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Quake level BSP to Blender file convertor?

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  • Quake level BSP to Blender file convertor?

    Morning all.
    I have been working in my limited spare time at creating some alternative versions of popular Quake One ID and custom maps for a little project of mine. I have been using Blender and loading them in to a modern game engine to play test them. Now I freely admit that I am an awful mapper and are artistically challenged, and as it's taking some considerable time to produce them I wondered if anyone could recommend a simple, easy to use utility that would take a BSP and convert it to a Blender file that I could modify?
    Unfortunately https://developer.blender.org/F24898 give me the menu option to import / export bsp files but returned a 100% failure rate. So if any one has any constructive, helpful suggestions for an easy newbie friendly way of doing this I would be grateful if you would be kind enough to post them below.

    Many thanks
    Monty
    Mr.Burns
    "Helping to keep this community friendly, helpful, and clean of spammers since 2006"
    WWW: Quake Terminus , QuakeVoid You Tube: QuakeVoid
    Servers: Quake.shmack.net, damage.servequake.com

    News: JCR's excellent ctsj_jcr map is being ported to OOT

  • #2
    Converting BSP to blender isn't feasible.

    Consider this:

    You manage to get blender to load a BSP, you start making changes... now your vis, light and collision nodes are fucked. Blender would need a mini quake engine built in to properly load BSP as well as BSP compilers to properly export BSP. BUT those compilers would have to be able to convert a BSP into a new BSP based on your modifications.

    What you can do is convert .MAP to .OBJ and work from there or simply stop using blender for the map part and use radiant or some other map editor instead. I can tell you from years of experience it is much easier to build maps in a map editor. Which is why nobody is here or anywhere showing off all their blender quake maps.

    Just textures/materials alone in blender are like a career in themself in contrast to the "pick-and-go" system map editors use for textures. How would you handle lightmaps? They are built into the bsp as bytes with offsets and lengths set on each face to pick from the bytestream and the UVs for each lightmap are dynamic based on where the lightmap has been allocated within the atlas. Blender textures don't work like that at all. Actually, the textures are also stored as bytes in the BSP but to make it even more complicated those bytes represent the index to use from the palette. So, now blender needs to understand the quake palette as well.

    I'm not saying these things are impossible. I'm saying you would need one BAD-ASS blender plug-in to pull this off. It would seriously take someone like Spike(or better) to make something like that. The "or better" part is because you would need a Spike that programs in Python (not saying he can't, just saying he probably doesn't) AND knows how to plug into blender.

    so you need something like a MadNahuelSpike....lol. I don't think that's gonna happen for ya'.
    Last edited by MadGypsy; 10-11-2016, 08:34 AM.
    http://www.nextgenquake.com

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    • #3
      To expand on Gypsy's reply, Trenchbroom 2 is a very user-friendly map editor that focuses on the 3D viewport. It also has the traditional top/front/side 2D views for precision work but I guess it's the best choice for people coming from popular 3D programs like Blender. It includes a kickass help file and there's always the people over at Func_Msgboard (Mapping Help thread) to help you if you encounter issues.
      ♪ I'm skiiiiiiinnin' in the pain, just skiiiiiiinnin' in the pain ♪
      ♪ What a glorious feelin' I'm haaaaaaappy again ♪

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      • #4
        To expand on BFG666 and Myself. GrimFandang0 posted his latest .MAP to .OBJ parser on discord a few weeks ago. I totally downloaded it. If you want a copy I can make a link for you. I don't want to post a link here cause, I'm not sure how Grim would feel about me mass releasing something that I don't believe he has released on his own site but, he did share it so, I assume sharing it with you in a PM or something wouldn't be a big deal.

        Alternately you could go to QuakeWorld discord #mapping and simply ask GrimFandang0 for a copy, of which he probably has an even newer version hanging out. That guy is a workaholic and apparently incredibly talented.
        Last edited by MadGypsy; 10-11-2016, 09:08 AM.
        http://www.nextgenquake.com

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        • #5
          Iirc, noesis can convert bsp to obj, and vice versa. But the only thing i could think to use this for would be to take some hipoly models and use them for things like ammo packs or health packs, statues, archways, etc.
          www.quakeone.com/qrack | www.quakeone.com/cax| http://en.twitch.tv/sputnikutah

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          • #6
            @r00k -

            One problem with that is .obj does not support secondary UVs so, lightmaps wouldn't be supported. You would have to have an "atlas" for every single face of the BSP so you could just reuse the face UVs for lightmaps. And even then it wouldn't work cause, what would you do when the UV's exceed 1?

            Also, You would have a bsp that is missing all the data that people use a BSP for at 10 times the polies. Basically that's just an obj with a bsp extension... useless. If you were going to go that way you might as well just keep it an obj and import it into the bsp as a model.

            EDIT: I'm not trying to poo-poo your info. I'm trying to help Mr. Burns understand the consequences of these suggestions. If all Mr. Burns wants to do is get BSP geometry into blender then, your Noesis method is probably the best one but, if he has a .map file it would be better because he could just open it in netradiant and export it as obj right from the editor OR use .map to .obj. This way he can have very few polygons to work with. Going true BSP to Blender back to true BSP...not gonna happen.

            However there is another way to go. MAP to BSP via blender .map exporter (although maybe there is only an importer...can't remember.)
            Last edited by MadGypsy; 10-11-2016, 09:53 AM.
            http://www.nextgenquake.com

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            • #7
              https://github.com/fzwoch/bsp2obj .bsp -> .obj

              http://www.quaddicted.com/tools/winbspc12.zip bsp -> .map

              http://richwhitehouse.com/index.php?...c_projects.php .mdl -> .obj

              Noesis is awesome, and R00k is saying it can do .bsp->.obj which makes sense. Noesis can also do .md3 -> .mdl and .mdl -> .obj



              /Skips part of whether or not is good idea.
              Quakeone.com - Being exactly one-half good and one-half evil has advantages. When a portal opens to the antimatter universe, my opposite is just me with a goatee.

              So while you guys all have to fight your anti-matter counterparts, me and my evil twin will be drinking a beer laughing at you guys ...

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              • #8
                It's times like this that you realise that despite our faults there is a tremendous amount of goodwill in the Quake community.
                Thanks guys, all responses are genuinely gratefully received.

                To give you a little more background I'm trying to put together a little game for a bit of fun using Unity 3D. I would use UDK but I'm not sure my crappy lappy will handle it. At the moment I produce a map using Blender, export it as either an FBX or obj and it mostly drops seemlessly in to Unity. I've already completed very basic test versions of DM4 and 6, start, End and Aero but wanted to a) get a little closer to the original geometry which I could then modify or "Remix", and b) reduce the dev time needed. Next on my list is Cleaver and Basewalk and sadly I don't have the .map files.

                I'll first try and give noesis a test run, and see if radiant can output in to something usable by Unity/UDK but I have a nagging feeling that I will need to carry on building them from scratch which is a shame as i could be doing something more productive ..like getting my damn on game grappling hook to work properly instead of slamming me in to a wall.

                Thanks again and kind regards

                Monty
                Last edited by Mr.Burns; 10-11-2016, 12:37 PM.
                Mr.Burns
                "Helping to keep this community friendly, helpful, and clean of spammers since 2006"
                WWW: Quake Terminus , QuakeVoid You Tube: QuakeVoid
                Servers: Quake.shmack.net, damage.servequake.com

                News: JCR's excellent ctsj_jcr map is being ported to OOT

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                • #9
                  Good luck with your thing, Mr. Burns.
                  http://www.nextgenquake.com

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                  • #10
                    Thanks MG
                    Just to come back to you guys, I gave noesis a try and it worked seamlessly. You open a BSP, select File -> export, choose your desired format and output file location and your done. It even outputs the corresponding textures if you need them. Instead of spending hours on replicating the geometry before remixing it, I did 2 custom levels (Aerowalk and basewalk) in under a minute.
                    If anyone else is trying to do the same thing you should be able to download Noesis from Rich Whitehouse

                    Hope this helps

                    Monty
                    Mr.Burns
                    "Helping to keep this community friendly, helpful, and clean of spammers since 2006"
                    WWW: Quake Terminus , QuakeVoid You Tube: QuakeVoid
                    Servers: Quake.shmack.net, damage.servequake.com

                    News: JCR's excellent ctsj_jcr map is being ported to OOT

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