vkQuake running on a 2020 PC build (5800X & 3070) at 4,000 FPS.
vkQuake is a source port for the original Quake that is derived from QuakeSpasm. It ports the game to a modern renderer using the Vulkan API. It was started by Axel Gneiting, an id Tech employee responsible for implementing the Vulkan rendering path to the id Tech 6 engine used in the 2016 reboot of Doom. A vkQuake2 and vkQuake3 also exist, but are by different developers.
Improvements over QuakeSpasm include:
- The game can run at higher frame rates than 72Hz without breaking physics
- A software Quake like underwater effect
- Support for remastered models (in MD5 format) if using data from the 2021 rerelease
- Support for standalone MD5 models, not only as
.mdlalternatives - True color skins support (
.png,.tga,.jpg) for MD5 models, including fullbrights - Dynamic shadows (requires a GPU with ray tracing support)
- Better color precision reducing banding in dark areas
- Native support for anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering
- 8-bit color emulation
- Scaling for pixelated look
- Mods menu for easy mod loading
- More modern protocol to avoid certain movement issues (from QSS)
- Support for custom mod HUDs (from QSS)
- Support for scriptable particles (from QSS)
- External WAD support
- WAD3 format support, allowing per-texture palettes for more colorful levels
Mods[]
vkQuake is compatible and highly performant with map packs such as Arcane Dimensions and mega maps such as The Immortal Lock.
Download[]
The latest vkQuake version can be downloaded from its GitHub releases page.