Best Quake II source port?

[Individualised]

Thinking of buying Quake II on Steam, as I've already beaten Quake I a while ago. Of course, there's no official modern port for Quake II yet, only the first game (which I have on Steam), and I'd rather not play a dated Windows executable of the game, so what is considered the best source port to play for Quake II that brings the game up to 'modern standards'? (by that I mean widescreen support and no prominent bugs/"jank". Obviously I don't mean a modern remaster of the game with super hi res textures and raytracing or whatever, just something similar to the 2020 port of Quake 1)?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Individualised

[arsac]

Yamagi, all day every day. If you want better graphics than base-game Quake II i've heard that Quake 2 XP handles more lighting features, but i haven't tinkered around with it enough.

[Individualised]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[Master O]

29 minutes ago, Individualised said:

Thinking of buying Quake II on Steam, as I've already beaten Quake I a while ago. Of course, there's no official modern port for Quake II yet, only the first game (which I have on Steam), and I'd rather not play a dated Windows executable of the game, so what is considered the best source port to play for Quake II that brings the game up to 'modern standards'? (by that I mean widescreen support and no prominent bugs/"jank". Obviously I don't mean a modern remaster of the game with super hi res textures and raytracing or whatever, just something similar to the 2020 port of Quake 1)?

 

If you also intend to play multiplayer Quake 2 in the future, please visit http://q2s.tastyspleen.net/ and http://tastyspleen.net/ as well.

 

 

[Individualised]

Have enjoyed what I've played so far. Can't believe I missed out on such a great game for so long. The only thing I had seen of Quake 2 before this was the first few minutes of gameplay, and all I pretty much knew about it was that it was a completely unrelated game to the first Quake. I went in expecting a linear experience just like id's previous games, so I was pleasantly surprised when I completed the first area and realised you could backtrack to the previous "level", finding out that it is actually more of an open game. Honestly I thought Half-Life was considered the first open-world FPS having played that game so much as one of my earlier FPS experiences and all. It's not exactly the same as in Half-Life (the loading transitions aren't totally seamless in certain areas) but I was still interested to see that this type of gameplay was done much earlier.

 

edit: "Bony Member" lmao

Edited March 9, 2023 by Individualised

[Professor Hastig]

What about Hexen then? That's where Q2 borrowed some inspiration from by using a similar hub system.

 

[Master O]

7 hours ago, Professor Hastig said:

What about Hexen then? That's where Q2 borrowed some inspiration from by using a similar hub system.

 

 

https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/heretic_and_hexen_1_sourceports

 

https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/running_hexen_deathkings_of_the_dark_citadel_in_chocolate_hexen

 

Also:

 

Check out all the other stickied topics at https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection#1677192427 as well.

[Azuris]

I am throwing in Quake RTX as a honorable mention.
It looks pretty different because of the Lighning, but its a pretty cool Experience.

[Koko Ricky]

I love the RTX version because it's more immersive. Makes the game feel more real and urgent. 

[Dweller Dark]

Speaking of Quake 2, how do you run the expansion packs? 

[Fiber Wire]

10 minutes ago, Dweller said:

Speaking of Quake 2, how do you run the expansion packs? 

If you have them installed correctly you just use the cmd console (press tilde) in-game at the menu and type “game rogue” or “game xatrix“, and to go back to the original campaign type “game baseq2”.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Fiber Wire

[MrHellstorm17]

Steam release of Q2 has no music. Do sourceports bring it back?

[Individualised]

1 minute ago, MrHellstorm17 said:

Steam release of Q2 has no music. Do sourceports bring it back?

No. You have to supply your own music files. The music wasn't present on Q1 on Steam either before the remaster. I wonder if it's just due to incompetence due to the original versions of the game playing music from CD.

[MrHellstorm17]

11 minutes ago, Individualised said:

No. You have to supply your own music files. The music wasn't present on Q1 on Steam either before the remaster. I wonder if it's just due to incompetence due to the original versions of the game playing music from CD.

I believe it has something to do with the expiration of copyright term of the music. This was the case with GTA IV for instance

[Edward850]

22 minutes ago, MrHellstorm17 said:

I believe it has something to do with the expiration of copyright term of the music. This was the case with GTA IV for instance

No, it was because the music license for Quake 1 and 2 was for Red Book audio only.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Edward850

[MrHellstorm17]

11 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

No, it was because the music license for Quake 1 and 2 was for Red Book audio only.

It makes no sense to be honest. Imho quake 2 music is better than the actual game. Why not include it in digital releases?

[No-Man Baugh]

So funny thing about the music: The GOG version of Quake II comes with the soundtrack in ogg/vorbis format

 

Don't ask me why GOG gets the special treatment, don't ask me how they get away with keeping it in if it's red-book only, don't ask me why they decided to to this in the first place when the game doesn't even let you playback the soundtrack by default

[Individualised]

44 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

No, it was because the music license for Quake 1 and 2 was for Red Book audio only.

That explains it. Did Bethesda re-licence the music for the first game's remaster? Do Nine Inch Nails still hold Quake 1's music rights? I know Bethesda bought the rights to the Quake 2 soundtrack from Sonic Mayhem but I don't think they've done anything with it (edit: just read the last post, so yes, they did do something with it).

Edited March 14, 2023 by Individualised

[Edward850]

1 hour ago, MrHellstorm17 said:

It makes no sense to be honest. Imho quake 2 music is better than the actual game. Why not include it in digital releases?

Because digital releases weren't a concept for music at the time Quake2 was made.

44 minutes ago, Individualised said:

That explains it. Did Bethesda re-licence the music for the first game's remaster?

The answer to that is yes by example, but I can't answer to the nature of how.

1 hour ago, No-Man Baugh said:

So funny thing about the music: The GOG version of Quake II comes with the soundtrack in ogg/vorbis format

It did? Huh, so either that changed recently, and Steam was never updated, or that just never applied to Quake2 (only Quake1) and the tech wasn't there at the time to do an external soundtrack without changing the source code.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Edward850

[Master O]

4 hours ago, Fiber Wire said:

If you have them installed correctly you just use the cmd console (press tilde) in-game at the menu and type “game rogue” or “game xatrix“, and to go back to the original campaign type “game baseq2”.

 

You can also make windows shortcuts in order to launch them at startup. Create a shortcut to the Q2 Executable or Yamagi Quake's executable, then add the following in the shortcut's Target field for their respective expansion packs:

 

+set game xatrix

+set game rogue

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Master O

[Fiber Wire]

6 minutes ago, Master O said:

 

You can also make windows shortcuts in order to launch them at startup. Create a shortcut to the Q2 Executable or Yamagi Quake's executable, then add the following in the shortcut's Target field for their respective expansion packs:

 

+set game xatrix

+set game rogue

 

Correct. 

[Kyle07]

GOG has the audio. GOG often cares to have the soundtracks included.

[Avoozl]

I would suggest KMQuake2, it works well for me. I used to use Quake2Bers for a graphics mod.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Avoozl

[BGreener]

If Yamagi is more like “traditional/vanilla” port, KMQuake2 feels closer to “Zdoom/Gzdoom” with its bells, whistles, and features. It has some fun particle and gore effects and some fun mods, like Citadel and the unfinished 64 Mission.
 

Also, you can play the original campaign or custom vanilla maps through the expansions or any other gameplay mod if you’d like. Doom 3 allows you to do this as well, and I’m sure Q1 does something similar but I haven’t experimented with that one as much.

[Fiber Wire]

The great thing about QII source ports like Yamagi and KM is they can play online against each other regardless of the source port (or lack thereof) the player chooses. 

[CrocMagnum]

5 hours ago, Avoozl said:

I would suggest KMQuake2, it works well for me. I used to use Quake2Bers for a graphics mod.

Yeah! Quake 2 Berserker was decent, sadly the dev has stopped working on it around 2018. 

Some people have criticized its heavy "Bloom" effect (which is true) but you can actually reduce the effect or disable it completely from the Options. 

 

For the record, and because it hasn't been mentioned earlier in this thread, the first Quake 2 Port I ever played was Quake2maX. But hey! The last version dates back to 2008, so I had to move on...

 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by CrocMagnum

[ReaperAA]

22 hours ago, Avoozl said:

I would suggest KMQuake2, it works well for me. I used to use Quake2Bers for a graphics mod.

 

Unless things changed in the last 3-ish years, I recall that both KMQ2 and Q2Bers are dead in terms of development. No more new releases. Yamagi and Q2Pro seem like the only 2 ports that are still in active development.

[scalliano]

YamagiQ2, end of story. You can even dump it straight on top of your Steam install and it will honour the recently added game/missionpack selector.

[dustarma]

vkQuake2

[Individualised]

4 hours ago, scalliano said:

YamagiQ2, end of story. You can even dump it straight on top of your Steam install and it will honour the recently added game/missionpack selector.

I've been running Yamagi from my Steam library as a non-Steam game:

 

From what you say it sounds like there's a more integrated way to do it. Could you share more info about this?