Yakumo's q3 guide for all levels of player (mk II)

[yakumo]

Last updated : 19/11/2003
I keep finding myself repeating things so here is a summary of the most asked about cfg settings and q3 playing tips -

Controllers : The best way to play FPS games is with a mouse/keyboard combo, keyboard for forward/back strafe left/right usually on the cursor keys or W,A,S,D, and the mouse to aim/fire/jump.

Keyboards : almost anything will do, cheep keyboards tend to have a small signal buffer which ends up causing some keys not to work at all while others are pressed, which, with some configs, can cause problems like not being able to run forwards while changing to a particular weapon, or move right while ducking for example, I prefer Cherry keyboards tbh, microswitched rather than rubbery feel, I've been using the same one for about 10 years now.

UPDATE Well, I had been, I finally spilt too much coffee into it :o/ Click 105key Win95 PS/2, microswitched keyb, £52.87 inc vat from dabs.com ..
fantastic, haven't found a combination of keys yet that fails to work, and cherry guarantees each key for >50 million key presses so I figure it will last at least another 10 years bar another string of disasters :).

Mice : the best mice to get atm by a LONG way imo are the Microsoft Explorer v3 mice, not any older version and not the wireless version (wireless comms lag).
They are optical mice but don't suffer any of the old optical problems, I am a VERY fast mouse mover and mine never sticks or hiccups.

UPDATE The Intelimouse v1.1 optical uses the same tech as the explorer v3, with any luck MS have updated their boxes now so it's easy to tell if your buying a 6000 sample per sec mouse or not.

All the older versions sample at a much lower rate so stick, or go mental if you move them too fast, the logitec dual mice have 2 laser read heads which makes them less likely to mess up, but the sample rate is not increased by jstu doubling the heads, so they aren't as good imo.

UPDATE: Logitec have now release the logitec MX range of mice which has their new technology which samples at about the same rate as Microsoft's now,
according to the tech specs, I haven't used them so couldn't really say if they really are as good, and work as well on icemats, and I don't like the look of the shape, but by all means give them a go if you're a logitec fan.

The v3 is available for about £32 from www.scan.co.uk or £70 last time I went to laugh at PC World.

Very, very smooth to use ( esp with an icemat ), very very accurate, better than razor mice as there's no ball to stick or clean, the sample rate is almost as good, and they are FAR more comfortable to use.

Mousemat : The best mousemat to team up with a MS v3 mouse is the icemat it's rather expensive if your used to paying £5 for your matt's, but it's a big hunk of toughened glass so it will last years and years and years, it's easy to clean, and unlike other surfaces it doesn't rub off on your mouse dirtying up the ball (if your not using optical mice) and the teflon feet. it's far easier to SEE the dirt on it in the first place too so you know when to clean it (really not often).

Other good mats are the everglide ( www.everglide.com ) or ratpad matts or the func surface (not sure of URL's ), but these matt's all wear down within a year or so if your a really heavy gamer like me, and they don't have the icemats stay-clean, keep mouse clean qualities.

The icemat will set you back about £30 from www.icemat.com I'm afraid this is the ONLY place u can get them from and it'll take about 1 to 2 weeks to arrive from Denmark.

The page says they are not supported with optical mice but I assure you this was pre the v3, I've been using one for months, and most of my clan mates use the v3 with an icemat now too (yes including bl0key CPL champ)
Update: The black pad has now been officially approved by Microsoft for use with the new 6000 samples per sec mice (like the explorer v3) I honestly don't know why the white one hasn't been..

UPDATE Unfortunately I no longer think I can recommend the white icemats, they look damn cool, but after having been told that I had to wait longer for a replacement pad, as they had run out of glass, the new pad I received is slightly lighter, less tinted than my old one that I still have a chunk of, and as such I don't think it is tracking quite so well, so I have decided to buy a black one as soon as I have some spare cash..

UPDATE The Black icemats were officially endorsed by Microsoft for use with their 6000 sample per sec mice, and you can sometimes get hold of them from www.scan.co.uk now as well, so you can save a lot on shipping fees etc, and you wont have to wait up to 2 weeks for it to arrive.

Sound : I occasionally play without sound, sometimes for a laugh, sometimes because my housemates start chatting to me as I play, but it's relatively easy in FFA as dying doesn't really matter, and I'm so used to the maps, where to expect people to show up etc, it helps keep your visual awareness and accuracy when doing 180 turns etc very high too. Generally sound is one of the most important things in FPS games so do try to get a soundcard from somewhere, or if your stuck in uni without one try the USB external soundcard the Exitgy from Creative, a good PCI soundcard can actually improve your FPS by as much as 5 too.

If you really want to be on top of your game then headphones are a MUST, absolutely essential for clan games or duel. 5.1 speakers are all very well but q3 only really produces 2d stereo sound, the absolute best way to be able to hear accurately where people are, from as great a distance as possible is if you play using headphones. When used to the maps and sounds of players running around you can accurately predict when someone is going to appear around a corner and plant a rocket at their feet before they get there, or even rail them almost before they even realise they've made it around the corner themselves :) You can also get a rough idea of how damaged someone is so you know weather to keep hunting them down or make a brake for more health/armour yourself.

Personally I like the plantronics headphones (they build NASA's headsets, http://www.plantronics.com/europe_un...ctName=DSP-300 (wish my set was USB...)), they used to be hard to get but PC-world carry a lot of their kit now if you can't find it online, they are very well built, have superb mic's for voice comms in clan games and there are even (albiet expensive) USB models so you dont have to keep unplugging your speakers to play q3. TBH a good headset mic is the only way to use voicecomms, playing with speakers gives massive feedback and will really piss all your team off :)

No I'm not sponsored by any of these products but they ARE fantastic and if you want to pay me and/or my clan for promoting them we'd gladly accept :D


Weapon Selection : if you are still using 2 keys or the mousewheel to scroll through weapons you are going to find it hard going online and odd that so many players go from one thing to another in the middle all the time so damn quickly. the best thing to do is to have one key/mousefunction per weapon. i have RL and RG on mwheelup/down and the ret on keys for example. See my CFG for more details.

My full CFG can be found on http://www.clan-unreal.com under my nick on the left menu, er, or at the bottom of this post as our web site is still dead :(

Abbreviations and comon terms :
MG - MiniGun
CG - Chaingun
SG - ShotGun (SSG - SuperShotGun relic from q1/q2 days)
PG - Plasma Gun (PR - Plasma Rifle)
LG - Lightning Gun
GL - Grenade Launcher
RL - Rocket Launcher
RG - Rail Gun (yay)
BFG - Big F****** Gun
RA - Red Armour
YA - Yellow Armour
MH - Mega Health/100 Health poweup
RJ - Rocket Jump
PJ - Plasma Jump or Phone Jack
TN - Timenudge


LAG - Short slang for latency, when your ping is high, or jsut when it goes higher than normal.
Spikes - with cg_lagometer 1 you see a green bar reprasenting your connection, if your ping keeps jumping up and down a lot you see it as spikes on
the bar.
llama - a lame player for x reason =)
PB - PunkBuster, the anti cheating system

Hitscan - Hitscan weapons are the weapons where a game just plots where it was fired from and where it's going to hit, and it gets there as soon as the server registers that you fired it, as opposed to range weapons like the rocket launcher where the projectile actually has to travel from point a to point b and it takes time.

Ping - Ping a networking term for the a packet that is timed for how long it takese to go from where its sent to it's destination and back again, like a submarines radar ping. This is shown by your name when you look at the scoreboard. Lower is better, it makes the game smoother and aiming easier as you don't have to lead your shots so much (eg it's not uncommon on a modem to have to fire the railgun about 2 player width ahead of them for it to hit when they run even though it's a hitscan weapon)

VQ3 - Vanilla Quake 3 : basically Q3 when you just run the EXE rather than loading a mod, so it just uses only the pk3's from the "baseq3" directory.

OSP - Orange Smoothie Productions - Also the name of the most reliable, secure anti cheat mod for Q3, that is also designed for league server administration, much more advanced voting and other options than normal Q3, it also has slightly improved (in most peoples eyes) net code to VQ3.

CPMA - Challange Pro Mode Arena - A strange mix of q1/q2/q3 movement and weapon code, makes for very intense games, with crazy q2 style trick jumps, there's a lot more to learn in CPMA about moving around etc than normal Q3 so it tends to keep newbies away as they get slaughtered by CPMA regulars, it is a hell of a lot of fun playing with people of your own level though, and is just a lot of fun as there's so much more scope for learning new things, CPMA merged with OSP's anti-cheat code a while back also so it's a 'safe' place to play.

Coloured Text / Names : to colour your text you use ^ like ctrl+k in IRC. just do ^x b4 the text u want coloured where x is a number from 1 to 7. eg typing ^1hello will say hello in red, if you colour your name please put ^7 at the end otherwise q3 will over colour other peoples text immediately after your name ever comes up.


network settings for cable/adsl :

cl_maxpackets 125

(is what i use since it was enabled in q3 1.32, but drop to 100, 60 or 30 (default) if the servers too slow/rammed, anything under 30 is considered cheating by anyone in the know, leagues, etc )

snaps 40

(most people beleive this should either be the same as , or higher than, the servers sv_fps setting, and if it's higher the server's setting caps it anyway, it's a bit of a missunderstood setting by most inclujding myself tbh, just keep it at 40 unless you KNOW the servers sv_fps)

cl_packetdup 0

(stops it sending repeated date that's suposed to help keep gameplay smooth over packet loss, not many people actually get any packet loss these days on cable and good servers, and if it's not 0 then q3 feels really slow in comparison and weapons are unresponsive especially on isdn or modems)

cg_predictitems 0

(helps prevent you hearing a 'you picked up an item' noise only to hear it repeated again when someone on a lower ping actually got their first but the server hadn't caught up yet)

timenudge : Timenudge is a client side way of altering the network prediction that your PC is doing, a positive number makes it play like you are lagged from your perspective, your ping will not change a negative number makes movement more like lan, but also can make the other players appear to move in a rather jerky fasion, depending on how high the negative is and your connection speed.

UPDATE
Many people claim that timenduge makes you harder to hit, or do more damage, in a warping, cheating kind of way, as if it was doing something bad to others clients or the server data, this is not true. All it is, is as your clients prediction is improved, you get an idea of what is going on a litttle bit earlier, so you have a tiny bit mroe time to react to things, so can get out of the way earlier as you havemore time to react, as for damage, again , as your prediction on where things are going is improved, they become a tiny bit easier to accurately track, so, you can keep the LG beam on them more accurately , or plasma etc, so get more hits in.

This is no different from just having a better connection (lower ping) , which is what the network settings are there for! letting you try to tweak the net config so you can get the online gameplay as close to LAN as possible.

timenudge is specifically to adjust the prediction x ms into the future, and relates directly to the ping that way. so, the idea is, -10 timenudge is almost just the same as taking 10 ms from your ping, almost because
computer prediction is, by definition, artificial, so it isn't exactly more accurate, does screw up plenty of times, and has the down side of making ther players you see move arround jerkilly, which you can get used to, but many players find it easier, and better with it at 0 still.

So it has a positive and negative side, and it's purely down to personal prefference imo, there are fantastically good top div 1 standard players who are advocats of both -20 and 0 tn, so using one or the other is no excuse for having problems against others who do or do not use it.

-20 is the max allowed by clanbase rules (the largest worldwide competitive league http://www.clanbase.com ) so I beleive that is an acceptable maximum standard to stick to if u wish to use tn, and anyone on 20ms or less and using tn is mad anyway imo.

so if like some your convinced that someone is only beating you because they're using timenudge, and your using tn 0, use it yourself and get used to it, it is NO different from winging that someone else has a better mouse, pc, or 'net line than you (or in fact any different from you not knowing that rate 30 and maxpackets 20 sucks ) except you can change tn for free, appart from some effort learning it's inconsistencies, or just deal with it and overcome, like the div1 players there are who still use 0. </rant off>

modem - anything up to minus your ping is acceptable imo, i used to ping 150 and use "/cl_timenudge -150"

ISDN - anything up to the negative of half your ping is normally considered acceptable.

Broadband - whatever your ping it shouldn't really be more than -20, and NEVER more than a negative of your ping (definitely really quite lame if not out and out cheating imo). Most usually use 0 or up to -20, I use -20 on my 50ms broadband which is the most allowed by the clanbase rules so most div1 players use this.

OSP on OSP the net code is slightly different they removed some of id's code that basically added server side lag, your normal timenudge should therefore either be reduced by 5 to 10 from your normal setting or you'll find OSP rather odd to play on, or simply set to 0.

If your happy playing on defaults then you might as well leave it altogether, especially if your on broadband (very especially on BY broadband on by you 20ms gits =) ) as tn 0 is just fine.

Refresh rate : if you use win2k/xp a lot of people have problems with games stuck at 60hz, that makes them seem flickery, in q3 you can force a refresh rate by using r_displayrefresh, if you have a USB mouse, and your monitor supports it, it's best to use a resolution that enables you to use a refresh rate of 120hz ( r_displayrefresh 120 ) this gets it in sync with your USB mouse's sample rate and makes things a lot smoother when your aiming.

m_filter 1 also helps keep things nice and smooth.

com_maxfps : Q3's pysics work best with com_maxfps set to either 75 if you have a low frame rate, or, the absolute best setting is 125, no higher no lower.

Unlike Quake2 your FPS does not effect network performance AT ALL q2 sent and received a set number of packets per frame, q3 uses maxpackets to govern this, all the gfx display is totally separate from networking.

125 makes all the good trick jumps work superbly once you know about :

High wall jumping : this is mostly more of an FPS only thing, all the other tricks require skill and practice not a specific config setting.

Basically the hope is that on q3dm13 you can run straight towards the 100h and jump up to it from the floor when you bash your knees against the wall, there are quite a few steps in q3 that are that exact height and you need your fps locked to 75 or 125 to be able to do it (some other values work but they aren't as good at other things)

you can also do it from a distance as long as you jump at the point where you will hit the wall at the peek of your jump.

there are some a little higher you can still manage if you have one runup strafe jump (see bellow) to gain you a bit more speed/height such as jumping from the yellow armour floor to the red armour platform on q3dm5 ( you need to hit the very corner of the floor, then land pushing against he little blip bit sticking out of the platform )


Rocket Jumping (RJ) : make sure you have more than 50 health, or as low as maybe 35 and a lot of armour, look down, or at an angle behind you or to one side depending on where you want to go, and press fire with the rocket launcher and jump AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME =)
This is another reason why it's best to have fire on mouse1, and jump on mouse2.
Practice offline by doing /devmap q3dm6, then /god so you can't die, then /give all, or just play clan arena somewhere.
If your on a modem and forgot to set cl_packetdup 0 you will have a god awfull time trying to rocket jump as it tries to jump you twice or all sorts of weird things.

Strafe Jumping : jumping while holding forward+left of right travels further, you can build up a large amount of speed by doing this repeatedly using the mouse to guide your direction, and pressing jump again just before you hit the ground.

Plasma Jumping : Same as rocket jumping but only has a small effect, and only works if your looking absolutely straight down best used when running forwards or you wont get anywhere really, and the only place i can think of atm it's actually useful is on dm5 getting to the red armour from the YA floor quickly without having to line up run-up strafe jumps.

Plasma Climbing : this one requires decent FPS tbh, best to have some armour, and a lot of plasma ammo, go up to a wall, and look diagonally down, the angle you want is basically looking straight at the join between the floor and the wall as you are as far forward as you can go, jump up holding forwards, press and hold fire, and most importantly LET GO OF JUMP, if you don't let go of jump you'll go nowhere!

Circle Jumping : This one I'm afraid is almost unexplainable in text, it's a fairly fast flick of the mouse from looking to one side of where you
want to land, to looking at it, it gains you even more speed and distance with you jumps and requires a LOT of practice, it's absolutely the HARDEST
and most advanced trick there is in q3 so don't expect to get it even after days of practicing, guidance by someone good at it on a server is really a must, and this map pack will help too ftp://ftp.xsreality.com/misc/645-pqjumps.pk3

Other than that you really need to be on a server with someone good at them to guide you =)

Teleport Jumps : Only applies to one normal Q3 map, Q3tourney2, basically you jump while your in the teleporter and pull to one side, I think it's that way round, i can't remember it's been ages, on Q3T2 it can get you across the gap to the RA platform, I'm not 100% sure exactly how to do it in VQ3 tbh as I never play q3tourney2, it's possible in CPMA also but a lot easier to pull off, and gets you a VERY fast exit from the teleporter.

Config files
All of your setup information is stored in a .cfg file, if you start quake3 and there are no cfg files in it's baseq3 folder then it generates a default
q3config.cfg file for you. Everything in it can be altered with a normal text editor, though if you open the generated ones it may look wrong as it is in linux format so it will seem to be all on one line with notepad, a good editor like ultraedit will have no problem with it. The settings in the cfg file
relate directly to the console commands, so if you know the console, you can write a cfg, and vice versa.

Each line takes one command usually, and you can comment out any line with // at the beginning.

It is not a good idea to change the q3config.cfg, as every time you quit q3 it re-writes this file.

When q3 loads up, it looks for, and then loads the files q3config.cfg, and then, if it exists, autoexec.cfg from the directory of the currently running mod.

\Exec <name>.cfg is the command to run a config.

All cfg's that you have in baseq3 can be called from any other mod, but if you are in normal q3 with no mod loaded, you cannot directly call a cfg from a mod dir without typing out a path to the file.

So, the best way to manage your configs imo, is to put all of your settings into a 'myname.cfg' and then call that via the autoexec.cfg.

ie, I have Yakumo.cfg with all my settings (that you can see bellow) in baseq3, and then also in baseq3 I have autoexec.cfg that looks like this :


exec yakumo.cfg
//end


(I add //end to all my cfg's as without a line break at the end, quake has been known to load things up incorrectly and add garbage to the end of text binds and things.)

then I copy autoexe.cfg into every mod directory, and if that mod has some specific settings that don't apply to baseq3, then I add those settings into the autoexec AFTER the exec Yakumo.cfg line, as cfg's work by if a variable/command has been set one way, then you load another file, that files setting will overwrite the previous one.

So, for example, my threewave directory for 3wave ctf, has this autoexec.cfg :


//27/10/2003
exec yakumo.cfg
bind space "+hook"
bind r "drop rune"
bind g "weapon 10"
seta cg_drawClientNum "1"
seta cg_crosshaircolor "7"
seta cg_radioVoice "2"
seta cg_predictGrapple "0"
bind k "stats -precise"

seta cg_usepromodeskins "1"
seta cg_forceColors "1"
seta cg_forceModel "1"
seta cg_enemyColors "2222"
seta cg_oldLightning "0"
seta cg_nomip "1"

cg_teamrockets "1"
cg_teamlightning "1"
cg_teamplasma "1"

seta cg_pmFixes "1"

//end


so now, when I load up q3 as CTF with the threewave directory for the mod, q3 works like this

execute settings from baseq3/q3config.cfg
execute settings from threewave/autoexec.cfg (which calls..)
> execute settings from yakumo.cfg (which it finds in baseq3 )
> execute threewave specific settings from the rest of the autoexec

my OSP cfg looks like this (yes I gave in, everyone in div1 etc and everyone else was using osp's forcemodel and green skins so I just ended up feeling you
couldn't really compete without it any more, I still don't use forcemodel in baseq3, it's far more fun without it imo)

//27/10/2003
exec yakumo.cfg

// see osp-q3-ClientReadme.txt
seta cl_punkbuster 1
seta color1 "6"
seta color2 "6"
seta cg_drawcrosshairnames "1"
seta cg_forcemodel "1"
seta cg_enemymodel "keel/pm"
seta cg_enemycolors "2222"
seta cg_enableosphud "1"
seta cg_ammoCheck "0"
seta cg_autoAction "0"
seta cg_drawDecals "0"
seta cg_float "0"
seta cg_nomip "1"
seta cg_showPlayerLean "1"
seta ch_CrosshairNamesLeft "0"
seta ch_CrosshairColor "7"

seta ch_TeamchatOnly "0"
seta ch_Pickupitem "1"
seta ch_drawspeed "0"
seta cg_altplasma "1"
seta cg_altgrenades "1"
seta cg_altlightning "0"

//end



Playing Tips

Just some quick ones, play lots, play better people than yourself, and spectate better players a lot too and you'll learn, don't be afraid to ask questions, but try not to get too put off or upset or anything if they don't answer, some players just wont, some have had bad days maybe and they don't feel like it, some are just busy, and some are just plain not very nice people.

No-one can change weapons faster than anyone else, but do bear in mind that you can put the command in to change weapons at any time after you've fired one, and it will change to the new one as soon as that weapons reload cycle is complete.

If you have a lot of experience you tend to have a good idea of what weapons you want to start off a fight with, and what you want to change to as soon as you've hit the first time, or first few times, so you already have a head start, this was especially important in the slower, more tactical quake2.

Many mod's aren't just about good aim, it's about knowing where to go, where to look for people, when to get into or back out of fights, how to prioritize your targets, run the map for powerups, there is a LOT going on, experience counts for an awful lot.

If you ever see someone doing something you don't understand, it seems to fast, or they jump too far etc, don't jump out and call them a cheat as I've had when seen doing the rl to rg dm6 jump, try asking politely how it's done, or if they wont explain it come ask some of the admins in #byq3
though my hope is after reading this guide you should be able to figure out how everything is done even if you can't quite manage it yourself yet =)

Yakumo
[UNR]yakumo
yakumo'unr
Yaku-Admin
=)



-------------------un-edited paste of my yakumo.cfg from baseq3 27/10/2003
//generated by Yakumo do not modify :op
//
//binds
seta r_mode "4"
seta r_fullscreen "1"
unbindall
bind ENTER "+button2"
bind ESCAPE "togglemenu"
bind + "sizeup"
bind - "sizedown"
bind = "sizeup"
bind \ "+mlook"
bind _ "sizedown"
bind ` "toggleconsole"
bind a "+moveleft"
bind c "+button3"
bind shift "+movedown"
bind d "+moveright"
bind q "+button2"
bind i "messagemode4"
bind s "+back"
bind t "messagemode"
bind u "messagemode3"
bind w "+forward"
bind y "messagemode2"
bind ~ "toggleconsole"
bind p "stats"
bind PAUSE "pause"
bind RIGHTARROW "+right"
bind ALT "+scores"
bind CTRL "+zoom"
bind DEL "+lookdown"
bind PGDN "+lookup"
bind END "centerview"

bind MOUSE1 "+attack"
bind MOUSE2 "+moveup"
bind . "say :)"
bind , "say rofl"
bind space "+speed"

bind F1 "vote yes"
bind F2 "vote no"
bind f4 "toggle r_dynamiclight"

bind f5 "vstr _chname2"
bind f6 "vstr _chname"
bind f7 "team s"
bind f8 "toggle com_blood;toggle cg_gibs"
bind F9 "exec autoexec.cfg"
bind f10 "toggle r_dynamiclight"

bind F11 "screenshot"
bind f12 "vstr demotoggle"

bind [ "say ^7www.clan-^4unr^7eal.com"
bind ] "say #unreal quakenet IRC"



//weapons selection binds
//1=gauntlet, 2=machinegun, 3=shotgun, 4=grenade launcher, 5=rocket launcher, 6=lightning gun, 7=rail gun, 8=plasma gun, 9=BFG10K
// Tall sugests :
// bind e "weapon 1; weapnext"
// vstr pg "weapon 2; weapon 3; weapon 6; weapon 8; weapnext; weapprev"
// not tried it yet

bind e "weapon 2"
bind / "weapnext"
bind 0 "weapon 10"
bind 1 "weapon 8"
bind 2 "weapon 6"
bind 3 "weapon 3"
bind 4 "weapon 4"
bind 5 "weapon 5"
bind 6 "weapon 6"
bind 7 "weapon 7"
bind 8 "weapon 8"
bind 9 "weapon 9"
bind f "weapon 1"
bind g "weapon 9"
bind MOUSE3 ""
bind MWHEELDOWN "weapon 5"
bind MWHEELUP "weapon 7"
bind TAB "weapon 3"

//railgun stuff
seta cg_railTrailTime "400"
seta r_railSegmentLength "32"
seta r_railCoreWidth "6"
seta r_railWidth "16"

//network setings (56k modem)
//seta rate "4444"
//seta cl_maxPing "200"
//seta snaps "40"
//seta com_maxfps "75"
//seta cl_maxpackets "36"
//seta cl_packetdup "0"
//seta cg_predictItems "0"
//seta cg_nopredict "0"
//seta cl_timenudge "-150"
//seta cl_allowdownload "0"

//network settings (ADSL 512k)
//seta rate "25000"
//seta cl_maxPing "100"
//seta cl_maxpackets "100"
//seta snaps "60"
//seta com_maxfps "125"
//seta cl_packetdup "0"
//seta cg_predictItems "0"
//seta cg_nopredict "0"
//seta cl_timenudge "-15"
//seta cl_allowdownload "0"

//network settings (cable)
seta rate "25000"
seta cl_maxPing "100"
seta cl_maxpackets "125"
seta snaps "40"
seta com_maxfps "125"
seta cl_packetdup "0"
seta cg_predictItems "0"
seta cg_nopredict "0"
seta cl_timenudge "-20"
seta cl_allowdownload "0"

//controller settings
seta in_joystick "0"
seta in_mouse "1"
seta m_side "0.25"
seta m_forward "0.25"
seta m_yaw "0.022"
seta m_pitch "0.022"
seta m_filter "1"
seta cl_mouseAccel "0"
seta cl_pitchspeed "150"
seta cl_yawspeed "140"
seta sensitivity "10"

//seta name "^5-^4UNR^5-^7Yakumo ^7"
//seta name "^4Y^7akumo ^7"

//nameswappage bind
seta yaku "set name ^4Y^7akumo ^7;set _chname vstr unryaku"
seta unryaku "set name ^5-^4UNR^5-^7Yakumo ^7;set _chname vstr yaku"
vstr yaku


//nameswappage bind2
seta yaku2 "set name ^4Y^7akumo ^7;set _chname2 vstr unryaku2"
seta unryaku2 "set name ^7yakumo^5'^4unr^7 ^7;set _chname2 vstr yaku2"
vstr yaku2

seta fpssv "pb_cvarval sv_fps"

//player details
seta model "crash/default"
seta headmodel "crash/default"
seta team_model "crash/default"
seta team_headmodel "crash/default"
seta sex "female"
seta handicap "100"
//seta color "3"
seta cl_run "1"
seta cg_thirdperson "0"

//player game preferences
seta cg_viewsize "100"
seta cg_forceModel "0"
seta cg_drawTimer "1"
seta cg_fov "120"
seta cg_zoomfov "60"
seta cg_autoswitch "0"
seta cg_marks "0"
seta cg_drawfps "0"
seta cg_drawgun "0"
seta cg_lagometer "1"
seta cg_bobpitch "0"
seta cg_bobroll "0"
//seta cg_bobup "0"
seta cg_brassTime "0"
seta cg_marks "0"
seta cg_runpitch "0"
seta cg_runroll "0"
seta cg_shadows "0"
seta cg_simpleItems "0"
seta cg_draw2D "1"
seta cg_errordecay "0"
seta cg_gibs "0"
seta com_blood "0"
seta cg_drawTeamOverlay "1"
seta cg_deferPlayers "1"

seta cg_scorePlums 0
seta disable_weapon_bfg 1

//crosshair
seta cg_crosshairY "0"
seta cg_crosshairX "0"
seta cg_crosshairHealth "0"
seta cg_drawCrosshairNames "1"
seta cg_drawCrosshair "5"
seta cg_drawAmmoWarning "0"
seta cg_drawRewards "0"
seta cg_crosshairSize "24"



seta vid_xpos "223"
seta vid_ypos "113"


//Default sound stuff
seta s_volume "0.7"
seta s_musicvolume "0"
seta s_separation "0.5"
seta s_khz "22"
seta s_compression "0"
seta s_doppler "0"
seta s_mixahead "0.08"
//default mixahead = 0.2
seta s_mixPreStep "0.05"
seta s_rolloff "1.0"
seta s_distance "100.0"
seta s_min_distance "3.0"
seta s_max_distance "1000.0"
seta s_leafnum "0"
seta s_refgain "0.45"
seta s_refdelay "2.0"
seta s_polykeep "1000000000"
seta s_polysize "10000000"
seta s_polyreflectsize "10000000"
seta s_numpolys "400"
seta s_bloat "2.0"
seta s_occfactor "0.5"
seta s_occ_eq "0.75"

//win98 adjustments
//seta r_ignorehwgamma "0"
//seta r_overBrightBits "1"
//seta r_gamma "1.3"
//seta r_intensity "1"
//seta sensitivity "14"


//win2k adjustments
seta r_ignorehwgamma "1"
seta r_overBrightBits "1"
seta r_gamma "1.7"
seta r_intensity "1.4"
seta r_mapOverBrightBits "2"

//alternate win2k adjustments
//seta r_ignorehwgamma "0"
//seta r_gamma "1.3"
//seta r_intensity "1"
//seta r_overBrightBits "0"


// additional GeForce graphics stuff
seta r_displayrefresh "120"
seta r_picmip "1"
seta r_vertexlight "0"
seta r_textureMode "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
seta r_fullbright "0"
seta r_allowExtensions "1"
seta r_ext_compiled_vertex_array "1"
seta r_ext_compressed_textures "1"
seta r_ext_multitexture "1"
seta r_drawstrips "1"
seta r_nocurves "0"
seta r_nocull "0"
seta r_dynamiclight "0"
seta r_facePlaneCull "1"
seta r_lodCurveError "250"
seta r_lodbias "0"
seta r_subdivisions "4"
seta r_stencilbits "8"
seta r_finish "0"
seta r_flares "0"
seta r_ext_compress_textures "1"


//teamplay stuff
bind home "say_team ^2 ^1NEED HELP^7!"
bind end "say_team ^2 ^1ENEMY ^5POWERUP^7!"
bind del "say_team ^5QUAD ^3IS DEAD^7!"
bind ins "say_team ^5QUAD ^3SOON^7!"

bind kp_pgup "say_team ^2 ^3Secure^7!"
bind kp_uparrow "say_team ^7::: ^2HOLDING AREA ^7:::"
//bind kp_rightarrow
bind kp_leftarrow "say_team ^2 ^3Waiting for weap^7/^3armour^7!"
bind kp_5 "say_team ^2 ^3Item Taken^7!"
bind kp_home "say_team ^2 ^3Item Available^7!"
bind UPARROW "say_team ^2 ^3Need weapon^7/^3armour^7!"
bind LEFTARROW "say_team ^2 ^3Enemy Sighted^7!"

bind kp_plus "say_team ^2 ^3Item Needed^7!"

bind kp_slash "say_team ^1Negative^7/^3Can't Respond^7!"
bind * "say_team ^2Acknowledged^7/^3on my way^7!"

//memory
seta com_hunkMegs "160"
seta com_soundmegs "16"
seta com_zonemegs "24"

//misc
seta win_noalttab "1"
seta net_noipx "1"
seta bot_nochat "1"
seta sv_allowdownload "0"
seta sv_hostname "Shisei"
seta logfile "0"
seta lan "sv_fps 20; snaps 30; rate 25000; cl_timenudge 0"
seta dmaps "dir maps bsp"

//demo recording
seta startdemo "g_synchronousClients 1;vstr demonumber;g_synchronousClients 0; set demotoggle vstr stopdemo"
seta stopdemo "stoprecord; vstr democycle; set demotoggle vstr startdemo"
seta demo_1 "record demo_1; set demonumber vstr demo_2"
seta demo_2 "record demo_2; set demonumber vstr demo_3"
seta demo_3 "record demo_3; set demonumber vstr demo_4"
seta demo_4 "record demo_4; set demonumber vstr demo_5"
seta demo_5 "record demo_5; set demonumber vstr demo_6"
seta demo_6 "record demo_6; set demonumber vstr demo_7"
seta demo_7 "record demo_7; set demonumber vstr demo_8"
seta demo_8 "record demo_8; set demonumber vstr demo_9"
seta demo_9 "record demo_9; set demonumber vstr demo_10"
seta demo_10 "record demo_10; set demonumber vstr demo_11"
seta demo_11 "record demo_11; set demonumber vstr demo_12"
seta demo_12 "record demo_12; set demonumber vstr demo_13"
seta demo_13 "record demo_13; set demonumber vstr demo_14"
seta demo_14 "record demo_14; set demonumber vstr demo_15"
seta demo_15 "record demo_15; set demonumber vstr demo_16"
seta demo_16 "record demo_16; set demonumber vstr demo_17"
seta demo_17 "record demo_17; set demonumber vstr demo_18"
seta demo_18 "record demo_18; set demonumber vstr demo_19"
seta demo_19 "record demo_19; set demonumber vstr demo_20; echo ^1ONE DEMO LEFT! CYCLE ABOUT TO FLIP!"
seta demo_20 "record demo_20; set demonumber vstr demo_1"
seta demonumber "vstr demo_1"
seta demotoggle "vstr startdemo"


//1.27g + stuff
seta r_inGameVideo "0"
seta cg_hudfiles "ui/hud2.txt"
bind o "scoresUP"
bind l "scoresDOWN"
seta r_ignorefastpath "0"
seta cg_smoothclients "1"
seta pmove_msec "8"

//nailgun 11, prox 12, chaingun 13
bind b "weapon 11"
bind n "weapon 12"
bind m "weapon 13"

seta cg_drawteamoverlay 1
seta cg_enableosphud "0"
seta ch_TeamBackground "1"
seta ch_statusbarformat "8"
seta ch_weaponswitch "6"
seta ch_TeamCrosshairHealth "1"
seta cf_Statusbar "32x48"
seta cf_Teamoverlay "11x11"
seta cf_Fragmsg "8x8"
seta ch_crosshaircolor "2"
seta pmove_fixed "0"
seta cg_customloc "1"

//1.29 stuff

seta cg_oldRail "1"
seta cg_oldRocket "1"
seta cg_oldPlasma "1"
seta cg_trueLightning "0"
setu color "8"
setu color "3"
seta color1 "3"
seta color2 "3"
seta cg_useScreenShotJPEG "1"
//1.32
seta cg_oversamplemouse "0"
seta cl_punkbuster "1"

//end



Punkbuster
Punkbuster is an anti-cheat system that scans your system and config files for known cheats, or for settings that the host of the server you're playing on has told his PB server to ban. PB is regularly updated by evenballance, it's creators, to keep cheaters at bay. Anyone playing q3 these days needs to have punkbuster enabled, this can be done in the menu, having seta cl_punkbuster 1 in your cfg, or typing \pb_cl_enable in the console.

Updating the pb system files :

If you connect to a Quake 3 server, play for a bit, and get kicked back to spectator mode as soon as you die, it is because your punkbuster client needs to be updated. in order to do this, you can either sit and wait for a while, it will happen automatically, or you can go to
http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=dl-q3a.php and download pbweb.exe to your quake3/pb folder, then run that program to force a manual update, this can take several minutes however, especially if it is the first time you have run the updater.

If even THAT doesn't work properly, you can this in the q3 console

\pb_sv_enable
\pb_sv_update

wait for a while for it to update, then :
\pb_sv_disable

Configuring :

Punkbuster has problems on some peoples systems that can cause bad lag while playing, if your game seems to be very skippy, you may want to try

\disconnect
\pb_system

this will tell you what pb_system is currently set to
then
\pb_system 1
or
\pb_system 0
to change it to it's alternative state.
\reconnect
(to get you back into your game)

pb_system modifies how punkbuster scans your system for cheats, you can't guess as to which setting will be best for you, just try them out, PB saves the setting for you, you don't have to change it again after restarting quake unless your punkbuster client folder is removed/damaged for any reason (after
reinstalling q3 for example).

The place to go for punkbuster feedback is http://www.punksbusted.com where evenbalance employees read and reply to the forums sometimes.

utils

Ever wanted to check out another program / get back to the desktop quickly without having to alt-enter so all the map and texture data gets loaded again? 4t tray minimizer is a fantastic little tool that lets you settup shortcut keys to minimize apps to the systray, letting you switch from q3 (or any other game) to the desktop and back practically instantaneously. after trying a similar app (that didn't work with many of my games) i'd suggest ctrl+shift+end as a nice shortcut your not likely to hit accidentaly, and wont interfeer with your game, not if your a wasd player anyway. I'd also disable all the titlebar stuff so it doesn't waste resources or mess with other programs tbh, and also disable the two 'hide by...' options in options - hiding, or you could find yourself with dissapearing windows not realising where they've gone :)

[yakumo]

ok, so it's not so much a mark II as an update (small bit of PB stuff and a timenudge rant) , but i figured the relocation warranted that :oP and the orriginal name for it had stopped some from bothering to read it at all apparently because they said they saw it was for noobs and ignored it, lol.

[JinxM]

nice 1 m8

[BBW]

So lose the old one from sticky? Does this replace the old one?

[yakumo]

yes, unless there was anything in the comments under the orriginal guide that was worth keeping..

the guide here is the same as the updated one on bygames.com that jinxM had saved b4 i just updated it anyway, if u get what i mean..

[BBW]

The guide is legendary. Big up to you!

[JinxM]

Originally Posted by BBW

The guide is legendary. Big up to you!

Indeed which is why I thought it was worth saving Very, very pleased to see an updated version here \o/

[JinxM]

..

[BBW]

,,

[[RaG]Ethel]

That post is indecently good

[yakumo]

added bit at the bottom about an ace little windows util i found.

[yakumo]

poll : q3 FORCE range for abusable cvar ranges BY PB DEFAULT?

I'm being cheeky and posting this here so it's stuck with the stikky unlike the main post :

I'm working really hard to improve Q3 for EVERYONE, but the main problem is APATHY, everyone is SO happy to bitch and winge '333 cheat, config abuser' FOR HOURS, etc, but they can't be assed to take 2 minutes sign up on a forum for free, that generates no spam mail, and vote and post to support sometihng that could fix all this! punksbusted.com forums are read and replied to by actual EvenBalance staff, the makers of PB.

I would like to bring this poll to your attention, as i think most of you don't browse the PunkbusterForum often, and just stay here.

please vote for a sensible PB enforced default standard on network and fps ranges for online Q3 gaming.

it will prevent rate of fire abuse (333 fps) , movement/w4rp abuse, and other network exploits (q30wnor like ineye spec bug)

this isn't quite as high profile as it should be simply because most serious players play OSP or CPMA exclusively so it was a dead [fixed] issue some time ago [for them], THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE REST OF US SHOULD BE LEFT IN THE LURCH. and even OSP would benefit from PB not polling the cvar's the way it currently does, if there was a way to just invisibly force cleints to within x ranges, as it would lighten the server load.

Even if the method for capping cvar's can not be changed to a something more efficient, setting a standard default PB set that is used on a server once PB is installed with sensible ranges would be HIGHLY beneficial, and counter 'stupid non gamesplaying admin' syndrome.In the same way as if Q3 defaulted to sv_cheats 1 PB would have been distributed enforcing sv_cheats 0 for all online servers.

PB has the ability to safeguard Q3 players from exploiters/cheats and admin's who know practically nothing about the game they are hosting, "with great power comes great responsibility", PunkBuster has that power, most admin's think no more of pb than the be all and end all anti cheat device they leave to update itself, 'so anything pb doesn't check, can't be cheating/ or an exploit'. PB has a duty to protect the players from this apathy.

so please vote, don't let people who only play OTHER GAMES dictate whats best for ours, don't let apathy rule, please sign up and vote! (and leave suportive comments in the poll's thread!)

poll : q3 FORCE range for abusable cvar ranges BY PB DEFAULT?

yakumo'unr
Yakumo's q3 guide for all levels of player (mk II)

[fab]

why pay £30 for a piece of glass to use as a mousemat? cant I just use an old scrap from the cellar? does it have some special surface this icemat?

[fab]

ah. my wacom tablet makes a perfect mousemat my old mat is brown with dust etc (not shit).

[yakumo]

Originally Posted by fab

why pay £30 for a piece of glass to use as a mousemat? cant I just use an old scrap from the cellar? does it have some special surface this icemat?

ah. my wacom tablet makes a perfect mousemat my old mat is brown with dust etc (not shit).

they're stylish, durable, stick well to your desk, and the black ones are officially approved by microsoft for perfect tracking of their 6000hz optical mice (ie all new models, not the old ones)

any old chunk of glass will cause tracking errors.

me, I don't like to put anytihng but my stylus on my £360 wacom tablet, the wear and tear on my mouse matts from constant FPS gaming would cause me to have to replace it roughly once every 8 months.
the icematt's are now available direct from scan, and cost less than £30, i have even been told they are bundling MS mice with them in some special offer, it woudl have been nice to have been mentioned if they are using my guides to influence this :p

[fab]

heh, yep I quickly realised some rather serious scratching on my wacom

what are tracking errors? Aren't they just with optical mice? I use a Boomslang.

[yakumo]

when you move your mouse pysically, but something causes the ball to slip, or the laser to not read the surface correctly, so your cursor may not move at all, or may skip, or hang for a second, or even move completely the wrong way.

[fab]

Sorry to go into this but is the glass on the icemat just frosted? I want to make my own.

[yakumo]

sortof, specific type, thickness, soft rounded don't slice you up edges, black coating on one side, 6 half sphere rubber feet.

[MaD-MaN]

this should be a sticky!!!

[yakumo]

If you wish to re-publish this guide for non profit purposes, please do so in full, maintaining all credits. It would be great if you drop me a PM on this forum to let me know where you intend to publish it too. If you wish to mirror this guide commercially you must contact me, PM's on this board get immediately emailed to an active mail address. Happy Quakeing

I'd wanted to add that to the top of the page having just spotted it republished on some fan sites, I can no-longer update the guide as trickery has put a 2500 character limit on posts and the guide is already WAY over that :-/

I'd like to add some tips for getting everything working properly under Vista, after
I was inspired to reinstall q3 for a bit the other day, after having an argument on youtube about whether the dm6 bridge to rail jump was impossible or not, lol.

Originally Posted by MaD-MaN

this should be a sticky!!!

It used to be, they kept accidentally turning it off though, when I last left the scene 3 years back it's last status was stickied though.

Seems rather silly I never got round to mentioning the Defrag trick jumping mod : http://defrag.planetquake.gamespy.com/

and the pqmaps pack link in the guide is dead now, you can find it here instead : http://www.funender.com/defragmaps/pqjumps.pk3/

[zsdead]

Originally Posted by yakumo

If you wish to re-publish this guide for non profit purposes, please do so in full, maintaining all credits. It would be great if you drop me a PM on this forum to let me know where you intend to publish it too.

Hi I have been hosting your guide here for about 2 years.

http://www.quaketweaks.com

I have been trying to save all the good stuff quake 3 wise. I don`t have the time to do much in the way of updates doing advanced radio ham exam (yeah yeah I know its sad).

I tried sending pm nothing happened no answer

Cheers

Zsdead

[yakumo]

Originally Posted by zsdead

Hi I have been hosting your guide here for about 2 years.

http://www.quaketweaks.com

I have been trying to save all the good stuff quake 3 wise. I don`t have the time to do much in the way of updates doing advanced radio ham exam (yeah yeah I know its sad).

I tried sending pm nothing happened no answer

Cheers

Zsdead

I just got it, thanks
haven't been checking my mail the last few days

[yakumo]

Updated version for QuakeLive here

also

THREAD (&FORUM) NECROMANCY!!!

[Squire]

Nice, cheers!