A more efficient update to Quake 1 than darkplaces?

[mikeymikec]

I decided to play Quake 1 again, this time is the first on my 2010 PC build. Apparently winquake doesn't work with Win7 64 and glquake has some problems (flashing HUD intermittently). The 'darkplaces' executable works fine, though it looks like it is single-threaded (not necessarily a problem, though perhaps I'd get better power efficiency if it distributed its load rather than saturating a single core?), and surprisingly GPU usage is pretty high on 1080p (no AA/AF).

Considering that a game of similar age, say Tomb Raider 2, can be handled by my GPU (5770) without it even clocking up from its idle clockspeed, I find Q1+darkplaces a bit surprising in this respect.

Any suggestions? I can put up with the way that it is working because it is perfectly smooth, I would just question its efficiency.

 

[BFG10K]

For a lighter engine you can try Qrack, but it won't give you the same level of visuals as DP. Also the best looking content is designed for DP and it won't run on other engines.

DarkPlaces is actually a very good engine, it's just generating a lot of extra IQ. If you've maxed out the graphics settings then you're getting per-pixel lighting & shadowing and bloom/HDR, which is far in excess of what the original Quake did.

The highest graphic detail levels can rival modern games when combined with new content, so it's in a completely different class to Tomb Raider 2.

So I'd recommend you just lower the graphic details. The lowest settings make it look like the original Quake, and it runs a lot faster too.

 

[quakeworld]

i recommend ezquake.

http://ezquake.sourceforge.net/