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Quake 3 Arena officially supports Aureal's A3D. Creative Lab's
Environmental Audio (EAX), the other major contender, is not supported.

Emulating A3D with the Soundblaster Live! card
-http://www.tbreak.com/announce/q3arenaeax.shtml

[6.5.7]: Video
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You MUST have a 3D-accelerator to play Q3A since software rendering
is not included in the game. Q3A takes advantage of OpenGL to perform
hardware-rendering.

[6.5.7.1]: 3dfx
```````````````
Q3A supports 3dfx cards by OpenGL. Choose Voodoo instead of default
driver to let your Voodoo x cards run as your hardware acceleration.

Please update your 3dfx video card with the latest drivers. Currently
the latest reference drivers are the DX7 beta drivers. You can get them at:
http://www.3dfxgamers.com

If you get this error: "Mutual exclusion prohibits this", then
this means that there are two programs try to use the Voodoo 2 card at
the same time. Do Ctrl+Alt+Del to see if anything else is using your
Voodoo 2 card.

For Voodoo2 users , you might also like to try Metabyte's WickedGL
(not Wicked3D) drivers instead of the regular 3dfx drivers. You must
register first but the registration is free. Here's the link:
http://www.wicked3d.com

[6.5.7.2]: Matrox
`````````````````
Screen too dark under Windows 2000?
-Edit the following line in your "Quake III Arena\baseq3\q3config.cfg" file,
change it from:
seta r_overBrightBits "1"
to:
seta r_overBrightBits "0"

Start Q3A and the brightness control should now work.

[6.5.7.3]: Multiple 3D Cards
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Go to http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/ and go under Multiple
Video Cards section. Click the link and it should give you multiple
programs to choose from to let you switch from 3D cards, like the
TNT/Voodoo x for an example.

[6.5.7.4]: NVidia
`````````````````
Video too dark with your TNT2 card?
-Try adding this line to your autoexec.cfg file in your Q3A\baseq3
folder seta r_gamma "1.900000"

Video too dark with your GeForce card?
-Try adding these lines to your autoexec.cfg file in your Q3A\baseq3
folder:

seta r_ignorehwgamma "1"
seta r_gamma "1.9"
seta r_intensity "1.5"

Screen tearing problems in Q3A?
-You can command Q3A to use a specific refresh rate by using the console
command "r_displayrefresh x" where x stands for the refresh rate.

To users of Geforce 32MB cards:
-It's a known problem that Q3 needs more than 32 meg to run some parts of
some maps in 32 bit color and 32 bit high detail textures at 1024*768
resolution. You'll see this more prominently on dm6, dm9 and dm15.

Solution:
1) keep 32 bit colour and 32 bit textures but knock the texture detail
down one notch.
2) use 32 bit colour and 16 bit textures.
3) Use a lower resolution.

-Try setting your I/O voltage in your bios to 3.5 volts as the GeForce
card requires more power.

[6.5.7.5]: PCI VS AGP
`````````````````````
The biggest difference is the fact that AGP frees up resources
that PCI would normally use. AGP also allows you to use your system
memory if the video card memory isn't enough for the application/game.

Also, AGP is constantly being improved, so depending on your
motherboard, there may see some benefits from that.

Physically speaking, AGP is a different kind of slot than PCI, so as
far as compatiblity goes, an older Pentium 1 machine would probably not
be AGP compatible (in general) as there wouldn't be an AGP slot on the
motherboard.

=================================
CHAPTER [7]: IMPROVING PERFOMANCE
=================================

[7.1]: Q3A Tweaks
=================

[7.1.1]: CFG File
-----------------
Try experimenting with these commands to enhance your Q3A playing
experience.

Command: seta cg_brassTime "0"
Default: 1250
Function: Sets time to display ejected shells from weapons; 0 disables
shell animation

Command: seta cg_gibs "0"
Default: 1
Function: Turn off the gibs

Command: seta com_blood "0"
Default: 1
Function: Turns off blood

Command: seta cg_marks "0"
Default: 1
Function: Disables display of decals (blast marks, etc.)

Command: seta r_dlightBacks "0"
Default setting: 1
Function: Disables rendering of dynamic lights

Command: seta r_fastsky "1"
Default setting: 0
Function: Enables lower quality sky

Command: seta r_drawSun "0"
Default setting: 1
Function: Disables rendering of sun in the sky

[7.1.2]: Video Settings
-----------------------
You should experiment with the detail settings in Q3A to find
one that balances between speed and detail. Go to Settings->System to do
so. I recommend the highest setting on "Texture Detail" only for high-end
video cards eg. Voodoo3 or TNT2 as this might drastically reduce your
framerate.

Go to Settings->Game Options to adjust several game options.
If you want to gain maximum speed in your game, set them to:

"Marks on Walls" off
"Ejecting Brass" off
"Dynamic Lights" off
"Identify Target" off
"High Quality Sky" off
"Force Player Models" on

In addition, try running the game in 640*480 or lower resolution
as this will most likely give you a higher fps.

[7.2]: PC Tweaks
=================

[7.2.1]: CPU Overclocking
-------------------------
You can push a processor past its limit by a process known as
overclocking. This refers to the changing of your CPU speed if your
motherboard supports modification of the FSB (Front Side Bus) and perhaps
the multiplier. Multipliers are generally locked, so FSB is the only way
to overclock the CPU. Consult the motherboard's manual if the option to
change FSB is available.

Eg. A Celeron 300 can be overclocked to 450MHz. Since the Celeron
300 A (w/L2 128KB cache) is stuck on 4.5 multiplier, to get 450MHz you
would have to change the FSB 66MHz to 100MHz.

This can be quite dangerous and may "fry" your system so make sure
you get someone experienced to help you if you're a newbie. Be warned that
this will definitely invalidate your warranty so proceed at your own risk.
Also, due to the extra heating produced, the lifespan of your system may
be shortened. Thus, a cooling device eg. a fan or heatsink is a MUST to
prolong your processor's lifespan and reduce crashes.

As stated in the disclaimer, I am not responsible should you fry
your system after overclocking it. Be warned, YOU OVERCLOCK AT YOUR
OWN RISK.

Visit Gamesurge for more information on optimising your system:
http://www.gamesurge.com/tweaks/tweak_q3arena.shtml

http://www.nvnews.net/tweaks/quake3_tuneup.shtml
-Q3A Tune up/Tweak guide

http://members.xoom.com/HQH51/links.html
-HQH's links to several overclocking sites

Here are some overclocking links:
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/hawaiifrank/faq.html
http://www.hardedge.net/
http://www.agaweb.com/coolcpu/
http://members.xoom.com/celeron400/hardware/others/watercooling/water.htm
http://home.carolina.rr.com/poit/
http://www.sysopt.com/overc.html

[7.2.2]: Multiplayer
--------------------

[7.2.2.1]: Netgraph
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[7.2.2.2]: Modem
```````````````````
Optimising internet connections:
-http://home.inreach.com/echevarr/html/history.htm

Registry tweaks for cable-modem users:
-http://www.speedguide.net

Tweaking guide for online gaming for modems/isdn:
-http://www.savageuk.com/faq.htm

Connection tweaks for Q3A:
-http://www.upsetchaps.com/quake3guide/AquaQuake3Guide.html

[7.2.2.3]: Rate
```````````````

[7.2.3]: Windows 9x
-------------------

[7.2.3.1]: Ctrl-Alt-Del
```````````````````````
Use this command and close everything (ESPECIALLY Find-Fast) except
"Explorer" and "Systray".

This is to free up system resources to speed up the game. If you
have MS Internet Explorer, turn off Active Desktop and revert back to Classic
Desktop. I recommend you set wallpaper to "none" as this takes up valuable
RAM too.

[7.2.3.2]: Defrag
`````````````````
Hard-drives store information in clusters on its platters. Over
time, the information may be broken up into different physical regions of
the drive and thus slow down disk access.

Make sure you defragment your hard-drive regularly (at least once
a month) to keep it uncluttered and in tip-top condition. Go to
Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.

[7.2.3.3]: Scandisk
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