Installation | Starting Q3F | Running Servers | Basic Configuration | Troubleshooting

Preparation

The first thing you need to check is that you have the latest Quake 3 Arena Point Release from id Software (the current version is 1.17). Before attempting to install Q3F, you should start Quake 3 without any special options and check that you have point release 1.17 or later. For detailed instructions on this, check the Troubleshooting section.

You may also run in to problems if you've ever installed any updates or patches that aren't from id Software - for example a CD-Hack that changes the Quake 3 Arena executable or any 3rd Party DLL's (such as Arenaspy or an FPS enhancer). In all cases you should delete or rename any files with the .DLL extension that are present in your Quake 3 directory.

Installation

Q3F is distributed as a 'ZIP' file and contains everything (except Quake 3 itself) that you need to play Q3F, including our complete map collection. There are no .EXE or .DLL files contained in the ZIP file to ensure 'cross-platform compatability'. Essentially this means that as long as the fully patched, retail version of Quake 3 Arena is installed and working on your machine, regardless of whether it is running Windows 98, NT, Linux, FreeBSD or a Mac O/S, Q3F will work great too.

There are however some known problems with running Quake 3 (and modifications) with certain operating systems. Click the 'Troubleshooting' sub-section above if you run in to any problems either during or after installation.

Apple Mac Note: Use the latest version of stuffit expander and not zipit1.3.8 Also be sure that under your expander preferences under [crossplatform] that you have [convert text files to macintosh format] [never] checked off (Courtesy of Quake 3 Shack) There is a known problem with Quake 3 (as of release 1.16n), Q3F (as of Beta1b) that causes certain Apple Mac's to crash with the error Type-2. You can download a .SIT fix for this that Graham Devine of id Software kindly authored from our website.

You need the LAST full version of Q3F, and any updates since. The current version is Beta-1dc, so you'll need:

- q3f_beta1_20000401.zip (last full version)
- q3f_beta1b_update_20000415.zip (update)
- q3f_beta1c_update_20000507.zip (update)
- q3f_beta1d_update_20000604.zip (last update)

All new releases contain the latest documentation and sample CFG files, so the newer documentation in the Beta1d update, replaces the documentation in the Beta1c update. If you're upgrading, then you should be careful to backup your CFG files as these might get overwritten.

There are two ways to install and update Q3F: Manual and Automatic. Currently Linux and Mac clients need to download the ZIP files and extract them manually. Win32 clients can make use of our new automated installer. More information about this (and the installer itself) is available from our website. The rest of this section details manual installation.

After downloading and installing the Q3F Beta-1-Full, the Beta-1b-update, the Beta1c update and the Beta1d update, you should have only four PK3 files (q3f_beta_001.pk3, q3f_beta_001b_update.pk3, q3f_beta_001c_update.pk3 and q3f_beta_001d_update.pk3) left in your Q3F directory. the following explains how to do this.

The contents of the each zip file (when using Winzip under Windows 98) will look something like:

Note: the above window is a WinZIP example - the actual files will be a different

If you are installing for the first time, you should extract q3f_beta1_20000401.zip FIRST, then q3f_beta1b_update_20000415.zip, then q3f_beta1c_update_20000506.zip and finally q3f_beta1d_update_20000604.zip

The key thing to note is that the ZIP file contains 'folder' or 'path information - this tells the unzipping application which directories to place the Q3F files into. Generally you should extract the Q3F ZIP file straight into your Quake 3 directory (in this example we'll use C:\quake3). After extraction, you should find a new directory called 'q3f' under the Quake 3 directory which in our case would be called c:\quake3\q3f:

Note: the above window is an example - you may have additional directories for other MODs

Depending on the application you use to unzip the Q3F archive, you may or may not get the correct directory information. The really important part is that the Q3F PK3 files (the actual mod itself) is in the right place - a q3f directory within the Quake 3 directory. Confirm this by locating your Quake 3 directory, and check that it contains the directories 'baseq3', 'extras', and 'q3f'.

Once you've extracted both archives (in the correct order) there should be the q3f_beta_001.pk3, q3f_beta_001b_update.pk3, q3f_beta_001c_update.pk3 and q3f_beta_001d_update.pk3 files in the Q3F directory. A common error when extracting the files to the wrong place is to end up with 2 Q3F directories (one under another). If you've done this, you may find that you end up with c:\quake3\q3f\q3f :) Correct this by moving the contents of 'c:\quake3\q3f\q3f' up one level, and deleting the lowest directory. You should end up with just c:\quake3\q3f.

If we enter the q3f directory, here's what we should see:

Note: the above window is an example - the actual files will be a little different depending on version

Some 3rd party utilities for Quake 3 Arena place files in your Quake 3 directory that have the extension .DLL. You should note that Quake 3 Modifications (such as Q3F) will NOT work if these 3rd party DLLs are present. id Software have stated publicly that modifications for Quake 3 should NOT use DLLs. You should delete or rename any files in the Quake 3 directory that have the .DLL extension before attempting to run Q3F.

> Apple Mac Note: You will have to change the following to your q3config.cfg (located inside the baseq3 folder) to "1" instead of "0". BBEdit Lite (freeware) will accomplish this task, and put a copy of the edited config in your q3f folder which should reside in the quake3 folder (not baseq3) (Courtesy of Quake 3 Shack).: seta vm_ui "1" seta vm_game "1" seta vm_cgame "1"

If you encounter any problems during or after installation, be sure to check the 'Troubleshooting' section above. If you can't find your answer there, stop by the 'Support Forum' on the Q3F website and we'll do our best to help.

Installation should now be complete, and we're almost ready to run Q3F - head on over to Starting Q3F.