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PS5PCEM
PlayableVulkanPlayable · Completable

Quake II (2023)

Playable · Completable

Confirmed playable on September 16, 2026 and rechecked on September 25 as PPSA09477 v1.003. Level lighting, textures, weapons and NPCs are visible: the dark world and missing models seen in earlier builds are resolved in the observed gameplay. Menus, HUD and controller input all work.

Test host
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
Build
Release 0.3.3
Recorded runs
6
Confirmed
September 16, 2026
Quake II gameplay with a lit level, visible enemies and the player's weapon, rendered by PS5PCEM
Quake II gameplay with a lit level, visible enemies and the player's weapon, rendered by PS5PCEM

What works

  • Complete playthrough confirmed by the maintainer, with rendering rechecked later.
  • Lighting, textures, weapons and NPC models all appear; earlier dark-world and missing-geometry defects are gone.
  • Menus, HUD and controller input behave correctly.

What does not

  • Busy combat scenes still run well below the peaks, so the high figures are not a floor.
  • Performance work continues.

Measured performance

The maintainer reports peaks of 60–70 FPS in lighter scenes, with busy combat noticeably slower. Buffer reuse and GPU clears cut transfer overhead.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

Result

Test history

Each entry names the release that includes the reported changes. Work not yet included in a published release is marked as a development build. Dates and FPS remain those of the original runs.

Graphics API
  1. Quake II photosensitivity warning rendered by native DirectX 12; startup capture, not gameplay
    Development buildDirectX 12

    DirectX 12: texture arrays, mip levels and anisotropic filtering

    The development build fixes SCC-based vertex descriptor recovery and adds cube/2D arrays, mip chains, flat attributes and shader-based anisotropic filtering. All 324 GPU tests, 44 D3D12 tests and the native GPU suite pass, including 280 mip-chain and 128 anisotropic full-frame checks. The capture shows the startup warning; the automatic gameplay demo and D3D12 gameplay FPS remain unverified.

    Read the report →
  2. Development buildDirectX 12

    DirectX 12: depth decompression and mixed render targets

    The development build accepts the observed null-export depth-decompression pass and adds up to eight simultaneous color targets, with mixed RGBA8 UNORM/SNORM and RG16 float formats. All 41 D3D12 unit tests and the GPU probe suite pass, including independent blending and exactly-once depth/stencil updates. The automatic Quake II demo still requires end-to-end verification; no D3D12 gameplay FPS is established. Existing playable results and screenshots refer to Vulkan.

    Read the report →
  3. Development buildDirectX 12

    DirectX 12: indirect draws and shadow bias implemented

    The October 29 development build implements counted indirect draws and fractional shadow-depth bias for Quake II. All 39 D3D12 unit tests and the full GPU probe suite pass. The live run advances to MissingAttachment during depth decompression. Menu rendering, the automatic gameplay demo and FPS remain unverified on DirectX 12. Existing playable results and screenshots refer to Vulkan.

    Read the report →
  4. Quake II attract sequence during the native PCM audio retest
    Development buildVulkan

    Native PCM restores Quake II audio

    The October 9 development build handles the raw stereo PCM blocks, compact playback commands and 256-frame NGS2 grain used by Quake II. A 10-second attract-sequence loopback changes from complete silence to audible output with no fully silent 10 ms blocks. Full routing and effects remain incomplete; this is not a new playthrough or an FPS benchmark. All 602 HLE tests pass.

    Read the report →
  5. Quake II gameplay with a lit level, visible enemies and the player's weapon, rendered by PS5PCEM
    Release 0.3.3Vulkan

    Rendering rechecked, with peaks of 60–70 FPS

    A recheck as PPSA09477 v1.003 found level lighting, textures, weapons and NPCs all visible, resolving the earlier dark-world and missing-model reports. Buffer reuse and GPU clears reduced transfer overhead; lighter scenes peak at 60–70 FPS while busy combat stays slower.

    Read the report →
  6. Quake II title screen rendered by PS5PCEM
    Release 0.3.2Vulkan

    Playable and completable

    The maintainer confirmed a full playthrough. The work behind it covered startup imports and directory listings, deferred G-buffer writes, depth comparison samplers, and the typed buffer reads that model vertices and lighting data depend on. Missing NPC geometry came back.

    Read the report →

Captures

Captures

Frames produced by the emulator itself during the runs above.

Quake II photosensitivity warning rendered by native DirectX 12; startup capture, not gameplay
DirectX 12

DirectX 12: texture arrays, mip levels and anisotropic filtering

October 29, 2026 · Development build

Quake II attract sequence during the native PCM audio retest
Vulkan

Native PCM restores Quake II audio

October 9, 2026 · Development build

Quake II gameplay with a lit level, visible enemies and the player's weapon, rendered by PS5PCEM
Vulkan

Rendering rechecked, with peaks of 60–70 FPS

September 25, 2026 · Release 0.3.3

Quake II title screen rendered by PS5PCEM
Vulkan

Playable and completable

September 16, 2026 · Release 0.3.2

6

Recorded runs

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

0.3.6

Current build

October 30, 2026

Playable

Result

Playable · Completable

Other titles

Playthrough reports carry the date the maintainer confirmed them. Every timing refers to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti development machine and will differ on other hardware. Game content is supplied locally and is never distributed here.

Status and compatibilityReport an issue