Quake II (vkQuake2)

Game: Quake II → (Windows, 1997)

vkQuake2: id Software’s official Quake II code, version 3.21, with a Vulkan renderer and the mission packs included (The Reckoning and Ground Zero, plus Zaero and Slight Mechanical Destruction). It aims to keep the original 1997 experience, which is why it builds directly on id’s code with no SDL-like libraries, so some of the original bugs may remain. It adds 64-bit support, more resolutions with interface scaling, slightly upgraded world colors (which can be turned off), the software renderer’s underwater warp effect, MSAA and sample shading, anisotropic filtering, the Nightmare/Hard+ skill in the menu, and OGG, FLAC, MP3, or WAV music besides CD audio. The software renderer was replaced with KolorSoft 1.1, which adds colored lighting. It ships a 64-bit Windows build, and it also builds for Windows ARM64, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Raspberry Pi 4. Version 1.5.10 (August 26) fixed crashes when switching windows, updated it for recent Vulkan SDKs, and dropped the 32-bit build. The download also includes the Quake II demo content.

You needThe files from your own copy of Quake II: the retail .pak files, models, and videos, copied into the baseq2 folder; for the mission packs, their data in rogue (Ground Zero), xatrix (The Reckoning), zaero, or smd. Without the CD, the music as trackXX files (.ogg, .flac, .mp3, or .wav) in baseq2/music. Plus a Vulkan graphics card and, on Windows, the Visual C++ Redistributable.

How it gets to PC

Port of the released source code

Console

Microsoft Windows

Original studio

id Software

Year

1997

Author

Krzysztof Kondrak

Stars

1k

Last activity

2026-08-26 · 2 months ago

Latest version

1.5.10 · 2026-08-26

License

GPL-2.0

Language

C

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