GitHub - kondrak/vkQuake2: id Software's Quake 2 v3.21 with mission packs and Vulkan support (Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Raspberry Pi 4)
Build status
Overview
This is the official Quake 2 code v3.21 with Vulkan support and mission packs included. The goal of this project is to maintain as much compatibility as possible with the original game - just pure, vanilla Quake 2 experience as we knew it back in 1997. There are, however, a few notable differences that made the cut for various reasons:
world colors have been slightly upgraded - the game's original, darker look can be toggled with the vk_postprocess console command
64-bit support, additional screen resolutions and DPI awareness have been added
underwater vision warp effect similar to software renderer has been implemented and enabled by default
antialiasing and sample shading is now natively supported
anisotropic filtering toggle has been added
players can now change texture filtering modes from within the video menu
mouse acceleration has been disabled
console contents can be scrolled with a mouse wheel
HUD elements, menus and console text are now scaled accordingly on higher screen resolutions (can be overridden with the hudscale console command)
viewmodel weapons are no longer hidden when FOV > 90
Vulkan renderer fixes broken warp texture effect (water, lava, slime) seen in OpenGL
software renderer has been completely replaced with
- this adds colored lighting and fixes severe instabilities of the original implementation
triangle fans have been replaced with indexed triangle lists due to Metal/MoltenVK limitations
on Linux, sound is now handled by ALSA instead of OSS
support for OGG/FLAC/MP3/WAV music has been added in addition to standard CD audio
music volume slider has been added (OGG/FLAC/MP3/WAV only, CD music still plays at full volume as originally intended)
game menus have been slightly improved
added Nightmare/Hard+ skill to the game menu
added the aimfix console command, backported from Berserker@Quake2
A more detailed description of the thought process behind this project can be found in my
, where I explain the overall design, how I attacked some of the problems and also how things developed after the initial release.
Building
For extra challenge I decided to base vkQuake2 on the original id Software code. Because of this, there are no dependencies on external SDL-like libraries and the entire project is mostly self-contained. This also implies that some of the original bugs could be present.
download and install the latest
install
with the latest Windows SDK and C++ MFC for build tool and C++ MFC for x64/x86 in case you're using Visual Studio Community 2026
open quake2.sln and choose the target architecture (x86/x64) - it should build without any additional steps
Linux
Unfortunately, Linux code for Quake 2 has not aged well and for that reason only the Vulkan renderer is available for use at this time. Build steps assume that Ubuntu is the target distribution:
install required dependencies:
sudo apt install make gcc g++ mesa-common-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libxxf86dga-dev libxxf86vm-dev libasound2-dev libx11-dev libxcb1-dev libxext-dev Install the latest
- the easiest way is to use
- just follow the instructions and there will be no additional steps required. If you decide for a manual installation, make sure that proper environment variables are set afterwards by adding the following section to your .bashrc file (replace SDK version and location with the ones corresponding to your system):
export VULKAN_SDK=/home/user/VulkanSDK/1.4.350.0/x86_64 export PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/bin:$PATH export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH export VK_LAYER_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/etc/explicit_layer.d make sure your graphics drivers support Vulkan (run vulkaninfo to verify) - if not, you can get them with:
sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers enter the linux directory and type make release or make debug depending on which variant you want to build - output binaries will be placed in linux/releasex64 and linux/debugx64 subdirectories respectively
MacOS
download and extract the latest
install XCode 10.1 (or later) and add the VULKAN_SDK environment variable to Locations/Custom Paths - make it point to the downloaded SDK
open macos/vkQuake2.xcworkspace - it should build without any additional steps
alternatively, you can compile the game from the command line - modify your .bash_profile and add the following entries (replace SDK version and location with the ones corresponding to your system):
export VULKAN_SDK=/home/user/VulkanSDK/1.4.350.1 export VK_ICD_FILENAMES=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json export VK_LAYER_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d enter the macos directory and run make release-xcode or make debug-xcode depending on which variant you want to build - output binaries will be placed in macos/vkQuake2 subdirectory
it is also possible to build the game with Command Line Developer Tools if you have them installed: enter the macos directory and run make release or make debug - output binaries will be placed in macos/release and macos/debug subdirectories respectively
This project uses the Vulkan loader bundled with the SDK, rather than directly linking against MoltenVK.framework. This is done so that validation layers are available for debugging. Builds have been tested using MacOS 10.14.2.
FreeBSD
install required Vulkan packages:
pkg install vulkan-tools vulkan-validation-layers make sure your graphics drivers support Vulkan (run vulkaninfo to verify) - if not, you should either update them or find a package that is best suited for your hardware configuration
enter the linux directory and type make release or make debug depending on which variant you want to build - output binaries will be placed in linux/releasex64 and linux/debugx64 subdirectories respectively
Raspberry Pi 4
Thanks to the effort of
and their
, it is possible to compile and run vkQuake2 on Raspberry Pi 4. Same build instructions as for Linux apply.
Running
Windows
The Visual Studio C++ Redistributable is required to run the application:
or
depending on the chosen architecture. These are provided automatically if you have Visual Studio installed.
All platforms
The
comes only with the Quake 2 Demo content to showcase Vulkan functionality. For full experience, copy retail .pak, model and video files into the baseq2 directory and run the executable. For mission packs, copy necessary data to rogue ("Ground Zero"), xatrix ("The Reckoning"), zaero ("Quake II: Zaero") and smd ("Slight Mechanical Destruction") directories respectively. You can then start the game with either ./quake2 +set game rogue, ./quake2 +set game xatrix, ./quake2 +set game zaero or ./quake2 +set game smd.
Music
This project uses
for music playback if the original game CD is not available. For standard Quake 2, copy all tracks into the baseq2/music directory following the trackXX.[ogg,flac,mp3,wav] naming scheme (so track02.ogg, track03.ogg... for OGG files etc.). For "Ground Zero" and "The Reckoning", copy the tracks to rogue/music and xatrix/music directories respectively. For additional control over the playback, use the miniaudio [on,off,play [X],loop [X],stop,pause,resume,info] console command.
Console commands
The following commands are available when using the Vulkan renderer:
CommandActionvk_validationToggle validation layers:
0 - disabled (default in Release)
1 - only errors and warnings
2 - full validation (default in Debug)
3 - enables VK_VALIDATION_FEATURE_ENABLE_BEST_PRACTICES_EXTvk_stringsPrint some basic Vulkan/GPU information.vk_memPrint dynamic vertex/index/uniform/triangle fan buffer memory and descriptor set usage statistics.vk_deviceSpecify index of the preferred Vulkan device on systems with multiple GPUs:
-1 - prefer first DISCRETE_GPU (default)
0..n - use device #n (full list of devices is returned by vk_strings command)vk_msaaToggle MSAA (
):
0 - off (default)
1 - MSAAx2
2 - MSAAx4
3 - MSAAx8
4 - MSAAx16vk_sampleshadingToggle sample shading (
) for MSAA. (default: 0)vk_modeVulkan video mode (default: 11). Setting this to -1 uses a custom screen resolution defined by r_customwidth (default: 1024) and r_customheight (default: 768) console variables.vk_flashblendToggle the blending of lights onto the environment. (default: 0)vk_polyblendBlend fullscreen effects: blood, powerups etc. (default: 1)vk_skymipToggle the usage of mipmap information for the sky graphics. (default: 0)vk_finishInserts a vkDeviceWaitIdle() call on frame render start (default: 0).
Don't use this, it's there just for the sake of having a gl_finish equivalent!vk_point_particlesToggle between using POINT_LIST and textured triangles for particle rendering. (default: 1)vk_particle_sizeRendered particle size. (default: 40)vk_particle_att_aIntensity of the particle A attribute. (default: 0.01)vk_particle_att_bIntensity of the particle B attribute. (default: 0)vk_particle_att_cIntensity of the particle C attribute. (default: 0.01)vk_particle_min_sizeThe minimum size of a rendered particle. (default: 2)vk_particle_max_sizeThe maximum size of a rendered particle. (default: 40)vk_lockpvsLock current PVS table. (default: 0)vk_clearClear the color buffer each frame. (default: 0)vk_modulateTexture brightness modifier. (default: 1)vk_shadowsDraw experimental entity shadows. (default: 0)vk_picmipShrink factor for the textures. (default: 0)vk_round_downToggle the rounding of texture sizes. (default: 1)vk_logLog frame validation data to file. (default: 0)vk_dynamicUse dynamic lighting. (default: 1)vk_showtrisDisplay mesh triangles. (default: 0)vk_lightmapDisplay lightmaps. (default: 0)vk_anisoToggle anisotropic filtering. (default: 1)vk_vsyncToggle vertical sync. (default: 0)vk_postprocessToggle additional color/gamma correction. (default: 1)vk_underwaterToggle player vision warp when underwater. (default: 1)vk_restartRecreate entire Vulkan subsystem.vk_mip_nearfilterUse nearest-neighbor filtering for mipmaps. (default: 0)vk_texturemodeChange current texture filtering mode:
VK_NEAREST - nearest-neighbor interpolation, no mipmaps
VK_LINEAR - linear interpolation, no mipmaps
VK_MIPMAP_NEAREST - nearest-neighbor interpolation with mipmaps
VK_MIPMAP_LINEAR - linear interpolation with mipmaps (default)vk_lmaptexturemodeSame as vk_texturemode but applied to lightmap textures.vk_fullscreen_exclusiveWindows only: toggle usage of exclusive fullscreen mode (default: 1). Note that when this option is enabled, there is no guarantee that exclusive fullscreen can be acquired on your system.Acknowledgements
Sascha Willems for his
Adam Sawicki for
and tips on how to use it as efficiently as possible
Axel Gneiting for
which was a great inspiration and a rich source of knowledge
LunarG team and the Khronos Group for their invaluable help and resources
Dorian Apanel and the Intel team for technical support, inspiring email discussions and blazing-fast reaction to driver bug reports!
See also
- Vulkan Renderer Library for Yamagi Quake 2 based on vkQuake2
- vkQuake2 fork with added spacialized audio using
library
Known Issues
some Intel GPUs may ignore texture filtering settings in video menu if anisotropic filtering is enabled - this is the result of anisotropic texture filtering being implementation-dependent
macOS using Vulkan SDK 1.2.162 or higher: the application may hang on some MacBooks if vk_sampleshading is enabled due to a potential bug in the Metal driver causing a deadlock during shader compilation