qbsp#

qbsp - Compile a Quake BSP file from a MAP source file

Synopsis#

qbsp [OPTION]… SOURCFILE [DESTFILE]

Description#

qbsp is a tool used in the creation of maps for the id Software game Quake. qbsp takes a .map file as input and produces a .bsp file playable in the Quake engine. If the DESTFILE argument is not supplied, the output filename will be chosen by stripping the file extension (if any) from SOURCEFILE and appending the .bsp extension.

Options#

-nofill#

Doesn’t perform outside filling

-filltype auto | inside | outside#

Whether to fill the map from the outside in (lenient), from the inside out (aggressive), or to automatically decide based on the hull being used.

-filldetail [n]#

Whether to fill enclosed pockets of empty space surrounded by solid detail. Default is 1 (enabled).

-nomerge#

Don’t perform face merging.

-nomergeacrossliquids#

Don’t merge faces above and below a liquid.

This is for maps targetting ezQuake (Q1) and Paintball2 (Q2) water caustics, where the effect is applied per-face and breaks if a face is partially above and partially below water.

-noedgereuse#

Don’t reuse edges (may be useful for debugging software rendering).

-noclip#

Doesn’t build clip hulls (only applicable for Q1-like BSP formats).

-noskip#

Doesn’t remove faces using the skip texture

-nodetail#

Treat all detail brushes as structural.

-onlyents#

Only updates .map entities

-verbose#
-v#

Print out more .map information.

Note, this switch no longer implies -loghulls; use that if you want to see statistics for collision hulls.

-loghulls#

Print log output for collision hulls.

-logbmodels#

Print log output for bmodels.

-quiet#
-noverbose#

Suppress non-important messages (equivalent to -nopercent -nostat -noprogress).

-log#

Write log files. Enabled by default.

-nolog#

Don’t write log files.

-chop#

Adjust brushes to remove intersections if possible. Enabled by default.

-nochop#

Do not chop intersecting brushes.

-chopfragment#

Always do full fragmentation for chop.

-splitsky#

Doesn’t combine sky faces into one large face.

-splitspecial#

Doesn’t combine sky and water faces into one large face. This allows for statically lit water.

-litwater#
-splitturb#

Enable lit liquids. This allows for statically lit water in compatible source ports, which still works but renders as fullbright on non-supporting source ports. The only downside is that water faces will be split up more, as per -subdivide. Enabled by default.

-transwater#

In Q1 mode, compiles maps for transparent water (lets vis see through liquids). Enabled by default. Has no effect in Q2 mode, because this is controlled by the mapper in Q2.

-notranswater#

Computes portal information for opaque water

-oldaxis#

Use the original QBSP texture alignment algorithm. Enabled by default.

-nooldaxis#

Use alternate texture alignment algorithm. The default is to use the original QBSP texture alignment algorithm, which required the -oldaxis switch in tyrutils-ericw v0.15.1 and earlier.

-forcegoodtree#

Force use of expensive processing for SolidBSP stage. Often results in a more optimal BSP file in terms of file size, at the expense of extra processing time.

-leaktest#

Makes it a compile error if a leak is detected.

-nopercent#

Prevents output of percent completion information

-nostat#

Don’t output statistic messages.

-noprogress#

Don’t output progress messages.

-nocolor#

Don’t output ANSI color codes (in case the terminal doesn’t recognize colors, e.g. TB).

-q2bsp#

Target Quake II’s BSP format.

-qbism#

Target Qbism’s extended Quake II BSP format.

-q2rtx#

Adjust settings to best support Q2RTX.

-hexen2#

Generate a hexen2 bsp. This can be used in addition to -bsp2 to avoid clipnode issues.

-bsp2#

Create the output BSP file in BSP2 format. Allows the creation of much larger and more complex maps than the original BSP 29 format).

-2psb#

Create the output BSP file in 2PSB format. This an earlier version of the BSP2 format, supported by the RMQ engine (and thus is also known as the BSP2rmq or RMQe bsp format).

Deprecated since version 1.0: Use -bsp2 instead.

-allowupgrade#

Allow formats to “upgrade” to compatible extended formats when a limit is exceeded (e.g. Quake BSP to BSP2, or Quake 2 BSP to Qbism BSP). Enabled by default.

-noallowupgrade#

Opt out of -allowupgrade.

-hlbsp#

Create the output BSP file in Half-Life’s format. Note that the hull size differences prevent this from being generally usable for the vanilla quake gamecode. This cannot be used in combination with the -bsp2 argument.

-add [mapfile]#

The given map file will be appended to the base map.

-leakdist [n]#

Space between leakfile points (default 0, which does not write any inbetween points)

-subdivide [n]#

Use different texture subdivision (default 240). Lower values will harm framerates. Higher values may not be supported. DP+FTEQW+QSS support up to 4080 (unless lightmap scaling is in use), but such values will cause other engines to crash-to-console. Use zero to specify no subdivision.

-nosubdivide#

Disable subdivision. Requires a compatible source port. See also -subdivide.

-lmscale n#

Change global lmscale (force _lmscale key on all entities). Outputs the LMSCALE BSPX lump.

-software#

Change settings to allow for (or make adjustments to optimize for the lack of) software support.

-nosoftware#

Explicitly drop support for software renderers.

-wadpath <dir>#

Search this directory for wad files (default is cwd). Multiple -wadpath args may be used. This argument is ignored for wads specified using an absolute path.

-xwadpath <dir>#

Like -wadpath, except textures found using the specified path will NOT be embedded into the bsp (equivelent to -notex, but for only textures from specific wads). You should use this for wads like halflife’s standard wad files, but q1bsps require an engine extension and players are not nearly as likely to have the same wad version.

-path "/path/to/folder" <multiple allowed>#

Additional paths or archives to add to the search path, mostly for loose files.

-defaultpaths#

Whether the compiler should attempt to automatically derive game/base paths for games that support it. Enabled by default.

-nodefaultpaths#

Opt out of -defaultpaths.

-oldrottex#

Use old method of texturing rotate_ brushes where the mapper aligns textures for the object at (0 0 0).

-midsplitsurffraction n#

If 0 (default), use -maxnodesize for deciding when to switch to midsplit bsp heuristic.

If 0 < midsplitSurfFraction <= 1, switch to midsplit if the node contains more than this fraction of the model’s total surfaces. Try 0.15 to 0.5. Works better than maxNodeSize for maps with a 3D skybox (e.g. +-128K unit maps)

-midsplitbrushfraction n#

Switch to cheaper BSP partitioning test if a node contains this % of brushes in the map.

-maxnodesize [n]#

Switch to the cheap spatial subdivion bsp heuristic when splitting nodes of this size (in any dimension). This gives much faster qbsp processing times on large maps and should generate better bsp trees as well. From txqbsp-xt, thanks rebb. (default 1024, 0 to disable)

-wrbrushes#
-bspx#

Includes a list of brushes for brush-based collision. This allows for arbitrary collision sizes in engines that support it, currently only FTEQW.

-wrbrushesonly#
-bspxonly#

-wrbrushes combined with -noclip argument. This is NOT backwards compatible.

-bmodelcontents#

Allow bmodels to have contents other than “solid” in Q1 based games, e.g. water in a func_door. This is supported in FTEQW; in winquake, the bmodel will have no collision.

Q2 supports this feature natively and this option has no effect.

-notriggermodels#

For supported game code only: triggers will not write a model out, and will instead just write out their mins/maxs.

-notex#

Write only placeholder textures, to depend upon replacements. This avoids inclusion of third-party copyrighted images inside your maps, but is not backwards compatible but will work in FTEQW and QSS.

Note that the textures still need to be available to qbsp.

Technical details: LUMP_TEXTURES is still written, but each texture within is the dmiptex_t header only (with no texture data following), with offsets all set to 0.

This only has effect in Q1 family games.

-missing_textures_as_zero_size#

Writes missing textures (i.e. ones that qbsp can’t find) as 0x0 placeholders.

This is not backwards compatible and will produce .bsp’s that crash unsupporting engines. However, it can be useful when you want to run qbsp + light on a map that you are missing the corresponding .wad for.

This only has effect in Q1 family games.

-notjunc#

Alias for -tjunc none

-tjunc mwt | none | retopologize | rotate#

T-junction fix level:

none

Don’t attempt to fix T-junctions. This is only for engines or formats that prefer micro-cracks over degenerate triangles. If you don’t know what that means, don’t set this.

rotate

Allow faces’ vertices to be rotated to prevent zero-area triangles.

retopologize

If a face still has zero-area triangles, allow it to be re-topologized by splitting it into multiple fans.

mwt

Attempt to triangulate faces (along with their T-junction fixes) using a MWT first, only falling back to the prior two steps if it fails.

-noextendedsurfflags#

Don’t write .texinfo file, even if it would normally be needed (debug)

-omitdetail#

Detail brushes are omitted from the compile.

-omitdetailwall#

func_detail_wall brushes are omitted from the compile.

-omitdetailillusionary#

func_detail_illusionary brushes are omitted from the compile.

-omitdetailfence#

func_detail_fence brushes are omitted from the compile.

-convert <fmt>#

Convert a .MAP to a different .MAP format. fmt can be:

quake

Q1 vanilla map format.

quake2

Q2 vanilla map format.

valve

Valve 220 map format.

bp

Brush Primitives format.

Conversions to “quake” or “quake2” format may not be able to match the texture alignment in the source map, other conversions are lossless. The converted map is saved to <source map name>-<fmt>.map.

-includeskip#

Emit skip/nodraw faces (default is to discard them). Mainly for Q2RTX.

-threads n#

Set number of threads to use. By default, qbsp will attempt to use all available hardware threads.

-lowpriority#

Run in a lower priority, to free up headroom for other processes. Enabled by default.

-aliasdef <aliases.def> [...]#

Adds alias definition files, which can transform entities in the .map into other entities.

For example, given this alias definition file:

aliases.def#
misc_torch1 // source classname
{
"classname" "misc_model" // classname to transform into
"model" "torch1.mdl"
}

misc_torch2
{
"classname" "misc_model"
"model" "torch2.mdl"
}

and an input map file:

{
"classname" "misc_torch1"
"model" "override.mdl"
}

{
"classname" "misc_torch2"
}

the following will be output in the .bsp’s entity lump:

{
"classname" "misc_model"
"model" "override.mdl" // key/value from map takes precedence
}

{
"classname" "misc_model"
"model" "torch2.mdl" // key/value from alias file
}
-texturedefs "path/to/file.def" <multiple allowed>#

Path to a texture definition file, which can transform textures in the .map into other textures.

-epsilon n#

Customize epsilon value for point-on-plane checks.

-microvolume n#

Microbrush volume.

-outsidedebug#

Write a .map after outside filling showing non-visible brush sides.

-debugchop#

Write a .map after ChopBrushes.

-debugleak#

Write more diagnostic files for debugging leaks.

-debugbspbrushes#

Save bsp brushes after BrushBSP to a .map, for visualizing BSP splits.

-debugleafvolumes#

Save bsp leaf volumes after BrushBSP to a .map, for visualizing BSP splits.

-debugexpand [single hull index] or [mins_x mins_y mins_z maxs_x maxs_y maxs_z]#

Write expanded hull .map for debugging/inspecting hulls/brush bevelling.

-keepprt#

Avoid deleting the .prt file on leaking maps.

-maxedges n#

The max number of edges/vertices on a single face before it is split into another face.

-worldextent n#

Explicitly provide world extents; 0 will auto-detect. Default 0.

-forceprt1#

Force a PRT1 output file even if PRT2 is required for vis.

-objexport#

Export the map file as .OBJ models during various compilation phases.

Game Path Specification#

To compile a Q2 map, the compilers usually need to be able to locate an installation of the game. e.g. the .map might reference a texture name like e1u1/clip, but qbsp needs to open the corresponding .wal file to look up the content/surface flags (playerclip, etc.) which are then written to the .bsp.

We use the terminology:

basedir

The directory containing the base game (e.g. id1 or baseq2). Can be an absolute path, e.g. c:/quake2/baseq2 or c:/quake/id1.

gamedir

Optional mod directory, e.g. ad or c:/quake/ad. If a gamedir is specified it will be added to the search path at a higher priority than the basedir.

The common cases are:

  • place your .map in <quake2>/baseq2/maps and compile it there, qbsp will auto detect the basedir/gamedir.

  • for compiling a .map located elsewhere, use e.g.:

    qbsp -basedir "c:/quake2/baseq2" input.map

    or

    qbsp -basedir "c:/quake2/baseq2" -gamedir mymod input.map
-gamedir "relative/path" or "C:/absolute/path"#

Override the default mod base directory. if this is not set, or if it is relative, it will be derived from the input file or the basedir if specified.

-basedir "relative/path" or "C:/absolute/path"#

Override the default game base directory. if this is not set, or if it is relative, it will be derived from the input file or the gamedir if specified.

-filepriority archive | loose#

Which types of archives (folders/loose files or packed archives) are higher priority and chosen first for path searching.

Special Texture Names#

The contents inside a brush depend on the texture name(s) assigned to it.

By default brush contents are solid unless they have a special name. All faces of a brush must have textures which indicate the same contents. Mixed content types will cause qbsp to print an error and exit.

*slime#
*lava#
*#

Names beginning with an asterisk are liquids. A prefix of *slime indicates slime, *lava is for lava and anything else beginning with * will have contents as water.

skip#

Any surfaces assigned a texture name of skip will be compiled into the bsp as invisible surfaces. Solid surfaces will still be solid (e.g. the play can’t walk or shoot through them) but they will not be drawn. Water, slime and lava surfaces can be made invisible using the texture names *waterskip, *slimeskip and *lavaskip respectively.

hint#

Hint surfaces cause a bsp split and portal to be generated the on the surface plane, after which they are removed from the final bsp - they are neither visible, nor structural. Strategic placement of hint surfaces can be used by a map author to optimise the PVS calculations so as to limit overdraw by the engine (see also: vis(1)).

Use a texture with the name hintskip on any surfaces of a hint brush which you don’t want to generate bsp splits or portals. All surfaces of a hint brush must use either the hint or hintskip texture name.

origin#

An origin brush (all faces textured with “origin”) can be added to a brush entity (but not detail or compiler-internal entities like func_group). Doing so causes all of the brushes in the brush entitiy to be translated so the center of the origin brush lines up with 0 0 0. The entity key “origin” is then automatically set on the brush entity to the original cooridnates of the center of the “origin” brush before it was translated to 0 0 0.

In Hexen 2, origin brushes are the native way of marking the center point of the rotation axis for rotating entities.

In Quake, origin brushes can be used to make some map hacks easier to set up that would otherwise require placing brushes at the world origin and entering an “origin” value by hand.

Note that, unlike the Hipnotic rotation support in QBSP, using origin brushes does not cause the model bounds to be expanded. (With Hipnotic rotation this was to ensure that the model is not vis culled, regardless of its rotated angle.) Origin brushes are useful for more than just rotation, and doing this bounds expansion would break some use cases, so if you’re going to rotate a model with an origin brush you might need to expand the bounds of it a bit using clip brushes so it doesn’t get vis culled.

External Map Prefab Support#

This qbsp has a prefab system using a point entity named “misc_external_map”. The idea is, each “misc_external_map” imports brushes from an external .map file, applies rotations specified by the “_external_map_angles” key, then translates them to the “origin” key of the “misc_external_map” entity. Finally, the classname of the “misc_external_map” is switched to the one provided by the mapper in the “_external_map_classname” key. (The “origin” key is also cleared to “0 0 0” before saving the .bsp).

The external .map file should consist of worldspawn brushes only, although you can use func_group for editing convenience. Brush entities are merged with the worldspawn brushes during import. All worldspawn keys, and any point entities are ignored. Currently, this means that the “wad” key is not handled, so you need to add any texture wads required by the external .map file to your main map.

Note that you can set other entity keys on the “misc_external_map” to configure the final entity type. e.g. if you set “_external_map_classname” to “func_door”, you can also set a “targetname” key on the “misc_external_map”, or any other keys for “func_door”.

_external_map#

Specifies the filename of the .map to import.

_external_map_classname#

What entity you want the external map to turn in to. You can use internal qbsp entity types such as func_detail, or a regular bmodel classname like “func_wall” or “func_door”.

_external_map_angles#

Rotation for the prefab, “pitch yaw roll” format. Assuming the exernal map is facing the +X axis, positive pitch is down. Yaw of 180, for example, would rotate it to face -X.

_external_map_angle#

Short version of _external_map_angles for when you want to specify just a yaw rotation.

_external_map_scale#

Scale factor for the prefab, defaults to 1. Either specify a single value or three scales, “x y z”.

Detail Brush Support#

This version of qbsp supports detail brushes which are similar in concept to Quake 2’s detail brushes. They don’t seal the map (previous versions did).

To be compatible with existing Quake 1 mapping tools, detail brushes can be added by creating an entity with classname “func_detail”. When qbsp reads the map file, it will add any brushes included in a func_detail entity into the worldspawn as details and remove the func_detail entity. Any number of func_detail entities can be used (useful for grouping) and all included brushes will be added to the worldspawn.

Here is an example entity definition suitable to add the the .QC files used by BSP Editor:

/*QUAKED func_detail (0.5 0.5 0.9) ?
Detail brushes add visual details to
the world, but do not block visibility.
func_detail entities are merged into
the worldspawn entity by the qbsp compiler
and do not appear as separate entities in
the compiled bsp.
*/

For WorldCraft in .FGD format (untested):

@SolidClass color(128 128 230) = func_detail: "Detail" []

For Radiant in .ENT format:

<group name="func_detail" color="0 .5 .8">
Detail brushes add visual details to the world, but do not
block visibility. func_detail entities are merged into the
worldspawn entity by the qbsp compiler and do not appear as
separate entities in the compiled bsp.
</group>

What should be written to the .map file is a simple entity with one or more brushes. E.g.:

{
"classname" "func_detail"
{
( -176  80  0 ) ( -208  80  0 ) ( -208  48  0 ) COP1_1 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( -192 -80 64 ) ( -208 -80  0 ) ( -192 -64 64 ) COP1_1 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( -176 -80  0 ) ( -192 -80 64 ) ( -176 -64  0 ) COP1_1 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( -16   48  0 ) (  -16  64 64 ) (    0  48  0 ) COP1_1 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
( -16   64 64 ) (  -16  80  0 ) (    0  64 64 ) COP1_1 0 0 0 1.0 1.0
}
}

When qbsp detects detail brushes, it outputs a modified portal file format with the header PRT2 (default is PRT1). This portal file contains extra information needed by vis to compute the potentially visible set (PVS) for the map/bsp. So you will also need a vis util capable of processing the PRT2 file format.

Detail Variants#

func_detail_illusionary#

func_detail variant with no collision (players / monsters / gunfire) and doesn’t split world faces. Doesn’t cast shadows unless enabled with _shadow “1”. Useful for hanging vines. Still creates BSP leafs, which is unavoidable without a new .bsp file format.

Intersecting func_detail_illusionary brushes don’t clip each other; this is intended to make trees/shrubs/foliage easier with _mirrorinside “1”.

func_detail_wall#

func_detail variant that doesn’t split world faces. Useful for when you want a decoration touching a floor or wall to not split the floor/wall faces (you’ll get some overdraw instead.) If it completely covers up a world face, that face will get clipped away, so it’s not suitable for fence textures; see func_detail_fence instead.

Intersecting func_detail_wall brushes don’t clip each other.

func_detail_fence#

Similar to func_detail_wall except it’s suitable for fence textures, never clips away world faces. Useful for fences, grates, etc., that are solid and block gunfire.

Intersecting func_detail_fence brushes don’t clip each other.

Model Entity Keys#

"_lmscale" "n"#

Generates an LMSHIFT bspx lump for use by a light util. Note that both scaled and unscaled lighting will normally be used.

"_mirrorinside" "n"#

Set to 1 to save mirrored inside faces for bmodels, so when the player view is inside the bmodel, they will still see the faces. (e.g. for func_water, or func_illusionary)

Other Special-Purpose Entities#

func_illusionary_visblocker#

For creating vis-blocking illusionary brushes (similar to func_detail_illusionary or “func_illusionary”. The player can walk through them.) This gives the same effect as water brushes when the -notranswater flag is used, except the interior of these brushes are saved as CONTENTS_EMPTY. One thing to be aware of is, if the player’s view is very close to the faces of these brushes, they might be able to see into the void (depending on the engine). Fitzquake family engines have a workaround for this that is enabled if the brushes are textured with a water texture (“*” prefix).

Map Compatibility#

In addition to standard Quake 1 .map files, ericw-tools QBSP is compatible with:

  • Floating point brush coordinates and texture alignments

  • Valve’s 220 map format as produced by the Hammer editor

  • Extended texture positioning as supported by the QuArK editor

  • Standard Quake 2 map format (leading paths in texture names are stripped and any extra surface properties are ignored)

  • Brush Primitives produce by Radiant editors (normally a Quake 3 format)

Metadata formats#

.wal_json#

For Q2 mapping, .wal textures contain metadata specifying the texture’s content flags, surface flags, and “value”, which are used if the mapper doesn’t override them in the .map file. For example, a lava texture can default to emitting light, having a lava content type, and having a surface warp effect.

The final values get baked into the .bsp and so game engine doesn’t need the metadata for anything.

For increased flexibility, we support a JSON metadata format, which can override the .wal’s metadata or provide it when using image format like .tga instead of .wal.

To use a .wal_json file, place it in the same directory where the .wal would be, e.g. baseq2/textures/e1u1/water.wal_json would correspond to: baseq2/textures/e1u1/water.png.

All of the values are optional.

{
    // valid instances of "contents"; either:
    // - a case-insensitive string containing the textual representation
    //   of the content type
    // - a number
    // - an array of the two above, which will be OR'd together
    "contents": [ "SOLID", 8 ],
    "contents": 24,
    "contents": "SOLID",

    // valid instances of "flags"; either:
    // - a case-insensitive string containing the textual representation
    //   of the surface flags
    // - a number
    // - an array of the two above, which will be OR'd together
    "flags": [ "SKY", 16 ],
    "flags": 24,
    "flags": "SKY",

    // "value" must be an integer
    "value": 1234,

    // "animation" must be the name of the next texture in
    // the chain.
    "animation": "e1u1/comp2",

    // width/height are allowed to be supplied in order to
    // have the editor treat the surface as if its dimensions
    // are these rather than the ones pulled in from the image
    // itself. they must be integers.
    "width": 64,
    "height": 64,

    // color to use for lighting bounces. if specified, this
    // is used instead of averaging the pixels of the image.
    "color": [255, 128, 64]
}

Author#

Eric Wasylishen
Kevin Shanahan (aka Tyrann) - http://disenchant.net
Based on source provided by id Software and Greg Lewis

Reporting Bugs#

Please post bug reports at https://github.com/ericwa/ericw-tools/issues.
Improvements to the documentation are welcome and encouraged.