Q3 and Vista: forever "awaiting snapshot"

Post by **Ironb4lls** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:50 pm

Hi all,

I just got a new rig that came with Vista, and I can't connect to any multiplayer servers.

When I try to connect, I get as far as "Awaiting Snapshot" and then nothing. I can play off-line in the single-player mode beautifully (401fps in timedemo

), so I don't think it's a graphics driver issue. On a few servers, I've managed to get past the awaiting snapshot screen, only to freeze upon entering the map.

I turned off UAC in Vista and tried several different compatibility modes. I even tried turning off McAfee's firewall, which still didn't help (some hacker's probably running up a big Best Buy bill on my card number now for that).

Anyone know how I could fix this?

Thanks

Post by **^misantropia^** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:12 pm

Very likely a firewall issue. Vista's firewall supports filtering of both incoming and outgoing traffic, so you'll want to allow UDP traffic where the destination port is 27960 (and perhaps the next few ports as well).

Post by **Ironb4lls** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 11:14 pm

Maybe that's the case. How do I do that?

Post by **Ironb4lls** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:38 am

Ooh, snap! You got me.

But still no dice. After R'ing TFM, I set the firewall to allow UDP traffic through port 27960, and unblocked Quakes 3 and 4. Still stuck at awaiting snapshot.

Post by **GONNAFISTYA** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:33 pm

Do you have the latest point release for the game?

It's been ages since I played online but I think I'm safe to assume that the online community has "upgraded" their servers from the Q3 you got in the box.

Post by **axbaby** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:45 pm

might be an administation thing where
the connection is firewalled or quake3 does not have permission to use the connection .. check you admin settings

Post by **Ironb4lls** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:34 pm

Looks like I'm managing to stump a lot of people. The minute I installed the game, I upgraded to point release 1.32 and installed punkbuster before even launching it once. So, even as I was watching Sarge duke it out with the Stroggs in the intro video, i was watching on 1.32.

I made sure Q3 had permission to use the connection. I allowed it for Quake 4 as well.

Strange thing-- When I first installed Quake 4, I was able to play online. Then I upgraded to version 1.3, and now I can't. Maybe it has something to do with Windows not liking point releases?

Post by **quarn** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:58 pm

Does it freeze on the Awaiting screen or counting down (up)

Post by **dzjepp** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:00 pm

I had Vista freeze my quake 3 before... turns out it was a punkbuster issue w/ (I believe) not liking my nvidia drivers... if that's the case here you might need to get beta drivers from a site like http://www.station-drivers.com/

Post by **Ironb4lls** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:36 am

quarn, it's on the 'awaiting snapshot' screen, after it's loaded all the weapons and items.

Sometimes it lets me into the map though, but locks up within less than a second of my entering.

djzepp, which drivers did you download? I see a bunch of 'em on there.

Post by **dzjepp** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:40 am

Actually I never got the problem fixed, but I assume maybe an updated set down the road would fix it. I wouldn't count on pb fixing it since they hardly update the q3 version anyway. I ended up going back to xp and my problems where gone.

I dunno, try the 100.x series from nvidia.com? I doubt it will be fixed this early though.

Post by **ilumos** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:06 pm

Possibly unrelated, but make sure you have an up to date version of punkbuster.
Download PBSetup Here

Post by **quarn** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:14 pm

Have you tried this >>
seta com_hunkMegs "198"
seta com_zoneMegs "32"
seta com_soundMegs "16"

In your q3config.cfg file.

I still have trouble on some servers running Punkbuster..
But just some.. XS4ALL (netherlands) for instance that dosnt work at all, running old pb version it says even though its the latest pb version. But ive given up for now, i just play on what ever it can connect to. I have yet to reinstall q4, but maybe i should give it a go and see if it works.