Contributors
DOOMReboot: Review/Edit
kevansevans: Suggestions
After looking into DOOM code and gaining some knowledge, I wanted to look at another id Software game's source, and the next step from DOOM is Quake! I have lots of memories playing Quake! I still remember playing on my Pentium running at 90MHz with 8MB of RAM. What an experience it was (and still is).
Remember, I am just a computer graphics hobbyist, so before jumping into Quake code, I decided to learn more about 3D math and computer graphics. I have learned a lot, and, at some point, I want to go back to DIYDOOM and start it from scratch. Looking at DIYDOOM now, there is a lot I can improve, but sometimes you must move forward and not keep iterating on the same thing (don't worry, I will go back and improve upon it at some point).
My approach implementing DIYQuake will be different; I will try to keep things much closer to how Quake implemented things (Like what the Handmade Quake project was doing. What a bummer that project got canceled).
As is was the case with DIYDOOM, I will be sharing my notes. Maybe they will help someone else break their fears looking at the game engine source code. Also, I will try to keep detailed documentation of my progress and findings within the Quake code.
My focus will be on WinQuake; it is the software rendering version of Quake that was designed to run on Windows 95. What makes Quake stand out from earlier id Software titles is that Quake used, 3D models, and 3D rendering pipeline (allowing for rooms on top of each other, unlike in DOOM), both lightmaps, and dynamic lighting, and lots more! It is also important to note that the game requred a CPU with a FPU (Floating point unit). This is why the Pentium processor was required to run the game. Note: All Pentium processors came with an FPU, but not all 486 did.
To relive the release of Quake, it's a good idea to take a look at the game's requirements. Here is a look at the back of the tri-fold CD case:
Due to the size of the game's assets, a whopping ~50MB, Quake was released on a CD-ROM.
Note: Yes, 50MB back then was a lot of space. I only had a 500MB HDD.
Note: I have seen few boxs variants that mentioned 486 DX4 / 100MHz is supported (DX4 is a 486 with a FPU)
Here is another box veriant, which explicitly say "absolutely must have a math copprocessor!".
After the release of Quake in 1996, the game received a handful of updates during its lifetime. The most notable update was V1.09 which added OpenGL hardware acceleration support.
I was able to get my hands on two different Quake CD releases, V1.06 and V1.09. Both versions came with different binaries but had identical PAK files. The PAK files contain the game's assets: texture, models, maps, etc. Here is a listing of the Quake directory after installation:
V1.06 CD-ROM
QUAKE
COMEXP.TXT CWSDPMI.EXE GENVXD.DLL HELP.TXT LICINFO.TXT
MANUAL.TXT MGENVXD.VXD ORDER.TXT PDIPX.COM Q95.BAT
QLAUNCH.EXE QUAKE.EXE QUAKEUDP.DLL README.TXT RESOURCE.EXE
RLICNSE.TXT TECHINFO.TXT
QUAKE\ID1
CONFIG.CFG PAK0.PAK PAK1.PAKNote: this release only came with DOS Quake version
QUAKE.EXE Software rendering for DOS
V1.09 CD-ROM
QUAKE
CWSDPMI.EXE FXMEMMAP.VXD GENVXD.DLL GLQUAKE.EXE MGENVXD.VXD
OPENGL32.DLL PDIPX.COM PMPRO16.DLL PMPRO32.DLL Q95.BAT
QLAUNCH.EXE QUAKE.EXE QUAKEUDP.DLL VQUAKE.EXE WDIR16.DLL
WDIR32.DLL WDIRNOP.COM WDIRNOP.PIF WINQUAKE.EXE WQ.BAT
QUAKE\DOCS
QUAKE.CNT QUAKE.HLP
QUAKE\DOCS\DOS
3DFX.TXT COMEXP.TXT GLREADME.TXT HELP.TXT JOYSTICK.TXT
LICENSE.TXT LICINFO.TXT MANUAL.TXT ORDER.TXT README.TXT
TECHINFO.TXT WQREADME.TXT
QUAKE1_09\ID1
CONFIG.CFG PAK0.PAK PAK1.PAK
QUAKE1_09\ID1\GLQUAKE
15TO8.PAL RMOR.MS2 BACKPACK.MS2 BOLT.MS2 BOLT2.MS2
BOLT3.MS2 DEMON.MS2 DOG.MS2 EYES.MS2 FLAME.MS2
FLAME2.MS2 GIB1.MS2 GIB2.MS2 GIB3.MS2 GRENADE.MS2
G_NAIL.MS2 G_ROCK.MS2 G_SHOT.MS2 H_DEMON.MS2 H_DOG.MS2
H_GUARD.MS2 H_OGRE.MS2 H_PLAYER.MS2 H_WIZARD.MS2 H_ZOMBIE.MS2
INVISIBL.MS2 LAVABALL.MS2 MISSILE.MS2 OGRE.MS2 PLAYER.MS2
QUADDAMA.MS2 SOLDIER.MS2 SPIKE.MS2 SUIT.MS2 S_SPIKE.MS2
V_AXE.MS2 V_LIGHT.MS2 V_NAIL.MS2 V_NAIL2.MS2 V_ROCK.MS2
V_ROCK2.MS2 V_SHOT.MS2 V_SHOT2.MS2 WIZARD.MS2 W_G_KEY.MS2
W_SPIKE.MS2 ZOMBIE.MS2 ZOM_GIB.MS2 Note: V1.09 came with four different binaries to run Quake
QUAKE.EXE Software rendering for DOS
WINQUAKE.EXE Software rendering for Windows
VQUAKE.EXE Hardware-accelerated rendering for Verite V1000 accelerator
GLQUAKE.EXE Hardware accelerated OpenGL version
If you buy the Steam version of Quake, you will get V1.09 and Quake world binaries. As of August 19 2021, a remaster version of Quake was released, a new "rerelease" folder with a new PAK file can be found under the installion folder.
Some interesting differences when comparing the CD-ROMs:
V1.06 CD-ROM
- The size is only 24MB
- Everything on the CD is compressed
- A full install is required to play the game
V1.09 CD-ROM
- The size is 78MB
- Includes an uncompressed "Data" folder
My initial thought was that the differences in V1.09 were to allow the game to run from the CD-ROM (by having a minimum installation mode and then reading the assets from the CD-ROM), but the Windows installer never gave such an option; A complete installation was required to play the game under Windows. It just seems weird to me, especially since the game's source code seems to support reading assets from any location.
A copy of Quake source code can be found on id Software's GitHub account.
But the question is, how can you compile the code and get a working binary? This is what I will be explaining next.
Compile original WinQuake
The easiest way to get the code to compile is to find a Windows 9x machine (maybe a virtual machine) and install Visual Studio 6. Then, with no code changes, you would open the works space file and compile the project. However, that is not what you might want; you'll likely want this code to compile under a modern operating system with a newer version of Visual Studio.
Note: You might need to do an EOL (end of line) conversion. The files checked into the GitHub repo are in Unix EOL format; Win98 will not recognize the format as-is.
The source code for Quake that id Software released comes with Quake and Quake World. Our focus is WinQuake.
All you need to do to be able to get Quake compiled under a newer version of Visual Studio is to create a new Project and go through WinQuake Project File to see which header files (.h), source files (.cpp), and libraries (.lib) need to be added to your project.
I'll next describe a quick summary of the process. Don't worry; I have got you covered. If you are not interested in this process, you can also grab the solution here: Visual Studio 2019 Solution.
Note: When installing VS2019, do not forget to install MFC and the Windows SDK.
WinQuake.dsp is a simple text file that lists compiler flags and files that are included in the project.
Looking at the project file, it builds four targets.
winquake - Win32 Release
winquake - Win32 Debug
winquake - Win32 GL Debug
winquake - Win32 GL Release
What we are interested in are the Release and Debug versions, so skip the OpenGL version.
Here is what you will need to do while going through the workspace file:
Add the scitech include folder:
.\scitech\include
.\dxsdk\SDK\INCAdd the scitech lib to your project:
.\scitech\lib\Win32\VC
.\dxsdk\SDK\LIBHere are the only libraries you will need to add:
Winmm.lib
DXGUID.LIB
wsock32.lib
MGLLT.LIB
Some functions have two different implementations, assembly *.s and C versions. I will be ignoring the assembly implementations and get things working with the C versions. It is worth noting that John Carmack stated that if we compile using the C implementations, we will lose almost half the performance compared to assembly.
A complete list of all the files you will need:
adivtab.h anorms.h anorm_dots.h bspfile.h
cdaudio.h client.h cmd.h common.h
conproc.h console.h crc.h cvar.h
draw.h d_iface.h d_local.h input.h
keys.h mathlib.h menu.h model.h
modelgen.h net.h net_dgrm.h net_loop.h
net_vcr.h net_wins.h net_wipx.h progdefs.h
progs.h protocol.h pr_comp.h quakedef.h
render.h resource.h r_local.h r_shared.h
sbar.h screen.h server.h sound.h
spritegn.h sys.h vid.h view.h
wad.h winquake.h world.h zone.h
cd_win.c chase.c cl_demo.c cl_input.c
cl_main.c cl_parse.c cl_tent.c cmd.c
common.c conproc.c console.c crc.c
cvar.c draw.c d_edge.c d_fill.c
d_init.c d_modech.c d_part.c d_polyse.c
d_scan.c d_sky.c d_sprite.c d_surf.c
d_vars.c d_zpoint.c host.c host_cmd.c
in_win.c keys.c mathlib.c menu.c
model.c net_dgrm.c net_loop.c net_main.c
net_vcr.c net_win.c net_wins.c net_wipx.c
nonintel.c pr_cmds.c pr_edict.c pr_exec.c
r_aclip.c r_alias.c r_bsp.c r_draw.c
r_edge.c r_efrag.c r_light.c r_main.c
r_misc.c r_part.c r_sky.c r_sprite.c
r_surf.c r_vars.c sbar.c screen.c
snd_dma.c snd_mem.c snd_mix.c snd_win.c
sv_main.c sv_move.c sv_phys.c sv_user.c
sys_win.c vid_win.c view.c wad.c
world.c zone.c
progdefs.q1 progdefs.q2
quake.ico
winquake.rcNote: If you see any compiler errors, Google them; they are changes in the Windows APIs and headers, they should be straightforward to fix. Note: After getting the code to compile, I noticed some of those files are not needed, but for now, I will leave them there.
Now you should be able to run the game just by clicking the Run button. If it doesn't, you might need to change the working directory folder in Settings to help the WinQuake binary find the id1 folder where the game assets are. I have included the Shareware version of the assets under external/Assets.
Note: You can add -startwindowed as a startup argument if you want the game to start in Window mode.
Note: For debugging, you can set breakpoints in the code or call the function Con_Printf and print the output strings to the Quake console! Don't forget to add -condebug as a startup argument which will dump all the Quake console text to a qconsole.log file for you.
I will be keeping two copies of the original code. The first copy of the code is under the Notes000/src folder; this is WinQuake as it was released by id Software (with minimal changes to get it to compile). The second copy is under the misc folder, which I will be using for debugging and tracing. I will also be adding comments and renaming variables to help me trace and understand the code.
I'm not perfect, so please contact me if you find errors, bugs, concerns, or find yourself in disagreement with anything. We are all here to learn, and you will be credited.