No sound in Quake 3

English Games
1

I just tried to run Q3 on Linux. All is working except sound as you can read the topic title :wink:

I got an onboard soundcard


00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

Google didnā€™t come up with a working solution for me and I was wondering if any of you guys has an idea what could make my sound work in quake 3.

Besides Q3 the sound works fine.

Here the errormsg from the console when starting Q3:

----- sound initialization -------
Could not mmap dma buffer PROT_WRITE|PROT_READ
trying mmap PROT_WRITE (with associated better compatiblity / less perfomance code)
Could not mmap /dev/dsp
----------------------------------------
2

OK, I found a solution:


echo "quake3.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
echo "quake3.x86 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss

and then start quake3 with the command:


./quake3 +set s_musicvolume -1

Now Iā€™ve another question though. Is there a possibility to pack all these commands in one file so when I want to start Q3 just to start this file and not all those commands first.

3

Iā€™ve that bash file now, however I need to run it as su because the first 2 commands are denied in normal user mode.


echo "quake3.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
echo "quake3.x86 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss

/usr/local/games/quake3/quake3 +set s_musicvolume -1

How can I make this thing running from normal user mode as well?

4

Hello phi7

I had the same issue with q3a in SLED10 with onboard sound card two years ago.

I tried ALL the solutions i found on the internet, none worked; many locked q3a and the system. After studying the topic, my conclusion was (and I posted it at forums.suselinuxsupport.de):

  • linux is alrealy using the sound system (so /dev/dsp is always busy and locked when using onboard sound cards, thatā€™s why q3a canā€™t access it)
  • i resolved my issue by buying a cheap creative sound blaster pci sound card (not onboard), which can handle several mmap buffers by itself.
  • of course, i disabled the onboard sound card in bios before plugging in the sound card in the motherboard

I spent less than $10 on this card and now q3a works beautifully since then.

Hope it helps.
<OF>

5

Hey OF,

thanks for the suggestion. I already planed to buy a pci sound card in the near future but at the moment I just have to stick to the onboard. But itā€™s working now anyway - not an elegant solution but doing itā€™s job until I buy a sound card.

6

Add those lines posted above to /etc/init.d/alsasound, just before the last exit statement.

It will then be automatic on each boot :).

7

The best way to have sound in Q3 engine game based is to use the et-sdl-sound hack.

More info and install instruction here : et-sdl-sound - SDL audio support hack for Enemy Territory, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake III Arena

Happy fragging :wink:

8

The best solution is actually getting the open source version of the Q3 engine, as that has been optimized, has better widescreen support, and has a proper implementation of SDL.
Itā€™s at ioquake3

9

However, with ioquake3 you canā€™t connect to online servers for gaming other people. You may play only single player games or in a LANā€¦

I have already tried it, and although ioq3 is very good it has ā€˜onlyā€™ that drawback.

<OF>

10

Yes you can connect to online servers. Just not punkbuster servers since Id removed it from the open source version of the engine.

11

Thanks for correcting me with the right answerā€¦ yes indeed, canā€™t join ā€œpbā€ servers.

<OF>