Quake 4 Tweak Guide
Author: Koroush Ghazi
Last Modified: June 2007
Introduction
Along with Doom, Quake is one of the most famous names in the gaming world. When Quake first came out in 1996, it wasn't the single player aspect of the game which captured gamers' imaginations - it was the multiplayer component of the game which really took off in a big way. Despite the laggy gameplay - when it sometimes felt you can fire a shot, go make a cup of coffee, and come back 10 minutes later to see it miss the target - the game picked up fans left, right and centre.
Within a few years, the Quake engine had been refined to the point that when Unreal Tournament came out in 1999, a few months later Quake III was available to compete with this pretender to the throne. By this point both Quake and UT had made online multiplayer gaming a very polished and fun exercise. Of course I'd love to say I was a big Quake III fan, but the truth is I cut my teeth on online gaming in Unreal Tournament. To me Quake looked and sounded funny. I guess at that point the gaming world split into UT fans and Q3 fans, and a fierce rivalry began. To top it off, both the Unreal and Quake 3 game engines have powered a variety of games like Jedi Outcast (Q3), America's Army (U), Call of Duty (Q3) and Splinter Cell (U) - a testament to the inherent quality of both these engines.
Fast forward to 2005 and Quake 4 has finally been released, a long time between drinks for Quake fans. And in a neat twist, it combines two great id game franchises in a special way: Quake 4 is based on the amazing Doom 3 engine, and seems to be quite solid and bug-free. It also returns a genuine single player component to the game, something which Quake III Arena didn't have. However as with Quake games before it, the single player component - which is highly reminiscent of Doom 3 - is not really the highlight of Quake 4. So is it worth buying? Well I'm personally not a Quake veteran, and my brief forays into Quake 4 multiplayer are embarrassing to say the least. However I get the impression that traditional Quake fans will not be disappointed.
Despite the fact that tweaking the game is extremely similar to tweaking Doom 3, I decided that given the large fan base for Quake 4, the game deserved a tweak guide of its own. This Quake 4 Tweak Guide covers all the in-game settings in detail, including screenshot comparisons of image quality differences, and contains a wealth of links to important Quake 4 resources. The guide is rounded out with advanced tweaks which have been tested and work on Quake 4, since some of the Doom 3 commands are different for this game. All in all, the guide is a central resource for Quake fans and should help new and experienced Quakers alike.
Note: This guide refers to the latest version of Quake 4 Version 1.4.2. Make sure to check back regularly for updates.
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