BSP File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
Introduction Year 1996
Developer id Software
File Extension .bsp
MIME Type application/x-quake-bps
Primary Use Game Map File
Engine Compatibility Quake Engine
File Type Binary
Data Structure Composed of lumps
Lumps Sections of the file containing different types of data
Map Components Entities, Textures, Planes, Nodes, Leafs, LeafsFaces, LeafsBrushes, Models, Brushes, BrushSides, Vertices, MeshVerts, Effects, Faces, LightMaps, LightVols, VisData
Encoding Binary encoding
Compression None natively, but can be packaged in compressed formats
Usage in Games Used for mapping the architecture and design of game levels
Visibility Determination Potentially Visible Set (PVS)
Collision Detection BSP Trees
Editing Tools Various third-party map editors (e.g., TrenchBroom, GTKRadiant)
Support for Lighting Precomputed Lightmaps
Texture Mapping Supports textured surfaces
Portability Highly portable among games using similar versions of the Quake engine
Content Can include textures, objects, and level geometry