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QuakeSpasm

Platinum · 93 0.1 h played, 0 crashes

A modern source port of id Software's Quake, with the original campaign and mods.

Genre
shooter first-person
Theme
horror
Players
single player
Input
supports gamepad (partial) made for keyboard and mouse
View
3D first-person
Content
mods
Needs
your own game data free data download
Engine
id Tech 2 QuakeSpasm

Played sessions

Testing is done with Walnut's rating tool (walnut-rate, on the console): how ratings are made and submitted.

Builds: Walnut 0.1, quakespasm 0.96.3+dfsg-2

The platform builds under it (3)
Linux kernel6.12.111+ps3.786 Walnut's build
Mesa26.2.4-1+ps3.827 Walnut's build
ps3rsx0.788+k6.12.111+ps3.786 Walnut's build
DateLauncherRulesPlayEndedPicture
2026-10-26 QuakeSpasm (GLSL) 2.38 minquit ok Details

Download all sessions as CSV (one row per session, the aspects as columns)

Rating history

The rating on each version it was tested on, newest first: each row is rated from that version's sessions alone, under the newest rules those sessions have the data for.

VersionTestedMedalRules Frame rateSmoothnessSoundPictureStabilityControlsDisplayFeaturesLoad Play
Walnut 0.1
quakespasm 0.96.3+dfsg-2		 2026-10-26 Platinum · 93 2.3 95781001009010085100100 0.1 h
1 test

Scripted benchmarks

Not rated: tests of driver and game changes. A script plays the same scene on the PS3 again and again (the desktop stopped, vsync off) to compare two builds of the game or of the graphics driver. The numbers say which build is faster; they never feed the medal.

How the script plays it: QuakeSpasm 0.96.3 with the Quake shareware data: timedemo of the shareware's demo1, fullscreen 1920x1080. -nopackedpixels: 0.96.3's packed-pixels lightmaps have wrong colours on big-endian.

The recipe's full description

QuakeSpasm 0.96.3 (Debian) with the Quake shareware data (quake-shareware from make game-data: /usr/share/games/quake/id1/pak0.pak): timedemo of the shareware's demo1, fullscreen 1920x1080. -nopackedpixels: 0.96.3's packed-pixels lightmaps have wrong colours on big-endian (quakespasm issue #114; nv30 has no 10-bit format anyway). It doesn't quit after a timedemo: stopped at the result line. Base keeps GLSL on (alias models; gamma stays 1.0, so the full-screen gamma pass doesn't run); noglsl is GL 1.x only, glslgamma turns the gamma pass on (it runs off 1.0 only). +timedemo on the command line doesn't work: the shareware's quake.rc runs "startdemos demo1 demo2 demo3" after the command line's commands and the attract loop replaces the timedemo. So a quake.rc of ours in the user's id1 (~/.quakespasm/id1, searched before the system's pak0.pak) runs the timedemo instead. (A -game directory would do it too, but the shareware refuses those.) Steady state: the timedemo repeated in one session (PASSES=1; client.sh counts the passes that start 54 s or more after the first, and stops the game once they cover ~120 s: ~5 warm-up passes of ~13 s, then ~9 measured). QuakeSpasm has no hook at a demo's end (Host_EndGame skips the attract loop in a timedemo and CL_FinishTimeDemo clears cls.timedemo), so quake.rc loops by frame count: `bench` starts the timedemo, waits 1100 host frames (a wait is one frame; demo1's timedemo is 969 frames, about 2 s idle at the console after it) and starts the next. A timedemo started before the last one ended would print a "-1 frames" line: FPS_RE wants a line starting with a count. fps= stays the first pass's (the run as before); steady is the median of the measured passes.

3 variants of the recipe
base stands for the gamethe recipe as it is, without a variant
noglsl-
glslgamma-

One table, a header row per batch (what it tested and what came out). Conditions: what a variant adds to the recipe (its environment switches) and what ran alongside (the stall recorder, a profiler); a column appears only when this game has a value in it. Rows marked invalid or not comparable say why.

What the run length means

"warm-up + 120 s" is a steady-state run, which leaves out a 60 s warm-up and measures 120 s or more; "whole run" counted everything from the start, the way runs before 2026-10-17 did.

Variant Conditions Steady fps
in the window		 1% low
fps		 Stalls
frames over 100 ms		 fps
whole run		 Build Run length ram free
MiB		vram
MiB		stall play s
seconds		longest play ms
ms		sound faults per min
faults a minute		cpu
seconds		underruns
underruns		longest ms
ms		 Note
Suite summary 2026-10-20 · suite-summary-2026-10
Tested: Not a test run: the suite's 13 benchmarked games (15 rows, with OpenArena's two renderers and OpenTTD's two blitters) gathered with their known numbers as of October 2026, each value naming the batch or document it came from.
Result: It is the calibration of the rating formula (rules 1): the scale was tried on these numbers before any game was rated, and the GameDB calibration table is generated from it. Benchmarks never give a medal; medals come from played sessions only.
QuakeSpasm the recipe as it is 91.0 48.6 - - - warm-up + 120 s 44 49 2.5 393 0 - - - right, right
Mesa ps3.407 switches (QuakeSpasm LUT, ClassiCube fence pool), profiler checks (ps3-gpu-tools 0.412), all with WAKER kick 2026-10-18 · 2026-10-18-mesa-407-switches
Tested: Two more Mesa ps3.407 switches (the vertex lookup table on QuakeSpasm, a fence pool on ClassiCube), plus profile checks of dsda-doom, OpenTTD and Armagetron with ps3-gpu-tools 0.412.
Result: Both switches are neutral: QuakeSpasm keeps 91 fps with about 3% less CPU, ClassiCube is identical. The Armagetron run is invalid (it sat in the language menu).
What we saw
  • Same boot, all with the 10 ms waker kick.
  • QuakeSpasm with the lookup table: steady 91.0 and 90.8 fps against 90.9 and 91.0 without (no change). CPU 104 and 101 s against 108 and 106 (about -3%).
  • ClassiCube with a pool of 16 fence buffers: identical (48.4 fps).
  • dsda-doom profile fine: 40.3 fps steady, no stalls.
  • OpenTTD reached its title game without the survey dialog (webcam OK).
  • Armagetron: invalid. It was stuck at the first-start language menu (webcam); its 183 fps is the menu.
base waker kick at 10 ms 91.0 48.6 10.0 89.7 Mesa ps3.407 warm-up + 120 s 44.2 48.7 2.5 392.6 - 107.0 5.0 392.6
base waker kick at 10 ms
switch translate_lut1		 90.9 47.0 10.5 89.6 Mesa ps3.407 warm-up + 120 s 36.5 47.6 2.8 519.6 - 102.5 17.0 519.6
Mesa ps3.262 repeats and Armagetron without 0020 (texinv) 2026-10-17 · 2026-10-17-mesa-262-repeats
Tested: Whether the frame rates of the Mesa ps3.262 suite round hold up when repeated, and whether Armagetron's drop on ps3.262 comes from Mesa patch 0020 (the texture cache flushed only after texture changes).
Result: Single QuakeSpasm runs spread from 66 to 84 fps on the same Mesa, so one-run differences of that size are noise. Armagetron runs at 52-53 fps with or without 0020, so 0020 is not the cause of its loss.
What we saw
  • Same boot as the Mesa ps3.262 suite round.
  • QuakeSpasm again: 73.0 and 84.1 fps (66.3 in the suite round). Single QuakeSpasm runs spread widely on the same Mesa.
  • Neverball again: 77.7 and 74.2 fps (71.5 in the suite round).
  • Armagetron with ps3.262 as built: 53 and 53 fps. With patch 0020 undone (the texture cache flushed before every draw again): 52 and 52. So the drop from 60 to 52 is not patch 0020.
  • All Armagetron numbers here are the Gallium HUD's median. Two runs per variant.
base the recipe as it is - - - 78.5 Mesa ps3.262 whole run 51.4 47.6 - - - 11.8 1.0 -
Mesa ps3.262 + ps3rsx 0.249 2026-10-17 · 2026-10-17-mesa-262
Tested: Mesa ps3.262 (patches 0019 to 0025: fewer words sent to the GPU per draw) across the suite, against ps3.246.
Result: Big gains in several games: OpenArena +23%, Yamagi +24%, X-Moto +21%, Extreme Tux Racer and dsda-doom +15%. Armagetron fell from 60 to 51 fps, which the next batches traced. Single runs; BananaBread's drop is a memory stall, not a driver number.
What we saw
  • The patches: no relocations, the texture cache invalidated only after texture changes, no duplicate vertex-format writes, batched vertex program constants. One run per game.
  • Against ps3.246: OpenArena with compressed textures 44.2 to 54.4 fps (+23%), Yamagi 51.4 to 63.9 (+24%), X-Moto 39 to 47 (+21%), Extreme Tux Racer 46 to 53 (+15%), dsda-doom software 33 to 38 with the demo now finishing (+15%), ClassiCube 47.6 to 50.1 (+5%).
  • Neverball 78.2 to 71.5 (noise), QuakeSpasm 70.5 to 66.3 (repeated in the next batch), Luanti 53 to 53.
  • Armagetron dropped from 60 to 51 (driver frame counter).
  • BananaBread reads 28 to 8 on the counter, but it was memory-stalled (13 MB free, killed at the cap): not a driver number, and the cause is uncertain.
  • The kernel's command validator rejected nothing.
  • Single runs.
base the recipe as it is - - - 66.3 Mesa ps3.262, ps3rsx 0.249 whole run 46.7 47.4 - - - 12.2 1 -
Mesa ps3.246 + ps3rsx 0.249 2026-10-17 · 2026-10-17-mesa-246-ps3rsx-249
Tested: The first full suite round after the reboot into ps3rsx 0.249, one run per game, as a baseline.
Result: Every game ran with the right picture. The sound was right except in dsda-doom (MIDI music), BananaBread and OpenTTD. Single runs, so differences of a few fps are noise.
What we saw
  • One run per game. Frame rates by the game's own counter, or the driver's frame counter where marked:
  • Armagetron 60 (counter), ClassiCube 47.6, dsda-doom software 33 (counter, demo unfinished), Extreme Tux Racer 46 (counter), Luanti 53 (counter), Neverball 78.2.
  • OpenArena with compressed textures 44.2 (longest frame 2.1 s), QuakeSpasm 70.5, BananaBread with CPU skinning 28 (counter), X-Moto 39 (counter), Yamagi Quake II 51.4.
  • Pictures right. Sound right except dsda-doom (1161 underruns, MIDI music), BananaBread (176) and OpenTTD (1429, choppy).
  • OpenTTD used 55.5 s of CPU and has no frame rate (plain X11 path).
  • Single runs: differences of a few fps are within the run-to-run spread.
base the recipe as it is - - - 70.5 Mesa ps3.246, ps3rsx 0.249 whole run 40.7 47.6 - - - 13.0 1 -
Group 2 QuakeSpasm timedemo through our quake.rc (Mesa ps3.225) 2026-10-16 · 2026-10-16-quakespasm-timedemo
Tested: QuakeSpasm's timedemo at 1920x1080 through our startup script, with three rendering paths: no shaders, shaders, and shaders with the gamma pass.
Result: The benchmark works with the right colours: 59.2 fps without shaders, 64.8 with them, 70.3 with the gamma pass. Single runs; the later suite measured 66 to 84 fps.
What we saw
  • Timedemo demo1 at 1920x1080.
  • Without GLSL shaders: 59.2 fps (969 frames in 16.4 s).
  • With GLSL: 64.8 fps.
  • With GLSL and the gamma pass (gamma 0.9): 70.3 fps.
  • Colours right; 12 to 18 s of CPU in runs of 23 to 31 s.
  • Single runs; the later suite measured 66 to 84 fps.
base the recipe as it is - - - 64.8 Mesa ps3.225 whole run 53.1 47.7 - - - 12.5 - -
glslgamma the recipe as it is - - - 70.3 Mesa ps3.225 whole run 54.6 47.6 - - - 12.4 4 -
noglsl the recipe as it is - - - 59.2 Mesa ps3.225 whole run 61.0 44.1 - - - 17.7 36 -
Group 2 QuakeSpasm first smokes (Mesa ps3.225) 2026-10-16 · 2026-10-16-quakespasm-smokes
Tested: QuakeSpasm's first runs with the shareware data, trying to run its timedemo.
Result: Neither run gave a result: the shareware startup script's attract loop kept the timedemo from printing, and a custom game folder is refused in the shareware version. The fix was our own startup script in the user's game folder.
What we saw
  • QuakeSpasm 0.96.3, shareware data.
  • First launch ran (66 fps on the driver's frame counter), but the attract loop that the shareware startup script starts after the timedemo kept it from ever printing a result. Killed at 243 s.
  • Second launch, with a custom game folder, was refused: "You must have the registered version to use modified games".
  • Both led to a startup script (quake.rc) of ours in the user's id1 folder.
noglsl the recipe as it is - - - 66 Mesa ps3.225 whole run 68.2 46.0 - - - 4.5 79 -