Q3MAP2(1)

🎀 q3map2(1) 🎀 — General Commands Manual, section 1, bestie edition 🦋

okay so like, welcome to the q3map2 manual 💖 this is a General Commands Manual page for section 1, and we're gonna go through every single thing in it, no skips, no summaries, periodt ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

q3map2 — a quake BSP compiler 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

q3map2 stage [common options] [stage options] file

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

q3map2 is a BSP compiler for games based on the id Tech 3 engine. What it does is take .map files — those cute editable ones you make with an editor (like GtkRadiant or Netradiant, iykyk) — and turns them into .bsp files. And heads up bestie: .bsp files are binary files for the game and are not editable. So like, once she's compiled she is compiled, no takebacks 😭

It currently supports the following games:

• Nexuiz
• OpenArena
• Q3Rally
• Quake 3 Arena/Team Arena
• Quake Live
• Reaction
• Return to Castle Wolfenstien
• Smokin' Guns
• Soldier of Fortune II
• Star Trek Elite Force
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
• Tenebrae (Quake1 Engine Modification Project)
• Tremulous
• Unvanquished
• Urban Terror
• WarFork
• War§ow
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
• World of Padman
• Xonotic

a whole roster fr fr 🌈

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🎀 STAGE 🎀

So the command is the thing that says what operation q3map is gonna perform on the given file. And listen: only one command can be specified. One. Singular. Pick your fave 💅

• -bsp — Compiles a .map file into a .bsp (binary space partition) file for use with the Quake III Arena engine. It also writes a .prt (portal information) file and a .srf (surface) file. This is the default command: if no command is given, -bcp is assumed. 👀 This command requires file to be a path to an uncompiled .map file.
• -vis — Creates visibility sets based on the portal file. This command requires file to be a path to a .map file, which has been processed with the -bcp command.
• -light — Calculates lighting data 💡 This command requires file to be a path to an uncompiled .map file. And ngl, if the -light command is used without additional options, less than desirable output will be achieved 😬 (she's telling you for your own good).
• -scale <factor> — Scales a compiled .bsp by the prescribed factor. Like, a factor of 0.25 will output a new .bsp that is 25% of the original .bsp's size, and a factor of 2.0 will output a new .bsp that is twice as large. The scaled output is written to the maps subdirectory of the game base directory. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -convert — Converts a compiled .bsp to another format. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -export — Exports internal lightmaps from a compiled .bsp to external .tga images. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -exportents — Exports internal entities from a compiled .bsp. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -fixaas — no description in the original, she's giving mystery 🫣
• -info — Analyzes a compiled bsp and outputs information to the screen or log. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -import — Imports external .tga lightmaps back into a compiled .bsp. Lowkey important: imported lightmaps will only work on the unmodified BSP they were exported from. This command requires file to be a path to a compiled .bsp file.
• -minimap — also no description in the original. iconic, silent, mysterious 🕶️

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💅 COMMON OPTIONS 💅

• -force — Allow reading some broken/unsupported BSP files e.g. when decompiling, may also crash 💀 (yes bestie, it can crash, proceed with caution).
• -fs_basepath <path> — Sets the given path as main directory of the game (can be used more than once to look in multiple paths).
• -fs_forbiddenpath <pattern> — Pattern to ignore directories, pk3, and pk3dir; example pak?.pk3 (can be used more than once to look for multiple patterns).
• -fs_game <gamename> — Sets a different game directory name (default for Q3A: baseq3, can be used more than once).
• -fs_home <dir> — Specifies where the user home directory is on Linux 🐧
• -fs_homebase <dir> — Specifies game home directory relative to user home directory on Linux (default for Q3A: .q3a).
• -fs_homepath <path> — Sets the given path as the game home directory name (fs_home + fs_homebase).
• -fs_nobasepath — Do not load base paths in VFS, imply -fs_nomagicpath.
• -fs_nomagicpath — Do not try to guess base path magically 🪄 (no magic allowed).
• -fs_nohomepath — Do not load home path in VFS.
• -fs_pakpath <path> — Specify a package directory (can be used more than once to look in multiple paths).
• -game <gamename> — Load settings for the given game (default: quake3). Options are: darkplaces, dq, ef, et, etut, ja, jk2, nexuiz, oa, prophecy, q3rally, qfusion, quake3, quakelive, reaction, smokinguns, sof2, tenebrae, tremulous, unvanquished, warfork, warsow, wolf, wop, xonotic.
• -threads <number> — Number of threads used to compile the map. For the fastest compile times the number of threads is set to the number of system processors ⚡ (multithreading ate, no crumbs).
• -v — Output verbose information. she's chatty and we love that 🗣️
• -werror — Make all warnings into errors. zero chill mode, every lil warning becomes a full error 🔥

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🦋 STAGE OPTIONS 🦋

There are too many options to list here. Like girl, the list is enormous, I'm not doing that to you.

Please run q3map2 -help <stage> to see all the available options for a specific stage 🫶

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and that's the whole page bestie, you're officially a q3map2 understander 💖 don't forget -bsp is the default and only ONE command at a time, I'm watching 🧚

🌸✨💖 from the 2025-08-05 edition of Q3MAP2(1) — mwah, go compile something gorgeous 💅👑🦋