Anyone know a good decompiler? Created 16 years ago2008-01-20 18:46:42 UTC by veclast

I need to decompile a map from the original Half-Life. I tried a couple of decompilers, but the map turns out buggy or full of problems.
Bottom line, clearly not re-compilable.
So, anyone that knows a good decompiler, that can actually get the map without any bugs or problems, please post them here.

Ps: This isn't for comercial/distributable purposes.

Thanks in advance.

There's no perfect decompiler for GoldSrc. They'll always be full of errors and not recompilable, which is maybe for the better, because you shouldn't recompile other peoples' maps. Decompiling for instructional purposes is fine - taking a section of a map and putting it in your own is not.

BSPtwoMap is the best decompiler available, to my knowledge.

Yes bsptwomap is the best. There are others around but don't bother with them.

Decompiling for instructional purposes is fine - taking a section of a map and putting it in your own is not.

Ps: This isn't for comercial/distributable purposes.

No offence, but I already stated that's not what I'm doing.

Anyway, I used BSPTwoMap, and it doesn't work that great for me. Loads of problems, and I don't have the mapping experience to solve them all.

Well, you can try the other avalible decompiler, WinBSPc, but if it doesn't work you're out of luck.

There are two decompilers available to my knowledge: BspTwoMap and WinBSPc. Both produce .map files that are usually not re-compilable.

They're fine if you want to find out how some entity setup worked in the map, however if you're willing to remake that map - the only way is re-creating every brush manually, using the decompiled map for refference. It's an ugly process, which I doubt is worth your time.

I see.
Thanks anyway.

I, personally, find WinBSPC's output better than bsp2map...

Yes, I have both and winBSP is much better as bsp2map will decompile exactly the way it is, with broken brushes and everything and winBSP has a limited ability to brush merge and also doesn't HOLLOW every single brush like bsp2map does.

Well, I find BSPTwoMap easier to work with if you're just trying to figure out entity setups, which is all you should be doing anyway. Who cares about the integrity of the original brushes? At least you can figure your way around the map, without large brushes overlapping everything and obscuring your view.

The coder of BSPTwoMap intentionally made it so every brush was hollowed. This was done to prevent you from recompiling these maps, since the program created such an accurate representation of the original.

get bsp viewer, open the bsp, click "export" or whatever it is, then export as map. never got any errors from that program. heres a direct link to the download: http://www.slackiller.com/hlprograms/bspviewer156.exe

if that doesn't work, go here: http://www.slackiller.com/hlprograms.htm

Well, that explains it. That is actually a good idea to prevent copying.

Here?s how to do near-perfect HL1 decompiling, but you need HL: Source as well.
Extract the HL1S map then decompile it with VMEX. Then open it in Crafty (the Source object viewer, NOT Worldcraft) and export it to MAP. Then open in HL1 Hammer
The entities will be ruined, some textures might have to be re-applied (mostly water ones) and outdoor sections (where HL2-style terrain and 3D skyboxes have been used) won?t work correctly but indoor areas, labs etc. work fine.
I tested it on c0a0d and the brushwork seemed perfect.
If you?re feeling really ambitious, maybe you can fuse the decompiled and converted HL1S brushwork with the entities of the HL1 map ripped with BSPtoMAP or WinBSPc.

I just found you can open BSP files natively in QuArK!

Maybe someone who is more versed in it can elaborate? <calls to redka> = )

Daniel: that's intriguing!

BSPViewer is the best map decompiler.

I dont know any way to decompile with QuArk, it includes a bsp editor, but it is mostly a viewer, maybe somwhere down the road someone will come along and do some programming...
You can just see the entity setup easily.

I use winbspc , It gives me a lot of errors , but I succesfully modified cs_assault without astronomic r_speeds.