The Quake II developer company re-releases the game's source code
Recently, Id Software (an American game development company) announced that it has "re-released" the source code for Quake II "Rerelease" under the GPLv2 license, which is an updated, improved and expanded edition of the classic Quake II.
For those who are unaware of Quake II, you should know that This is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software. and distributed by Activision in 1997. Quake II uses a client/server network system similar to Quake's and has all the other features of the Quake engine, plus several additional ones. Unlike Quake, where hardware acceleration was not gained but later patches, Quake II was released with native OpenGL support.
The game code for the relaunch of "Quake II 2023" is available again for users who want to mod the game, along with the original game code which was used as a reference. The code is supposed to be useful for creating mods and new variants of the game. In addition to the PC version, the new edition adds support for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch platforms.
In addition to this, id Software mentions that cannot provide support for this version, but the goal is for users to take advantage of the many community resources that are already available.
Compared to the original Quake II game code published 12 years ago, in the new edition:
- The code has been adapted to work on modern operating systems.
- Added support for current compilers.
- Completely rewritten API to interact with game servers.
- Improved gameplay.
- Some items that were not included in the original version of the Quake II game have been returned to the game.
- Added support for 4K displays with 120Hz refresh rate.
- Reduced reaction time to player actions.
- Improved visualization of shots.
- Added new indicators for damage dealt to the player.
- Added a minimalist version of the game client.
- Added support for dynamic shadows, improved lighting, added support for glow maps.
- Improved character models, artifacts, and weapons.
- Fixed known issues with maps.
- Improved AI engine. AI opponents are offered for Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes.
- In addition to the playable campaigns from the original Quake II, Mission Packs, The Reckoning, Ground Zero, Quake II 64, and Call of the Machine expansions have been added.
About the relaunch of Quake II, it is mentioned that it uses a new version of the API to communicate between the server and the game module, since it also introduces a "client game" module, similar to Quake III Arena's cgame module, to allow modifications, plus it also has a new network protocol, version 2023.
This codebase is a combination of the separate game modules that were part of the original game: baseq2, ctf, rogue, and xatrix. It requires a C++17 compiler.
In cases of spawnflag conflicts, the maps have been modified to fix the issues, so maps from the original expansion pack may not load correctly with this DLL.
In addition, it is mentioned that the export interface of the game various changes have been made in the mods "already existing" and can be used to support changes to the API. However, in order to support all the expansion packs under one codebase and the new features in the new version, for those interested in creating their own mods and/or variants of the game, it is quite likely that they will need to rewrite the older mods that want to use the new code base.
Finally, For those interested, it is mentioned that mods can be loaded in the new version in the same way as in the original game, since it is enough to start the game with "+set game mymode" write "game mymoden» on the console while the game is running.
It is recommended to install mods in the folder «%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\Quake II» to make sure that the original game files are not modified.
If you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details in the following link.