Some Improvements for "Quake Enhanced" KEX Engine (Ash1980 21.03.23)

I like “Quake Enhanced” and its engine (KEX Engine) with beautiful lighting (especially from fans and lava). But it can also be improved a little, although it does not know how to connect HD-textures. Here is my build that I made for myself, maybe it will also be useful to someone and will be interesting. Especially for those who do not want to understand my models for a long time in another topic.

In order to improve the visual part of “Quake Enhanced” (KexEngine), but while maintaining the overall appearance of the game, I made the following changes:

Changes from 21.03.23 - modification adapted to “QE” Update 4 ver.1.0.5237 (there is no access to a newer version yet).

WARNING: Due to the inability in my country to download the current version of the game from steam, you need to open my archive “pak0.pak” and see at the end of which file names I added the “-” symbol. You will have to add the same symbol in your version of the archive “pak0.pak”, overwrite it and the game will start.

Note: Since not everyone needs alternative soundtracks, I have allocated them to a separate archive.

What was done:

  1. Monster models have been replaced with models with fully or partially corrected animation inMD5+MDL format (except Tarbaby model). The Demon, Ogre, Tarbaby, Shalraf and Wizard models have several textures and can be used in other modifications with multiskins;
  2. All models of monster heads have been replaced. The Demon, Ogre, Shalraf and Wizard head models have several textures and can be used in other modifications with multiskins;
  3. All key models in MDL format have been replaced. The key models are taken from the “AD” and “DP” modifications (converted from MD3 format and reduced textures to a size of 256x256 pixels). The original models are disabled;
  4. All models of ammo and megahealth were replaced with improved models (they were in MDL format, but they were not used by the developers) and converted to BSP format with corrected geometry and original texture size;
  5. Replaced models of small and medium medkits with models from the “AD” modification with redesigned skins of flashing lights and the original size of textures and converted to BSP format. These models look better than the original ones;
  6. The original models of exploding boxes have been replaced with “Authentic Model Improvements” models in BSP format (the game uses only models in BSP format!). Goodbye lighting and shadow from the model;
  7. The armor model in MDL format was replaced with an improved model from “DP”, converted from MD3 format, geometry was corrected and textures were reduced to a size of 256x256 pixels. The original model is disabled;
  8. Replaced item models: suit (fixed geometry of feet and helmet), ring, invulnerability, quad damage, lavaball, all gibs, grenade, laser, spikes, rocket, flame and torch. The models are taken from “QE”, “AD”, “DP”. Partially original models are disabled;
  9. Models of rotating weapons have been replaced with improved models in MDL format from “AD”. The original simple models are disabled;
  10. The models of weapons in the player’s hands have been replaced with models with corrected animation in MDL format and partially in MD5 format (except for the grenade launcher and rocket launcher, because they have irreparable problems with muzzle flash from a shot and can only be fixed in MDL models). The original models are disabled;
  11. The shotgun model has been replaced with a model in MDL format with a redesigned animated moving shutter in MDL format. Partially original models are disabled;
  12. I replaced all soundtracks in the OGGx256kbit format (I’m tired of the original soundtracks and don’t like them all). Although in standard episodes the game uses only soundtracks from 03 to 11 numbers, and the second soundtrack in demo No.1, I replaced them all from 00 to 11 numbers;
  13. Just in case, *.VIS files have been added for all maps (I really don’t know if they work in “QE” or not);
  14. The “quake.rc” file has been changed and replaced. As a result, the following changes were made:
  • removed unnecessary shadows from the Wizard, lavaball, flame, rockets, various particles and shots (r_noEntityCastShadowList);
  • added flame and torch smoothing, which was disabled by default (r_nolerp_list);
  • reduced the size of the full HUD menu with weapons and ammo, which occupied half the screen (scr_screenscale 2.0);
  • the display of frames per second in the game is enabled (con_showfps 1);
  • transparency of liquids is enabled (in “QE” it seems to work initially), for some reason in the game these parameters are very often reset after loading the map;
  1. The bubble sprite has been replaced with transparent ones;
  2. Optionally, the “pak2.pak” archive has been added and the “enforcer” and “soldier” models in MD5+MDL format have been replaced with more massive models with maximally corrected animation of all movements (the original model from Chereptor). The head models “h_guard” and “h_mega” have also been replaced.

Due to the fact that the game does not support external textures in high resolution, I had to abandon the use of models of ammo, medkits, keys, armor with textures of 480x480 pixels in size so that the models would not stand out from the overall picture. As a result, some models have the original texture size, and some have been reduced to 256x256 pixels.

INSTALLATION: Copy the contents of the archive to the “rerelease/id1” folder, after saving your original files (in case you don’t like the changes).

WARNING: Due to the fact that the game does not allow you to change the size of the archive “pak0.pak”, then no files can be deleted from it, you can only rename them! Disabling any files was done by me by adding a dash to the file name. To include the file back, you need to remove the dash at the end of the file name and overwrite the archive “pak0.pak”. If the archive “pak0.pak” has a size other than 175,868 KB, the game will not start. Disabled and renamed only those models that additionally have MD5 format and are guaranteed to overlap with the modified models in MDL format and will not allow them to be activated (archive “pak1.pak”). Additional archives “pak1.pak” and “pak2.pak” can be changed as you like and allow you to add and delete any files.

P.S. The description in Russian is inside the archive.

Link to download the archive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jDdUbqH8MPEZIG_5-K2c24f_myBvWoeb/view?usp=sharing

Link to download the archive (music only):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvQYReCfpVC1_HE5O1AtgLLmm3Iec35S/view?usp=share_link

Link to several screenshots:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u_m5pZP5AydlP-nAiVAZDbTSRifG2t4r/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SSA_8cLJWGN8aT5kenPc146B35csdLl2/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zGqGt6bGSRIuYofNC3D0PHv_UUjWqRzI/view?usp=share_link

Link to my other topic with all the models from “Quake Enhanced”:
https://www.quaddicted.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1017

With best wishes,
Andrew (Ash1980)

All my previous attempts with the “enforcer” and “soldier” models in MD5 format to smooth out the appearance and disappearance of the muzzle flash led to the fact that its movement became even more visible. This became especially noticeable in the “Kex Engine”. I removed the extra flash movements inside the models and everything seemed to come back and get better. In the “QSS” engine, this is not so noticeable. Everything works correctly for the “enforcer” and “soldier” models in MDL format.

I ask those people who downloaded the archive earlier to overwrite it. The download link has been updated.

Changes from 23.08.2022 - modification adapted for QE Update 3 ver.1.0.5224

The message is not relevant

Your screens reminds to me the 90-s where a lot of lucky owners of Voodoo playing games at 800x600x16 and were happy of it. I’m was shocked seeing Quake and Unreal espesially on voodoo graphics - it was some kind of magic!
And only now (when I begun playing Quake again some years ago) I understood all perfection of BIG SQUARE PIXELS.
Put in autoexec string
gl_texturemode “GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR”

and turn to the light side of the force.

Changes from 03.12.2022 - modification adapted for “QE” Update 4 ver.1.0.5237

Note: Since not everyone needs alternative soundtracks, I have allocated them to a separate archive.

I really like the soundtrack here. Did you make it?

Of course it’s not my music. The last time I composed music was 25 years ago on the ZX-Spectrum (many people don’t know about the existence of such a computer). :slight_smile:

I’ve been surfing the internet for a very long time and looking for dark space music and similar soundtracks.

Of course it’s not my music. The last time I composed music was 25 years ago on the ZX-Spectrum (many people don’t know about the existence of such a computer). :slight_smile:

I’ve been surfing the internet for a very long time and looking for dark space music and similar soundtracks.[/quote]

It’s never too late to resume! Otherwise you’ve got a great collection here. Do you have a list of the artists? I’d love to check out their stuff one by one.

Screenshot of music tracks:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_abphuEnlVQWqcNyMG-3Rw2g5KZhbsFD/view?usp=sharing

^Cheers!

Thanks for this tastefully done work, Andrew!

Would you kindly update it to Quake Enhanced Update 4 ver.1.0.5243? I’m not sure if that’s related, but when using your current release (03.12.2022 for 1.0.5237) my Quake 1.0.5243 (GOG release) console is being spammed with “[Impulse] Custom HUDs not supported” message (I’m using TFGH instead of WASD).

Please consider lowering volume of jump sound so it better matches all other sounds (at the moment I find jump sound to be a bit too loud). You can use REW to edit sound volume without quality loss of I can do it if you upload the audio file.

Finally, maybe you could make it a bit clearer: do I have to use MD5 heads released at https://quakeone.com/forum/quake-mod-releases/finished-works/283469 or you included better ones?

P.S. The music that you included is awesome!

Hello!

Please, read the following points in the description: 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, WARNING. To understand which models in the “md5.mesh” format are disabled (they are simply renamed), open the downloaded archive “pak0.pak” using the viewer. For example, the file “armor-.md5mesh” is disabled (a dash is added at the end of the file name). I did not use the updated head models in the “md5” format and some other objects, but only in “mdl”. This is done because not all models exist in the “md5” format, but only in the “mdl” format. You can’t replace or delete anything in the original archive!

If you want, you can use the link from the site “quakeone”, but in that archive there are old models of the demon’s head, the knight’s head from the “Copper” mod and the soldier’s head with a terrible skin.

I only have the game version 1.0.5237 and can’t download the 1.0.5243 version of the game.

I didn’t make any settings with impulses and sound. I just removed the extra shadows from flying objects. All these settings are in your folder “C:\Users *username*\Saved Games\Night dive Studios\Quake\kexengine.cfg”. To avoid any errors, just open your archive “pak0.pak” and see which files I renamed. Make the same changes in your file. And then just add my “pak1.pak” to your folder.

If you get HUD errors when starting the game, then open my “pak1.pak” file using “PakScape”. Find the file “quake.rc”, extract it from the archive, delete three lines in it and overwrite the file:

scr_usekfont 1 / changed font
scr_screenscale 2.0 / font scale
con_showfps 1 / displaying frames per second

Then put “quake.rc” back in “pak1.pak” and overwrite the archive (Ctrl+S).
If you do not want to do all these actions, then simply delete this file and overwrite the archive, but then the transparency values of liquids will be restored and shadows from flying objects will appear.

Errors should not appear when starting the game.

Thank you for throughout explanation, much appreciated! Your project is phenomenal, please consider further improvements to QE.

Changes from 13.02.23 - modification adapted to “QE” Update 4 ver.1.0.5237 (there is no access to version 1.0.5243 yet).

Description at the beginning of the topic.

Hey Andrew, just letting you know version 1.0.5243 can be found in Quake: Enhanced 1.0 (GOG Build 60828), the GOG store re-release.

I have updated the files. Changed the wrong animation of the hell knight, the boss and its texture in all formats, as well as corrected the teleport model.

New version works as expected except transparency bug (it’s KEX bug, please see explanation in other thread)! Thank you!

I already know, I tested it in the game, an interesting question. I wrote the answer there. :)))