Quake 3 BSP Level File Format Tutorial

Author bkenwright@xbdev.net

Have you heard of the game quake?... well the quake level file format was special.  As they did with quake 2, they used BSP (Binary Space Partitioning).  For indoors, BSP works better, as we can quickly determine which poly's to render and which to check for collision detection.  As our 3D world is divided up using the BSP format. 

You can create a binary space level at run time with your raw file information, but its sometimes more efficient, fast and more reliable to have this information saved and ready to load and go!  Thats what the quake file format does.  Its relatively easy to get your teeth into and get working in no time.  I suppose the hardest part for people to grasp, is what BSP is and how you work with planes and subdivision and recursion!  Making people turn away and run.

Quake 3 BSP File Format Specifications & Tutorials.

    Format Layout Details

    Reading and Checking Data

    Rendering the Vertex & Meshes

    Inside the world!

    Using the BSP data - Visible Areas

    Testing for Collisions - Brushes!

    More?...Collision Reaction

BSP Quake 3 Demos