glBSP - The GL-Node Builder

• I'm pleased to announce that glBSP version 2.24 is now available to partition all your binary spaces.  This is mainly a bug-fix release, but will likely be the very last one too, since the code is pretty stable now and it's time for me to move on.

  Summary of the changes in 2.24:

  • more robust level name detection
  • abbreviations for all the command-line options
  • fixed some potential crashes / buffer overflows
  • reduced default blockmap limit to 16000
  • new TRICKS.txt document describing various map tricks
  • better logic for 'One-Sided Windows', disabled by default
  • new libglbsp flag to ignore self-referencing linedefs
  • improved directory layout, consolidated makefiles

  More detailed ChangeLog: here

16th September 2005

• Version 2.20 of glBSP and glBSPX have been released!  Highlights of this release:
  • support for building V5 GL-Nodes
  • builds ZDBSP-format regular nodes
  • allow level names longer than 5 letters
  • support for response files (@arglist.rsp)
  • detect/handle the 'One-Sided Window' trick
  • unused sectors are not removed by default
  • duplicate vertices are not merged by default
  • BLOCKMAP lump is left empty if it overflows

17th April 2005

• A draft version of Version 5 of the GL-Node specifications is now available for review (click on the "SPECS" button). All interested parties are invited to check it over and provide comments. My email address is <ajapted@users.sourceforge.net>.

  V5 GL-Nodes provides support for levels which overflow the 32767 node/subsector limit. The new spec also addresses the problem of level names with more than 5 letters, adds the concept of extensions lumps, and has been rewritten to make everything clearer (with a useful Version Summary near the end).

28th September 2004

• Version 2.10 of glBSP and glBSPX has been released.  Crashes with JHexen should be fixed.  Significant changes in this release:
  • support V3 GL-Nodes (handle insanely complex levels).
  • comprehensive problem report when levels fail.
  • handle levels containing more than 32767 sidedefs.
  • removed -fresh option (now the default), added -fast option.
  • removed code to detect and ignore dummy sectors.
  • overlapping linedefs are detected and ignored.

14th July 2004

• The "GL Nodes" specification has been extended to Version 3.0.  This version introduces new formats for the GL_SEGS and GL_SSECT lumps that allow more than 65534 segs and 32767 vertices to be used, which a few insanely complex levels require.  The new formats are backwards compatible by using a 4-byte magic value to identify them (as was done for the V2 GL_VERT lump).

4th January 2004

• Well, it's been a while, but version 2.05 of glBSP and glBSPX is now available to satisfy all your node-building fantasies.  Notable changes in this release:
  • Ported glbsp and glBSPX to MacOS X.
  • Fixed blockmap bug when building on big-endian CPUs.
  • Fixed the "-noprog" option.
  • Added new option "-quiet" for less cluttered output.
  • Now handles multiple input WADs (GWA mode only).
  • Lumps in the output WAD are now aligned properly.
  • Automatically removes dummy sectors from BSP tree.
  • glBSPX: the manual/license windows look nicer.

23rd September 2002

• Version 2.00 of glBSP and glBSPX have been released ! 

  What's new in glBSP 2.00:

  • Building GWA files is now around 3 to 5 times faster, since glBSP can reuse the original node information.
  • New -fresh option to force creating nodes from scratch.
  • Better reporting about levels that fail to build.
  • Portability fixes: glBSP now runs on big endian CPUs.
  • More Hexen fixes.

  Big big thanks must go to Janis Legzdinsh, Jussi Pakkanen and André Majorel for all their input, code and testing.  Without them, this release would never have happened.

2nd January 2002

• Version 1.96 of glBSP and glBSPX has been released !  Grab it now, dude.  There's only one new feature: a 'SaveLog' function for glBSPX.  Otherwise there have been several improvements to the glBSPX interface, some documentation updates, and numerous glBSPX bug fixes. 

21st December 2001

• Began re-building this web site, in preparation for the 1.96 release which is almost ready.  I'm using a HTML scripting language called PHP, which is pretty cool, for example I'm making this site Lynx-friendly with it.  All the scripting stuff happens on the server side, so you don't need anything special in your browser (like plug-ins).

24th September 2001

• glBSP version 1.95 has been released.  The big feature in this release is the new GUI version, glBSPX for both Linux and Windows platforms.  Also included are many fixes for Hexen wads, thanks to Janis Legzdinsh, including auto-detection of hexen levels (don't need the -hexen option anymore).  Finally, glBSP now supports wads with non-standard level names ("RUINS" or "QD05" for example) automatically.

6th July 2001

• Work is progressing well on a new GUI version called glBSPX.  Windows and Linux binaries will be included in the next release.  I'm using the "Fast Light Tool Kit" (simply FLTK), which is a nice small C++ GUI toolkit and has all the functionality I need (just), plus it is under the LGPL license. 

10th June 2001

• glBSP version 1.94 has been released !

  Changes with glBSP 1.94:

  • shows percentage while loading and saving.
  • shows warnings when results overflow normal DOOM limits.
  • shows warnings for extremely long linedefs and nodes.
  • fixed serious bug with blockmap truncation code.
  • new -maxblock option gives control over blockmap truncation.
  • fixed some build problems with very narrow subsectors.
  • fixed warnings about 2s linedefs with no left side.
  • new "slightly better than nothing" reject support.
  • code is much more modular: UI has been separated out.
  • improved debugging code.

  Note: the DOS version is not available yet.
  

• The ``GL-Nodes'' specification has received a minor update.  Version 2.1 says that the timestamp on a GWA file should be checked: if it is older than the companion WAD, then the GL-Nodes in it are probably out-of-date and the GWA file should be ignored.

10th September 2000

• glBSP version 1.91 is now available for download.

  New features in glBSP 1.91:

  • optimised, DOOM2.WAD: 50% faster, ETERNAL.WAD: 3 times faster.
  • builds "V2 GL-Nodes".  Use -v1 option to get the old format.
  • no longer balks at bad sidedefs (with sector of #-1).
  • removes unused sectors & sidedefs.
  • packs the blockmap, and can merge identical sidedefs.
  • shows the percentage complete while building.
  • floatified - nodes are computed using high precision math.
  • source code is now under the GNU General Public License.

(C) 2007 Andrew Apted

Updated: July 2007