InsideQC Forums

Now some facts about q3bsp compared to q1bsp:
Physics - no differences, except that modders can add things like crouching (which never works right in q1bsp because it only understands bullets, players, and shamblers).

Lighting - q3map2 has much nicer lighting features than any of the lighting utilities for q1bsp, it even has optional radiosity.

Vis - detail brushes are a better alternative to func_wall for keeping down vis times, you can easily have vis times under 1 second if you build most of a map out of detail brushes, the structural brushes only need to define the room shapes for vis. You can also do hint brushes to tweak vis behavior a bit (rather than using various visible brushes sticking out into a hallway to cause an intentional bsp split, you can use invisible hint brushes for the purpose).

BSpline Patches - curves can be more convenient than making a lot of brushes, they should be used in moderation however (when overused they become merely a gimmick, serving no useful purpose), they can be useful for terrain because they are easy to edit.

Models - the ability to embed models and have them be properly lit and shadowed by the light utility is quite cool, they can even be made solid with a spawnflag in the misc_model entity, allowing you to model large pieces of architecture that would be more difficult to build/texture as brushes and stick them in a map, they render really fast too.

Model lighting - as mentioned any models you embed in the map are properly lit, but that is not all - dynamic models are lit by a q3bsp technology known as the lightgrid which applies directional shading (a big visual improvement) and works properly for airborn entities, curing the 'very bright player while jumping over a lava pit' problems in q1bsp.

Q3 shaders - FTEQW supports Q3 shaders fully, DarkPlaces supports some very basic features of q3 shaders such as:
blendfunc - you can make 'light cones' by simply making a brush with a gradient texture and blendfunc one one, also known as blendfunc add.
deformvertexes autosprite - makes a brush face look at the viewer at all times, a sprite.
deformvertexes autosprite2 - similar but stays upright, like doom sprites, useful for torch flames.
Several others are also supported, but those are the most useful Q3 shader features supported by DarkPlaces.