The New Q3Test

Quake III strikes again

And the the game isn't even out yet! On Friday evening (July 16th), id Software released a new version of Q3test, the gameplay and technology test for their upcoming and highly anticipated Quake III Arena. The sizable update implements a number of drastic changes that belies its modest 1.06 enumeration.

So what's changed?

Well, besides the number of small tweaks and gameplay variables that have been changed or added, Q3test 1.06 adds some significant variables that greatly affect its performance. The biggest change is support for Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP), a benefit NT and Linux users have been able to take advantage of for some time. While having two processors won't double your framerate, it is designed to give a significant boost, especially in situations of extremely high polygon count or player activity.

Another big performance change is the framerate cap at 100fps. This is something that id hasn't been imposed since the days of Doom, and is designed primarily to avoid strange gameplay behavior at very high framerates. Most notably, it is easy to get snagged and stalled trying to climb stairs while using a framerate greater than 100fps. Another side benefit is that above a certain (future) hardware threshold, having a faster system will make less of a difference, and hopefully serve to make a more level playing field for competition.

Smoking is bad for you

Another change in 1.06 that can affect framerate is the rocket trails - before, faster systems put out more trails, causing considerably more chunking and stuttering. The huge plumes of smoke also made it difficult to see in the middle of an intense rocket fight. Id modified the smoke trails to remain consistent across platforms, and to disappear if you run toward/through them, making them less of a hassle, yet remaining a good smokescreen in long-range battles.

Let's talk benchmarks

Of course, for many people, the biggest change is the fixed timedemo utility. In 1.05, the command to test framerate was broken, leading to repeatable, but inaccurate numbers. 1.06 fixes the problem, and now allows us to provide accurate system benchmarks for CPUs and video cards.

Thresh is going to have a standard gameplay update for you guys later this week, but for now let's just focus on the hard numbers!