Overview

WinQBSP3 is a program that adds quite a number of new features to the standard QBSP3 by id Software. The most noticeable one is the Windows GUI. This allows running an external program from your favorite map editor to blend in better with windows, and is easier to read the results. Also a few new command line options have been added that give the user more control over the program. By Lee Smith

Command-line Options

Here is a list of all the new command line options that have been added to WinQBSP3: -log Writes all information displayed in the console to console.log -wait Do not automatically close when done compiling -clear Clear the console after every process is complete

Using Automatically with Quake2 Editors

Using WinQBSP3 with any Quake2 editor is fairly simple. All you need to do is edit wherever the external batch files/programs are defined that compile the map, then you won't have to shell out to dos every time you want a map compiled. For example, with BSP, edit your bats\fast.bat or bats\full.bat or whatever process you usually use, and change the first line from qbsp3 %1 to winqbsp3 %1. Given you have WinQBSP3 installed to a directory in your path or in the same directory as all the batch files. Also, with QuakeEd4 if you're lucky enough to be able to run it, is simple to configure with WinQBSP3 also. All you need to do is edit scripts\quake.qe4 and change all the bsp_ lines towards the bottom. Or, make if you want to make things simpler, just copy winqbsp3.exe over your old qbsp3.exe. If anyone has a way to get it to work with other editors automatically, mail me and I'll include it here. BSP is the only editor I really have experience with.

Future Versions & Plans

I've got a lot of things I would like to add to WinQBSP3, so keep your eye out for new releases. Here's the list of things to do: Add a front-end that lets you choose the map and options if run with no command line options. Errors and other bad things that occur during compiling show up in red on the console. Speed improvments. Get WinQVIS3 and WinQRAD3 working. There are only two bugs that I know of right now, the progress bars get a little screwy on big maps. Also, the map/bsp filename display shows the directory and name instead of just the name. These will be fixed in the next release. If you know of any more, please tell me. I'll put up a web page that will make finding new versions easier, look for a note about it on your favorite news page. Also I've been toying with some ideas about a remote map compiling client/server programs. Say some generous company has some badass computers, maybe if I can get it to work, they could run the remote server, and let quake2 map people compile their maps a lot faster on the company's computers than they could on their home computers.

Version Information

v0.90 - 1/24/98 First public release, all basic features working.

Miscellaneous

If you want to include WinQBSP3 on any type of CD, collection, etc. Please email me to tell me first, I don't have a problem with it, I would just like to know. Similar versions will be released that replace QVIS3 and QRAD3 soon. Watch your favorite news page for it Thanks go to the people in EFnet #winprog for answering all my (sometimes stupid) Windows coding questions. ProQCC is another program by Lee Smith, it is popular QuakeC compiler/decompiler available for DOS, Linux, FreeBSD and OS/2. You can pick it up here.

Contacting the Author

You can contact me via email at lees@infoave.net. I'm on EFnet IRC sometimes as _Chaos in #ultima, #quakeed and #quake2. Or if you feel like a man-beating, I play Q2 deathmatch on DeadZone #1 (206.53.233.68) and Lithium (204.216.27.178) as Chaos