This site is hosted on web space provided by Telefragged
The latest version of BSP is .93b, released 2-12-98


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Well, it's a sad day around the HQ. The time has finally come - I'm shutting down the site. I know this may be a surprise for everyone and it probably seems sudden, but I've been thinking about it for a long time and finally made up my mind. I've written a long editorial about this site and my feelings about running it over the past 2.5 years. You can read it here if you're interested. But for now, let me say that I've had a great time running this site. I've met lots of interesting people from all over the world and had a lot of fun (amongst the headaches and frustrations :-).

What does this mean for the future of BSP you ask? To be honest, I don't really know. Cryect is still working on BSP as far as I know. Hopefully, we'll see a new version (with Quake3a support :-) down the road. I look forward to using it. In a way I'm kind of sorry I won't be around to bring it to you.

I've talked to Marv over at Telefragged and he said they'll leave this site up so people can access it as a reference. In a few days, I'll move all the news to the archives and put up a 'Closed' notice just to make it official, but this will most likely be the last news update around here. I know there are a lot of loyal visitors out there and I wish you all well. Take care, everyone!

Cyclone has sent in a QC File for the Half-Life mod Jailbreak. Now you can use BSP to make jailbreak maps :-) Thanks, Cyclone!

Bonesaw strikes again :-) He sent in a QC File for Action Quake2. He warns that he hasn't tested it yet, so use it carefully, but you can grab it here. Thanks again, Bonesaw!

Eitan Tal has written in to share a tutorial he has been working on. You can read it here. It's designed to help people with texture placement/selection. It's geared towards Quake1, but it really applies to any 3D game. Check it out.

I've had that QC file from Bonesaw in the in-box for a few days. Sorry it took so long to get it posted but I've been out of town all weekend. Got to get away from the world once in a while so my wife and I took off for a weekend getaway :-)

Remember - my ftp mirrors on Telefragged are not working right now, so files may be difficult to get. Just keep trying and you'll get them eventually. Marv assures me that they are working on it :-) You can all stop writing me about the problem...

Bonesaw sent in an updated QC File for Half-life. This includes more entities than the one that comes with BSP, so get it if you do Half-Life maps :-) Thanks Bonesaw!

Lordfly wrote in to say that his site, the 3D Map Junkyard is still looking for maps. If you're not familiar with this site, you can send in all those maps you started but never got around to finishing (for whatever reason). Other people can get your fragments and build a map from them, hopefully resulting in more maps out there for us to play :-) Check it out!

Well, you've probably noticed that I've been absent for a week (again!) Work has been incredibly busy lately and it's not going to let up in the forseeable future. Unfortunately, this increased workload means I have been falling behind on some other obligations, like my THF map and the re-design of this site. There's only so many hours in the day :-( Anyone I've promised stuff to, just be patient... I'll get to it eventually.

No word this week from Cryect, so I'm assuming he's hard at work on BSP :-) Those of you that are writing in to ask when the next version is coming out, please stop... I'll post any news here as soon as I get it (I promise :-)

People have been having problems getting files from the FTP site. Unfortunately, this is going to be a problem for a while. The mirror sites are still broken (until Telefragged fixes them), so any files you want have to come from the main site, which means it may be full. Please be patient and it'll all get sorted out eventually.

Got an email from Cryect a couple days ago. He's making good progress hacking some bugs out of BSP. He sent me a version to test, but unfortunately, he set it up to run in -gl mode by default (no way to disable it) and my TNT card crashes when I run it :-( He's working on fixing that... We got a new splash screen (courtesy of Ancient1) which will be in the next version. Madpup and a few others will be happy to know that BSP doesn't reverse the entity order when it saves the map now, so hopefully an -onlyents compile will work. The preferences dialog lets you select drives other than C: - plus a few other fixes and enhancements, so there is progress being made and hopefully it won't be too much longer :-)

On another topic, Quake3Arena is awesome... especially on my P3 500mhz powerhouse (w00!). If you haven't played it yet, what are you waiting for? It totally rocks! I even have a screenshot of me fragging Disruptor :-)

All you HereticII players out there should definitely check out a new mod that came out recently. It's called THF (The Heretic Fortress) and is a teamplay mod that is great fun to play. Check out the web site for more information. I like it so much, I'm even working on a map for it. Hopefully it'll be ready before long. Now my maps page won't be such an empty place :-)

There's a new site over at Rust you should all check out. Fishman has opened up a completely database-driven prefab site. Users can upload their own prefabs directly to the site and have them available right away. It's just started up in the past couple of days, but there's already lots of prefabs available. Head over there and check it out! Any of them that are in .map format can be used in BSP :-)

Well, as you know, the guys at Telefragged moved me to a new FTP site recently. During that move, I lost the mirrors to the site for a while, so if you want files, you have to use my site to get them. Unfortunately, the server has died. It's being worked on, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before it's back up.

Over the years I've run this site, one bug has cropped up from time to time that has stumped everyone who has encountered it. Only a few people have hit it, but when they do it's irritating. Apparently, when you click on a brush in the 3d window it will sometimes drag an edge of the brush slightly without you knowing it. This could cause a leak if the brush was against the void and sometimes it's impossible to fix the errant drag. Well, now Bonesaw has come to the rescue. He posted this workaround on the BSP Message Board:

So, if you're having problems with that, check out this fix. Thanks for the tip Bonesaw! :-)

Well, apparently Webdog no longer monitors this page like it used to. Don't know when it stopped, but it would have been nice if he would have told me - I've been faithfully displaying his ad button ever since he begged me to :-( Well, it's gone now =)

Looks like the only editor showing up in Webdog now is Worldcraft, so I don't feel too bad :-) Still don't understand why Worldcraft gets all the praise though...grumble grumble

Moving on... Still trying to come up with a layout I like for the redesign. I've also been working on some PHP3 scripts that'll spruce up the site a little. Anyone who uses Perl regularly should really check out PHP - it's much better to work with than Perl. But don't take my word for it, check it out... no really go ahead... I'll wait here...

Just to let you know that if you try to access ftp://ftp.bsphq.com/ and it doesn't work you may have to try ftp://206.96.221.7/pub/bsphq/ instead for a little while. Telefragged has moved me around on the FTP server and it resulted in a DNS change. Hopefully any problems will be brief. This means links on my file pages will be broken for a bit, but please be patient and it will all sort out eventually :-) Thank you.

Hey, guys. Sorry, no word from Cryect on BSP's update. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything.

I have a request to make. I'm working on re-designing this site and I want to make it fairly cross-browser-compatible. What I'd like to know is how many people access this site who don't use Netscape 4.x or IE 4.x or higher browsers. If you use some other browser (Opera, Neoplanet, older versions of NS or IE) let me know. Also, when you mail me, let me know if you have any problems viewing this site as it is now. Since it uses CSS not all browsers may display it properly, so if there's anything that looks odd in your browser, let me know. Thanks!

Okay, as many of you (hopefully) know, yesterday's note was an April Fool's joke. BSP doesn't support Q3A - yet - and BSP isn't based on the Qoole99 source code (or Thred, or QE-Radiant for that matter :-) Hope you all have a sense of humor...

Now, for the truth. Cryect (the new programmer) is making progress, as I reported in the post on March 31. That post was true. As for Quake3:Arena, from everything we've seen, it looks like BSP will be able to support it, so that's in the plans. No time frame is projected though since Cryect is still getting his feet wet with the code, but he is hopeful that Q3A support will be possible.

As for me, I'm working on cleaning up the installation process and the BSP Setup program that configures your INI files. Hopefully I'll be able to make BSP's setup a little less frustrating for everybody. I've also kept all the bug reports people have sent in over the last year and have forwarded the most popular ones to Cryect so he can take a look at them as well.

"Well, that's all fine, DeadMeat... but when will we see a new release?"

I have no idea. It all depends on how much time Cryect has and how quickly he gets into understanding the code. If he is able to fix a bunch of bugs fairly soon, we may go ahead and release a maintenance release, but at this point it's just too early to tell. All I can do is say hang in there - we're working on the problem and we'll do all we can to resurrect BSP from the dead.... /me goes off to charge up his defibrillator..."Clear!" BZZZZZZ

By the way, BSP HQ crossed 150,000 hits yesterday. Thanks again to everyone who has made this site a success. I really appreciate everyone who has stuck with BSP through all these months :-)

Uh-oh... the cat's out of the bag...

Well, I'm breaking an NDA to tell you this, but I just couldn't keep it secret anymore. As most people have heard, Quake3:Arena is nearing completion, but what most people don't know is that id software is going to be bundling a special version of BSP on the CD with the game when it comes out. Originally, they planned to include QE-Radiant, but negotiations fell through at the last minute and they decided to switch to BSP.

The version of Q3ABSP that will be on the CD is the same version of BSP that you have now, but it will include some really cool new features, including curved surface support (of course), figure-8 support and the ultra-cool Flash-Compile mode (tm). What this does is compiles your map as you are building it, so when you select 'Export' from the menu, it's already done. Even on a 486DX-33, Q3A single player maps can be completed in a fraction of the time it takes to compile a small Quake2 map now. I've been beta testing this feature for several weeks now and have actually finished my first Quake3 map - it's a remake of Doom2 Map07 which I originally did for Quake1, but now it's all curvy (woo!). I would post a screenshot, but that feature isn't in the build of Quake3 that I'm beta-testing right now :-(

Anyway, stay tuned for more information on this as it comes in!

Quick update - here's a screenshot of the editor with a map loaded to show you :-)

Those of you who know me fairly well know that I'm a volunteer ambulance attendant in my 'spare' time. Well, I've been putting all my skills to work doing CPR on BSP... and it may be working. I don't want to get too many hopes up yet, but I found someone (John Rittenhouse, aka Cryect) who is helping fix BSP's source code and progress is being made - he has fixed 2 of the 3 bugs that were preventing further work. The 3rd bug is trickier, but he's found a way to hack around it so there's hope. Everybody cross your fingers and sacrifice a few live chickens to the C++ gods and maybe we'll see an update to BSP in the not-too-distant future!! (BTW, notice that this update is not being posted on April 1 :-)

I've had several people contact me about helping with the site re-design. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, but I've already picked someone to help me out, so you can stop asking now ;-) However, I still need a good programmer...

Well, not a dream really, but an idea. I really feel bad that BSP is dying out and I don't want to give it up. I've been trying other editors and just can't find one that I'm comfortable with (2 1/2 years with BSP has spoiled me I guess :-). What I'd like to find is someone out there who has Borland C++ 5.02 and has decent programming experience with OWL that could help me fix the problems that are in the BSP source code Yahn gave me. Trust me, it's not for the faint of heart; several people have tried and given up. But until those problems are fixed nothing else can be done. If you have lots of experience with OWL and have Borland 5.02 (earlier versions won't work), contact me and we'll see what we can do. Serious inquiries only, please. If those problems are fixed, then it will be possible to add full Heretic2/Half-Life/etc. support, so if you want to see BSP continue, contact me ;-)

Since I'm in a begging mood this morning, I have another request. I've been thinking about re-designing the site. Don't know if I will actually do it or not, but if BSP manages to live on, it'd be nice to have a new look (this design is over a year old and it's showing its age). I can handle all the HTML work, but I need someone who would be willing to do some graphics for me. Plus, I could use a fresh idea - I have a couple of ideas floating around, but not sure how they'd look on a site this size. If you are interested in helping out, contact me, but please, don't just make stuff and send it to me! I want to discuss your ideas first so you don't go to a lot of work for something I don't want. I'm looking for a cohesive layout with graphics that complement the color scheme of the site (I'll probably stay with a blue scheme, but probably go lighter than it is now). Like on the source code, serious inquiries only. If you want to help out, give me links to where I can see some of your other graphics or webpage design work. Thanks!

Saw this over on Rust:

Get out those single player maps and get a job! ;-)

Wow, a whole month without an update... well, not much going on in the BSP world as you might expect. I did order me a new computer though (/brag mode on). By the end of next week I should be kicking butt with a PIII 500mhz 128mb RAM monster! Bring on Q3A baby! ;-)

Still no progress on getting BSP updated. Several people have been looking over the source code, but nobody has made any progress with it. It's not looking very promising. I've been busy with a Heretic2 project that I'm working on with Browndog and Deadstar, but it's not out yet. Plus, I've been sick through most of February; lots of flu and other crap going around here :-( So, I'm still here, but yet I'm not here... wow, that's almost zen...

Tumorhead sent in an updated .qc file for the Weapons Factory mod. You can find it here. If you do maps for Weapons Factory, this is what you need ;-) This versions adds separate flag entities and some banners. Thanks Tumorhead! He actually sent this in about a week ago, but I forgot to post it :-( Sorry.

BTW, it's Groundhog day! "Rise and shine... and don't forget your booties!" - doesn't really apply to BSP, but I just wanted to throw that in ;-)

We are rapidly approaching the 1 year anniversary of the most recent release of BSP. Despite several people taking a look at the code, there hasn't been any progress in getting a new version released. As a result, this site has taken kind of a backseat lately. I have several other things going on in Real Life (tm) that have taken precedence over doing any work around the HQ. With no new release of BSP in the forseeable future, that will probably get worse. I'll leave the site content here so people can still access the tutorials and files, but updates will be even more infrequent than they have been lately.

So, you may ask yourself: Is this the end of BSP? Sadly, it appears that this may be the case. Although BSP is still quite usable for mapping Quake engine games(except for Sin), there are problems with Heretic2 and Half-Life that make it a pain to be productive.

As for the BSP source code, here's the status: Yahn gave me copies of the latest BSP source code last October. However, this isn't the code to version .93b which is the one everyone has been using; this code has some fairly significant changes to it. Unfortunately, those changes are only partially implemented/debugged and there are problems that prevent BSP from working properly right now. Without being able to fix those (4 people have tried so far without success), updating BSP to include other games isn't feasible. I am not allowed to give out the source code to anyone without Yahn's, permission, and so far the only ones who have gotten copies are people who are experienced C++ programmers.

I have been working (in what little spare time I have) at rewriting BSP in MS VC++, using MFC, but that is going very slowly and is more of a learning project than anything that'll ever be released publicly. Besides, based on my current progress, I won't have anything usable before the end of 1999 anyway and by then we'll all be up to our ears in Quake3 engine mapping, which will no doubt be quite different from Quake/Quake2.

So, unless a miracle happens, I would say it's time to start looking for another editor to use. I have been playing around with several different ones lately (Qoole, Worldcraft, QE-Radiant). I just plain don't care for Worldcraft - don't know why, but I just can't get to like it. Qoole99 and QE-Radiant both look promising, but I haven't used either one enough to know for sure. I'll probably end up using one of those two once they get full Heretic2 support coded in. Until then, I'm trying to use HereticEd (came with Heretic2) but it's taking a while to get used to it. Just wish there were more tutorials out there... ;-)

If you're still reading this... I just want to say that I've enjoyed the 2+ years of running this site and I like to think I've helped a lot of people learn about how to use BSP. It's been fun at times and frustrating at times, but overall it's been a good experience. I also want to thank the great guys at Telefragged for hosting this site for most of that 2+ year stretch. Hopefully, they'll leave the site up if I don't update it for a while ;-) Take it easy, everyone!