You Were Never Here!
Quake 3 Beginners Guide
Custom Maps, Models & Skins
Custom maps can potentially come as one of 3 types of files (.pk3 or .zip being by far the most common delivery methods):
• a .bsp - a raw map file
• a .pk3 - a .bsp file inside a zip file with directory structure which has its extension changed to .pk3
• a .zip - a zipfile containing a .pk3 (or sometimes even a .bsp, .map, etc)
Zip files usually contain a readme.txt and a .pk3 file that contains the map.
If you have a pk3 file inside the ZIP, then the pk3 needs to be extracted to the BASEQ3\ directory.
If you have a .bsp (and/or an .aas = a representation of the map for the bots to use) these will go inside a directory called "maps" inside your baseq3 directory. Note that your pk3/bsp/aas/map files should not have any CAPITAL LETTERS in them, or they won’t be detected by the game. Raw .bsp or .aas files are almost always beta versions not yet packed into a pk3 for final use, so most likely you will seldom need use of them.
Playing the Map:
Maps contained in native pk3 format should usually show up in the map selection menu. Go to the single player menu, and click on the "skirmish" option to display list of available maps. Your newly-installed map should be in this list. Note that maps will only appear if they are compatible with the currently selected gametype at the bottom of the screen. Naturally, a Capture the Flag map won't show up if you have Free For All selected as the current game type. Also to note, Quake 3 will only show a limited number of maps at any given time. If the map you downloaded and want to play is not showing up in the list of maps for the gametype you are wanting to play, you will need to open the console (~) and type /map "mapname" in order to start the map.
If the newly-added map doesn't show up in the menu then the above comment regarding maps shown limit has been reached if oyu have a lot of maps. The map can still be called directly from the console via the following syntax:
/map mapname (where mapname is the name of the file in the pk3 with the .bsp extension)
Example:
If you wish to load the "Temple of Retribution" map (q3dm7.bsp) then you should enter:
/map q3dm7
Use /devmap instead of /map if you want cheats enabled.
Models & Skins
Custom player models and skins typically are packaged as .PK3 files and are to be extracted as intact .PK3 files to the baseq3 folder. There can be different skins for one model, but a skin will only fit one model, so skins and models are not entirely interchangeable. Since not all servers will be using custom models, even if you have a custom model set on your local client, it doesn't mean that players on an online server will see it unless they also have the custom model pk3 as well.