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Archive format

PK3 converter

A .pk3 file is the game-content archive used by Quake III Arena and the many engines derived from its id Tech 3 codebase. It is a renamed ZIP whose entries are mounted into a single virtual filesystem, so maps, textures, shader scripts, sounds, and models load as though they sat in ordinary folders.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop PK3 files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where PK3 comes from

id Software moved from the custom PAK container of Quake and Quake II to ZIP-based archives for Quake III Arena in 1999, gaining per-file compression and letting modders build content with ordinary archivers. Doom 3 continued the idea as PK4 in 2004, and community engines such as ioquake3, OpenArena, and Xonotic still mount these archives today.

How PK3 works

  • The container is a standard ZIP; only the extension and the engine's mounting rules differ.
  • Archives are mounted in a defined order, and later ones override files at the same virtual path — the basis of how mods layer over base content.
  • Shader scripts under scripts/ are plain text and reference textures by virtual path rather than by file.
  • Map geometry is stored as compiled .bsp files under maps/, alongside their lightmap and entity data.
  • Because paths are virtual, an archive can add a single replacement texture without shipping anything else.

When to use PK3

  • Extracting textures, sounds, or map files from a mod for study or reuse under its licence.
  • Checking which files a downloaded mod would override before installing it.
  • Converting legacy game content into a plain ZIP for archival storage.
  • Recovering community content whose original distribution site has disappeared.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Plain ZIP inside, so decades-old content opens with any modern archiver.
  • Per-file compression allows individual assets to be read without unpacking everything.
  • The override model makes small, focused mods possible.
  • The design is engine-agnostic enough that many open-source successors still use it.

Limitations

  • Load-order dependence means two archives can conflict in ways the files themselves do not reveal.
  • Compiled .bsp maps are not editable without the original source .map files.
  • Nothing in the container records which engine or game version the content targets.

Compatibility

id Tech 3 engines and their descendants mount the format directly, and 7-Zip, File Explorer, Finder, and any other ZIP tool open one straight away or after a rename. Novus Convert reads the ZIP directory in the browser and republishes the entries as ZIP or TAR without needing a game installed.

The archive stores only ordinary ZIP per-entry metadata — path, timestamp, and CRC. Everything else about the content lives inside the assets themselves, such as the text shader scripts under scripts/.

Convert PK3 to another format