Table of Contents


An explanation of some of the technical jargon and Quake-related terminology on this site.

Underlined terms are defined elsewhere in the glossary.
Some definitions contain embedded links that will take you to pages with alternative definitions or more in-depth information.


Artificial intelligence. In the context of first person shooter games, it usually refers to the programmed behaviour of the monsters. Sometimes AI can also be "friendly", if the game features helpful (or at least neutral) characters in addition to monsters.

The data or value following a command line parameter, e.g. "e1m3" following the parameter "+map". Sometimes used interchangeably with "parameter".
See parameter for a more thorough explanation.
See also CLI.

artifact (computer graphics):
Something that looks bad in a way it was not supposed to; a visual bug.
See grey flash, HOM, portal error and z-fighting.

Alpha compositing, i.e. combining an image and a background to create an effect of partial to full transparency. In the context of Quake, it refers to the the transparency or opacity of things like water.
See also wateralpha.

A wide-open map or area within a map where a significant battle – usually a boss battle or other type of final battle – takes place. It can also refer to a deathmatch map.
See also DM.

A file named autoexec.cfg, which you can create in your id1 directory. Using a text editor, you can specify which console commands should be executed and which settings should be loaded every time you launch the game.

A graphical representation of a real person's character in a virtual world or on a forum. It can refer to the player character in Quake, or to profile pictures on this website.


A pre-release version of software that may still contain bugs and still needs to be tested. This can apply to custom Quake maps too.

blast radius:
The area around an explosion (e.g. an exploding rocket or barrel) that inflicts damage. Usually the further away you are from the explosion, the less damage it will inflict. If you are outside the blast radius, you are safe.
See also splash damage.

Also called viewbobbing. The way the player's view moves up and down while walking or running through a map. It is a visual effect meant to simulate real movement. When the player's weapon similarly moves up and down and/or side to side, it is called weapon bobbing or gunbobbing.

An AI-controlled opponent, usually used in deathmatch maps – i.e. maps primarily aimed at multiplayer gameplay, where the objective is to kill or frag as many opponents as possible, often until a time or kill limit is reached. It is possible to play singleplayer deathmatch using only bots: see botmatch.

botmatch or bot match:
A deathmatch game using only bots.
See also DM, MP.

Used to describe a map that has been sealed using a "box" of brushes that surrounds any potential leaks.
See also leaked/leaking, sealed.

The solid geometric shapes in a map. Basically everything you see in the map is made up of brushes, except for entities and the sky or skybox. Brushes are covered by textures.

The file format used by Quake maps. Most custom maps you can download use this format and can be run by placing the .bsp file in question in your id1/maps directory, and then running the game with the parameter and argument "+map [mapname]", or by typing "map [mapname]" in the console. The file extension “.bsp” is short for “binary space partitioning”, referring to the manner in which data is stored in these files.
See also pak.

A newer file format that is sometimes used instead of .bsp. Not all engines support .bsp2, although many newer ones do. .bsp2 removes many of the limits of bsp, enabling mappers to create much larger and more elaborate maps than would be possible with .bsp.

An object in a map that the player activates either by shooting or pushing (by e.g. walking into it or jumping up and touching it). Buttons are often used to open doors and can literally look like buttons, but can also look e.g. like pillars that sink into the floor when activated.


A type of command that can be typed in the console, which enables the player to break some of the normal rules of the game. Common examples include “god”, which activates godmode, making the player invulnerable, “noclip”, which enables the player to walk through solid objects and "fly", which enables to player to move up and down unrestricted by gravity, as if in water.
See also command, cvar.

Command line interface. An interface for interacting with a computer by typing commands. Examples include the Linux and Mac terminals, the Windows command prompt and the Quake console.

See engine.

Clipping is what defines map objects as solid. Without clipping, the player would be able to pass straight through walls, floors, ceilings, rocks, etc.
See also noclip.

clip brush:
An invisible brush (i.e. a brush covered in "clip" textures that render it invisible) that creates a physical barrier in a map. It can be used to prevent players from getting stuck on detailed brushes with recessed and raised surfaces, by invisibly filling in the gaps.

Something that you can type in a command line interface such as the Quake console. Commands can be used to do things like customise the appearance and behaviour of the game, launch maps, activate cheatcodes, record demos, etc.
See also cheatcode, cvar.

To turn source code into an executable programme.

Software that lets you compile source code.

The Quake console is a command line interface accessed in-game by pressing the tilde key, or via the menu option “go to console”.
See also CLI.

Cooperative gameplay. Teaming up and playing through a map with another real person, who controls a separate avatar in the game. Only some single player maps support coop.

The opposite of stock. Custom Quake maps, monsters, weapons, etc. are not part of the original id Software game.

Short for Custom Entities Development Package. A package of modifications for mappers by Carl "General WarT" Glaive.

Console variable. A command that is recognised by the console.


A record of someone's playing through a map, which can be played back by anyone who has Quake installed.

Software that needs to be installed for other software to work; the latter “depends on” the former. For instance, if a map was made with quoth, you need to have quoth installed to be able to run the map properly; i.e. the maps depends on quoth, or quoth is a dependency of the map.

Abbreviation of Daikatana, a first person shooter published by Ion Storm in 2000. Some Quake custom maps use textures from this game, packaged in texture wads using the abbreviation “dkt”.

Deathmatch. A type of (primarily) multiplayer first person shooter game where the aim is to frag (i.e. kill) your opponents as often as possible and to get killed as little as possible. In a deathmatch game, you and your opponents can die and respawn multiple times, usually until a pre-determined time limit or frag limit is reached, or until the game is otherwise ended.
See also MP, botmatch.

A mod which can be used to create and play custom maps. It provides new custom monsters, weapons and other modifications.

dynamic lighting:
Lighting in a map that changes over time. Examples include flickering lights, muzzle flash and lightning effects.


easter egg:
A hidden area or message in a map that is usually very hard to find and often breaks the fourth wall or contains meta-information, such as the mapper's name or objects or images that clearly do not belong in the game world.

The programme within which a game is run, which determines things like the physics of the game world. Nowadays most players run Quake in a custom engine. Custom engines are also called source ports since they are ports (i.e. adaptations) of the original Quake engine to different, newer technology (such as newer operating systems). Sometimes these engines are also called clients (although the term “client” is rather applicable to mutliplayer games, where one connects to a server).

Entities are non-fixed objects in a map, like monsters, buttons, lights, pickup items, etc.

A collection of maps. Strictly speaking, episodes contain maps that follow one another to present an overarching narrative, although the term “episode” is also sometimes used to refer to a collection of maps released together in a single pack. The original game of Quake consists of four episodes.
See also map pack.

exit trigger:
The trigger that lets you exit the map (and proceed to the next map, if the map you are playing is part of an episode). Usually this takes the form of a teleporter that you walk into.


A cheatcode that gives the player the ability to move up and down unrestricted by gravity (as if the player were in water).

Field of view. How much of the map you are able to see at one time while playing; it is directly tied to the aspect ratio of your computer monitor.

FPS (1):
First person shooter, i.e. a game like Doom or Quake where the player moves around a 3D environment shooting enemies from a first-person perspective.

fps (2):
Frames per second, also known as framerate. The more frames are displayed per second – in other words, the higher the framerate – the smoother the player appears to move through the game environment. Lower framerate makes the game appear jerky and a very low framerate can even render the game unplayable.

Both a verb and a noun. In deathmatch, to frag means to kill, and frags are successful kills.
See also telefrag.

See fps (2).

fullbright (lighting):
Completely uniform, bright ambient lighting in a Quake map. If the mapper has not added lighting (shadows, brighter and darker areas, etc.), the map will be fullbright. The console command “fullbright 1” disables lighting and renders the entire map in fullbright.

fullbright (pixel):
In engines that support fullbright pixels, the brightest 32 colours in the Quake palette are always displayed at 100% brightness, so if textures contain pixels in any of those colours, they will always appear bright even if everything around them is in shadow. This can be used deliberately to create the effect of lights glowing in darkness, but can also have undesirable visual consequences.

An object in a map that looks like a brush, but is not in fact solid.

Lighting that is completely dark, i.e. pitch black. Fulldark lighting hides everything.
The opposite of fullbright lighting.


Green armour. One of the three armour types in stock Quake.

Short for geometric composition. Using (usually plain-textured) brushes instead of textures to create complex visual patterns and designs in a map.

Both a noun and a verb. “To gib” means to kill opponents or monsters in such a way that their bodies explode in a mess of bloody chunks or “gibs”. This happens when their health level is below a certain threshold and they are hit with a sufficiently powerful attack.

Gold key.

Grenade launcher. One of the stock Quake weapons.

The cheatcode for activating godmode, i.e. making the player impervious to damage and effectively invulnerable (although the player's armour will still be depleted by damage).

grenade jump:
Similar to a rocket jump, but done with a grenade launcher. A grenade jump is executed by launching a grenade, positioning yourself on top of it and jumping as the grenade explodes.

grey flash (or greyflash or grayflash or gray flash):
A type of visual bug where part of the screen is briefly displayed as a flat grey surface.

See bobbing


The amount of memory allocated to to Quake. In most modern engines, using the command line parameter “-heapsize” and a numerical value, one can allocate more memory to Quake.
See also: Hunk_alloc.

Hipnotic Software created Quake's first mission pack, Scourge of Armagon. “hiptnotic” or “soa” are sometimes used as shorthand for this mission pack, and “-hipnotic” or “-game hipnotic” (depending on your engine) can also be used as a command line argument, to make Quake use certain entities and/or behaviour from Scourge of Armagon.
See also: soa.

A type of ranged attack where the target is immediately damaged with no intervening projectile animation. As such, hitscan attacks cannot be dodged. Grunts' shotgun fire is an example of a hitscan attack.

Hall of mirrors. An undesirable visual effect where part of a map is distorted, like when you hold two mirrors face to face and see endless reflections.
See also artifact.

Heads-up display. Information displayed to the player without obstructing the view, such as ammo count, current health, etc.

An error message that indicates that the map you are trying to run requires more memory than the game is currently able to use. The “-heapsize” argument can be used to allocate more memory to Quake.


A directory (or folder) that is created when you install Quake on your computer. It contains all the game data. You will need this folder in order to run Quake in a custom engine.

When monsters fight each other. Some Quake monsters will retaliate against any attack, even if the attack comes from another monster instead of the player. In this way, when one monster accidentally hurts another while trying to attack the player, they can start fighting one another. This can be deliberately exploited by the player as a combat tactic.

Additional animation between two frames, which makes the animation appear smoother. For example, most modern engines add interpolation to Quake's monster movement, making it appear less jerky.


Used to describe a map that is not sealed by brushes. If a map is leaking, it cannot be compiled with vis.
The opposite of sealed.
See also boxed.

Lightning gun, also known as thunderbolt. One of the stock Quake weapons.

The surface lighting of a three-dimensional object in a virtual environment such as a Quake map, created using lighter and darker textures.

The original Quake engine and the original .bsp format contain certain limits, e.g. the number of brushes that can be used. Custom engines and the .bsp2 format remove some or all of those limits.

When a map or gameplay is linear, the player follows a fixed route and/or series of battles or setpieces from which it is not possible to deviate. The opposite is nonlinear gameplay, where there are different routes through the map and different ways of completing the map objective. Linearity is often a matter of degree, though: very few Quake maps are 100% linear or nonlinear.


Also called a level. The total virtual space in which you find yourself and to which you (in principle) have access from the moment you start playing to the moment you reach the exit.

.map (file extension):
A type of file that uses the .map extension and contains the source code of a map (in other words, the source code of a .bsp file). A .map file needs to be compiled before it can can be played as a .bsp.

map pack:
A collection of maps released as one package. Sometimes the term episode is used very loosely to refer to map packs too.

Someone who creates maps; a map author.

Hand-to-hand combat or short-range attack. Monsters in stock Quake that use melee attacks are Rottweilers, Knights, Ogres, Fiends, Shamblers, Death Knights, Spawns and Rotfish. The player has one melee weapon, namely an axe.
The opposite of ranged.

Megahealth, a pickup item in Quake that gives the player a 100 point health boost.

Minimum light value, i.e. the darkest a given map will be even when an area is not lit by any sourced light.

mission pack:
Also called an "expansion pack" or "expansion". An additional set of maps or episodes for a game, usually providing substantial play time comparable to that of the original game.
See also soa.

Short for modification, which is a somewhat vague and controversial term. Sometimes it is used to refer to any and all custom content made for Quake, including all custom maps. Sometimes it is reserved only for custom content that significantly alter the gameplay and/or appearance of the orginal game. Sometimes it is used to refer to packages such as quoth or drake, which contain new monsters and other modifications, which can then be used by authors in their maps.

A three-dimensional map entity, such as a monster or a pickup item.

An enemy in Quake. Though many of them are in fact monstrous in appearance, it is more of a naming convention. "Monster" can refer to a human enemy too, such as the stock Enforcer (although it is debatable whether Enforcers are in fact human) or custom human enemies or robots, such as quoth's "Bob" (a flying robotic drone).

Multiplayer, i.e. playing with or against other real people over the internet or some other network connection. Examples include deathmatch, where you compete to see who can kill or “frag” the largest number of opponents, and coop, where you cooperate with another player or players in a single player map.
See also DM, coop, frag, telefrag.

muzzle flash:
When a weapon is fired in Quake, it lights up everything in its immediate vicinity. This can be used to provide light in very dark areas for short periods of time (it only works if dynamic lighting is enabled).


Nailgun. One of the stock Quake weapons.

A console command or cheatcode that turns off clipping, thereby enabling the player to pass through a map unhindered by physical objects.

See linear.


Overbright lighting raises the brightness of individual pixels to an unusually high level; when used, many pixels become completely white. It makes textures appear extremely bright, which can e.g. be used to simulate the effect of sunlight or very strong artificial lights.


A type of file which has the extension “.pak” and contains game data that the Quake engine can read. Custom episodes usually come in this format. If a map, map pack, episode or mod you have downloaded uses this format, it is placed in its own directory inside your Quake directory (and not in your id1/maps directory). To run it, you start the game with the argument "-game [name of directory the .pak is in]" or "-[name of directory the .pak is in]", depending on your engine and the nature of the mod.
See also bsp.

See Quake palette.

Text that can be added to a command in a command line interface to affect how the command is executed. An example would be “+map”, which can be added to a Quake engine's launch command so that it launches a specific map instead of starting up normally, or "-heapsize", which forces it to use a certain (higher than usual) amount of memory. The data or value following the parameter, e.g. the name of the map or the number of bytes of memory, is called an argument. So if you launch Quake with "+map e1m3", "+map" is the parameter and "e1m3" is the argument. Sometimes the terms "parameter" and "argument" are used interchangeably.
See also argument, CLI.

portal error:
An error that occurs when things that should be visible in a map are not being rendered and vice versa.

progs.dat, an executable programme written in Quake C, which tells Quake how to behave. By writing and compiling a custom progs.dat, one can modify the way the game behaves.
See also QC.


Quake palette:
The 256 colours that can be used in Quake textures.

quad run:
A killing spree immediately after picking up a Quad Damage powerup (which multiplies the damage dealt by the player's weapons) in a map. The mapper can orchestrate a quad run by making sure that the player faces many monsters as soon as the quad is picked up.

Quake 2, the successor to Quake, albeit not a sequel in the strict sense of the word. Released by id software in 1997.

Quake 3 or Quake 3 Arena; also abbreviated as Q3A. A deathmatch-oriented game released by id software in 1999. It has little to no support for traditional single player gameplay, although it does support botmatches.

Quake C, the programming language created by John Carmack for Quake.

A mod created by Kell and necros, which can be used to create and play custom maps. It provides new custom monsters, weapons and other additions such as breakable material.


Red armour. One of the three armour types in stock Quake.

Long-distance attack, e.g. using projectiles. Monsters in stock Quake that use ranged attacks are Grunts, Enforcers, Scrags, Ogres, Zombies, Shamblers, Death Knights, Vores and Chthon. With the exception of the axe, all of the players weapons are ranged.
The opposite of melee.

Monsters or players respawn when they re-enter the map after having been killed. In deathmatch, players and bots continuously respawn until the time or frag limit of the map is reached. See also spawn (2).

Rocket launcher. One of the stock Quake weapons.

rocket jump:
Using a rocket launcher to jump higher than otherwise possible, at the cost of some health and/or armour points – unless you have a Pentagram of Protection, of course. A rocket jump is executed by firing the rocket launcher downwards while jumping at the same time. It is a technique that originated in deathmatch games.
See also grenade jump.

The way in which a mapper has used brushes to create the appearance of rocks or cliffs in a map.

Similar to the everyday meaning of the word, but used rather loosely when describing first person shooter maps, to refer to different areas the player moves through.

Render speeds, i.e. the speed at which the visuals of a map are being rendered or drawn. Certain factors such as the number of polygons in a map will affect the r_speeds, which need to be kept under a certain limit so that the map will run properly. In newer engines, this is no longer a significant problem.
See also limits.


Used to describe a map that is not leaking, i.e. with no gaps between the outermost brushes.

A hidden area in a map that contains something of benefit to the player, such as health, armour, ammo or a weapon. Most secrets are marked and trigger a sound and on-screen message once found. The message usually reads “You have found a secret”, although mappers sometimes insert more creative and humorous messages. Upon completion of a given map, it is possible to see how many secrets have been found. Pressing the “Tab” key while playing will usually also display this information. Sometimes hidden areas containing helpful items are not marked as secrets and will not be counted towards the number of secrets found, but players will still regard them as such.

setpiece or set piece (1):
An event that is not part of typical gameplay or engine mechanics, e.g. a building that suddenly collapses. It is usually triggered by the player's being in a certain spot or once a certain amount of time has passed.

setpiece or set piece (2):
Some reviewers, notably Shambler (not to be confused with the monster), use the term to refer to an impressive structure within the map, such as a large and imposing façade.

Shotgun. One of the stock Quake weapons.

shalrath or shal-rath:
Another name for the Vore.

shambler dance:
A technique for fighting Shamblers, whereby the player keeps moving into an out of the Shambler's melee range while attacking. Done successfully, this technique can be used to kill Shamblers without the player's taking any damage, as the player remains too close for the monster to switch to its ranged attack, and too far for it to inflict melee damage.

Silver key.

skill 0:
Also called easy skill. The lowest difficulty setting on Quake maps.

skill 1:
Also called normal. The second lowest difficulty setting on Quake maps, and also the default difficulty setting: when loaded, maps will be at skill 1 unless otherwise specified by the player.

skill 2:
Also called hard. The second highest difficulty setting on Quake maps.

skill 3:
Also called nightmare. The highest difficulty setting on Quake maps (although some custom maps add a fourth difficulty level).

The textures covering a monster or other model.

Outdoor areas in stock Quake use a sky texture, which is effectively two textures in one, moving at different speeds and with the nearest one partly transparent to help create the illusion of moving clouds.
Compare skybox.

A virtual box encasing a map, with images on all its interior surfaces. Together, these images create the illusion of a sky within the map. Stock Quake maps do not have skyboxes, but instead open areas use the Quake sky.

Speedmap. A map made in a very short time, usually officially 100 minutes or less, although this timelimit is rarely strictly enforced.

Super nailgun. One of the stock Quake weapons.

Scourge of Armagon. The first Quake mission pack by Hipnotic software.

source code:
The raw data of a programme or map, as written by a programmer or created by a mapper. Source code needs to be compiled before it becomes a usable programme or a playable map.

sourced lighting:
Lighting that comes from a source, such as a torch on a wall.

source port:
See engine.

Single player.

spawn (1):
One of the stock Quake monsters. Also called tarbaby, although some players avoid that name, since it is considered a racial slur in some dialects and parts of the world.

spawn (2):
To spawn is to enter a map. It can be used to talk about players, bots and monsters.

spawnpoint or spawn point:
The point on a map where a player, monster or bot spawns (i.e. enters the map). In single player Quake, the player's spawnpoint is often near a (usually blocked, barred or otherwise inaccessible) teleporter, suggesting that the player had teleported into the location of the map.

A two-dimensional map entity, such as explosions in Quake and the monsters in 2D games and early first person shooters like Doom (in Quake and later games, monsters are 3D models).

splash damage:
Splash damage refers to the damage inflicted by explosive projectiles not to whatever they hit directly, but to anything or anyone within the blast radius of the explosion. That is why you can hurt or even kill yourself if you fire a rocket in a cramped space, or why you can sometimes kill a few enemies at once with a single rocket.

Super shotgun. One of the stock Quake weapons.

Stock maps, monsters, weapons, etc, are those that were part of the original release of Quake, as opposed to custom content.

super secret:
A secret that becomes accessible only once a certain number of regular secrets have been found. Sometimes the term “super secret” is also used to refer to a particularly well-hidden and elaborate secret area, or to an easter egg.


To kill an enemy by teleporting into the same spot the enemy is occupying. This can be done deliberately or accidentally in deathmatch, and can also be done in singleplayer Quake: the player can telefrag monsters and monsters can telefrag one another. Notably the player cannot be telefragged by monsters in singleplayer: when a monster teleports into the player's location, the monster will be killed instead.
See also frag.

The visuals that cover a brush in a map. It will make the difference between whether a rectangular block looks like a wooden beam or a metal block, for example.
See also wad.

Another name for the lightning gun.
See LG.

Both a noun and a verb. Something that causes something else to happen in a map, e.g. picking up a key can trigger the appearance of monsters, completing a certain objective can trigger an on-screen message, or entering a slipgate can trigger the end of the map.
See also: exit trigger.

A custom map made in a week or less. While most regular maps take far longer than a week to finish, turtlemap production is a lot slower than that of speedmaps, hence the name.


See bobbing.

A programme used during compiling that calculates visibility in a map. When a map has been compiled with vis, it allows the Quake engine only to render things that the player can see at any given time. Whatever is hidden from view is not rendered, thereby reducing the amount of memory needed to run the map. This allows maps to run faster, especially larger maps and especially on older hardware.


In the context of Quake, wads are files that contain sets of textures.
Not to be confused with Doom wads (custom maps and episodes made for the game Doom), the Quake equivalent of which would be bsp or pak files.

walkmonster in wall:
An error that occurs when monsters are spawned in such a way that they intersect with the solid geometry (brushes) of a map.

The transparency or opacity of water in quake maps, expressed in a value from 0 to 1, where 0 is completely transparent and 1 is completely opaque.
See also: alpha.

weapon bobbing:
See bobbing.

wizard (1):
The texture theme of some Quake maps.

wizard (2):
Another name for the Scrag.

Wolfenstein 3D: 1992 tongue-in-cheek World War 2-themed first person shooter by id software. Often seen as the direct precursor to Doom, which is in turn seen as the direct precursor to Quake.


Yellow armour. One of the three armour types in stock Quake.


Zerstörer: Testament of the Destroyer. A very influential custom episode released in 1997.

Z-aware monsters aim their projectiles upwards and downwards in addition to forwards, meaning that they can hit the player even they are on a lower or higher plane. In stock Quake, for example, ogres are not z-aware, so if you are on a high enough wall looking down on an ogre, the ogre cannot hit you, as it will not fire its grenades upwards. The same does not apply to Shamblers, for instance, since they are z-aware and will aim their lightning attack upwards if the player is higher than them.

A visual bug or artifact that occurs when two textures are “fighting” to be displayed on the same surface. Two-dimensional graphics have an x (side to side) and y (up and down) axis; in the third dimension there is also a z (near and far) axis. Usually the “nearest” two-dimensional image block everything else from view, but when two two-dimensional images are competing to be displayed on the same z plane, you get z-fighting.