FAQ

From OpenArena

Contents 1 General 1.1 What is OpenArena? 1.2 Where can I get the game ? 1.3 How do I install it under Linux ? 1.4 How do I install it under FreeBSD ? 1.5 How to change the video resolution to widescreen 1680x1050, 1280x800 or anything else ? 1.6 Where is the configuration files saved? 1.7 Where are autodownloaded files saved? 1.8 Can I change the directory to where configuration and autodownloaded files are saved? 1.9 What are the system requirements? 1.10 How can I use maps, models, mods made for Quake 3 Arena? 1.11 I want to contribute! 1.12 This game is too violent i mean bloody stuff and body meat pieces flying i can't watch :\ 1.13 HEY I recognize some of these maps from... Quake! 1.14 I have no 3D card / No OpenGL acceleration ! 1.15 What version am I running 2 Troubleshooting 2.1 Error message "Client/Server mismatch BaseOA-1/BaseQ3-1" 2.2 I get the error message "Invalid Game Folder" 2.3 The game crashed, and it left my screen too bright! 2.4 It does not start at all, no error message either. 2.5 The game switches from fullscreen to windowed mode and the mouse becomes unusable 2.6 Messages are overflowing in my console and they're about bots ! 2.7 There are no servers in the server list! 2.8 The game isn't as pretty as the screenshots :( 2.9 I get the error message "could not load OpenGL subsystem" 2.10 Error message "error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0 ..." 2.11 Error message "error while loading shared libraries: libvorbisfile.so.3...." 2.12 OpenArena starts fine but the graphics will sporadically become distorted and the text may be garbled

[edit] General

[edit] What is OpenArena?

OpenArena is an open-source content package for Quake III Arena licensed under the GPL, effectively creating a free stand-alone game. You do not need Quake III Arena to play this game.

[edit] Where can I get the game ?

• The Official Website
• BitTorrent
• Download Mirrors

[edit] How do I install it under Linux ?

see LinuxInstall

[edit] How do I install it under FreeBSD ?

Use the port. OpenArena is available through the FreeBSD ports system at games/openarena. Configuration for things like SMP support, SDL, OpenAL, choosing which binaries you want built and other options is handled through an ncurses-based menu.

Note that the OpenArena binaries have different names under FreeBSD. The binaries were renamed from their IOQuake3-derived names in order to prevent conflicts with other ports (namely, games/ioquake3). The binaries are now openarena for the base client, openarena-smp for the SMP client and openarenaded for the dedicated server.

The port uses the pak files from the Windows/Linux distribution, so there shouldn't be any problems playing online.

If you desire to play OpenArena under FreeBSD without using the port, it is possible to run the Linux OpenArena binaries using FreeBSD's Linux ABI. The information provided about it in the FreeBSD Handbook should be sufficient to install and run OA but here's a more OA-specific walkthrough.

The first steps are identical than for Linux. First, grab the tarball and exract it :

fetch http://download.tuxfamily.net/cooker/openarena/rel070/oa070.zip
sudo mkdir /usr/games/openarena
sudo mv oa070.zip /usr/games/openarena
cd /usr/games/openarena
sudo unzip oa070.zip
sudo rm oa070.zip

However, when you try to run it :

$ /usr/games/openarena/ioquake3-smp.i386
/usr/games/openarena/ioquake3-smp.i386: error while loading shared
libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such
file or directory

So you need to get libSDL (and a few other libs too). There are two methods for that. You can either copy them from an existing Linux system or download the Debian or Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) packages for them and extract the libraries (*.so.*) files from them. Alternatively, I've put all of them online. I've also written a shell script to automate the installation of the libs, if you want to use it, do :

fetch http://fkraiem.free.fr/oalibs/oalibs.sh
chmod +x oalibs.sh
sudo ./oalibs.sh

Otherwise, you can do it manually. Whatever the method you used to get the libs was, when you have your SO file, you need to copy it to the correct place, in the file hierarchy under the /compat/linux directory. For example, in Linux (Debian Etch), the libSDL file is located at /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.0 and /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0 is a symlink to it, so we do :

sudo cp libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.0 /compat/linux/usr/lib
cd /compat/linux/usr/lib
sudo ln -s libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.0 libSDL-1.2.so.0

And the same goes for each other library OA asks for when you try to run it. Optionnally, you can make a symlink to the game binary somewhere in your $PATH, for example :

sudo ln -s /usr/games/openarena/ioquake3-smp.i386 /usr/local/bin/openarena

Which will let you run the game by just typing

openarena

[edit] How to change the video resolution to widescreen 1680x1050, 1280x800 or anything else ?

Since 0.7.6 you should be able to pick any resolution your hardware supports. The information here is for 0.7.1 and older.

Edit the config file (it is created after first launch) :

vi ~/.openarena/baseoa/q3config.cfg

Mac users

~/Library/Application Support/OpenArena/baseoa/q3config.cfg 

Windows user

notepad %APPDATA%\OpenArena\baseoa\q3config.cfg

You need to find and modify these lines (resolution may vary) :

seta r_customheight "1024"
seta r_customwidth "1600"
seta r_mode "3"

And change them to (adapt resolution) :

seta r_customheight "1050"
seta r_customwidth "1680"
seta r_mode "-1"

Here r_mode "-1" stands for "custom settings", whereas the default value depends on your system and stands for the performance level.

Alternatively, you can type the following in the game's console (adapt your resolution) :

r_customheight 1050
r_customwidth 1680
r_mode -1
vid_restart

[edit] Where is the configuration files saved?

the exact location differs from operating system.

Linux and the like: ~/.openarena/

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/OpenArena/

Windows: %APPDATA%\OpenArena\

[edit] Where are autodownloaded files saved?

Only pk3 files can be autodownloaded and they will be stored in subfolders of the following:

Linux and the like: ~/.openarena/

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/OpenArena/

Windows: %APPDATA%\OpenArena\

[edit] Can I change the directory to where configuration and autodownloaded files are saved?

Yes you can.

Start the game with "+set fs_homepath PATH" to select where the game may write files. Replace PATH with the location to store in.

You can use PATH = . to store in the install directory. Like: "+set fs_homepath ."

[edit] What are the system requirements?

These are the minimum:

• Pentium II 233MHz / AMD K6-2 300MHz or equally powerful processor
• 64MB of system memory
• OpenGL supported video card with 16MB of video memory. (Voodoo Banshee, TNT and up)
• 300MB of hard drive space

The game in theory can run on Pentium 100's with a Voodoo2, but don't expect much performance over 20fps and the loading time to be less than a minute.

[edit] How can I use maps, models, mods made for Quake 3 Arena?

The installation is nearly the same as in Q3A. Simply copy the .pk3 files (of the map/model/etc) to your OpenArena/baseoa/ directory.

To be able to successfully use a model it must come complete with all graphics, skin files and animations and not depend on using Quake 3 Arena model resources. As a rough guide any .pk3 model file over 1 Mb may be compliant. If it does comply then you will probably have a character you can then access.

Model files either come in pairs or singly. If there is more than one file, one will be a character file such as md3-aeon-flux.pk3 and the other(s), a bot file such as bots-aeon-flux.pk3. The bot file is the important one which needs to be edited. The bot file, if it exists, is usually very small in size and under 10 KB.

If there is only one file, such as md3-laracroft.pk3, it needs to be opened up using an unzipping application such as 7-Zip (recommended) to see if there is a folder called botfiles inside it. If this folder exists then it needs to be opened up to see if there is a folder called bots within. If it exists there should be a number of files - usually 4 or a multiple of 4 - within that control the bots.

If it is a bot file, such as the bots-aeon-flux.pk3 file, the same folders and file structure should exist as well.

Here are the four files within the bots-aeon-flux.pk3 file - Aeon-Flux_c.c, Aeon-Flux_i.c, Aeon-Flux_t.c, Aeon-Flux_w.c

The two important files are the _i.c and _w.c files which need to be edited to make the bots work.

Use an unzipping application on pak6-misc.pk3; 7-Zip is strongly recommended.

Open up the folder botfiles and then the folder bots.

All of the standard OpenArena characters are listed and each has four files.

Choose a character, we'll use Ayumi as an example here, and make copies of the following two files - ayumi_i.c and ayumi_w.c file - external to the pak6-misc.pk3 file. These copies must be accessible to a text editor. Close the file pak6-misc.pk3.

How you do the alterations now depends on your computer configuration.

If you are using Windows and 7-Zip you can edit the files concerned by right clicking on the file and choosing Edit. Thus you can open up bots-aeon-flux.pk3 and access and open Aeon-Flux_i.c, delete the old configuration, and cut and paste the configuration contents of ayumi_i.c here. Save and exit Notepad. 7-Zip will prompt you to save the updated .pk3 file. Say OK.

Do the same for Aeon-Flux_w.c using ayumi_w.c.

Fire up OpenArena and test the changes. There may still be further tweaks to be done but this is enough to get started.

If there is only one pk3 file and the botfiles and bot folder structure exist with the correct files within, then the same procedure will work.

Test each altered model pack carefully checking for errors. See that all bots work correctly - can swap guns at will, will follow paths and shoot.

Also examine the stderr.txt file and see what errors it finds.

Mods need a subfolder at OpenArena/ instead of "Quake 3 Arena/".

[edit] I want to contribute!

Attention, this project needs open content! Your contribution must be public domain or GPLv2. Please take a look at the Developer FAQ for more information on how to contribute.

[edit] This game is too violent i mean bloody stuff and body meat pieces flying i can't watch :\

Type this in the console (pull it down with Shift+Esc):

/com_blood 0

[edit] HEY I recognize some of these maps from... Quake!

They are probably direct conversions of the .MAP files released under GNU GPL v2 by John Romero in October 2006. [1]

[edit] I have no 3D card / No OpenGL acceleration !

Try running the game with this added in the command line (remove backslash and carriage return) :

+set r_allowSoftwareGL 1 +set r_mode 0 +set r_lodbias 4 \
+set r_textureMode GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST +set r_picmip 2 +set r_vertexLight 1

Beware, it'll require some beefy processor for it to be playable though

[edit] What version am I running

In Debian based systems like Ubuntu and Freespire the openarena command may not tell you the version number. You may want to try this and observer the file name:

sudo apt-cache show openarena |grep ^Filename

[edit] Troubleshooting

[edit] Error message "Client/Server mismatch BaseOA-1/BaseQ3-1"

Enable automatic downloading by going to Setup then Game Options and clicking to turn Automatic Downloading to on.

[edit] I get the error message "Invalid Game Folder"

There are two possibilities: You do not run the same version as the server. This error should rarely happen with 0.7.7 or later.

Other possibility: Either you or the server has modified files in the pk3 file.

[edit] The game crashed, and it left my screen too bright!

You can try solving this by using LordHavoc's setgamma tool to reset the brightness to normal. You can find it here

[edit] It does not start at all, no error message either.

• Windows, Mac OS X 10.3 : install OpenAL libraries
• Linux : install libopenal0

[edit] The game switches from fullscreen to windowed mode and the mouse becomes unusable

Problem noticed using Linux.

1. First Solution: Make certain that you have disabled your screen saver.
2. Second solution : If OA switches to windowed mode after a few minutes of gameplay. Try to disable Compiz or any 3D environment if you use one. (see fourth solution)
3. Third solution : If you can't get your mouse working correctly after OA switched to windowed mode for whatever reason, try to follow these steps :
   1. stay in windowed mode
   2. make OA window active with alt+tab if necessary
   3. show the console (with Shift+Esc)
   4. click outside OA to have focus on a window different than the OA one
   5. click back in OA to make it active
   6. switch to fullscreen with ALT+Enter
   7. mask the console, your mouse should work ;)
4. Fourth Solution: (if you find that Compiz is causing the issue) Write a script to disable Compiz, start OpenArena, then re-enable Compiz once OA is shut down, so you can continue to have the cool effects for the rest of your session. To do so, open any text editor (such as gedit) and type the following:

#!/bin/bash
metacity --replace &
cd /{directory of installation}/
./openarena.i386
compiz --replace &

The above is only an example, and will need to be modified to fit your configuration. Where is says {directory of installation}, type the path from the root of your Filesystem, to, and including, the openarena directory. For example: /home/mark/Documents/openarena-0.8.1/ The line below may also need to be modified IF you use a 64 bit system. If you do, the second last line should read: ./openarena.x86_64

If you have a 32 bit system, leave it as: ./openarena.i386

Save the document anywhere. It should be recognized as a shell script. If you use an operating system that supports running scripts as executables, (such as Ubuntu), simply right click the file, click properties, go to the permissions tab, and check 'run as executable'. Then all you have to do is run the script, and OA will run like the issue never existed in the first place. You can also create a launcher for the script. Then all you need to do, is click the launcher, and OA runs perfectly! ;) Note: If you cannot set the file to run as an executable, then you need to run it in a terminal. Slight performance increases have also been noted with Compiz off.

[edit] Messages are overflowing in my console and they're about bots !

Try typing :

seta bot_enable 0

And restart the level.

[edit] There are no servers in the server list!

Possible because there are no servers running for your version. If there are any servers listed here and you do not see any in the server list in the game and you are using the latest version, you may need to configure certain firewall settings to allow OpenArena.

[edit] The game isn't as pretty as the screenshots :(

I enabled some extra detail settings in the console that isn't available in the menu:

• r_ext_texture_filter_anisotropic 4 - Enables anistropic filter. It's VERY noticable if you use high resolutions and view detailed characters (especially Kyonshi). Makes things a lot less blurry.
• r_flares 1 - Enables flares, which glow around map's light sources. Maps compiled with q3map2 with -flares may have flares as do maps compiled with q3map.
• cg_shadows 2 - Enables stencil shadows. r_stencilBits needs to be set to 8 for it to show up properly.
• r_detailTextures 1 - Enables detail texturing, which scatter maps and such adding a convincing texture effect to rid some of the filtering blur. This is usually enabled by default, but for some odd reason you don't have it set to 1, set it to 1.

Be warned that these options require a much beefier system with a fourth-generation video card (Geforce, Radeon) to run well.

[edit] I get the error message "could not load OpenGL subsystem"

• be sure you installed your video card driver correctly
• some current settings in OpenArena may be incompatible with your graphics card. Make a backup of the file q3config.cfg and delete it in your OpenArena folder.
• if you are executing it under Windows, be sure not to use Microsoft graphic drivers. Use drivers from your vendor. ATI NVIDIA

[edit] Error message "error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0 ..."

You need to install the libraries for OpenAL / OpenAudio Language. In Debian/Ubuntu you can do this with the command: sudo apt-get install libopenal0 else apt-get install libopenal0a

[edit] Error message "error while loading shared libraries: libvorbisfile.so.3...."

debian: sudo apt-get install libvorbisfile3

be sure you have unstable repository in your sources.list.

[edit] OpenArena starts fine but the graphics will sporadically become distorted and the text may be garbled

The walls and ceilings, for example, will become discoloured though the game will still be playable. When this happens you may also noticed that distorted graphics will "seep" out of OA and appear on your desktop.

If you know why this happens and/or have a workaround please explain it here. Thanks!

Something like this (walls were black, text was unreadable) happens to me. I solved it by turning Compiz off.