Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

3 Dimensional Chat / The ultimate BSP thread

Author
Message
Mystery Coffee Drinker
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: London
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 01:38
Link
I have got the demo (running patch 5 I believe)

Is it worth me trying to get BSP stuff to work, or wait (after I've bought DBPro) for future patches ?

at the moment I am having problems (WAD textures looking well funky, and my own BSP files not turning up at all)
Back to top
Profile PM
CattleRustler
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Aug 2003
Location: case modding at overclock.net
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 02:58
Link
bsp and bsp collision is all ok in U5B3 but as far as textures, use wally or some other wad editor to extract the used textures into the game dir along with the wad being there too. There are known bugs concerning using BSP collision along with Automatic standard collision, it seems that bsp col cancels auto col. The hit is detected but auto back track doesn't function. If your bsp's aren't showing up at all, first do what I said with the textures, and also TRIPLE check you have absolutely no funkyness in the BSP compile

-RUST-
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 11:53
Link
The WAD texture problem has now been fixed in Update 5.1, I've tested this myself and it appears that the Texture extraction process is no longer required. I think that there is still an issue with the collision commands though, I need to confirm this of course but I've been working on a MAP->CSM converter for Cartography Shop. Basically you can design your levels in Hammer and then import them into CShop. See the CShop thread or code snippets thread for details on this tool. Thats if you want to use it lol.

APEX!


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Mystery Coffee Drinker
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: London
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 14:11
Link
As I am using the demo, I cannot upgrade to 5.1 so I will try the extraction method. can you please tell me which format to extract them as?

cheers

(Have a coffee on me!)
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 14:16
Link
I've found that TGA (Targa files) work just fine.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Mystery Coffee Drinker
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: London
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 17:22
Link
I am getting nowhere fast

I have 2 BSP files that I am testing on, one from the previous help in this thread, and one that I created.

my little! program will load and display the first, but not mine.

I have re-compiled the bsp's of both map files using the same settings.

my map file (made in Hammer) is just a box, hollowed, textured, and a light added. Is there anything else I can do to make it visible.
(The Origin of the map is slap bang in the middile of the room)
Back to top
Profile PM
CattleRustler
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Aug 2003
Location: case modding at overclock.net
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 17:55 Edited at: 16th Sep 2003 17:56
Link
Apex helped me with this once too, I can't explain why but put another holowed box with a texture completely around your main box and try loading that up. BSP not showing up was happening here too until I tried that. I might get dicey if your using a huge bsp (having to enclose the whole thing in a box) but see what happens.

-RUST-
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 19:13
Link
Mystery Coffee Drinker, could you try something for me, since this has been highlighed in a thread elsewhere that managed to solve a similar problem. In hammer, load your BSP map file and select the hollowed out room. Now go to the tools menu and make sure that the whole object is ungrouped. Recompile the BSP and check to see if it displays. If it doesn't, do what Cattlerustler explains by surrounding your whole level with another hollowed out cube and make sure that it's assigned the SKY texture so that it isn't lightmapped.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
CattleRustler
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Aug 2003
Location: case modding at overclock.net
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 19:38
Link
@APEXnow: btw, nice to see you here again!

-RUST-
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 16th Sep 2003 20:33
Link
hehe


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Mystery Coffee Drinker
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: London
Posted: 17th Sep 2003 04:36 Edited at: 17th Sep 2003 04:44
Link
thanks chaps.

just need to sort out my funky textures and I'm away

extracting the textures into the same directory as the WAD file didn't work

p.s cattlerustler, what is RUST ?
Back to top
Profile PM
CattleRustler
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Aug 2003
Location: case modding at overclock.net
Posted: 17th Sep 2003 06:40
Link
cattleRUSTler

-RUST-
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 17th Sep 2003 16:10 Edited at: 17th Sep 2003 16:11
Link
Mystery Coffee Drinker, Unfortunately, there's not really very much else I can suggest since the Demo versions need updating to comply with the full release updates. Sorry about that mate

APEX!


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Mystery Coffee Drinker
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2003
Location: London
Posted: 17th Sep 2003 18:51
Link
no problem.. I'll just have to buy (or win!) the full version

thanks for all your help guys, you've been great
Back to top
Profile PM
Preston C
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th May 2003
Location: Penn State University Park
Posted: 20th Sep 2003 17:52
Link
Hey, I could use some help using the X to BSP converter that came with Dark Basic Pro.

I try to load this model:
http://nwg.dbpcommunity.com/forums/TF1.zip

and when I try to compile it, it does nothing, what should I do. I wanna try out BSP.


Dark Basic Pro has arived! I can feel the power!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
CattleRustler
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Aug 2003
Location: case modding at overclock.net
Posted: 20th Sep 2003 20:42
Link
try Valve Hammer and build bsp's outright in that.

-RUST-
Back to top
Profile PM
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 20th Sep 2003 21:47
Link
NWC Omega, Rust's last post is basically the ideal solution for generating self made BSPs. The BSP/PVS Compiler for DBPro is buggy to say the least, and it does not support lightmapping at all.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Darclyte
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2003
Location: Cydonia, Mars
Posted: 21st Sep 2003 23:44
Link
Ok, I've just got my first BSP Map up and running. Have not got collision going yet, but I'm working on it. Had a lot of problems as first so I thought I'd share what I'd found:

I am using Valve Hammer 3.4 and have half life installed. If you havn't got Halflife, Buy it! Apart from being an ace game (Even Now) you've got some pre-made WAD files to play with and an easy map preview (Half life itself). It's only £12.99 for Halflife Generation so you've got no excuse.

Ensure you install Valve hammer into a directory with no spaces in the name otherwise the compile tools will fail, ie:
'Valve Hammer Editor\" will not work!!!!
'Hammer' will work.

Set up your Options as per the Help instructions Including the Halflife.fgd file. I've been using zoners compile tools, but the origionals work fine.

Make sure you have the 'Default Point Entity Class' set to 'info_player_start' and make sure you create a 'info_player_start' entity somewhere on your map, otherwise your map will not display in dark basic at all.

Make sure your map is completely 'Sealed', no gaps or holes otherwise zoners vis and rad tools will fail. The origional tools will fail as well but will still compile your map without any lightmapping.

Hope that's of some use

Strings are PChars ??????? What a World
Back to top
Profile PM Email
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 22nd Sep 2003 11:09
Link
May I add to that. If you're constructing rooms from hollowed out cubes etc, make sure that you ungroup the room segements first before you build the BSP. People have had trouble with saying that the map does not display in DarkBASIC Professional. This is why!

Good feedback Darclyte


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Darclyte
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2003
Location: Cydonia, Mars
Posted: 23rd Sep 2003 00:46
Link
Anyone Noticed how BSP's are really Tiny!

Just imported a zombie model into a BSP map (both directly from Halflife) and I had to scale the zombie down to 4% of it's origional size to get the scale right. This means from floor to ceiling is only about 10 units. Is this normal?

Strings are PChars ??????? What a World
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Darclyte
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2003
Location: Cydonia, Mars
Posted: 24th Sep 2003 00:50
Link
I've just posted this elsewhere on this forum, but I've copied it here since this thread is sticky.

Still can't create a transparent ceiling with the 'sky' texture, but I've found a way around it.

Zoners Halflife tools comes with a file called 'zhlt.wad' which contains 3 special textures. One of them 'NULL' allows the tools to compile your BSP Map with full light mapping and then removes any polygons textured with "NULL". DBPro displays all of the lightmapping correctly and has an open roof!

I know it's not a fix for the transparant texture, but it's an easy work around. Hope someone else finds this useful. Now I can create a lightmapped outdoor scene with my own skybox, cool!

Strings are PChars ??????? What a World
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Yskonyn
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Dec 2002
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 25th Sep 2003 22:51 Edited at: 26th Sep 2003 00:38
Link
AHHHH, APEX, I am back again.
Still very busy with my ATPL course, but flying hours tend to get more equally spaced now so I just might have some good time to spend with DBP again!
In the mean time several updates have passed and the latest also confirms that BSP is fully supported now (?), so what about the collisions?

Hear from you, mate!

P.S.: I have updated the first post in this thread, e.g. the quick guide to Hammer. I also added the notes from CattleRustler.

Yskonyn -
"It's better to wish down here you were up, then to wish up there you were down."
"The ONLY time you have too much fuel on board is when you are on fire."
Back to top
Profile PM Email
APEXnow
Retired Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Apr 2003
Location: On a park bench
Posted: 26th Sep 2003 11:36
Link
Well, 50/50 really. Apparently the collision side of things is supposed to work with Quake3 levels (I read somewhere), but still no go with HL BSPs. With regard to display issues, the SKY texture is no longer working, although a suggestion earlier in the post was to use the Zoner BSP tools for filtering out brushes that were assigned a texture from the ZHLT.WAD file, can't remember which one (AGAIN). Other than that, its much better. I've been working on things to do with CShop recently (Tools on my web site if your curious).

Good to see you again mate

APEX!


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
las6
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Sep 2002
Location: Finland
Posted: 8th Oct 2003 10:25
Link
hey there, I've got some bsp questions too.
First of all, is the radiosity calculation accuracy being determined by the size of the texture being used. (and how many times it's tiled)

Because, like someone said before, .bsp's are tiny. And I'd like to create maps that look and feel big. (=perspective distortion) They wouldn't necessarily have to be huge or massively detailed, but enough to make it look less claustrophobic. So is there a way to scale the bsp's up without increasing the time that the compiling takes. It always crashes my comp with a somewhat simple room. (it does use a lot of textures)

Another thingy, what programs can I use to make .maps or anything that I can compile to .bsp later, without problems. I heard someone talking about gmax... I'd rather use modelling proggy than hammer. Never found it very good for me.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Digital Awakening
AGK Developer
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: Sweden
Posted: 8th Oct 2003 15:42
Link
Las:
You can always convert to .x and use DBP's BSP compiler. Haven't tried it myself yet but that's the way I'm planning to do it, using Lightwave.

Back to top
Profile PM Website
las6
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Sep 2002
Location: Finland
Posted: 9th Oct 2003 12:40
Link
Yeh, that's an alternative. Not very good one, though. I haven't heard many good things about the ".x to .bsp"-tool that came with DBpro. I'd like to do it with "proper" tools.

I just realized that I probably haven't ever used Lightwave!
What kind of view does it have? (4 windows?)

Hmm. Perhaps I'll make some colored noise textures (16x16) and try if that helps the compiling process in Hammer. Ah, that would be so console styled, lot's of polys & very little textures. Just like Halo Indoors.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Digital Awakening
AGK Developer
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: Sweden
Posted: 9th Oct 2003 18:54 Edited at: 9th Oct 2003 18:57
Link
Well, I could let you know when I have completed my first map and tried the tool.

Lightwave can be modified to use 1, 2, 3 or 4 views. You can save the settings on the numbpad and then easily switch between your facourites. I often switch between 1 and 4 views as 1 view lets me see the details better.

BTW, it works perfectly with DBP, can render skies (TML) and bake UV textures. Check my texture baking thread on this board if you haven't already.

Back to top
Profile PM Website
5String
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Oct 2003
Location:
Posted: 3rd Nov 2003 21:57
Link
has anyone added doors that can be opened and closed, in their bsp I have used q3radiant for the map and compiled to bsp. but havn't figured how to put an operating door in it. Am I going to have to create door.x files and place them inside or is there a way to put them in the bsp and have them operational. "I have put some in with the func_door routine in q3, but in DBPro you can walk through them." "no collision and I cant figure out a way to operate them."

1.33ghz AMD Athlon, GeForce 4 MX440
Back to top
Profile PM
Element
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Nov 2003 15:24
Link
So there is absolutely no way to make a level that you designed yourself in a 3d modelling program(3ds max or Milkshape..etc..) that contains some loose polys and convert that into .x...then use it with any BSP compiler and make it work in DBP?...arg..

SG=Shadows Gate
http://www.gpinteractive.com/shadowsgate/
New RPG game coming to you from GP Interactive
Back to top
Profile PM
mm0zct
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Nov 2003
Location: scotland-uk
Posted: 19th Nov 2003 19:40 Edited at: 20th Nov 2003 20:44
Link
does anyone know if you can use gtk-radiant or q3-radiant to creat bsp files for dbpro? i have hammer but i prefer gtk-radiant and i have q3 so it is easier for me to test and view the maps in gtk.
thanks

never mind i found out elsewhere

AMD duron 1.3G, 640Mb ram, 40Gb HD, ati saphire radeon 9600 atlantis +good creative-labs soundcard, cd-rw + dvd drives.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Yskonyn
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Dec 2002
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 25th Nov 2003 15:39
Link
I think the Q3 maps are now fully supported by DBP as of 5.1b. So yes, I think so!

Yskonyn -
"It's better to wish down here you were up, then to wish up there you were down."
"The ONLY time you have too much fuel on board is when you are on fire."
Back to top
Profile PM Email
mm0zct
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Nov 2003
Location: scotland-uk
Posted: 29th Nov 2003 16:12
Link
thanks Yskonyn , unfortunately my pc isn't even working right anymore so i can't try for a while
thanks

AMD duron 1.3G, 640Mb ram, 40Gb HD, ati saphire radeon 9600 atlantis w/128mb ddr ram, good creative-labs soundcard, cd-rw + dvd drives.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Yskonyn
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 19th Dec 2002
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 1st Dec 2003 14:23
Link
Good luck with getting it on track again!

Yskonyn -
"It's better to wish down here you were up, then to wish up there you were down."
"The ONLY time you have too much fuel on board is when you are on fire."
Back to top
Profile PM Email
las6
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Sep 2002
Location: Finland
Posted: 3rd Dec 2003 11:10
Link
Yep, seem to be working.
http://www.dannywartnaby.co.uk/rgt/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=1249

Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
mm0zct
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Nov 2003
Location: scotland-uk
Posted: 5th Dec 2003 00:12
Link
thanks all, i doubt i will get dbp working on this pc again though so it looks like i will be installing a different os on a partition to see if it works then
thanks again

AMD duron 1.3G, 640Mb ram, 40Gb HD, ati saphire radeon 9600 atlantis w/128mb ddr ram, good creative-labs soundcard, cd-rw + dvd drives.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Neophyte
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 23rd Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 2nd Jan 2004 11:32
Link
Just thought I'd mention Quark 6.3. Its stable and builds decent .bsps that work quite nicely with Pro.

You can find a mirror for it here:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/quark/QuArK_v6.3.0.EXE?download

You are required to have Python 1.5.1 or 1.5.2 installed on your system though. You can find the necessary python installer here:

http://www.python.org/1.5/

I've deliberately omitted Quark 6.4 because as of the time of this writing it is still alpha so it isn't exactly as stable as 6.3. But if you would like to give it a go you can find info on it and how to install it at:

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~quark/

I might post some installation tips later when I have the time but it really isn't too necessary. The installation is pretty straight forward and a lot easier I've found then hammer. The configuration of the build tools is the only tricky part really.

If anyone would like me or someone else to give them a hand in installing this just post and I'll see what I can do.
Back to top
Profile PM
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2026-06-05 05:06:54
Your offset time is: 2026-06-05 05:06:54