QBSP errors -- Everyone hates those errors they get when they attempt to compile their maps. Usually cryptic errors leaving you with no clue as to what might be the problem. Here we try to describe some of the more common errors and what you can do to solve the problem. Unfortunately, the answer is usually "delete what you've done and try it again". Most errors are design flaws; you've created an awkward assortment of brushes and QBSP chokes on it. Make sure you read the section in Tips&Tricks section. called 'Carving Carefully - it has a lot of information on how to carve while avoiding errors. If you have any other errors that aren't here E-mail me and I'll see if I can answer them and post something about it here.

Bad surface Extents

This means you compiled the map using an incorrect texture file. Possibly you are compiling someone else's map.

Point off Plane,

Warning: CutNodePortals_r:newportal was clipped away,

Brush with duplicate plane,

These errors are usually caused after carving that you can safely ignore. Sometimes you can load the .map into Worldcraft and export it back to a .map file and solve the problem. If not you should delete the brushes causing the error (which will be the ones affected by your latest subtraction) and try again. Trying a different method of subtraction might help. Check the section in Tips/trick on "carving cleanly" for some hints...

AddBrushPlane: numbrushfaces == MAX_FACE

You've made a brush that has too many sides for qbsp to deal with. There are recompilations of qbsp (qbsp256 is one) that have upped this limit significantly.

Mixed face contents in leafnode

This is the result of having two or more of the 'moving' textures touching: Water, lava, slime, teleporters and sky are all examples.

Leaf with too many portals

Without getting technical, it means you have a small area of your map that has too much detail. You can modify the source code to vis to deal with it - but chances are you're probably making something that Quake wouldn't handle well. Try making it simpler.

Leaf portals saw into leaf

For some reason a portion of your map was created that VIS can't properly deal with. It's probably a small area with lots of complex detail. Or, you may have run vis with the -fast option. Running full VIS might solve it.

Error:CanonicalVector: degenerate

The great mysterious error. Several people have had the misfortune of seeing this error and yet none of gotten a clear answer of what the problem might be. I've talked with a number of professional editors and they are all stumped. It's been said that John Carmack, when asked about this error, would get a scowl on his face, mutter something under his breath, and stalk off.

WARNING: too many light styles on a face

Each face can only have 4 different lights hitting it at once .. more than this produces this warning. It's ok to ignore unless you start seeing lighting weirdities in your map, in which case you should rearrange/minimize your light sources.

WARNING:brush plane with no normal

Somehow qbsp doesn't think it can draw a line perpendicular to the plane in question ... go back and redo the section that started causing this warning.

Portions of the map "grey out" when viewed in quake.

You've created an area with too many faces for Quake to draw at once. This will happen with an un-vis'ed map. If the map is VISed then the area needs to be simplified. This will happen often in large open areas or areas with a lot of extra detail. Check out tips/tricks sections for help with keeping your r_speeds low.