extract entities from the bsp (which are in plaintext format), save as a .map, edit the .map, then recompile using -onlyents, and remember to also run light.exe -onlyents so the switchable lights will work 

you can edit the bsp itself with a hex editor, this works as long as the total number of bytes doesn't change. So if you're replacing a string with the same-length string, it would work. 

this does it pretty easily too 

Hindsight protip: Tronyn, load all your maps on all difficulties with developer 1 and fix the items that fall out. With your newly-learned skill "-onlyents". 

i've got a .map file that needs to be edited but it can't be loaded in QE3 (radiant) because the brush lines are incorrect.

i'm guessing this is the WC extended texture alignment stuff. here's what it looks like:
( 472 -504 160 ) ( 472 -424 160 ) ( 472 -472 144 ) WM1_3 [ 0 1 0 0 ] [ 0 0 -1 0 ] 0 1 1

and a normal line should look like this:
( 32 256 0 ) ( -272 256 -16 ) ( 32 256 -16 ) wall9_8 0 0 0 1 1

is there any way to fix this? or will i need to get WC somewhere and do changes in there? (would strongly prefer not to as i have 0 experience in that editor and it would take me 10x as long to do stuff). 

something like replacing
"\[.*\]"
with
"0 0".

And that's why I love the Linux commandline. String manipulation is so incredibly easy.
cat file.map| sed 's/\[.*\]/0 0/' > newfile.map

Going to bed now, could run your file through this in ~10 hours if you want. Alternatively use a good editor like jEdit. 

thanks for reminding me, i had to do something like this before and i already have jEdit!

i'll try out some stuff with it... 

jEdit is crazy good. 

using jEdit to strip out the extended texture info allowed me to open the map in radiant just fine, but is there a way to preserve the texture alignment at all? i think the four number thing is quaternion or something? is there a one to one method of converting that to simple x,y offset?
keep in mind, i don't understand quaternions at all. :S 

Those of you who map on linux, what version of radiant do you use? I've been building netradiant from git, and it's been very unstable (expected, though, it is the git version). The official releases don't see to be much more stable than the git versions. 

I use GTKRadiant 1.5 from svn, and fixed a problem with newer gtk versions manually (popup messages).

Works well enough. 

Do enable autosave, of course. 

Oh also with the svn version you get some useful plugins, like Polygon Builder or whatever its name was. Comes in very handy for rings etc. from brushwork. 

what is the editor more similar to Quark but not so heavy? 

want to map again at work... but quark runs to slow in this new system... need a software that record a map file and quit fast!

in case someone shows up :p 

WORLDCRAFT!!!!

BSP Editor i think Trinca ;)

http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/

Has a lot of cool features, and I think its open sourced and in development still (possibly). I installed it the other day to have a peek, and it looked quite cool :D 

There is no editor similar to Quark. And for good reasons.
Give the most popular ones a try and see which one you initially feel most comfortable with. 

when I tried WC was like starting with chinese language... :| 

IF you look in the help tab in Worldcraft you will find a really good simple tutorial that will get you started. 

i'd stay away from WC if you're new to it. it barely runs on modern systems and it's just really weird to use it.
i find hammer 3.3 much slower in general for general brushwork and i don't imagine WC 1.6 is any better. the constant need to shift+key to switch modes just to add entities or do texturing is a huge time sink.

if you're already comfortable using it and such, then this post isn't aimed at you. i'm mostly talking about people who are considering using a new editor.

i'm of course biased towards sikk's QE3/radiant, so take all that with a grain of salt. :) 

Doubling the number of transistors in a CPU makes Quark run 50% slower :P

I'm in the same boat as you, Trinca. Seriously, I never had a problem with it on my pentium 100 in '97, but somehow on a 2.3 ghz cpu it struggles to run. I guess my maps are bigger now.. but it's gotta go after I finish my current project. 

Try some editors and see what you like... the worldcrafts, the Radiants, BSP... Toe Tag if you're on a Mac...

personally, radiant made me map 300% faster and better. Like switching from a rusty kitchen knife to a scalpel... 

I wish there was a Windows port of that. It looked awesome. Anyone still in touch with Willem BTW? I miss him :D 

over on Worldofleveldesign.com forums - much less drama over there. Goes by ... I forget what name he uses. 

http://wantonhubris.com/blog/