nextmap: this command is like the map command, but instead it callvotes a map, and where the map command switches to the next map at once, this command puts the map in hold. When the current round ends (fraglimit/timelimit) the map voted with this command will load.

map mapname: this loads a map of your choice and switches to it at once without having to wait for the current round to end.

g_gametype n: this command is pretty useful and I use it a lot. If lets say, the server is running on 1on1 (tourney) mode and you want it to run in ffa mode, you would /callvote g_gametype 2. 2 is the gametype for ffa.
List of gametypes:

1 Tourney (1on1)
2 Free For All
3 Team Deathmatch
4 CTF
5 Oneflag (Team Arena only)
6 Overload (Team Arena only)
7 Harvester (Team Arena only)

The callvote g_gametype is usually followed by a callvote map as the gametype will not change until the next mapchange.

kick name: Here we get to one of the most used callvote commands. As you probably already have guessed this command can be used to kick players and you probably already know that overusing this command can cause you to get banned from certain servers. My advice: just don't use it. Replace name with the name of the person you want to kick. If name contains spaces use it like "name of the one you want to kick" (including the quotes).

clientkick n: More often I find people acting dumb on servers and spoiling the games for the rest, but they have such strange names that it's almost impossible to kick them by their name. Instead, use "clientkick". Replace "n" with the clientnumber of the player you want to kick. You can retrieve the playernumber by opening the console (with the ~ key) and entering \serverstatus. You'll get a list with server settings and the players playing on the server. The first number in front of each player's name is the client number. Use that number when kicking someone through clientkick.

Graphic problems?

If you´re experiencing problems with your graphics, please make sure you have the latest patches. The latest drivers are also key in this area. Get these at your manufacturers site. Often there´s a web addy on your videocard box, but if you can´t find it, do a search on your manufacturer in www.altavista.com, www.google.com or www.webcrawler.com (see topic "Drivers: Latest links to-" for more info).

Modem and TCP/IP Enhancements

Microsoft TCPIP stacks have a problem that causes your ping to start climbing to ridiculous levels after being online for a couple of minutes. If this happens to you in game, then you need to download the update from Microsoft to fix this. The name of the patch is: 236926up.exe which can be downloaded here. This only applies to Win95/Win98 systems.

Packet Loss: What is it?

Heres quick run down on the way the internet works:
The internet is a physical link between all computers on it. Some computers are on modems, some on cable, some on LAN, some on fiber connect. They all have different interface hardware, different device drivers, and above this physical/hardware (e.g. Ethernet) networking layer (more later) lies the transport layer, responsible for transferring data. Transport layer comes in 2 flavours:

TCP - Transport Control protocol
IP - Internet Protocol (UDP)

TCP creates a 'tunnel' from source to destination, guarantees that information arrives intact and in the right order without errors. It is used for transferring files - they must be intact and correct.

IP operates differently; It carries data from A to B, makes no guarantees of the route it will take, or that data will ever get there intact and in the right order, if at all. Quake 3 operates on this system, using UDP, User Datagram Protocol, which effectively amounts to the same thing, regarding lack of guaranteed delivery etc.

Why does Quake use this system, you may ask. Well, UDP is simpler than TCP and requires less resources, it is easier to broadcast to a lot of people (RealPlayer uses the same system) and, in Quake, if the packets arrive out of order, or never, then it's no good... especially if a "you died" packet arrives 5 minutes later than it should and kills you for no reason.

Packet loss is exactly that. When these UDP packets are lost in the system, remembering that there are no guarantees of delivery, so ISPs feel justified implementing systems that simply throw away UDP packets when the system is crawling with more of them than can be handled. They are also lost legitimately. If their "Time To Live" expires while en route to you then they are squished by whatever computer they are passing through at the time.

If you are suffering severe packet loss consistently, tell your ISP: They may have a filter on it to throw away extra ones when the system gets saturated.

Note on layers: These days, many computer hardware manufacturers exist, for all kinds of things, and many software producers exist. It is hard to provide software that works directly with every hardware in the world. There is too much, so things are layered these days. A typical layer might be:
Program - MS Word 2000
Operating system - Windows
Device Drivers - etc
Hardware - the PC

To write Word2000 to know how to draw graphics using every card out there, and read every kind of input from every keyboard, etc. is plain silly. So Word2000 ONLY knows how to interact with the OS, the OS knows how to interact both with Word2000 and the device drivers, and the device drivers do all the Op Sys to Hardware tomfoolery to make your data store/transmit/get drawn on screen/etc.

That's how the layering works. Splitting the job up into small bits, putting your bit inside a box and telling other people what the buttons on the outside of the box do. The OS doesn't care what the device driver does to get a file off disk, it only cares that the file is there when it asks for it. Similarly, the device driver doesn't care about the reading of the file from data sectors on the hard disk. That's the job of the Hard Disk Controller. Errors are corrected before the data reaches the device driver. Your hard disk probably makes 2 or 3 errors a day that you never findout about because they are corrected on the fly.

The internet has a similar layer:
Physically, a wire connects 2 computers. Data is put down that wire by MODEMS, which communicate at a basic level using a simple protocol/modulation scheme, or in the case of Ethernet, each card has an address, and data is sent to all cards, only the one with the address matching the data packet picks the packet up. Above this layer comes reliable transport mechanisms. TCP/IP, the language of the internet, IPX, NetBIOS, NetBEUI etc. They carry data from A to B, whether it's a modem or ethernet card. Above this is the session/application layer, not MS Word and Internet Explorer kind of applications, but information movement applications, HTTP (web), FTP (file), SMTP (mail) and a whole host of other things. Above this, the data goes via one of these sessions to a program that can understand it, it is presented and used, and that's where your Internet Explorer and your Netscape and CuteFTP come in..., and Quake3 of course.

What are config files?

Config files (marked *.cfg) are textfiles that contain settings, scripts and binds for Q3 (see topics on the console, scripts and binding keys for more info).

The one config file everyone has is q3config.cfg, located in the baseq3 folder inside your Quake3 folder, and in every mod folder. The q3config.cfg files contain all the settings and variables for Q3 and/or a particular mod. It is not recommended to edit these files manually, but you can safely look at them using a textfile viewer which supports Unicode Text Files (if you open up the q3config.cfg file in Notepad you'll notice all carriage returns have disappeared. I recommend to use WordPad instead).

set name "Player"
set r_mode 4
bind mouse1 "+attack"

Take a look at The Bind for some example config files.

Creating Q3F configs

Okay, some people are having problems with Q3F and trying to make it save your controls, well there is a workaround, it goes as follows:

Start Q3F, not bothered how, just do it.
Setup your controls.
Exit the game.
Go to your ..\Quake III Arena\q3f\ directory (folder), open the q3config.cfg using notepad.
Copy all the text in there, don't save when you close it.
Open Wordpad or MS Word.
Paste.
Now, Scroll down until the "bind...." stuff stops.
Delete all the lines under that, so the only lines are the "Bind..."'s.
Copy all that's left.
Start Notepad.
Paste.
Goto "Save as".
Save as autoexec.cfg in your ..\Quake III Arena\q3f and make sure the file type is "*.* all files".
Copy the shortcut you normally use to run Quake, so you have a "Copy of Quake III Arena" shortcut.
Right-Click it, select properties.
Click the 2nd tab.
Change the command line from: "...\Quake III Arena\quake3.exe" to "...\Quake III Arena\quake3.exe" +set fs_game q3f.
Okay that, and rename the shortcut to Quake III Fortress.
Use this shortcut to run Q3F. If you use PingTool or GameSpy, don't launch a game by double clicking, you have to right click the server, and copy the IP to your Clipboard. Launch Quake Fortress with the icon. Pull down the console using the ¬ key (next to your 1/! key) and type:
connect
followed by one blank and CTRL+V (which is a paste shortcut)
Then hit enter and it should connect.

How can I skip the logo introduction screen?

1. Right click on your Quake3 icon and select properties.
2. Add this to the target, "+nosplash" (without the quotes)
   For example it would look like this in the target box:
   "C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\quake3.exe" +nosplash
   (space between " and +) Click here to see how it should look like.
3. Click Ok and start up quake.
4. Enjoy!

How can I enable Third Person View?

First you must load a map using the "devmap" command to enable cheats(see topic Maps: Installing and Using for more info). Then there are three commands you can use to change your thirdperson view:

How can I do those cool backflips?

Those backflips are animations of the player model (see topic Skins: Installing and Using for more info). There is no special key you have to press or some strange manouver you have to perform to make a backflip. Simply jumping backwards (jump while holding the 'move backwards' key) causes some models to show the animation of a backflip. The view or aim of the player will not be influenced by this.

Network Protocols

A protocol is the "language" in which the server communicates with the client. If the server uses a different protocol than your computer (the client) you won't be able to connect to that server, since the server and client don't understand each other. You will be dumped back to the menu with a message "server uses protocol xx" where xx is the protocol number.
Quake 3 uses different network protocols depending on the Point Release used.

Point Release -> Protocol:
1.16 -> 43
1.17 -> 45
1.2x -> 48
1.30 -> 66
1.31 -> 67
(see topic Important Q3 files for links to the latest Point Release)

How can I start a server to play with my friends?

First thing you need is enough bandwidth to host a server. Naturally, a 56k modem won't get you anywhere. If you have a (simple) DSL or Cable connection you should be able to host a game for 3 or 4 people. The most simple and effective way to find out how many players your server will support, is by starting the server and get as many of your friends to connect, and see when the clients start getting hickups or even 999 ping.

Note: If you want more detailed or advanced information about how to set up your server, make sure to stop by the Server Administration Forum. Also, if people have problems connecting to your server, you may have to configure a firewall to let Quake3 network traffic through. Again, the Server Administration or Technology & Troubleshooting Forum are the places to ask for more information on this.

How to find my own IP-address?

The site http://www.whatismyipaddress.com will give you your IP-address. This is the address to which other people must connect if you are running a Quake3 server.

What does "User Interface is version 4, expected 3" mean?

This means your quake.exe isn't compatible with the currently installed Point Release. The only solution is to remove all pak*.pk3 files, except for pak0.pk3, and then reinstall the latest Point Release.

Drivers: Latest links to

Graphics Cards
3dfx - Reference drivers
Matrox - Reference drivers
NVidia - Reference drivers
ReactorCritical - Reference drivers for all cards

Sound cards
SoundBlaster

Quake III related links

models:
polycount models

quake3 sites:
Planetquake
Quakeshit
Q3center
Daily Rush--Danish quake3 site
Commander Keen´s Console Commands
Upset Chaps Guides
Haqsau's Lab - additional Q3 help & troubleshooting
Q3 Level Editing Links
Bots, Models & Skinning Links

Quake 3 sites made by Q3World members:
Brisk's Quake 3 Tweak Arena
RichmanRush's Help Arena

Important Quake 3 files