Best BSP Type

Team Xlink · Post by **Team Xlink** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:28 pm

Hello.

I was wondering what, in your opinion, is the best BSP type, and why it is the best.

Quake BSP
Half-Life BSP
Quake 2 BSP
Quake 3 BSP

Thank you.

Post by **Error** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:43 pm

Quake BSP. Keep that shit real!

leileilol · Post by **leileilol** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:56 pm

Q3BSP, the Raven implementation which is the same thing but with lightstyles, a more proper terrain implementation, and flares - all the time!

Post by **Error** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:30 am

indeed, I never hear any bad things about q3bsp

leileilol · Post by **leileilol** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:45 am

You can't Worldcraft it. That's the bad thing. Your options to produce a Q3BSP:

- Radiant this, Radiant that
- The dreaded QuArK

Team Xlink · Post by **Team Xlink** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:11 am

But what are the advantages of Quake 3 BSP?

leileilol · Post by **leileilol** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:05 am

- Lightgrids (no need to sample model lighting from the bottom lightmap)
- Curves/beziers
- No worries about collision hulls
- Independent lightmap resolution, so you can still use high-res textures without high-res lightmaps. This kills software support
- Ambient occlusion
- Models can be built directly into the map (Similar to UnrealEngine2 StaticMesh)
- Volumetric fog
- Surfaceflags
- No more 'split leafs' (more death to software, but this leads to much faster map rendering as the map geometry is much more simpler)

Team Xlink · Post by **Team Xlink** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:30 am

Wow, it is a lot better.

leileilol · Post by **leileilol** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:35 am

Well... you could've figured that out yourself by playing any id tech3 game. The difference is obvious.

...........and no, this is not something you can simply paste into PSP GLQuake.

Team Xlink · Post by **Team Xlink** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:51 am

leileilol wrote:Well... you could've figured that out yourself by playing any id tech3 game. The difference is obvious.

...........and no, this is not something you can simply paste into PSP GLQuake.

I know I can't simply past this into PSP GLQuake.

I would have to first understand how it works and use references like these:

http://www.mralligator.com/q3/

http://graphics.cs.brown.edu/games/quake/quake3.html

http://www.vicampus.com/index.php?actio ... orial&id=9

http://www.vicampus.com/index.php?actio ... orial&id=8

Anyway's my psp is broken at the moment, so my work on any psp engine has ceased, as of mid march.

mh · Post by mh » Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:08 pm

leileilol wrote:- Lightgrids (no need to sample model lighting from the bottom lightmap)
- Curves/beziers
- No worries about collision hulls
- Independent lightmap resolution, so you can still use high-res textures without high-res lightmaps. This kills software support
- Ambient occlusion
- Models can be built directly into the map (Similar to UnrealEngine2 StaticMesh)
- Volumetric fog
- Surfaceflags
- No more 'split leafs' (more death to software, but this leads to much faster map rendering as the map geometry is much more simpler)

That about sums it up. Even Q2 BSP is an improvement over Q1 though - something as simple as areaportals removes the need for cheesy visibility hacks and opens up mapper creativity. Unless the mapper uses cheesy visibility hacks in a creative manner that is, but you know what I mean...

goldenboy · Post by **goldenboy** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:42 pm

Q2 also has surface flags, which are a blessing. Technically, Q2 is not too shabby. As the lots of games built on it show. Sure Q3 is better.

Team Xlink · Post by **Team Xlink** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:02 am

Well after some Google searching, and little to no useful results, here is my question.

Whats the differences between:

Quake 1 BSP and Quake 2 BSP
Half-Life BSP and Quake 2 BSP

Downsider · Post by **Downsider** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:25 am

It's easy to find descriptions of each format.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSP_%28file_format%29

mh · Post by mh » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:25 am

Team Xlink wrote:Well after some Google searching, and little to no useful results, here is my question.

Whats the differences between:

Quake 1 BSP and Quake 2 BSP
Half-Life BSP and Quake 2 BSP

Half-Life BSP is almost identical to Q1 (HL is a Q1 engine game after all), so the question collapses into one - the difference between Q1 and Q2.

Q1 BSP is simpler. Everything is self-contained, it's likely easier to map for in certain respects, so in those terms it's definitely worth using.

Q2 BSP has higher limits, surface flags, areaportals, extra clipping hulls, built-in coloured light, and quite likely techie stuff in the compiler I don't know about (water surfs don't seem to break up in GL Q2 for example). It's like an extended version of Q1 BSP with a lot of the things that were wrong or limited about it just fixed. On the other hand it's slightly more complex to map for, and textures need to be kept external.

(Note that I didn't include skyboxes: skyboxes are a function of the renderer more than of the BSP format, can be included in Q1, and the Q2 renderer could even be modded to support Q1-style sky).

I guess the answer to which you should use depends on what you want to achieve. If the Q1 BSP format gets you the results you want, then by all means use it. If you find yourself struggling with it and fighting it, then don't.