Windows Installation

If you are a Windows user you can now use the automated Windows Online Installer to check which Q3F 2 files you already have (if any) and then locate the fastest download site and get exactly what's required to bring your installation up to date. The Windows Online Installer is available from the Files page at www.q3f.com. Once this has completed, you can start playing right away by clicking the Play Q3F icon on your desktop.

Once Q3F 2 has launched, select the Play Q3F option from the main menu. This will take you into the Q3F Server Browser. Just pick a server, wait for connection and play! If you would prefer to install manually from the ZIP file read on...

Preperation

Q3F 2 has been tested on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. If you are using one of these operating systems, have the latest OpenGL drivers installed for your video card and have an upto-date installation of Quake 3, Q3F 2 will work for you!

The first thing to check is that you have the latest Quake 3 Arena Point Release installed. Before attempting to run Q3F 2, you should start Quake 3 without any special options. Bring down the console (by hitting the tilde [`] key) and check the version installed.. You can always get the latest point release for all operating systems from www.quake3arena.com.

You may also run in to problems if you've ever installed any updates or patches that aren't from id Software - for example a CD-Hack that changes the Quake 3 Arena executable or any 3rd Party DLL's (such as Arenaspy or an FPS enhancer). In all cases you should delete or rename any files with the .DLL extension that are present in your \quake3 or \baseq3 directory. id Software have never released any offiicial patches with DLL extensions.

Downloading and Installing Q3F 2 on a Windows PC

The latest version of Q3F is always available from the downloads page at www.q3f.com. To install Q3F manually you should first download the latest full ZIP file and all subsequent updates. All Q3F 2 ZIP files contain additional folder information which will ensure that upon extraction, everything ends up in the right place. If you are using an extraction program that doesn't support folder information you should be sure to check that all Q3F 2's PK3 files (files that end with the extention PK3) arer located in the /q3f2 folder under Quake 3. For Windows we recomend the latest versions of Winzip or Winrar for extraction.

Once you have extracted Q3F 2, you should check the installation by creating a shortcut to Quake 3 that automatically loads Q3F 2. To do this, right click on your desktop and select 'new shortcut'. Click the browse button and find your quake3 executable. On most PCs it will be located in C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\. Once you've located Quake3.exe, click next and name the shortcut Play Q3F2.

You should find a new icon on your desktop with a Quake 3 logo. Right click this icon and select properties. Next edit the 'Target' by appending the line + set fs_game q3f2 +set com_hunkmegs 96 after quake3.exe. Here's what the complete 'Target' line will look like on most systems:

"C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\Quake3.exe" +set fs_game q3f2 +set com_hunkmegs 96

Q3F 2 also includes an updated icon. To use it click the 'Change Icon' button, click 'Browse', locate your Q3F 2 directory (usualy C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\q3f2) and choose the file named q3f.ico. Next click 'OK', click 'Apply', click 'OK' again and your updated Icon will now be present on your Desktop.

You can now verify your installation! Double click your new 'Play Q3F2' icon and Q3F 2 should start up. If you experience any problems click the Troubleshooting link above.

Running Servers

If you’d like to run a non-dedicated server for your friends to play on, just hit the CREATE button in the Server Browser. To learn how to run a dedicated Q3F 2.0 server, check out the Running Servers section available below.

Configuration

You will probably want to rebind your keys to ones which are more comfortable or familiar. To do this hit the ESCAPE key while playing and select the Bindings menu. For more information on configuration, click the Configuration link below.