LibreQuake Horde Mode

Hey everyone, sndein here. I’ve been hard at work the last few months to bring you an all new game(mode).

In 2021 Quake got an official rerelease and with that an expansion by Machine Games as well as an accompanying horde mode. The QuakeC source code for this was made freely available under the GPLv2 license, just like the original Quake source so I thought that too could be combined with LibreQuake to play the horde mode at onFOSS.

Turns out it was a bit more effort than I initially thought. The QuakeC is only made for the original NetQuake protocol which doesn’t feature any lag compensation unlike QuakeWorld, not a great fit for multiplayer. Luckily the QuakeC source from LibreQuake can be compiled for both, so all I had to to is mash the additions from Dimension of the Machine, most importantly the horde mode, in there with my limited QuakeC knowledge. I also made some additions like a client-side HUD that shows the current wave and owned keys as well as an endless survival mode that simply never lets you access the level exit.

A few assets also had to be created, spefically these two small models for some mood lighting. Funnily enough I have not made use of them in my mapping endeavours yet.

Ah right, of course maps were also needed. The Quake rerelease comes with seven horde maps but of course for onFOSS we won’t use those as they’re not under an open license. So I started making my own using LibreQuake textures. The first map, Condemned Labs, still needs some detailing and lighting but it’s fully playable at this stage. Here are some impressions.

I hope to have a second, smaller map ready for the first time we play this at onFOSS for some variety. We’ll bring you an announcement for that very soon.

If anyone else wants to map for this, or help out in other ways that would be greatly appreciated. You can find the repo here.