[Installation Steps] [Installation Notes] [Configuration and Console Commands] [Performance] [Known Issues]

VQuake II

VQuake2, or Vérité-accelerated Quake2, is based off the software renderer. However, it includes modifications to take advantage of 3D features present in the Vérité cards, such as anti-aliasing (sharpens lines, turns square particles to round ones), bilinear filtering (eliminates appearance of square pixels), and just general speed enhancements. However, because the Vérité renderer is based off the software renderer, it shares the same limitations - most notably the lack of colored-lighting. Also, because the Vérité renderer is optimized for v1000 cards, it does not offer as significant a speed boost for the v2x00 series.


Installation Steps

[Installation Notes] [Configuration and Console Commands] [Performance] [Known Issues]

1) Get refv1kb5.zip.
2) Unzip the ref_v1k.dll file from the zip and put it in your \Quake2 directory.
3) Run Quake II.
4) Hit the "~" key to bring down the console.
5) In the console, type vid_ref v1k and hit <Enter>.


Installation Notes

[Installation Steps] [Configuration and Console Commands] [Performance] [Known Issues]

First, you will need the file refv1kb5.zip. You may also need the latest drivers from your card manufacturer.

Inside the refv1kb5.zip (reference v1000 beta5 - so why does the renderer say "Alpha"?) file, you will find 3 files in addition to a readme:

ref_v1k.dll
This file may be all you need.  Place it in your Quake2 directory.  If it works all by itself, ignore the next two files.  Note: this file is optimized for the V1000 chips, not the V2x00 chips in the Stealth II, Thriller 3D, Outlaw 3D, etc.  For V2x00 chips, the OpenGL version of Quake2 will generally provide better performance and colored-lighting.  However, it's always fun to experiment.

v10003d.uc
This file is the RRedline microcode which fixes the particle bug on the Creative and Intergraph RRedline drivers.  To prevent problems with other programs, put this file in the Quake 2 directory.  You probably need this only if you have a Creative 3D Blaster or an Intergraph Intense 3D 100 (Reactor).   However, if you anti-alias the particles with those cards, you shouldn't need this file. Not used with V2x00 cards.

v100032.dll
This is the DirectDraw driver for the V1000 chip.  You can place this in you \windows\system directory as a last resort.  Make sure you first make a back-up of the original v100032.dll, if any.  According the the readme, "This is a hack, and may cause serious problems, so be careful..." Not used with V2x00 cards.


Console Commands

[Installation Steps] [Installation Notes] [Performance] [Known Issues]

Hit the "~" key to pull down the console and type one of the following commands, then hit <Enter>.

Alternately, you can put these parameters into a .CFG file where they will automatically be executed each time you run Quake2. A basic tutorial for .CFG files is present here.

These are only a few select commands that are directly related to performance. For a more complete console command list, check out Farenheit 176 on Planet Quake.

vid_ref v1k
This is the command that gets everything going.  It tells Quake2 to use the v1k renderer.  No other v1k commands will have any effect until this command is executed.

v1k_antialias (0-7; default 0)
This will antialias (sharpen the definition) for one or more of the following entities:
1 = world
2 = objects
4 = particles

In addition, you may add the values together.  For instance, "v1k_antialias 5" would antialias the world and particles, and "v1k_antialias 7" would antialias everything.  The more antialiasing done, the slower your game will run.  Creative and Intergraph users should use some value including "4" (particles) if they do not wish to use the v100032.dll mentioned earlier.

v1k_mode (0-4, default 0)
This command sets the video mode according to the following values:

0 = 320x240
1 = 400x300
2 = 512x384
3 = 640x480
4 = 800x600 (V2x00 only)

The higher the mode, the slower your game will run.  I was not able to get "v1k_mode 4" to run on my Stealth II; you may need one of the 8meg cards to use that resolution.  According to Rendition, 400x300 is not available in fullscreen mode on some cards.  Which ones?  Beats me.

v1k_waterwarp (0 or 1, default 1)
This command enables (1) or disables (0) the color shift when under water.   This choice is mostly a matter of preference in single-player, but disabling the waterwarp can make you more competitive in multiplayer as it easier to see without the normal haze-effect.  In single-player, I prefer to keep waterwarp enabled (1) because it seems more realistic.

v1k_nopageflip (0 or 1, default 0)
A value of "1" enables double-buffering; "0" uses page-flipping to update the display.  Setting this value to "1" will usually increase performance but may cause image tearing.  You decide.  Me, I usually don't mind the image tearing.

v1k_surfacelookup (0 or 1, default 1)
This parameter determines whether the Vérité (value = 1) or the CPU (value = 0) should translate textures into 16 bit format.  On slower systems (<P200), I think the value should definitely be left at 1 (Vérité).  On faster systems, you may get higher framerates with the CPU.  However, several users have reported more steady frame rates using the Vérité. Your results may vary at different resolutions or under different conditions.

v1k_refreshrate (any number greater than 1.0, default 60)
This determines the refresh rate in Hz for fullscreen modes (windowed play will use the desktop refresh rate).  Invalid values will give the next lowest available refresh rate, with a minimum of 60Hz.  You will need to restart Quake or switch video modes before this takes effect.  Higher values may cause slower performance.  I usually see subtle horizontal "waves" in my screen if I don't set the refresh to at least 75Hz.

v1k_mipscale (?; default 1.0)
It seems that increasing this setting reduces texture detail for distant objects (wall, ceiling, and floor textures only - not items, players, or monsters). In other words, a setting of 2.0 means that your distance vision is twice as bad. Can you say "near-sighted"? I don't know if there's an upper limit to this variable, but all settings above 10.0 pretty much looked like soup to me.

v1k_mipcap (0-3, default 0)
Similar to "v1k_mipscale". However, the walls, floors, and ceilings are just lower res period. If you want a higher frame rate, this is the one baby! Although walls are blurry, high settings here could make you more competitive. Why? First, because of the higher frame rates. Second, enemies and items stand out in stark contrast to the blurred surroundings. It's pretty ugly, but getting fragged is even uglier.

Performance

[Installation Steps] [Installation Notes] [Configuration and Console Commands]

For comparison purposes, I conducted benchmarks using my system. VQuake2 ran at 20.2 fps at 640x480 with all the default options. What follows are the results of the different v1k commands.

v1k_antialias 1 19.1 fps (sharpen world)
v1k_antialias 2 19.4 fps (objects)
v1k_antialias 3 18.3 fps (world, objects)
v1k_antialias 4 20.2 fps (particles)
v1k_antialias 5 18.9 fps (world, particles)
v1k_antialias 6 19.3 fps (objects, particles)
v1k_antialias 7 18.1 fps (all three)

v1k_mode 0 29.7 fps (320x200)
v1k_mode 1 400x300 not supported full-screen
v1k_mode 2 23.8 fps (512x384)
v1k_mode 3 20.2 fps (640x480, baseline value)
v1k_mode 4 800x600 won't run on 4megs

v1k_waterwarp 0 no effect because there is not water in Demo1

v1k_nopageflip 20.4 fps (uses double-buffering instead of page-flipping)

v1k_surfacelookup 0 21.1 fps (uses CPU instead of Vérité for texture conversion)

v1k_mipscale 10 30.0 fps (too many possible values to test them all)

v1k_mipcap 1 27.7 fps
v1k_mipcap 2 30.2 fps
v1k_mipcap 3 30.9 fps

Note: it seems pointless to use v1k_mipscale and v1k_mipcap simultaneously. Using v1k_mipscale 100 in conjunction with v1k_mipcap 3 produced identical frame rates to using v1k_mipcap 3 alone.


Issues

[Installation Steps] [Installation Notes] [Configuration and Console Commands] [Performance]

"I just updated my Creative BIOS and now VQuake2 won't run."
According to many users in the newsgroups, VQuake2 won't run with the latest Creative BIOS updates. The solution seems to be flashing back to an older BIOS..

"I have a 3D Blaster or Intense 3D 100 and some objects are invisible."
As mentioned above, Creative Labs' RRedline beta drivers from May 8, 1997 have a microcode bug that prevents particles from being drawn.  You can either use the v10003d.uc file or use "v1k_antialias 4" (or higher) to draw round particles, which do draw correctly.  The same applies to Intergraph's RRedline beta drivers. Get newer drivers or try the Rendition Reference drivers.

"After exiting Quake2, my Windows colors are all messed up."
According to Rendition, VQuake2 will also corrupt the Windows system palette on Intergraph's drivers.  Could be pretty psychedelic.  Reboot, drop acid, or use the Rendition Reference Drivers.

"When I run Quake2, my graphics and colors are all wacky."
You must use a 16-bit desktop display setting (i.e. 65,000 colors) in order to run VQuake2.

"My screen is black, but I still hear the sounds."
According to Rendition, on some machines a desktop resolution of 1280x1024 combined with Quake 2 set to 512x384 full screen will show a black screen.   The game is still running, though, so you can try to recover.  For instance, hit the "~" key to bring down the console and type "v1k_mode 3" or whatever and then hit <Enter>.

"The game looks nice, but it's way too dark."
This is usually an issue with gamma correction.  The RRedline drivers do not currently support gamma correction in windowed mode.  You can try full-screen mode or use whatever utilities came with your card (usually listed as a tab under "Display Settings") to adjust your desktop gamma.   If you are already using full-screen mode, try typing vid_gamma 0.4 <Enter> at the console (valid values are between 0.1 and 1.0), followed by vid_restart <Enter>.  Experiment until you find a setting to your liking.

"The game looks nice, but it's way too slow."
There are a few things you can do to increase performance without buying new hardware. Some of the console commands listed above can provide some performance increases. The two commands that will probably help most are v1k_antialias and v1k_mode. Lowering your v1k_mode to 2 (512x384) can boost performance significantly. Some people hardly notice the difference compared to v1k_mode 3 (640x480). Also, antialiasing can cause a big performance hit. Experiment and see what you can tolerate. For instance, if you don't mind square particles of blood or square flies, then you can elect to not antialias the particles.









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