Whenever I try to play Quake III Arena, I get this error. I have traced down the problem and have found it to be having too many .pk3 files in my baseq3 folder. I currently have 729 .pk3 files in my baseq3 folder, and I would like to know how many .pk3 files Quake III Arena can handle in its baseq3 folder. And if there is any fix for it, I currently wouldn't know about it and would like it if someone shared their information with me!

I remember testing this limitation a while back. The results are here: lvlworld.com/thread/238/0

The limit may be related to files in system memory, not a number of maps or PK3 files. Maps can still be loaded from the console but with more maps you run a higher risk of a script error too.

A workaround, but still a hassle:
1) Create a folder and place all the PK3 file in it.
2) Move the PK3 files over when you play them.

Try the ioquake3 version too, it has heaps of improvements over the default engine.

I get this error when I already am using Ioquake3 (guess I should've stated that in the main post, whoops!) I am also using UI Enhanced, which allows for more maps in the maplist. The problem is, I get kicked out of the game with this error. I didn't get this error when I had only around 500 .pk3 files in my baseq3 folder, it is only when I added an extra 200 maps and models is when this error started to happen to me. Around 650 .pk3 files are map files.

You could try my ioq3 new filesystem project. It's an ioquake3 modification specifically designed to support more pk3 files. It can handle all the pk3s on lvlworld at once, and a lot more.

github.com/Chomeno...system/releases

Thanks! I will report back once I try it.

Ok, so when I try to load a mod, the list is flooded with mods I don't have in my Q3A folder, and when I try to load UI Enhanced from launch properties, all I get is a black screen and it crashes eventually. When I load a player model, some of the characters have missing textures, and some are corrupted in size and shape. Is there some sort of fix to this?

The mod list will also show mod folders from the %appdata%\Quake3 folder. Is it possible that is where they are coming from?

I'll do some testing to try to find problems related to UI enhanced and the player model selection. I'm assuming the current version of UI enhanced and the one you are running is 1.20? Hopefully I can reproduce and fix some of these problems and have an updated version by tomorrow.

Oh, didn't even think of that first solution! And yes, I am using UI Enhanced 1.2. I will report back once I try this fix.

I have tried the fix, and only a fraction of the maps appear in the maplist, whereas before I applied this fix, around 500 could appear before my game started crashing due to too many .pk3 files. The same thing goes for models. Not all of them show up.

I've been having a hard time reproducing the problems you were having with my filesystem client. I do see an issue that causes slow load times with a temporary black screen on UI enhanced, but it doesn't lead to a crash. What is the behavior of the crash you are experiencing (error message/crash to desktop with no error/freezing)?

Is there a specific player model that has an issue that I could test, or is it just affecting a lot of different models including the built-in ones? If you don't mind, try setting fs_search_inactive_mods to 0 in the console, and see if that makes any difference.

It's worth noting that my project is currently geared towards loading maps and models from the console, not the menus. I think pretty much all current mods have problems with the menus when very large numbers of pk3s are present. Even when it is working correctly UI Enhanced appears to have a hard limit of 512 maps in the map menu, which may defeat the purpose of using with my project anyway.

I noticed that when I started using UI Enhanced after I fixed the %appdata% error, the models that I previously had problems with were now fixed. Before I applied the new file system fix, whenever I had more than 400 .pk3 files, the game would crash leading to an error. "Couldn't reopen baseq3\PAK0.pk3" I traced this error down to be happening due to me having too many .pk3 files. When I applied this fix, the error doesn't appear anymore, and instead I get the issue stated in my previous posts. UI Enhanced is the only mod that I know of that increases max slots in the maplist, and if you could recommend some new ones that you may know of, that would be great!

Edited 1.15 minutes after the original posting.

I'm not sure what you mean by the %appdata% error. It is normal for ioquake3, and my filesystem client as well, to store files in the %appdata%\Quake3 folder, and only use the install directory as a secondary read location. What is the specific error and fix you are describing?

There were several issues described in your previous posts, so I'm not clear which one(s) you are having currently, and it would also help to have more specific details like an error message or the behavior of the crash. Also try setting try setting fs_search_inactive_mods to 0 in the console, and see if that has any effect on the problem.

Unfortunately I don't know of any mod currently that fully increases the slot limits. Before my project it wasn't practical to implement really large limits because the engine usually wouldn't support it anyway. I might look into implementing a patch of my own based on the ioq3 VM code, but it wouldn't have all the features of something like UI enhanced.

Before I deleted the folders in the \AppData\Roaming\Quake3 directory, when I tried to launch UIE from launch properties, it would leave me a black screen and crash. After I deleted the folders in that directory, it worked fine. And setting fs_search_inactive_mods 0 fixed the problem with the models, but not the maps. My current and only issue is that not all the maps show up.

It could help if you send me the fscache.dat file, which should be created in %appdata%\Quake3. You could email it to me at chomenor@gmail.com, or post a link to it here, however you prefer.

Sent.

Thanks. I was able to reproduce your config with a lot of the same pk3s, although there were some models and obscure paks that I didn't have. I got 323 maps in the UI enhanced map menu without the "all maps" option selected, and the full 512 maps with it selected. Is this close to what you are seeing?

Yes, that is almost exactly my problem. I can see only 512 maps, but have more than that.

Edited 4.78 minutes after the original posting.

Is that with or without the all maps option selected?

With the all maps option selected.

It appears to be a limit in UI Enhanced, but since the source code appears to be available I might be able to make a workaround. I'll need some time to patch the issues with my client and do some more testing, though.