VBSP++

VBSP++ ▶ VVIS++ ▶ VRAD++ ▶ BSPZIP++

Stub

This article or section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

 VBSP++

Developer(s)

ficool2

Initial release

Jun 28, 2025

Stable release

May 4, 2026

Operating system

Type

Map compiler

Target engine(s)

Distribution

Freeware

Download

Official website
GitHub repository

 VBSP++ is a community-made modification of Source's VBSP developed by ficool2.

Differences

• Reduces brushes and brushsides usage of the map by 10-30% (MAX_MAP_BRUSHES, MAX_MAP_BRUSHSIDES)
  • Note: this reduction will be applied once the map exceeds the limit
• Reduces vertex usage of the map by 10-30% (MAX_MAP_VERTS)
  • Note: this reduction will be applied once the map exceeds the limit
  • You can also use the new -cullverts parameter to always reduce verts even if the limit isn't exceeded
• Automatically reduces planes usage of the map up to 40% if limit is hit (MAX_MAP_PLANES)
  • If plane limit is exceeded, VRAD++ must be used or lighting will be broken
• No t-junction limit
• No detail prop limit
• Raised overlay limit to 8192 and internal entity limit to 65536
• Increased maximum switchable lights from 32 to 96
• -leaktest is now enabled by default, i.e. stops compile on leaks
  • Added -noleaktest to disable this behavior
• Added AppID mounting in gameinfo.txt
• Added support for mounting custom shaders in mods
• Added support for custom $surfaceprops on clip brushes
• Added support for compiling 4-way blends (for games that support it)
• Added func_detail_blocker (like newer VBSPs)
• Added -blocksize (default is 1024)
  • Useful to compute visibility faster on open, large maps like surf (I recommend 2048)
  • Using a higher blocksize also reduces your vertex count, useful to circumvent vertex limit
• Added -allowdynamicpropsasstatic (allows any props to used as static props)

- Note that some props might not work right with this, particularly props that aren't compiled with $staticprop

• Added per-prop ambient occlusion toggle
  • To use, set disableambientocclusion 1 keyvalue on the entity
  • Does not work on HL2/Singleplayer BSPs due to older static prop format
• Added proper support for compiling power of 4 displacements (like CS:GO)
  • Update: this is now reverted due to causing crashes on Linux servers. Slammin is also affected by this.
• Added parallax_obb entity support for mods that have parallax cubemaps
  • Also inserts extra data for PCC on models
• Added func_detail_illusionary (identical to func_detail but non solid)
• Added %compileNoShadows
• Added func_nobevel support
• Added -nobevel (disables brushsides for all angled geometry. I do not recommend using this, use func_nobevel instead)
• Added optimization to automatically disable vertex lighting for props with $bumpmap/$phong
  • Reduces time spent in VRAD with -staticproplighting
  • Use -showineligiblevertexlitprops to show what props were marked ineligible for vertex lighting
  • Use -noineligiblevertexlitprops to disable this optimization (disabled by default with "-csgo" parameter)
• Added logging if FGD has parsing errors
• Added -nonamefixup to disable default instance name prefixing with InstanceAuto
• Added -singleplayer option to compile maps for  Half-Life 2 () BSP format
• Added -l4d2, -portal2, -asw, -insurgency, -csgo options
  • Allows compiling maps for  Left 4 Dead 2,  Portal 2,  Alien Swarm,  Insurgency, and  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive BSP formats respectively
  •  VBSP++ will automatically compile the correct format if it recognizes the SteamAppId in the gameinfo.txt
  • Recognized games:
  •  Half-Life 2,  Portal,  Synergy,  Entropy : Zero,  Entropy : Zero 2

,  Source SDK Base 2013 - Singleplayer: -singleplayer

• •  Left 4 Dead 2: -l4d2
  •  Portal 2: -portal2
  •  Alien Swarm,  Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop: -asw
  •  Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (via 's csgo_legacy branch or standalone),  Insurgency,  Day of Infamy,  Black Mesa: -csgo
• Added warning if using info_lighting on dynamic entities
• Added warning if static prop hull generation takes a long time
• Added sanity check for NaN/Inf values in the VMF
• Added check for brushes going outside of map grid
  • This prevents the Map coordinate extents are too large!! error in-game
• Added -warnMissingInstances to ignore missing instance VMFs
• Added %compileNoShadows support
• Added %compileTeam support
• Added new %compileNormal parameter for brush materials
  • This forces vertex normals on the face to all be the same
  • Useful to make fake 2D skyboxes without needing a HDR texture (via "UnlitGeneric" cubemap)
  • Example: %compileNormal "[1 0 0]"
• Added support for compiling lightmaps on Water if $lightmapwaterfog is set (for mods that support it)
• Added support for high lightmap sizes (useful for games that support -maxlightmapdim)
• Added support for saving enablelightbounce flag for static props
• Added support for reading decimal values from face lightmap scales
• Added -nohdrcubemap to not write HDR cubemaps to BSP, useful if map is compiled in LDR only
  • Likewise -noldrcubemap exists to not write LDR cubemaps
  • -nodefaultcubemap disables both cubemaps
• Added -nobump (disables bumpmap lightmaps on all faces)
• Added -maxluxelscale (clamps maximum luxel scale, default is no limit)
• Added -report_search_paths to list current search paths for debugging
• Added ability to insert default options from gameinfo
  • To use this, make a Tools section in your gameinfo.txt
  • Use {{codelink|vbsp]], vvis, vrad and studiomdl keys, with the values being options to add
• Added func_simpleladder format support (used by  Left 4 Dead 2)
  • If your mod supports it, you can also compile this ladder format with -simpleladders parameter
• Added experimental support for compiling different static prop formats
  • Use -staticpropformat to switch to these formats
  • Supported formats: v6 ( Half-Life 2), v7 v8 ( Left 4 Dead), v9 ( Left 4 Dead 2), v10 ( Team Fortress 2, default), v11-v12 ( Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), v13 (Strata), v14 (new)
  • Mainly useful for  Garry's Mod, it now means you can compile maps with prop rendercolor and scaling
• Added support for variable brush, displacement and texinfo limit
  • Change them via -maxbrushes, -maxdispinfo and -maxtexinfo respectively
  • NOTE: This will only work on engines that support the higher limit
• Blocklight and blockLOS tooltextures no longer cut out faces from other func_detail
  • This change was made to support  Left 4 Dead 2 maps, which rely on this change
  • -leaktest will now stop on areaportal leaks
• Restored support for -maxlightmapdim and -defaultluxelsize parameters
• func_occluder, func_areaportal, func_viscluster, func_nobevel, parallax_obb no longer count towards the brush limit
• Improved performance of "Fixing up env_cubemap materials" step
• Improved clarity of some warnings and removed useless ones
• Renamed waterindices to primindices (less misleading name)
• Fixed instances not collapsing correctly if FGD had unrecognized types
• Fixed instance names prefixed with ! being remapped
• Fixed remapped instance I/O always using ESC separators (fixes HL2 compatibility)
• Fixed recursive instance paths not working
• Fixed cubemaps not being transformed inside instances
• Fixed smoothing groups not working on func_detail
• Fixed displacements not being rotated correctly in instances
• Fixed occluders not being collapsed correctly in instances
• Fixed cubemap side IDs not being remapped in instances
• Fixed missing texture cubemaps if skybox has mismatched side dimensions
• Fixed crash if an instance overflowed brush or brushsides limit
• Fixed crash if instance name was too long
• Fixed crash if no surfaceprops were loaded
• Fixed crash if map had more than 32768 texinfo
• Fixed crash if displacement face had less than 3 points
• Fixed bug where brushside count was varying depending on the CPU
• Deprecated manifests
• Deprecated func_viscluster entity

Supported games

VBSP++ is currently available for the following games and engine branches:

Supported Game	Notes
Source 2013 Singleplayer
Source SDK Base 2013 - Singleplayer	Installation:  •  First method: Extract "tools_plusplus" folder, then run toolsplusplus_installer.exe, pointing it to the game root directory.  •  Second method: Install the tool to a Source 2013 SP game's bin/x64 folder (you will need to create the "x64" folder), then go to compatibility folder and drop all the .dll files into x64 folder. After installing VBSP++, either open Hammer (or Hammer++) in your Source 2013 SP game and edit the BSP executable pointer to $SteamUserDir\Your Source 2013 SP game\bin\x64\vbspplusplus.exe, or use the tool from the command-line. Use -singleplayer command line argument to compile Singleplayer format maps. Note:Any features which require Static prop flags greater than 0xFF are unavailable when compiling for the singleplayer format, as the static prop lump used by the older format only supports 8 bits of flags, instead of 32.
Half-Life 2 and its episodes (one, two)
Portal
Source 2013 Multiplayer
Source SDK Base 2013 - Multiplayer	Legacy version (previous2021 branch). Installation:  •  First method: Extract "tools_plusplus" folder, then run toolsplusplus_installer.exe, pointing it to the game root directory.  •  Second method: Install the tool to a Source 2013 MP game's bin/x64 folder (you will need to create the "x64" folder), then go to compatibility folder and drop all the .dll files into x64 folder. After installing VBSP++, either open Hammer (or Hammer++) in your Source 2013 MP game and edit the BSP executable pointer to $SteamUserDir\Your Source 2013 SP game\bin\x64\vbspplusplus.exe, or use the tool from the command-line. This method will also works with pre-2021 version of Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, etc... games, aswell as pre-2021 version of Source 2013 Multiplayer.
Team Fortress 2 branch (x64 only)
Counter-Strike: Source	Installation: Follow same instructions as Source 2013 MP games. If you do the second method, ignore the compatibility folder (and it's dll files) completely.
Day of Defeat: Source
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Team Fortress 2
Source SDK Base 2013 - Multiplayer
Other
Left 4 Dead 2	Auto-detect & compile using correct BSP format, otherwise use -l4d2 command line argument.
Alien Swarm  Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop	Auto-detect & compile using correct BSP format, otherwise use -asw command line argument.
Portal 2	Partial support. func_instance_io_proxy is not yet supported. Auto-detect & compile using correct BSP format, otherwise use -portal2 command line argument.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  Insurgency  Day of Infamy  Black Mesa	Auto-detect & compile using correct BSP format, otherwise use -csgo command line argument.
Garry's Mod

Other games/mods tested & Additional notes

VBSP++ has been unofficially tested with the following games or engine branch:

Game	Engine branch (game)	Notes
All third-party  Source 2013 Singleplayer games	Source 2013 Singleplayer	Installation:  •  First method: Extract "tools_plusplus" folder, then run toolsplusplus_installer.exe, pointing it to the game root directory.  •  Second method: Install the tool to a Source 2013 SP game's bin/x64 folder (you will need to create the "x64" folder), then go to compatibility folder and drop all the .dll files into x64 folder. After installing VBSP++, either open Hammer (or Hammer++) in your Source 2013 SP game and edit the BSP executable pointer to $SteamUserDir\Your Source 2013 SP game\bin\x64\vbspplusplus.exe, or use the tool from the command-line. Use -singleplayer command line argument to compile Singleplayer format maps. Note:Any features which require Static prop flags greater than 0xFF are unavailable when compiling for the singleplayer format, as the static prop lump used by the older format only supports 8 bits of flags, instead of 32.
All third-party  Source 2013 Multiplayer games	Source 2013 Multiplayer	Installation:  •  First method: Extract "tools_plusplus" folder, then run toolsplusplus_installer.exe, pointing it to the game root directory.  •  Second method: Install the tool to a Source 2013 MP game's bin/x64 folder (you will need to create the "x64" folder), then go to compatibility folder and drop all the .dll files into x64 folder. After installing VBSP++, either open Hammer (or Hammer++) in your Source 2013 MP game and edit the BSP executable pointer to $SteamUserDir\Your Source 2013 SP game\bin\x64\vbspplusplus.exe, or use the tool from the command-line. This method will also works with pre-2021 version of Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, etc... games, aswell as pre-2021 version of Source 2013 Multiplayer.
All  Source 2004 and  Source 2006 games	Source 2004 Source 2006	Not supported.
Left 4 Dead	Left 4 Dead engine branch	Not yet supported.

External links

• Download