This is highly outdated!

Use Quakespasm or DirectQ

A comparison of Quake Engines focused on Singleplayer. Gimmicky techdemos like Tenebrae are excluded as well as "old and forgotten" engines. Also excluded are engines that do not add any significant (for proper Singleplayer) features to its codebases (eg Tremor and Vengeance).

Please read the footnotes, especially if something seems unclear or weird.

If you have more feature comparisons to suggest and are willing to do the work, please contact me.

The only "special features" I added are ones I would like to see supported in more engines (such as logging centerprints to the console or full- and overbrights).

As most engines support those I excluded them: Scrolling in the console, colored lights (.lit), gamma

The testing was done on a mobile P3 with 256MB Ram and onboard Ati Mobility Radeon Something, Windows XP. If an engine had a "classic" mode I used it. I did NOT play around with cvars or anything like that.

ezQuake is only included because it is the most popular QW engine and unfortunately many people use it to play Singleplayer too.

To-Do

Check which engines support gl_texturemode (gl_linear_nearest = software look)
Add Makaqu
Add aguirRe's neh-glquake
Add Q2K4 (sv_perpoly_collision 0)
Test newer Darkplaces for better results on warpc and lr
My "is there animation interpolation" test (host_framerate 0.005) turned out to be a bad idea as some engines are actually interpolating but somehow not on that lower host_framerate. This means the whole "animation interpolation" column must be considered faulty. :(

General Information

Name	Author	Website	Tested release	OS support ((unofficial) ports)	Renderer
Winquake	id Software	website	1.00	Windows, (Linux, MacOS, more)	Software
GLquake	id Software	website	0.95 (1.09)	Windows, (Linux, MacOS, more)	OpenGL
Fitzquake	John "metlslime" Fitzgibbons	website	0.80	Windows, (Linux, MacOS)	OpenGL
aguirRe's glquake	aguirRe	website	1.33	Windows	Software, OpenGL
Tyr-glquake	Tyrann	website	0.58	Windows, Linux, BSD	Software, OpenGL
Darkplaces	LordHavoc	website	20.11.2007	Windows, MacOS, Linux	OpenGL
JoeQuake	Jozsef Szalontai	website	build 1862	Windows, Linux	Software, OpenGL
Qrack	R00k	website	v1.85 (build 2194)	Windows, (Linux)	OpenGL
QMB	DrLabman	website	V1.19	Windows	OpenGL
TomazQuake	Tomaz	-	1.48	Windows	OpenGL
Telejano	Tei	website	8.01	Windows	OpenGL
MHQuake	MH	website	8.1	Windows	OpenGL
ProQuake	JP Grossman and Baker	website	3.99	Windows, (Linux)	Software, OpenGL

General features

Name	"Faithful" engine [1]	runs marcher [2]	loads warpc [3]	loads lr.bsp [4]	Random special features [5]
WinQuake	yes	yes	"mod_numknown == MAX_MOD_KNOWN"	"ED_ALLOC: no free edicts"	unknown
GLQuake	yes	far parts are cut off, pretty slow	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"ED_ALLOC: no free edicts"	unknown
Fitzquake	yes	yes	"Mod_FindName: NULL name"	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	unknown
aguirRe's glquake	yes	yes	yes, slow but faster than the others	yes	unknown
Tyr-glquake	yes	yes	"Mod_FindName: NULL name"	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set (8192)"	r_lockpvs
Darkplaces	no	extremely slow	loads, but "server can't keep up" messages and very slow	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	Ogg Vorbis support, even for cdtracks. Highly advanced graphical features.
JoeQuake	yes	yes	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	dzip support
Qrack	no	extremely slow	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	dzip support
Telejano	no	use gl_far 8192	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"Loop_SendMessage: overflow"	unknown
QMB	no	brainmelting hell of failure	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"ED_ALLOC: no free edicts"	unknown
MHQuake	no	weird lighting	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	Beautiful sky
TomazQuake	no	yes	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	unknown
Proquake	yes	yes	Freezes unrecoverably. With a bit of luck you can control Windows via hotkeys in the background (you won't see what you are doing) to save open work or restart.	"SZ_GetSpace: overflow without allowoverflow set"	unknown
(ezQuake 1.9)	yes, optional	"gamelogic" is missing (of course, it's a QW engine), many entities are not displayed	"Host_Error: Map has too many models."	Loads the map but only displays ~1% of the monsters. Also sounds are "chopped".	unknown
Q2K4 (honorable mention)	yes	yes	"has encountered a problem and needs to close."	loads, but slow and sound choking	unknown

Graphic Features

Name	fullbrights	overbrights	animation interpolation	external textures [6]	fog from worldspawn [7]	"fancy" particles [8]	transparency	skybox from worldspawn	Waterwarp [9]
WinQuake	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	waving
GLQuake	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	waving
Fitzquake	yes	yes	no	yes (tga, pcx)	yes	no	no	yes	stretching
aguirRe's glquake	no	no	yes, optional	yes (tga, pcx)	yes	no	yes	yes	waving
Tyr-glquake	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	none
Darkplaces	yes	yes	yes	yes (lots)	yes	yes, optional	yes	yes	stretching
JoeQuake	yes	yes	yes	yes (tga, png, jpg)	no	yes, optional	yes	no	none
Qrack	no	yes	yes	yes (tga, png, jpg)	Crashes	yes, optional	yes	yes	none
Telejano	yes	no	yes	yes (lots)	no	yes	yes	yes	none
QMB	yes	yes	no	yes (lots)	no	yes	no	no	none
MHQuake	yes	no	no	yes (lots)	no	yes	no	no	none
TomazQuake	yes	no	no	yes (tga, pcx)	no	yes	yes	yes	none
Proquake	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	none
(ezQuake 1.9)	yes	yes	yes	yes (lots)	no	yes, optional	no	no	none

Testmap

I put my 3 testmaps into one: enginetest-spirit.zip
Explanations and these "reference" screenshots are included:

Screenshots

Some demo1.dem screenshots are available at engine_comparison_screenshots.html (warning, about 7 Megabytes of images).

Console Features

Name	enhanced tab completion	tab completion for files	logging centerprints [10]	insert mode [11]
WinQuake	no	no	no	no
GLQuake	no	no	no	no
Fitzquake	yes	no	yes	yes
aguirRe's glquake	no	no	yes	no
Tyr-glquake	yes	yes (maps and demos)	no	no
Darkplaces	yes, very	yes (maps and more)	no	yes
JoeQuake	yes	yes (maps, demos and more)	no	yes
Qrack	yes	yes (maps, demos and more)	yes	yes
Telejano	yes	no	no	yes
QMB	no	no	no	no
MHQuake	no	no	no	no
TomazQuake	yes	no	no	yes
Proquake	yes, basic	no	no	no
(ezQuake 1.9)	yes, very	no	no	yes

[1] Does the engine look, feel and work like Quake? For example Darkplaces got a "no" because of its sv_gameplayfix* and general map/mod breaking habit. This is a very subjective thing, I know.
[2] The "4 year old engine-killing map" test: Does the engine manage to load Kinn's The Marcher Fortress (marcher)? Does it display it fine? Does it run reasonably fast? Please note that I did not playtest the whole map, only up to the gate. Most engines will choke (at least) on sound overflows later. I used "-heapsize 48000 -game marcher +map marcher"
[3] The "new engine-killing map" test: The map "Sealed City" from ijed's Warpspasm (warpspasm). At first the idea was to use "coop 2, skill 2, nomonsters 1" to get the most out of it, but once I noticed that most engines got a breakdown on the mere loading of the map I used "-game warp -heapsize 128000 +map warpc" (note: I installed the quoth paks are into /warp).
[4] The "synthetic entity overkill": "Large Room", 500 monsters in one room. Limit overflow heaven.
[5] Any interesting features that might be nice to see more widespread, again very subjective.
[6] I tested for TARGA (.tga), PCX, JPEG (.jpg) and PNG. If an engine managed to display them all it got "lots". Some engines might support other formats.
[7] Unfortunately there are many different implementations of fog in the engines. They look drastically different. I prefer the Darkplaces style.
[8] For example "realistic" smoke trails on rockets or particle flames.
[9] If there is some "underwater" effect underwater like in software Quake. "waving" means the glquake vertex tango (which remotely looks like the software one), "stretching" means the weird artificial view squeezing, "none" means nothing happens. Some engines might have cvars for this, I didn't check. Caustics are fugly and something different.
[10] Does the engine log centerprint messages (for example "This door opens once you pressed a certain button") to the console? This is a very handy feature if you tend to overlook or forget such things.
[11] Can you move the cursor left in the console to insert characters? Often used with the Insert key.

Conclusion

Quite a lot of engines are missing crucial features or contain severe buggyness. While lr and warpc may be considered exceptions (and engines that run them exceptionally stable), every engine should be able to run marcher well (missing sounds are ok). Why that? Well, id's Winquake almost can.

It is impossible to announce a "winner" as even the "better" engines are missing some important features. aguirRe's glquake has no full- and overbrights, Fitzquake has no animation interpolation and not even alpha support. Fitzquake can't run warpc and lr either, yet its console is a tad nicer. Tyr-glquake has some nice features for mappers but then misses most other features. Darkplaces, the massive monster tank, has more features than one can imagine, yet it breaks compatibility to many Quake hacks on the way and chokes on marcher. Joequake and Qrack are decent engines for players that like a bit more eyecandy. Qrack's crashing on fog is severe though. Telejano, QMB, MHQuake and TomazQuake are typical "coder engines" that come with many new features for mods, yet don't support modern maps and "map features" only sporadically (TomazQuake being an exception as pioneer and standard setter here).

Spirit, quaddicted.com, April 2008

Changelog

2009-06-02: Fixed code so it matches the "new" look
2008-04-09: Correction: QMB does fullbrights
2008-04-09: Some cleanup for better understanding.
2008-04-09: Added random OS ports.
2008-04-09: Added testmap.