This is an unofficial WebAssembly port of the engine behind the famous 3D first-person shooter Quake.
Run Qwasm in your browser here.
Qwasm supports the technology from:
- Quake -- software rendering, sometimes known as WinQuake.
- GLQuake -- hardware-accelerated rendering, through WebGL.
Also available are:
You can play a free version (with bots) using the link at the top of this file.
This runs entirely in your browser and doesn't require anything from the original game.
This project needs resource files to run. These are usually embedded in PAK containers, and can be maps, textures, models, sounds, compiled QuakeC code, and more. It is also possible to use raw files instead.
If you have one or more PAK files provided by another Open Source project that supports the original Quake engine, those files should be drop-in compatible.
If you already have the shareware version of the Quake, or know where to get it, you can extract and use the resource file PAK0.PAK. If you have the full version of Quake, you can add PAK1.PAK.
It is also possible to run mods if you supply additional PAK files, e.g. PAK2.PAK, PAK3.PAK, etc.
It is straightforward to obtain PAK0.PAK:
- Download and extract the Quake 1.06 shareware version (
quake106.zip-- widely available online). - Extract
resource.1-- Modern versions of 7-Zip and WinRAR, and probably other popular archivers, can do this. - The
PAK0.PAKfile is in theID1folder.
PAK1.PAK file is needed in addition to PAK0.PAK if you want features from the complete version. This file is provided when you buy the full game.
The licence for the shareware version of Quake only appears to permit duplication of the archive that was originally obtained from an official source, so it appears as though, understandably, the archive's contents cannot be distributed nor embedded separately. John Carmack's statement in the release of Quake's source code, the current state of Linux ports, and other findings on the Internet, also suggest the licence hasn't changed.
I am aware that there are various DOOM ports running online (and offline) that embed IWAD game data to enable an automatic start of the shareware version, but it looks like this is not permitted for Quake.
The full version carries an even more restrictive licence -- so do not be tempted to host the full version on a public server!
For security, I recommend only using the SHA256 hash to verify these files' contents.
Filename: quake106.zip
File size: 9,094,045 bytes
MD5: 8CEE4D03EE092909FDB6A4F84F0C1357
SHA1: F8A1A509B094CCDBED3C54B96F7D9B351C0898F5
SHA256: EC6C9D34B1AE0252AC0066045B6611A7919C2A0D78A3A66D9387A8F597553239
Filename: PAK0.PAK
File size: 18,689,235 bytes
MD5: 5906E5998FC3D896DDAF5E6A62E03ABB
SHA1: 36B42DC7B6313FD9CABC0BE8B9E9864840929735
SHA256: 35A9C55E5E5A284A159AD2A62E0E8DEF23D829561FE2F54EB402DBC0A9A946AF
Filename: PAK1.PAK
File size: 34,257,856 bytes
MD5: D76B3E5678F0B64AC74CE5E340E6A685
SHA1: 6FD0D1643047612F41AFB2001B972D830C792921
SHA256: 94E355836EC42BC464E4CBE794CFB7B5163C6EFA1BCC575622BB36475BF1CF30
If you use the Save option or change the settings in-game, an attempt will be made to commit those changes to browser storage. These changes should persist after a browser reload.
Saving PAK files to storage isn't implemented as this can cause a lag when the filesystem is synched.
Qwasm performs consistently well and usually synchronises with your graphics card's frame rate, even on performance-limited systems. This feature normally results in smooth gameplay at 60Hz (60FPS) or above, with no visual tearing.
Testing for the following benchmarks involved:
- Disabling any frame synchronisation or other related limits, by temporarily altering browser configuration.
- Setting
WASM_BENCHMARKin the build to1, which attempts to run as many calls per second as possible without hanging the browser tab. - Ensuring all versions were configured with Quake's default settings
- Running identical
timedemobenchmarks
This version performed about 95 - 105 times faster than it did with the WebAssembly version of DosBox, with the optimised x86 assembler code compiled and linked. DosBox is obviously going to be at a serious disadvantage here since running a general-purpose x86 emulator in a web browser is very inefficient; this project bypasses that layer and so is closer to native code.
When testing, this version (still running in a browser) was consistently around 3 times as fast as running Quake in DosBox on an x86 system, even with the x86 assembler optimisations.
This version does not include the x86 assembler code. Instead, the cross-platform C substitutes are swapped in, and optimised compiler settings are used. This project doesn't have the x86 advantage in WebAssembly, however, it does have the advantage of being able to run across different CPU architectures without recompilation, such as on ARM CPUs.
The WebGL version performs 2 to 3.5 times as fast as the software-rendered version. This is dependent on hardware, scene complexity, and other events being processed. The game can also handle higher resolutions with greater ease. In my opinion, this version looks far better.
Mods written in QuakeC that worked in the original version of Quake should also run in WebAssembly.
Custom maps, models, textures, sounds, and animated sprites should also work, especially if they worked on the original DOS or Windows versions.
Saving is supported, even when hosting several mods on the same URL. This works exactly the same way as the desktop version, except user data is kept in a separate location.
QuakeC is often referred to as compiled, but it actually compiles to bytecode rather than native machine mode, similar to CPython. This bytecode is then interpreted at runtime. This interpreter works in WebAssembly, so most mods should be playable within your browser.
Qwasm supports:
- Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
- Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
The easiest way to use these is to simply rename the mission pack's PAK file as PAK2.PAK and supply it with the other files. The game should then be started with the appropriate command-line parameter (-hipnotic or -rogue respectively), otherwise some of the extra features will be missing, such as the extended status area.
If you want to check that the mission pack is working properly, start it up, type impulse 9 in the console, and switch through the weapons. Special weapons will show within a red box in the status area.
Like the desktop version of Quake, you can pass arguments to this version at runtime. By default, the query portion of the URL is used, but the JavaScript code can be modified to use anything else, such as an input text box.
Let's say you were using the default template, serving the page locally, and you wanted to:
- Start the engine with the canvas resolution set to 1152x864, and
- Run the console command that opens the 'Load Game' menu.
To do this you would normally use something like -winsize 1152 864 +menu_load.
In Qwasm, you can append a single ? to the end of the URL and place & between each parameter and value, where you would usually put a space. This would look something like:
https://127.0.0.1/?-winsize&1152&864&+menu_load
Like the original engine, Qwasm requires gfx/pop.lmp to be present to detect if you're running the full version. However, this version allows that file to contain any contents, or it can be 0 bytes in size. You can add this folder and file yourself, if you wish.
Simply forcing the engine to run registered by default is not a good idea because it:
- Breaks proper compatibility with the official shareware version of Quake, most notably when accessing levels in the Introduction.
- Potentially breaks third-party add-ons that use assets from the full version, if only the shareware files are present.
Recording demos is supported. You can start one by typing something like this in the console:
skill 3
record mydemo-e1m1 e1m1
To stop the demo:
stop
The file will be saved in the browser database, but you will also be given the opportunity to export it if you want to.
The demo can be played back with playdemo mydemo-e1m1.
You can play in a browser window, but WebSockets support for multiplayer has not yet been added.
It should be possible to connect to a WebSockets proxy to enable online play, but the project will need rebuilding with the appropriate proxy configuration.
Before you start:
- As mentioned earlier, don't bundle or host any files unless you have a licence to do so.
- You will need to add files to the
WinQuake/id1folder (PAKor otherwise). If you don't do this, the engine will have nothing to run. - Files added to the above folder must be in lowercase. For example, you may need to rename
PAK0.PAKtopak0.pak.
Next, download and extract Emscripten, then run these commands to start the build:
cd <EMSDK folder>
./emsdk install latest
./emsdk activate latest
source ./emsdk_env.sh
cd <Quake folder>/WinQuake
make -f Makefile.emscripten
This will output index.html, index.js, index.wasm, and index.data, which can be placed into an empty directory on a web server.
For fastest download time, compress these files with GZip or Brotli and ensure they are served as-is.
The WebGL version can be built in the same way as the software-rendered version, except you should:
- Download GL4ES and build it for Emscripten, as per its instructions.
- Call
make -f Makefile.emscripten GL4ES_PATH=/tmp/gl4esas a substitute for the final step, adjusting the GL4ES path as appropriate. Everything else required for the WebGL build should be selected automatically.
Both software and hardware versions can co-exist on the same web server and will share settings / saves if on the same domain.
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in any way connected to id Software, Bethesda Softworks, or ZeniMax Media. All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.