Node Builders?

What are these for? Are they important? I never needed them before...

If you're going to create a new map for Doom, Doom 2, Heretic, or Hexen, you will need a node builder (preferably Zennode or BSP) in order for you to be able to play that map. Otherwise, it will crash most spectacularly before the map even starts.

Although some editors have their own nodebuilders (including WA and DeePsea), using an external builder like zennode is better.

I use glbsp... very nice if you use a port that uses opengl and such. even if you aren't planning on using gl modes, try this one, very easy to use and very rarely have I seen any screw-ups from it.

slightly OT, but do you need to build nodes for zdoom? I think I saw somewhere that it isn't necesary in the new betas...

Not exactly. DeePsea uses an EXTERNAL nodebuilder and always has - DeePBSP. You can run DeePBSP all by itself. Because that's the way DeePsea was designed, it can also easily use any other nodebuilder. So I guess that DeePsea is better because it always uses an external nodebuilder:-)

GLBSP has some very quirky behavior. Be very careful to read the docs and use the correct switches, otherwise it won't build nodes for the current level since it defaults to using existing nodes to speed it up. GLBSP is not really better than Zennode or DeePBSP though for non-GL ports.

I forgot to mention that only DeePBSP and the internal ZDOOM node builder generates SEGS past 32k, something to remember if one builds large levels.

frwl said:

I use glbsp... very nice if you use a port that uses opengl and such. even if you aren't planning on using gl modes, try this one, very easy to use and very rarely have I seen any screw-ups from it.

slightly OT, but do you need to build nodes for zdoom? I think I saw somewhere that it isn't necesary in the new betas...

Yes, ZDoom2.0 has an internal nodes builder which is currently the best one to use for polyobjects since all other builders cause them to bleed in some situations.

deep said:

DeePsea uses an EXTERNAL nodebuilder and always has - DeePBSP. You can run DeePBSP all by itself.

Jack, has DeePBSP ever been available as a separate download? If not, would you consider making it available as one?

glbsp never went quirky with me before... but it won't run in deepsea for some reason. thats my only prob with it.
Oh, and if glbsp isn't working well, glbspX is a very nice windowed program with lots of configurable stuffs. anyways, I'm not saying that it's the only good builder out there, but give it a try and see if if is what you are looking for.

"what's a nose builder?"- ShotgunSteve in #skulltag

frwl said:

"what's a nose builder?"- ShotgunSteve in #skulltag

lol

frwl said:

glbsp never went quirky with me before... but it won't run in deepsea for some reason. thats my only prob with it.

After selecting custom nodebuilder, enter this in the dialog command line:

C:\yourdir\glbsp.exe ~deep.wad -o $pwad

I used glbsp 2.0 a lot for testing DOOMSDAY/BOOMSDAY. There has to be some switch added to ignore existing nodes (too lazy to look it up). This is for the 2.0 only. Earlier version was ok and if there's a newer one, maybe it's now fixed.

If one uses GLBSP for stock DOOM levels, read the docs.

ReX said:

Jack, has DeePBSP ever been available as a separate download? If not, would you consider making it available as one?

I really don't want to document and keep track of one more online file I change and so forth. Plus I'd get too many questions if I didn't document it separately. Although not too many people probably use the various options, they are all accessible via the F5/Node options.

Explaining this in a text file, how to position it and all that would take some time, plus I'd probably have to change the code since the way it is now I know what parms get passed and they will always be in the correct sequence:)

heh, of the ones i've tried in the past, here's a ranking, in my experience:

1) zennode 2) BSP 3) ZDoom's internal builder 4) deepBSP 5) glBSP 6) wadauthor's internal node builder 7) WARM 8) idBSP 9) doomcad's internal node builder

Deep (or anyone who knows): I want to use BSP 5.0 in DeePSea, but I can't get it to work. A message thing pops up saying there is something wrong with the tool .exe. This is probably a dumb question, but how do you get it to work, step-by-step, since I'm doing something wrong?

insertwackynamehere# said:

Deep (or anyone who knows): I want to use BSP 5.0 in DeePSea, but I can't get it to work. A message thing pops up saying there is something wrong with the tool .exe. This is probably a dumb question, but how do you get it to work, step-by-step, since I'm doing something wrong?

When you build nodes, there is a dialog box that comes up.

Check "Custom Nodebuilder"
Press "Select Nodebuilder"

Enter:
Tool Exe: D:\bsp50\bsp.exe (location of bsp5 is on your system)
Tool Parameters: ~deep.wad -o $pwad
Working Directory: c:\deepsea (location of deepsea)

FYI: Last time I checked BSPx does not work with HEXEN format levels.
BSPx is generally inferior to both zennode, deepbsp and zdoom's internal builder - despite all the hype:-)

Thanks Jack! I think my problem was that I thought the working directory was where the node-builder itself was, not DeepSea. Thanks!