#[1]start [2]ICRA labels

   This is v5.2 of BSP, the most popular node builder for Doom.

   BSP is currently maintained by [3]Colin Phipps. Please see the [4]BSP
   entries in my blog for news about BSP, and the latest releases. But in
   practice, BSP is an old and mature tool; I just update it every now
   and then to fix any problems compiling it for new systems.

What are Nodes?

   Before you can play a level that you have created, you must use a node
   builder to create the data that Doom will use to render the level.
   Doom uses a rendering algorithm based on a binary space partition,
   otherwise known as a BSP tree. This is stored in a data lump called
   NODES in the WAD file. This data structure must be precalculated and
   stored in the WAD file befor the level can be played; the tool that
   does this is called a node builder.

   BSP is one of several node builders that can do this. There are
   others: idbsp is the original node builder that id Software used on
   the original Doom levels, for instance. BSP was the best known and
   most widely used node builder throughout the height of the Doom
   editing craze in the mid 1990s.

Features

     * Fast Doom node builder.
     * Supports a number of special effects.
     * Supports multi-level WADs. Preserves non-level data in WADs.
     * Includes an optional alternative algorithm for choosing the nodes
       which reduces the chance of visplane overflows.
     * Optional support for compressing the blockmap.
     * Compiles on DOS, Win32, Linux, UNIX.
     * Supports big endian & 64-bit systems.

Getting BSP

   For Linux and UNIX systems, you download and compile the BSP source
   code. [5]bsp-5.2.tar.gz contains complete source code. See the
   included file INSTALL for instructions.

   For DOS and Win32 systems, download [6]bsp51.zip, which contains
   binaries for DOS and Win32 (that is, Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP).
   bsp.exe is the version for DOS (note: it requires the accompanying
   dos4gw.exe). bsp-w32.exe is the version for Win32. Note that I have
   not released BSP 5.2 on DOS/Windows, because there were no changes in
   this version that would affect the DOS/Windows release.

Usage

   bsp [ -noreject ] [-factor nn ] [ -q ] [ -picknode { traditional |
   visplane } ] [ -blockmap { old | comp } ] inwad [ [ -o ] outwad ]

   Where:

   -noreject
          Causes any existing REJECT lump in the WAD file not to be
          replaced.

   -factor nn
          Used for tuning the node builder. The number supplied is the
          weighting applied when a choice of nodeline requires other
          lines to be split. Increasing this value from the default of 17
          will reduce the number of extra line splits, but this will
          generally cause a less balanced node tree. The default is
          usually fine.

   -q
          Causes BSP to run quietly, only printing output if there are
          errors or warnings.

   -picknode
          Determines the nodeline selection algorithm. The "traditional"
          option is best for most Doom levels. For levels which are
          intended for the original doom2.exe and suffer from some
          marginal visplane overflows, the "visplane" algorithm is
          designed to minimise these and may help in some cases. See the
          included visplane.txt for more information.

   -blockmap
          Selects the blockmap generation algorithm. The default "old"
          algorithm generates a simple and correct blockmap. The newer
          "comp" version produces a compressed blockmap, by reusing
          identical blocks which should be equivalent in actual use. The
          "comp" version is therefore better but it relatively untested
          so is not yet enabled by default.

   inwad is the input WAD file. This may contain any number of levels and
   other lumps. The nodes and associated data resources will be built for
   every level in this WAD. Any other data present in the WAD will be
   copied to the output WAD unchanged.

   outwad is the output WAD file. If the output file already exists, BSP
   will write it's output to a temporary file while it is working, and
   will only overwrite the output file once it is finished. In
   particular, it is safe for outwad to be the same as inwad, although
   this is not recommended unless you keep other backups :-).

   Either inwad or outwad can be pipes or special files. On most UNIX
   systems, you can have BSP read from STDIN and write to STDOUT by using
   it as follows: bsp -q /dev/stdin /dev/stdout

Special Effects

     * HOM-free transparent doors:
       Simply make the sector referenced by the doortracks have a sector
       tag of >= 900. No need to remember sector numbers and type them in
       on a command line -- just use any sector tag >= 900 to permanently
       mark the sector special.
       See TRANSDOR.WAD for an example of sector tags in the 900's being
       used to create HOM-free transparent door effects.
     * Precious lines:
       If a linedef has a sector tag >= 900, then it is treated as
       "precious" and will not be split unless absolutely necessary. This
       is good to use around borders of deep water, invisible stairs,
       etc.
       Furthermore, just for grins, if the linedef's tag is 999, then the
       sidedefs' x-offsets set an angle adjustment in degrees to be
       applied -- you can look straight at a wall, but it might come
       right at you on both sides and "stretch".

Copyright

Node builder for DOOM levels (c) 1998 Colin Reed, Lee Killough
                             (c) 2001 Simon Howard
                             (c) 2000,2001,2002,2006 Colin Phipps

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
   your option) any later version. See the file COPYING for details.

   See the included file AUTHORS for a complete list of contributors.

References

   1. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/
   2. http://games.moria.org.uk/labels.rdf
   3. mailto:cph@moria.org.uk
   4. http://blog.moria.org.uk/games/doom/bsp
   5. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/download/bsp-5.2.tar.gz
   6. http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/bsp/download/bsp51.zip