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:
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- Models of rotating weapons have been replaced with improved models in MDL format from “AD”. The original simple models are disabled;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- Just in case, *.VIS files have been added for all maps (I really don’t know if they work in “QE” or not);
- 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;
- The bubble sprite has been replaced with transparent ones;
- 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)