openQ4 0.12.0

openQ4 0.12.0

Field	Value
Version	0.12.0
Release tag	v0.12.0
Commit	eab43b99
Generated	2026-08-18 22:01 UTC
Release scale	override
Version decision	Version override was supplied manually.
Workflow	32188915868
Since	v0.11.0 (compare)

Highlights

• High-refresh gameplay looks smoother without changing game logic. Players, weapons, projectiles, lights, client effects, and moving-world attachments now sample a presentation transform between authoritative game ticks. View-model effects stay anchored to the pose actually drawn, including the lightning gun beam, while simulation, networking, collision, demos, and savegames retain their original timing.
• Polish and Russian are now built in. Text rendering works by Unicode code point, the Polish tables use the correct Central European encoding path, and generated font data is checksum-validated so translated menus and HUD text remain reproducible across packages.
• The marine hovertank has its vehicle audio back. Single-player once again creates and updates the engine and hover-pad loops used throughout the vehicle sequence, with safe cleanup during map or engine shutdown.
• Arena Campaign scoring starts reliably. Disabling ready-up now also clears the ready threshold, preventing deathmatch-backed Arena cards from remaining forever in a non-scoring warmup.
• Multiplayer setup is easier to control. The server menu exposes guarded bot controls, and competitive free-for-all disclosure now accepts the active recipients intended by the match policy.
• Developer map compilation is more reliable. dmap and other engine-side geometry tools initialize their triangle-surface allocator before generating light volumes, fixing the Windows crash seen while compiling game/airdefense1.

Upgrade Notes

• Replace the complete openQ4 package for your platform so the engine, renderer modules, game_sp, game_mp, and bundled openQ4 data all come from 0.12.0. Do not mix modules from older releases.
• Existing settings and compatible saves do not need to be reset. As a precaution, retain a copy of important saves before replacing an older installation.
• Retail Quake 4 assets are still required. Point openQ4 at a complete retail installation, including the unsuffixed base dialogue archive such as zpak_english.pk4.
• OpenGL remains the default and recommended renderer. Vulkan is experimental and opt-in with r_renderApi vulkan, applied after an engine restart. The modern OpenGL visible path also remains guarded and experimental.
• Linux ARM64 downloads remain preview packages. The experimental macOS packages target Apple Silicon/arm64 and may be unsigned when Apple signing and notarization credentials are unavailable. Intel Mac packages are not published or supported, and Rosetta is not a supported substitute. OpenGL remains the recommended renderer; the Vulkan option runs through MoltenVK, a Vulkan-on-Metal translation layer. The macos_graphics_bridge=metal package is a Metal bridge around the OpenGL renderer, not a native Metal renderer, while platform_backend=native is comparison-only diagnostic infrastructure, not a release backend. Visual parity remains tracked by issue #98, and support promotion remains gated by docs/dev/macos-signoff-evidence.md.

Change Log

• Added presentation-only interpolation for high-refresh rendering of actors, movers, first-person weapons, projectiles, lights, and client effects while preserving authoritative tick behavior.
• Kept view-model client entities and the lightning gun beam attached to the exact rendered weapon pose.
• Fixed weapon swaps that could inherit firing state or leave stale effects behind.
• Added complete Polish and Russian UI tables, Unicode code-point drawing, CP1250 conversion support, and stricter generated-font checksum validation.
• Restored the marine hovertank engine and hover-pad loops with null-safe sound-emitter teardown.
• Prevented partial attachment restoration from tearing down incompletely restored entities twice.
• Restored Arena Campaign countdown and scoring progression when ready-up is disabled.
• Added multiplayer bot controls and validation to the server setup menu.
• Allowed the intended active free-for-all recipients through competitive match disclosure policy.
• Corrected s_muteUnfocused transitions so returning to the game cannot leave audio muted for the rest of the level.
• Initialized engine-side triangle-surface allocators for dmap and related geometry tools.
• Strengthened the experimental modern OpenGL lighting path with per-light image ownership and missing-binding fallbacks.

Linux ARM64 Support

Linux ARM64 preview artifacts enabled. First-class publication remains gated on accepted real-hardware native-Wayland SP/MP, dedicated-server, audio, input, display, and package evidence.