Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser • Hacker News Board

Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#1

Post by drdator » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

I've been building a level editor for Quake 3 that runs entirely in the browser: Radiant-style layout, brush and patch editing, CSG, terrain sculpting, and entity editing. It opens and saves .map file and you can play the maps you build directly in the browser using a webassembly build of ioquake3.

Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser
q3edit.com

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#2

Post by bishopdynamics » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

This is awesome! Great work! I love playing around with these older game engines that have source available, its really neat to explore how they work, and fiddle around with it.

If you haven’t already, Fabien’s write ups of the various ID engines are a joy to read: https://fabiensanglard.net/quake3/index.php

Shameless plug: I also like to play around with old game engines: https://github.com/bishopdynamics/Continuum

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#3

Post by SaltyAstronaut » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

Very cool! Would love a way to implement and play on the browser as well. Fingers crossed for that one..such a good game and very nostalgic.

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#4

Post by oldquakedays » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

back when I was in high school, my friend and I used Quiver [0] to make quake maps on macos - it was very fun. to think that quake networking worked under those old school modem conditions/latency is kind of wild. id3 truly were miraculous developers.

I remember asking someone who worked at my high school for a map of the school and remember thinking it would be fun to recreate the school... in quake... and probably model my least favorite teacher as a monster I could chase...

it's somewhat scary to think back about this - especially since Columbine happened the same year. there was no risk from me (absolutely no way or interest to access guns - we were teenage dweebs in a country with strict gun laws) but thinking back I'm glad I never finished my maps or shared them.

[0] https://www.macintoshrepository.org/6370-quiver-1-2-quake-ed...

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#5

Post by carlosjobim » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC

SaltyAstronaut wrote: post #3

Very cool! Would love a way to implement and play on the browser as well. Fingers crossed for that one..such a good game and very nostalgic.

Here you go: https://dos.zone/mp/?lobby=q3

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#6

Post by phendrenad2 » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC

Very cool. Are you compiling the maps with q3map2?

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#7

Post by spikk » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

This can actually accidentally become the best debugging tool for map files, ngl you should cook

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#8

Post by jacobgold » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:51 PM UTC

Very cool. It's impossible to explain how cool the GPU rendered preview window looked when we first saw it in the early map editors.

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#9

Post by popalchemist » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:01 PM UTC

Unbelievably cool!

Re: Show HN: Q3Edit – Edit and play Quake 3 maps in the browser

#10

Post by mmh0000 » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 8:46 PM UTC

oldquakedays wrote: post #4

back when I was in high school, my friend and I used Quiver [0] to make quake maps on macos - it was very fun. to think that quake networking worked under those old school modem conditions/latency is kind of wild. id3 truly were miraculous developers. I remember asking someone who worked at my high school for a map of the school and remember thinking it would be fun to recreate the school... in quake... and probably…