Review: relnev's Linux Port of Quake 2
Game originally by id Software
January 10, 2002 -- Review by A.T. Hun
Updated: February 4, 2002
Not long after id released the source to Quake 2 under the GPL (see our news item about it), relnev got his hands on the code and proceeded to get it to work in Linux. The very next day, he released his updates with a fixed Makefile and two new renderers, a SDL OpenGL renderer and a software SDL renderer. After a few days, I downloaded and tried release 0.0.6.
If you had tried to get Quake 2 to work in Linux before, you know that you had to follow the Quake 2 HOWTO which is a bit of a nightmare. Even then, you couldn't get it to run fullscreen without a hack (warning: clicking on this link may cause insanity). I know the whole experience made me weep.
Thankfully, relnev's "port" is much easier to setup and install. To get it running, you will need the following files:
- The most recent version of relnev's port of Quake 2 (currently 0.0.8)
- The Quake 2 3.20 patch (available from id's FTP site)
- If you want to get the SDL renderers working, you will need to have SDL 1.2 installed. This comes with most Linux distributions.
- A copy of Quake 2. You'd be surprised how many people don't understand this.
Compiling the source is quite easy. Just untar the code into your favorite location (I used /usr/src). If you want to compile a binary for playing Capture The Flag, use your favorite text editor to change the line at the beginning of the Makefile that says BUILDCTF_DLL=NO to BUILDCTF_DLL=YES. After that, just type make build_release. The only problem that I encountered with the compilation was that I didn't have the Mesa development files installed. I found it quickly on my Red Hat CDs and installed it. There is just something intrinsically cool about saying, "Hey! I'm compiling Quake 2!"
Follow the instructions in the README.r file to copy the binaries, pak files from the CD, and 3.20 patch files to the proper locations. It's quite easy, really. Once that is done, fire up ./quake2 from the directory you installed it into (I used /usr/local/games/quake2) or use the quake2 +set basedir command to point Quake 2 to its installation directory.
Your config.cfg will be saved in ~/.quake2/baseq2. I also placed Tweak3D's image quality autoexec.cfg in that directory for maximum visual goodness. I also placed the infamous Crusher demo (remember that?) in quake2/baseq2/demos for some benchmarking fun. In case you've forgotten, the proper way to run a benchmark in Quake 2 is to pull down the console and issue the following commands:
disconnect
timedemo 1
map crusher.dm2
After the timedemo has run, the game will display your frames-per-second. Crusher is a real torture-test. It is an absolute worst case scenario. Here's the my system specs: Celeron 400a, 256M SDRAM, Creative TNT2 Ultra (using NVIDIA's 1.0-2313 drivers), SoundBlaster Live!, and a fully patched version of Red Hat Linux 7.2. Here are my scores. Mind you, my system is old and this is using Crusher with the best graphics and sound settings available. All tests were run full-screen (which now works perfectly) using the OpenGL GLX renderer.
| Resolution | FPS |
|---|---|
| 1024x768 | 23.9 |
| 800x600 | 24.5 |
| 640x480 | 24.3 |
Yes, I need a system upgrade--no need to remind me. I usually play at 1024x768 with nary a blip or slowdown at all in single player. I haven't had the opportunity to test everything in multiplayer yet, but I have no reason to believe that it won't work well.
Despite the relative ease of installation and ease of use, there is one rather major bug in version 0.0.8 that diminishes the fun of this quite a bit. Saved games don't work. Oh sure, you can save your game, you just can't load it later. I subscribed to relnev's mailing list so I know they are working on fixing this. Once it is fixed, everything will be great. UPDATE! For some reason, saved games are working fine now. They didn't work the first several times I played. I have no idea what changed, I'm just happy it did.
In the future, I would like to see someone use Loki's open-source installer so that all you would need is the installer and a Quake 2 CD. I can't imagine that that would be very hard to do. I suppose it would not be practical to do that until they get the project to the point that they have added everything they want to add to the port. The possibilities are endless.
Even with the saved-game bug, I still have to give this port a 9 out of a possible 10. Quake 2 is now so much easier to install. Fullscreen mode works without hacks. In general, it looks great. If you haven't played Quake 2 in a while, break out your CD or go buy it (I've seen it for as little as $10). Keep your eyes on relnev's site for any future updates. If the past few weeks are any indication, the releases will keep coming fast and furious. Congratulations to relnev and his team of hackers for a job very well (and very quickly) done!
