The use of curves by the Quake III Arena level designers yields maps that have a more realistic feel to them than any other real-time PC-based 3D game ever. Where other games have square portals, the Quake designers put arches. Where other games have square pillars, Quake designers can use cylindrical ones. Hewey Louis got it all wrong. It's hip to be curved, and Quake III Arena is so hip, it has difficulty seeing over its pelvis. While curves may seem unimportant, take a look around and see how many curved surfaces there are in the real world, especially in the details. Just as an example, your doors probably have trim around them to soften the sharp edges and your lamp is most likely not square. Curved surfaces in Quake III Arena soften the unnatural edges that other first-person shooters have and drastically improve the game's overall looks. It's a subtle but powerful difference. And then of course, there's the tongue.
The second major strength of the Quake III Arena graphics engine is its excellent color and textures. It supports both 16-bit and 32-bit color and textures. Like most 32-bit color games, the advantages of 32-bit color over 16-bit color are slight, which hardly matters since the textures look absolutely fabulous either way. You will probably only notice the difference if you look at the textures up close and concentrate on minute details. A quick look at Quake II, Tribes, or even the original Unreal will show you that Quake III Arena is light years ahead of the last generation FPS engines in texture quality. And when you pump the texture size up to the highest setting, something you should only do with a powerful video card, the looks will frag your mind.
But the best part is, there are textures all over the place that move! Not only does the lava, water and caustic sewage have moving textures, there are moving lights, scintillating targets, transparent power-ups with moving innards, swirling patterns on your weapon and a plethora of other small texture details that blow you away with their cumulative effect. The world of Quake III Arena is filled with animated textured life.