Quake
III Arena Known Issues Help Page
The best way to run the game online is not to have any other function or process running on you computer.
Use the Ctrl-Alt-Delete screen in Windows 95/98 and only have Explorer and Systray running, some machines
need rnapp as well so you may need to leave that running but shut down all other functions.
The Following is from Activision
Basic Troubleshooting steps:
1. Close all background programs. * The instructions below will show you how to close all the background programs on your system (NOTE: When you reboot your system all the programs that you closed down WILL be open again)
a. press all three of these keys at the same time - CTRL, ALT, DELETE once
b. click on the PROGRAM you wish to end
c. when that program is highlighted, click the END TASK button
d. repeat steps 1-3 until all programs are gone (NOTE: DO NOT close EXPLORER or SYSTRAY as this will cause Windows to shutdown)
2. Set desktop resolution to 16bit high color 640x480. This is the proper setting for most of our games. To do this:
a. click the START button
b. select SETTINGS
c. select CONTROL PANEL
d. double-click the icon labeled DISPLAY
e. click the tab labeled SETTINGS
f. set the COLOR PALETTE to HIGH COLOR (16 BIT)
g. set screen area to 640x480 by moving slider to the left
h. click OK
True Color 32/24 bit will cause some games to freeze or not work at all. Not having windows in the same color depth as the game will force the game to switch the color for you (which can cause problems) or have to perform color re-mapping which slows down the game performance.
Make sure that you are using the latest driver updates for your video & sound hardware to insure max performance and compatibility. Even if you bought the hardware recently they are most likely shipped with the original drivers and not the updated ones. You may find the manufacturer of your sound & video card on the web and find any updated drivers posted on their site for download. Download and install those drivers. To find out what driver you are currently using follow the steps below:
1. click the START button
2. select FIND...
3. select FILES OR FOLDERS...
4. in the NAMED box type DXDIAG.EXE or DXINFO.EXE
5. make sure the LOOK IN box in set to (C:)
6. in the lower white area double-click on the file
7. this should open the DIRECTX DIAGNOSTIC TOOL
8. Click on the display tab and you will find the manufacturer information for you video card on the left section of the screen. The right section contains information about the driver version number. You should also note the information on the sound tab and display 2 tab if available.
Activision Customer Support.
The technical support people usually can give you a reply by the next business day.
Activision can help you more quickly if you fill out the form at: www.activision.com/support/email.asp
Please try to fill out the form below as completely as possible. The more information Activision
has about your system and your problem, the faster they can help you solve your question about the game.
If you can't answer all the questions, don't worry! Go ahead and fill out what you can and send it to them anyway.
They will answer it the best they can.
This was a STINKER to figure out.
Problem was that for some reason one of the Quake III series installs
This problem usually shows up when a dial-up logs into a Quake III server
UPDATE! 12/20/99
Try another brand of modem and see if the problem goes away.
List of Modems that work so far!
List of Modems that have problems with Quake III
You also may need to check and reset your MTU Settings.
There are still a number of issues with this problem still not resolved YET!
The Famous "Awaiting CD Key Authorization" Problem
Open up a MS-DOS window and go to c:\windows, this is usually default.
Type "edit hosts" without the quotes.
If you have anything other than 127.0.0.1 localhost, remove it!
You can also use Notepad or my personal favorite,
Notepad+ available here to edit this file.
go to your c:\windows directory,
you may need to click the prompt to show all files
find hosts with no extention
click on it
then choose Notepad to open with
Warning:
Do Not check the box that said
"Always open this program to open with this type of file"
updated this hosts file and added 1 or more aliases and you were re-directed to the null port
when Quake III tried to reach the master server, you see the problem, not a good idea.
The other problem was your CD KEY was entered wrong!
Open q3config.cfg with Notepad or Wordpad, this file is in the baseq3 subdirectory
of your Quake III directory. Look for the seta cl_cdkey "Your 16 Diget Number"
It should be in lower case, even it was in upper case case on the CD case
If it is in upper case fix it at this time
There are still a number of issues with this problem still not resolved YET!
Try "tracert www.bagpipes.net" from a MS-DOS
prompt when log on to the net, and see how many hops you have. Just replace my
domain with a Quake III server!
Change the Following to these settings in q3config.cfg using Notepad
Or in the Quake advance setup screen or console
Hit the "~" tilda then to see your setting enter /rate(enter key)
or /snaps(enter key) or whatever command you need to see>
to edit a setting enter /rate "3000"(enter key) as an example
you need to hit your enter key to see or update a setting
seta com_maxfps "40"
seta rate "3000" or lowerlike 2500
seta snaps "10"
You may have to play with the settings to get the results
There also have been some issues with the modem themselves.
Modems that work in other applications will not work with Quake III Arena.
I just replace my Phoebe Modem with a Aopen Modem and
my ping time just went down and no comm overruns.
DO NOT USE A WINMODEM! or a modem that only runs in Windows!
Aopen FM-56 series
Phoebe V1456VQH-R3
I have a shareware program online here available for download
called MTUSpeed Pro Ver 4.10 For Windows 95,
this will also work for Windows 98 and NT
I found that after I tested my connection with
MTUSpeed using my local Quake III servers address,
and reset my MTU, I was able to turn my connection speed
back up to 56K in the Quake III settings screen.
delete pk1.pk3, pk2.pk3 and pk3.pk3 from your baseq3
directory before installing the Point Release!
This Point release will not update right if you
do not delete the pk1.pk3 ,pk2.pk3 and pk3.pk3 files.
More updates and Fixes will be added later
Good Luck!!! And lets have some fun Fragging each other!
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