vis#

vis - Compute visibility (PVS) for a Quake BSP file

Synopsis#

vis [OPTION]… BSPFILE

Description#

vis is a tool used in the creation of maps for the game Quake. vis looks for a .prt file by stripping the file extension from BSPFILE (if any) and appending “.prt”. vis then calculates the potentially visible set (PVS) information before updating the .bsp file, overwriting any existing PVS data.

This vis tool supports the PRT2 format for Quake maps with detail brushes. See the qbsp documentation for details.

Compiling a map (without the -fast parameter) can take a long time, even days or weeks in extreme cases. Vis will attempt to write a state file every five minutes so that progress will not be lost in case the computer needs to be rebooted or an unexpected power outage occurs.

Options#

Logging#

-log#

Write log files. Enabled by default.

-nolog#

Don’t write log files.

-verbose#
-v#

Verbose output.

-nopercent#

Don’t output percentage messages.

-nostat#

Don’t output statistic messages.

-noprogress#

Don’t output progress messages.

-nocolor#

Don’t output color codes (for TB, etc).

-quiet#
-noverbose#

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

Performance#

-lowpriority [0]#

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

-threads n#

Set number of threads explicitly. By default vis will attempt to detect the number of CPUs/cores available.

-fast#

Skip detailed calculations and calculate a very loose set of PVS data. Sometimes useful for a quick test while developing a map.

Game#

-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.

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

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

-q2rtx#

Adjust settings to best support Q2RTX.

-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.

Output#

-noambientsky#

Disable ambient sound generation for textures with names beginning with ‘SKY’.

-noambientwater#

Disable ambient sound generation for textures with names beginning with *WATER or *04WATER.

-noambientslime#

Disable ambient sound generation for textures with names beginning with *SLIME.

-noambientlava#

Disable ambient sound generation for textures with names beginning with *LAVA.

-noambient#

Disable all ambient sound generation.

-noautoclean#

Don’t remove extra files on successful completion. Default is to remove them.

Advanced#

-level n#

Select a test level from 0 to 4 for detailed visibility calculations. Lower levels are not necessarily faster in in all cases. It is not recommended that you change the default level unless you are experiencing problems. Default 4.

-visdist n#

Allow culling of areas further than n units.

-nostate#

Ignore saved state files, for forced re-runs.

-phsonly#

Re-calculate the PHS of a Quake II BSP without touching the PVS.

Author#

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

Reporting Bugs#

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