Quake 4 v1.0.5 Performance

Hitting id Software's servers this week has been Quake 4 v1.0.5 for not only the Windows version but also the Linux port. In addition, Linux users have been welcomed by the availability of the Quake 4 SDK (Software Development Kit). The Linux SDK is identical to that of the Windows version and we are excited about all of the possible Quake 4 modifications that have not yet been conceived. However, at hand today we have Quake 4 v1.0.5 and will be examining its performance when compared against the previous v1.0.2147. The changes in this new version vary from fixes in the game browser to fixing the "com_allowconsole" console command. None of these changes in their official release notes hint at any performance variation, but today we will be examining this surreal possibility. Likewise, when the Doom 3 v1.3.1302 patch was released, we had noted upwards of a 10 frame-per-second drop in the performance during our in-house benchmarking which also consisted of Doom 3 v1.1.1282 and v1.1.1286. Below is the system we had used for testing Quake 4 v1.0.5 and v1.0.2147.

Unfortunately as Quake 4 hadn't shipped with a stock time demo (unlike Doom 3 with its demo1), we reverted to using our traditional Phoronix (Purification Center) timed demo. Our custom demo was formed on the Purification Center map after examining all of the single-player maps for Quake 4 and then recording a demo that was most like the Doom 3 demo1 when it came to the number of enemies, lighting, indoor terrain, and overall characteristics of the recorded section. Our in-house demo had originally surfaced in our Doom 3 v. Quake 4 performance article, which was published days after the availability of the Linux client binaries for id's Quake 4. With our Purification Center demo, we benchmarked Quake 4 v1.0.5 and v1.0.2147 with the following settings: 640 x 480 - Low Quality, 800 x 600 - Medium Quality, 1024 x 768 - High Quality, 1280 x 1024 - High Quality, 1280 x 1024 - Ultra Quality, 1280 x 1024 - High Quality - 2x Quincunx AA/2x AF, 1280 x 1024 - High Quality - 4x Bilinear AA/4x AF, 1280 x 1024 - High Quality - 8x AA/2x AF, and 1280 x 1024 - High Quality - 16x AA/4x AF, while the remainder of the configurable options were left stock. On the following pages, are our recorded results and they pretty much speak for themselves as the results for the v1.0.5 release were consistently lower than the previous (v1.0.2147) version. However the performance drop was quite diminutive, and considering the fixes in this release, it definitely warrants an upgrade. Listed below are the official changes.

General Changes:

· Copied map files can now be overwritten/deleted without quitting first
· The console command "com_allowconsole" will stay set after leaving the game

Interface Changes:

· Improved Game Browser sorting and filtering: You can sort by up to three criteria, which will be displayed just under the server list, with the more recently clicked criteria sorting first. For example, to sort by ping time, then number of players, then gametype, click them in the reverse order: Click "GAMETYPE," then "PLAYERS," then "PING." The server list will be sorted by the fastest ping, then the servers with the fewest players, then the gametype. Clicking a category more than once will keep its position as the primary sorting criteria, but will change the sorting order. After cycling through all available sort types, clicking the category a final time will remove it from the sorting. Each criteria has specific behavior with one or two clicks, as listed:
+ Favorite Server: Display only favorites, or only non-favorites
+ Password Enabled: Display only locked server, or only unlocked servers
+ Dedicated Server: Display only Dedicated servers, or only Listen servers
+ Punkbuster Enabled: Display only PB-enabled servers, or only PB-disabled servers
+ Server Name: Sort server names A to Z, or Z to A
+ Ping: Sort by ping Low to High, or High to Low
+ Players: Sort by Players High to Low, High to Low (non-full), Low to High, or Low to High (non-empty)
+ Gametype: Sort by Deathmatch, Team DM, Tournament, CTF, or Arena CTF
+ Map: Sort by map CTF1 to DM9, or DM9 to CTF1
· The Game Browser now displays more than 1000 servers
· Fixed a problem with the refresh time on the Game Browser
· Added a Game Browser filter for full or empty servers
· Players can now connect to a server while the Game Browser is refreshing
· Game Browser sorting will display the correct server information without the need to refresh the list
· Clicking anywhere on the scrollbar except the button itself will advance a page up or down instead of shifting to that position
· Non-full server sorting now disregards full servers
· Game Browser hover window updates when sort order is changed
· Fixed a Game Browser slowdown issue with high numbers of servers
· Added Game Browser server list scrolling with the mousewheel, keyboard arrows up/down, and keyboard Page Up/Page Down
· The Game Browser hover window will only appear when mousing over a highlighted server
· Sorting by server name will now ignore colored names, brackets, etc

Multiplayer Changes:

· The dedicated server window will now be titled with the si_name setting instead of "Quake 4"