THE QUAKE2 LEVEL BIBLE

or everything you should know about Quake2-levelediting

v0.2 (17/03/98)

Since the day that Quake2 was finished, I started collecting information about level editing and I kept it in a text file for my own use. After some time that file grow and grow and it became really big, so I decided to edit and release it so that everybody can learn from it, hope you do….

If you have the feeling that there is missing something or I made a mistake, then please let me know: EraserX@mindless.com

Updated versions can be found at http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~sdelrue/

Note: this file does not contain information about entities, if you want info about them, go to

The Quake2 Workshop (http://www.quake2.com/qworkshop/)

Or

RUST (http://www.planetquake.com/rust/)

Quake2-LevelEditors:

QOOLE: http://www.qoole.com

Quark: http://www.planetquake.com/quark/

BSP: http://www.bsphq.com

Quma: http://www.frag.com/quma/

Qed: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mtagliaferri/

QE4 Radiant: http://www.planetquake.com/quakeLab/quakeLab2/radiant.htm

Worldcraft: http://www.gamecraft.com

Deathmatchmaker II: http://www.deathmatchmaker.com

Quest 2.0: http://www.nuc.net/quest/

(*With GlideQOOLE you can view your level fullscreen and walk trough it with an excellent framerate, if you have a 3Dfx-card. Quark can use 3DFx, too.)

Mailings list

(Expect a very big mailbox when you apply to them)

QOOLE: http://www.qoole.com/maillist.html

Planet quake: http://www.planetquake.com/maillist.html

The Quake Workshop: http://www.quake2.com/qworkshop/misc/form.htm

Quma Mailings: http://www.frag.com/quma/mailinglist.htm

Compiling levels:

When you make maps, you are editing a MAPfile, but Quake2 can’t read this file. To play it, you have to compile it into BSPfiles, so Quake2 is able to load your level. To compile your levels, you should have these 3 EXEfiles: QBSP3.EXE, QRAD3.EXE and QVIS3.EXE. Put them in the same directory where you save your map. When you made your map in the editor you use, you should have a MAPfile. Open up a DOS box, go to the directory where you put it, then type

QBSP3 mylevel

Mylevel is the name of your MAPfile. This will generate (if you have no errors) a BSPfile, like this: mylevel.bsp. Now you can play this level, but you’ll see there is something missing: lights ‘n shadows, so type:

QVIS3 mylevel.

This optimizes your map so it will run much faster. You can run QVIS3 -fast mylevel (recommended for level development) so QVIS3 will run very fast, but it won’t optimize your level much. You can use QVIS3 -level N, where N is a value between 0 and 4. The higher the number, the better the optimization, and the longer it takes to finish it. For level building, you can use QVIS3 -fast mylevel, this will VIS your map fast, but it may run slow when it’s very big. Now your map is compiled with QBSP3 and QVISSED, but you still don’t have any lights. Now, do this: QRAD3 mylevel

This will make lights and shadows in your level. This also can take some time. You can use the -extra option with QRAD3: the lights will look 4 times better, but it will take 4 times longer to QRAD it. Always run QBSP3 first, then QVIS3 and then QRAD3, or you won’t have any lights.

IMPORTANT: YOU MAY NOT RELEASE MAPS WHICH AREN’T VISSED AT LEVEL4

Speeding up QBSP/QVIS/QRAD:

With these settings, the compilers will run much faster, but your level will look rawer.

QBSP3 -nodetail (nodetail doesn’t create transparent brushes)

QVIS3 -fast

QRAD3 -nopvs -chop -v

If you want to speed up QBSP3 and if you don’t want to VIS it (for architecture checking or so) you can use: QBSP3 -nodetail -nofill -notjunc. With -nofill -notjunc QBSP3 will not create a PRTfile so it will run faster, but you won’t be able to VIS your map.

Some tricks to speed things up:

Set DETAIL on to brushes that contain detail textures. The little things, like lights on the side of the wall, a display panel, etc. This will prevent Vis and Rad from taking them into account when compiling.

The other is FUNC_AREAPORTAL. Basically, you use this in conjunction with doors. When a door is closed, you don’t see what is on the other side of the door, however, qvis does and takes the calculations from one room to the other. Area portal prevents qvis from doing this, so basically you have to set it around the door to block qvis. However, you also have to have it set to be triggered to turn off, when the door is opened, otherwise it will create a gray mass to the player until they pass through it.

Hint brushes:

There is an excellent tutorial about this on http://www.planetquake.com/rust/

Starting up levels:

You should make/have a c:\quake2\baseq2\maps directory and place all your BSP-files in there, now type at the dos prompt: Quake2 +map mylevel Quake will start up your level or type in the console: map mylevel . This will start your level, too.

Converting Q1MAPfiles into Q2MAPfiles:

The file format for Q1 and Q2 is the same, so brushes will be compiled the same. But Q2 has a totally different entity-set. Plus, all the textures are different. You can convert them (sort of) if you replace all the textures and all the entities, or you can use a conversion tool, there is one at http://www.postal.ru/quake2/. This is the home of programmers who work on Quake(2)stuff, one of them is working on that conversion-tool.

Console Commands, which can be useful for Level Editing:

Noclip: now you can move everywhere in your level, trough walls etc.

r_fullbright 1/0: Set fullbright on/off

r_speeds 1/0: Set r_speeds on/off. With this you can check the speed of your level: the number in the left, should not be too high, 800 is a maximum. If you have run a VIS -level 4 on your level it will drop dramatically. If you just run QBSP on your level, it will be much higher.

Timerefresh: another way to test the speed of your level.

Map level: loads the map level, BUT, be careful, if you make a map and name it like one of the map names in the PAK0.PAKfile of Q2, and you type map that_level it will load the level out of the pakfile, not your level.

gl_showtris 1/0: (you can only use this if you have a full open/GL card. This will show how the level is made with polygons in Quake2.

gl_monolightmap: turns textures on/off

condump <filename>: dumps the current console text to <filename>

imagelist: Gives a list of all images used (textures, sky…)

info: dumps info about your map

notarget: the enemies will ignore you in single player mode

r_drawentities 1/0: shows entities or not

Making a Ladder:

Make your ladder, and put a brush before your ladder so it covers it. Add the clip texture to that brush and give it this options (apply them to all faces):

No Draw

Playerclip

Ladder

Or you can make your ladder and give it the ladder option.

Making a breakable window:

Make your window, apply ‘window’ and ‘trans33/66’ to all faces. Now apply a func_explosive to your window. Add a target_speaker with a boomysound to hear the explosion.

Some useful color values for light entities:

Black- R000G000B000

White- R255G255B255

Grey- R100G100B100

Red- R255G000B000

Green- R000G255B000

Blue- R000G000B255

Yellow- R255G255B000

Magenta- R255G000B255

Aqua- R000G255B255

Orange- R255G100B000

Hot Pink- R255G0B100

Light Green- R100G255B000

Blood Red- R100G000B000

Forest Green- R000G100B000

Midnight Blue- R000G000B100

Angles (for doors, buttons…)

east: 0

north: 90

west: 180

south: 270

up: -1

down: -2

Other values between 0 and 360 can be used, too

Light styles:

0 “Normal”

1 “Flicker”

2 “Slow strong pulse”

3 “Candle”

4 “Fast strobe”

5 “Gentle pulse”

6 “Flicker”

7 “Candle”

8 “Candle”

9 “Slow strobe”

10 “Fluorescent flicker”

11 “Slow pulse, not fading to black”

Things that causes your map to leak:

You made a hole in you level so that you can see the void surrounding it.

You put an entity outside your level.

You put an entity inside a solid brush.

You place a func_areaportal in the void.

You made 2 rooms, which aren’t joined together.

You placed an entity on 0.0.0

Tricks to help you find holes in maps:

* Use QE4(radiant), load your map-file and select point file in the file-menu. This will draw a line where the leak is.

* Put boxes on different parts of your level. Compile each time till you don’t have a leak any more. Now you can see in what part of your level the leak is.

* Put lights on maximum and place a huge box around your level, otherwise it won’t VIS. Now, go out of your level with NOCLIP in the console and look where the light shines trough.

* Run QBSP in full darkness, then walk around in your level and look where you can see the void.

* Open the LINfile QBSP3 created and check out the coordinates you find in there. The leak should be there. (QBSP3 will only create a LIN file if there is a leak)

* Quark (http://www.planetquake.com/quark/) has a very good leak seeker.

The Sky bug:

When you make a sky, and next to it you make a room, you will be able to look into that room. You can prevent this with a hint brush (brush with the hint texture) with a hint brush, you can cut of a piece of your level, so that you can’t see it. You have to place the hint brush in a hallway or something like that that connects the area with the sky and the room you can look into. You don’t have to put the hint brush next to the sky brush that won’t help.

(Tutorial about this on my site: http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~sdelrue/tutor.html)

All the surfaces-options you can apply to brushes:

Slick: slippery surface

Draw: flowing water/lava/slime

PlayerClip: prevent player going trough

MonsterClip: prevent monsters going through

Trans33: transparent brush

Trans66: same, but less transparent than trans33

Window: same as trans33/66

Light: face casts light (the color of the light is the color of the face), -don’t forget to give this face a value (defaults: 2000-8000)

Origin: instead of giving the brush the origin texture, use this, used for rotating entities

Sky: instead of using the sky textures, use this

Water: Now you can wade though this

Lava: You’ll burn when you go trough this brush

Slime: You’ll get nuked when going trough this one

Detail: QVIS will ignore this face when compiling, speeds up QVIS, use on small brushes.

Ladder: use this for ladders (DUH)

Warp: makes water/lave/slime flowing

Nodraw: invisible brush?

Flowing: scrolls a 64×64 texture. You can set the direction in the Current 0,90,180,270-box

Mist: Makes a non-solid brush you can wade through, but i won’t slow you donw (like water)

Solid: makes a solid brush (but a brush is default solid, so don’t use)

Current: (0,90,180,270, up, down): moves the player to that direction when he is in the brush

transculent: transparent?

aux: not used…

Monster: ???

Corpse: ???

The compilers and their options:

———— qbsp3 ————

usage: qbsp3 [options] MAPfile

-notjunc -nofill: qbsp3 doesn’t create a PRTfile, speeds up compiling

-nowater: qbsp3 drops the water/lava/slime brushes

-leaktest : leaktest,

-moddir <path> : if the level you compile is for a mod, so not the BASEQ2-directory ???

-gamedir <path>: if the level you compile is for a mod, so not the BASEQ2-directory ???

-nodetail: qbsp3 doesn’t create transparent brushes

-fulldetail: well, full detail, takes longer

-threads: if you have more than one CPU

-block # # -micro #

-noprune -blocks # # # #

-chop # -nocsg

-draw -noweld

-onlyents -help

-nomerge -noshare

-tmpout -glview

-nosubdiv -v

-noopt -verboseentities

———— vis ————

usage: qvis3 [options] bspfile

-threads: if running more than 1 CPU

-level 0-4: level of compiling: 0: less, fastest 4: most, slowest

-fast: fast vissing

-nosort

-v

——— Radiosity ——–

usage: qrad3 [options] bspfile

-extra: 4 times better compiling, 4 times slower

-ambient # -gamedir <path> -nopvs

-bounce # -glview -scale

-chop -help -threads #

-direct # -maxlight # -tmpin

-dump -memory -tmpout

-entity # -moddir <path> -v

-noblock

Units to Remember

The maximum distance that a player can jump is 225 units.

Maximum jump height is 42.5 units.

The maximum height that a player can fall without getting injured is 275 units.

Maximum gap between brushes so the player can fall through is 36 units.

Maximum height of a stair is 17 units.

Limits

You should keep in mind that 4000 brushes is a maximum, but you can exceed this.

When using r_speeds, you’ll see how many polygons you can see. Be sure to keep this under 1000 or your level will be buggy: grey areas and disappearing doors/buttons.. keep 600 in mind as a limit.

The maximum MAPsize is 4096 units to -4096 units. (in X, Y, Z axis)

The Worldspawn Entity:

This entity sets some vital information about your map and spawns the world.

sounds: the number of the CDtrack you want to play (2-11)

message: the message you want to display at the start of your level

sky: the sky (from unit1_ to unit9_ and space )

nextmap: the next map (sounds logical, huh)

spawnflags: this sets in what difficulty settings it should be set. (more on this later)

gravity: sets the gravity (default 800)

skyrotate: speed of the rotating sky

skyaxis: the axis how it turns (eg 0 0 1 )

The spawnflagvalues of DM and 1p easy/med/hard (skill 0/1/2 ):

An entity does not appear on / if the spanflag is set to:

Skill 1 = 256

Skill 2 = 512

Skill 3 = 1024

DM = 2048

You can combine, just add the values (eg: entity does not appear on skill 1 and DM is: 256+2048 = 2304)

Map format:

A mapfile looks like this:

{

worldspawnentity

{

brush(es)

}

}

entity //*

{

brush(es)

}

entity //**

You can use “//” to put comments in your map

The first entity is the worldspawn-entity: it spawns the world and the brushes in there are solid. Then you can have entities with brushes (doors, buttons…) (*) and entities without brushes (lights, monsters, ammo…) (**)

A brush is made out of planes, and one plane is defined out of 3 points. 3 points define one and just one plane. To define one point, there is a X, Y and Z-axis. This means there is a depth (X), a width (Y) and height (Z). 3 Direction, that’s where all the 3D-hype comes from :).

One point can look like this: (8 64 -32) This means, 8 units towards you, 64 units to the right and 32 units down. There in 3D-space you will find this point. With 3 points, you can make a plane. And with planes, you can make brushes. A plane in Quake2 will be drawn until it reach another plane of the same brush. That’s why you can’t make concave brushes in Quake2.

Z ^

|

——> Y

/

/

V X

One line of a brush looks like this:

( 0 0 18 ) ( 0 50 12 ) ( 50 0 12 ) e1u1/doorswt0 8 -8 45 1.00 1.25 1048576 9 5000

( 0 0 18 ) ( 0 50 12 ) ( 50 0 12 ) defines 3 points, in 3Dcoordinates, These 3 points define 1 plane. e1u1/doorswt0 is the directory and the name of the texture which is on that plane. (in WALformat)

8 is the X-offset

-8 is the Y-offset

45 is how much the texture is rotated

1.00 is the scale on the X-axis (how much the texture is stretched out)

1.25 is the scale on the Y-axis

1048576 9 5000 indicate the special surface options you can apply to a brush

Textures:

Textures are not kept in the BSP-file (like it was in Quake1), each texture has a separate file: a WAL-file. You can convert them into PCX-files and (or course) you can convert PCX-files into WAL-files. If you use new textures into your level, you’ll have to be sure that other people who will play it, have that texture, too. Be sure to use the Q2-palette when making your own textures. If you want more info about textures, check out this site: http://www.planetquake.com/warehouse/

Capture The Flag (CTF)

To make CTFlevels, you need to place red starts, blue starts and dmstarts. When you enter the level, you will spawn at a DM-start, when you choose a camp, you will spawn at a red or a blue start. Don’t place info_player_starts in your level. The Dmstarts in CTF don’t have that model attached to them, but red and blue starts have ..

item_flag_team1 (the red flag)

item_flag_team2 (the blue flag)

info_player_team1 (a red start)

info_player_team2 (a blue start)

misc_ctf_banner: those cool looking CTF-banners you can see in the CTF-levels. If you place it in your map, you will get a red banner. If you give it a spawnflag “1”, it will be blue.

misc_ctf_small_banner: The same as above, but smaller.

item_tech1, item_tech2, item_tech3, item_tech4: The for Tech powerups

Sounds (use this with target_speaker):

rotate/h_rot1.wav large mechanical door opening

rotate/h_rot2.wav mechanical door closing quickly

world/10_0-1.wav 10 to 1 countdown

world/airhiss1.wav air coming from a hose

world/airhiss2.wav short burst of air (sounds like a cymbal)

world/amb1.wav quiet electrical hum

world/amb2.wav fluorescent hum

world/amb3.wav very slow hum

world/amb4.wav slow hum

world/amb5.wav medium speed hum

world/amb6.wav fast hum

world/amb7.wav very fast hum

world/amb8.wav rushing air

world/amb9.wav heavy machinery

world/amb10.wav large spinning object

world/amb11.wav mechanical grind

world/amb12.wav large machines

world/amb13.wav machines outside

world/amb14.wav space sound

world/amb15.wav fusion

world/amb16.wav faster fusion

world/amb17.wav mining machines

world/amb18.wav large item spinning slowly

world/amb19.wav warble effect

world/amb20.wav spinning and slowing down

world/amb21.wav spinning sounds

world/amb22.wav spinning sounds

world/amb23.wav spinning sounds

world/amb24.wav fast fusion sound

world/battle1.wav battle sounds, bombs exploding. version 1

world/battle2.wav battle sounds, bombs exploding. version 2

world/battle3.wav battle sounds, bombs exploding. version 3

world/battle4.wav battle sounds, bombs exploding. version 4

world/battle5.wav battle sounds, bombs exploding. version 5

world/bigpump.wav water pump

world/bigpump2.wav water pump ver 2

world/blackhole.wav sound for the blackhole generator

world/brkglass.wav breaking glass

world/bubbl4.wav bubbles

world/bubl1.wav bubbles

world/bubl2.wav bubbles

world/bubl3.wav bubbles

world/comlas1.wav voice “Communications laser neutralized”

world/comp_hum1.wav computer sounds

world/comp_hum2.wav computer sounds with squawking voices

world/comp_hum3.wav different version on comp_hum2.wav

world/curnt1.wav running water

world/curnt2.wav running water ver2

world/curnt3.wav running water ver3

world/dataspin.wav voice “data spinner reprogrammed”

world/deactivated.wav voice “deactivated”

world/dish1.wav hydraulic lift

world/drill1.wav drill sounds

world/drill2a.wav Drill moving

world/driller1.wav Drilling sounds

world/drip1.wav dripping sounds

world/drip2.wav dripping sounds ver 2

world/drip3.wav dripping sounds ver 3

world/drip_amb.wav ambience dripping sound

world/dr_long.wav large mechanical door opening

world/dr_short.wav smaller mechanical door opening

world/electro.wav electricity sound

world/explod1.wav explosion

world/explod2.wav explosion ver 2

world/fan1.wav large fan sound

world/flesh1.wav fresh meat sound

world/flesh2.wav fresh meat sound ver 2

world/flyby.wav airplane flying overhead ver0

world/flyby1.wav airplane flying overhead ver1

world/flyby2.wav airplane flying overhead ver2

world/flyby3.wav airplane flying overhead ver3

world/force1.wav forcefield

world/force2.wav forcefield ver2

world/force3.wav forcefield ver3

world/fusein.wav power up

world/fuseout.wav power down

world/incoming.wav voice “incoming airstrike”

world/klaxon1.wav alarm siren – slow

world/klaxon2.wav alarm siren – fast

world/land.wav something hollow hitting the ground

world/laser.wav laser sound

world/lashum1.wav laser humming sound

world/lasoff.wav laser turning off

world/lava1.wav bubbling and hissing lava

world/lite_on1.wav lights turning on

world/lite_on2.wav lights turning on ver2

world/lite_on3.wav lights turning on ver3

world/lite_out.wav lights out

world/l_hum1.wav light hum

world/l_hum2.wav light hum ver2

world/mach1.wav gear and chain sound

world/mach2.wav same as mach1.wav but twice as long

world/mach3.wav gear and chain with a different sound

world/mov_watr.wav moving water

world/pilot1.wav voice “We have a fix on target but no lock, …”

world/pilot2.wav voice “Target is green …”

world/pilot3.wav voice “We need some on the ground …”

world/pump1.wav large power pump

world/pump2.wav cheap power pump

world/pump3.wav large power pump, sounds like a turbine

world/pumping.wav voice “pumping system activated”

world/pyramid.wav sound of the pyramid opening up

world/quake.wav earthquake sound

world/radio2.wav radio static

world/radio3.wav radio static ver2

world/reactor.wav voice “reactor core exposed”

world/redforce.wav voice “red force fields deactivated”

world/ric1.wav bullets bouncing off the walls

world/ric2.wav bullets bouncing off the walls ver2

world/ric3.wav bullets bouncing off the walls ver3

world/rocks1.wav small falling rocks

world/scan1.wav computer scanning sound

world/short1.wav electrical short-circuit

world/spark1.wav electrical spark

world/spark2.wav electrical spark

world/spark3.wav electrical spark

world/spark5.wav electrical spark

world/spark6.wav electrical spark

world/spark7.wav electrical spark

world/steam1.wav steam being released

world/steam2.wav steam being released ver 2

world/steam3.wav water hitting a hot item and turning to steam

world/stp_water.wav water swish

world/tele1.wav teleporting sound

world/train1.wav moving conveyor

world/train2.wav train stopping

world/turbine1.wav turbine sound

world/uplink2.wav voice “communications uplink established”

world/ventsys.wav voice “ventilation systems activated”

world/voice1.wav voice “All pods launched”

world/voice10.wav voice “All personnel …”

world/voice11.wav voice “Established communications”

world/voice3.wav voice “remaining firing teams …”

world/voice4.wav voice “reporting 80% failing bio signs”

world/voice5.wav voice “All squad leaders coordinate with sister teams”

world/voice6.wav voice “Any squad leaders … fall back “

world/voice7.wav voice “Reporting 95% failing vital signs”

world/v_bas1.wav voice “EOD confirms bridge is down”

world/v_bas2.wav voice “Last recon confirms access through sewer”

world/v_bas3.wav voice “Possible camo in sector …”

world/v_bas4.wav voice “recon established … heavy fortification “

world/v_bas5.wav voice “copy that recon Charlie”

world/v_bas6.wav voice “greens we are at …”

world/v_cit1.wav voice “Locate enemy data device”

world/v_cit2.wav voice “We have destroy order on communications laser”

world/v_cmd1.wav voice “We have destroy order on central computer”

world/v_cmd2.wav voice “We have target confirmed … blackhole gen.”

world/v_fac2.wav voice “troops being disassembled” (stuttering)

world/v_fac3.wav voice “someone shut down that place”

world/v_gun1.wav voice “destroy big gun”

world/v_gun2.wav voice “evacuate big gun area”

world/v_war1.wav voice “destroy enemy supply train”

world/water1.wav running water – small stream

world/wind2.wav wind rushing

world/xian1.wav dance music

world/xianbeats.wav drum sounds for the music

world/x_alarm.wav sounds like klaxon alarm

world/x_light.wav light breaking

world/yelforce.wav voice “yellow force field deactivated”

insane/insane1.wav voice “It hurts”

insane/insane10.wav voice “The horror”

insane/insane11.wav thud

insane/insane2.wav voice “Let me out”

insane/insane3.wav voice “Make it stop” low voice

insane/insane4.wav voice “Make it stop” higher voice

insane/insane5.wav voice “arrrghwaaaa”

insane/insane6.wav voice “Kill me now”

insane/insane7.wav voice “aaaaaaaaargh”

insane/insane8.wav voice “It hurts” – slow

insane/insane9.wav voice “Help!”

Distribute your level:

When you finished your level, made a txt-file and zipped it up, then you can upload it to ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/quake2/incoming/. You have to upload your zipfile (with level and TXTfile) and the textfile unzipped. BUT, before you decide to upload it, be sure that it’s worth seeing….

http://www.fortunecity.com:80/underworld/redalert/239/bible.html