README
1
2 #[1]start [2]ICRA labels
3
4 This is v5.2 of BSP, the most popular node builder for Doom.
5
6 BSP is currently maintained by [3]Colin Phipps. Please see the [4]BSP
7 entries in my blog for news about BSP, and the latest releases. But in
8 practice, BSP is an old and mature tool; I just update it every now
9 and then to fix any problems compiling it for new systems.
10
11What are Nodes?
12
13 Before you can play a level that you have created, you must use a node
14 builder to create the data that Doom will use to render the level.
15 Doom uses a rendering algorithm based on a binary space partition,
16 otherwise known as a BSP tree. This is stored in a data lump called
17 NODES in the WAD file. This data structure must be precalculated and
18 stored in the WAD file befor the level can be played; the tool that
19 does this is called a node builder.
20
21 BSP is one of several node builders that can do this. There are
22 others: idbsp is the original node builder that id Software used on
23 the original Doom levels, for instance. BSP was the best known and
24 most widely used node builder throughout the height of the Doom
25 editing craze in the mid 1990s.
26
27Features
28
29 * Fast Doom node builder.
30 * Supports a number of special effects.
31 * Supports multi-level WADs. Preserves non-level data in WADs.
32 * Includes an optional alternative algorithm for choosing the nodes
33 which reduces the chance of visplane overflows.
34 * Optional support for compressing the blockmap.
35 * Compiles on DOS, Win32, Linux, UNIX.
36 * Supports big endian & 64-bit systems.
37
38Getting BSP
39
40 For Linux and UNIX systems, you download and compile the BSP source
41 code. [5]bsp-5.2.tar.gz contains complete source code. See the
42 included file INSTALL for instructions.
43
44 For DOS and Win32 systems, download [6]bsp51.zip, which contains
45 binaries for DOS and Win32 (that is, Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP).
46 bsp.exe is the version for DOS (note: it requires the accompanying
47 dos4gw.exe). bsp-w32.exe is the version for Win32. Note that I have
48 not released BSP 5.2 on DOS/Windows, because there were no changes in
49 this version that would affect the DOS/Windows release.
50
51Usage
52
53 bsp [ -noreject ] [-factor nn ] [ -q ] [ -picknode { traditional |
54 visplane } ] [ -blockmap { old | comp } ] inwad [ [ -o ] outwad ]
55
56 Where:
57
58 -noreject
59 Causes any existing REJECT lump in the WAD file not to be
60 replaced.
61
62 -factor nn
63 Used for tuning the node builder. The number supplied is the
64 weighting applied when a choice of nodeline requires other
65 lines to be split. Increasing this value from the default of 17
66 will reduce the number of extra line splits, but this will
67 generally cause a less balanced node tree. The default is
68 usually fine.
69
70 -q
71 Causes BSP to run quietly, only printing output if there are
72 errors or warnings.
73
74 -picknode
75 Determines the nodeline selection algorithm. The "traditional"
76 option is best for most Doom levels. For levels which are
77 intended for the original doom2.exe and suffer from some
78 marginal visplane overflows, the "visplane" algorithm is
79 designed to minimise these and may help in some cases. See the
80 included visplane.txt for more information.
81
82 -blockmap
83 Selects the blockmap generation algorithm. The default "old"
84 algorithm generates a simple and correct blockmap. The newer
85 "comp" version produces a compressed blockmap, by reusing
86 identical blocks which should be equivalent in actual use. The
87 "comp" version is therefore better but it relatively untested
88 so is not yet enabled by default.
89
90 inwad is the input WAD file. This may contain any number of levels and
91 other lumps. The nodes and associated data resources will be built for
92 every level in this WAD. Any other data present in the WAD will be
93 copied to the output WAD unchanged.
94
95 outwad is the output WAD file. If the output file already exists, BSP
96 will write it's output to a temporary file while it is working, and
97 will only overwrite the output file once it is finished. In
98 particular, it is safe for outwad to be the same as inwad, although
99 this is not recommended unless you keep other backups :-).
100
101 Either inwad or outwad can be pipes or special files. On most UNIX
102 systems, you can have BSP read from STDIN and write to STDOUT by using
103 it as follows: bsp -q /dev/stdin /dev/stdout
104
105Special Effects
106
107 * HOM-free transparent doors:
108 Simply make the sector referenced by the doortracks have a sector
109 tag of >= 900. No need to remember sector numbers and type them in
110 on a command line -- just use any sector tag >= 900 to permanently
111 mark the sector special.
112 See TRANSDOR.WAD for an example of sector tags in the 900's being
113 used to create HOM-free transparent door effects.
114 * Precious lines:
115 If a linedef has a sector tag >= 900, then it is treated as
116 "precious" and will not be split unless absolutely necessary. This
117 is good to use around borders of deep water, invisible stairs,
118 etc.
119 Furthermore, just for grins, if the linedef's tag is 999, then the
120 sidedefs' x-offsets set an angle adjustment in degrees to be
121 applied -- you can look straight at a wall, but it might come
122 right at you on both sides and "stretch".
123
124Copyright
125
126Node builder for DOOM levels (c) 1998 Colin Reed, Lee Killough
127 (c) 2001 Simon Howard
128 (c) 2000,2001,2002,2006 Colin Phipps
129
130 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
131 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
132 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
133 your option) any later version. See the file COPYING for details.
134
135 See the included file AUTHORS for a complete list of contributors.
136
137References
138
139 1. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/
140 2. http://games.moria.org.uk/labels.rdf
141 3. mailto:cph@moria.org.uk
142 4. http://blog.moria.org.uk/games/doom/bsp
143 5. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/download/bsp-5.2.tar.gz
144 6. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/download/bsp51.zip
145