Tools/Level editors

Making maps for Unvanquished requires some tools. They are all free.

Note

The recommended level editor is NetRadiant.

See Getting started with NetRadiant for installing it and getting started.

Recommended tool load-out

You need:

• The Unvanquished game itself, prefer installing the game with the Unvanquished launcher,
• The NetRadiant level editor, it's a level editor based on id Software's GtkRadiant and maintained by the community with a focus on game compatibility,
• The Unvanquished editor gamepack (provided with NetRadiant),
• The Q3Map2 map compiler (provided with NetRadiant).

When using another editor than NetRadiant (like GtkRadiant, see below), you may still need a gamepack, and you would still need the Q3Map2 tool tools from NetRadiant: if another Radiant provides Q3Map2 don't use it, use the one from NetRadiant instead.

Note: NetRadiant-custom will not work.

You may have heard of a fork named netradiant-custom by Garux and may be wondering if it can be used for mapping with Unvanquished. While it features very interesting things, it is unfortunately not compatible. NetRadiant-custom derivated from mainstream around 2014 and most of the development that happened upstream to support Unvanquished is missing:

• No support for DPK game archives neither the DPKdir source repositories.
• No support for WebP and CRN image formats used by the released game. Support of the PNG image format may be buggy.
• The produced minimaps will not work in game (not all files are generated).
• The Unvanquished gamepack doesn't work, some people even reported the editor crashes when loading it.

One good news though: support for IQM model format was recently added but we didn't tested this yet (it doesn't use the same library).

Level editors

Brush based editors require you to make your maps using constructive solid geometry (CSG). Most mapping tutorials for Quake-like games such as Unvanquished follow this method.

Polygon based editors give a larger focus on 2D shapes making up 3D ones, which can be more powerful but is more difficult to teach and learn. These editors generally support boolean operations, allowing them to be used like CSG editors, but with more difficulty.

About DarkRadiant and GtkRadiant

It is recommended that you start with NetRadiant.

1. It's possible to map for Unvanquished using tools like GtkRadiant and DarkRadiant, they are good enough but will require you to map and build against UnvanquishedAssets data source repositories.
2. Such sources repositories are required to be prepared with Urcheon (to generate .shader Material files and IQM models), this requires much more tools and more knowledge.
3. The integration of Unvanquished in GtkRadiant and DarkRadiant is less polished so configuring them would assume more prerequisite knowledge from you.

If you find the gap to NetRadiant high, then it's good for you to know the gap to others will be much higher.

Mapping tools compatibility on 2023-06-19:

• Tools compatibility, 🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️ = best support, 🥈️ experienced mappers can do something with it, 🚫 = doesn't work.
• Features compatibility: ✅ = yes, 🮱 = yes (basic), ❌ = no, ❗ = incomplete, ❔ = to be verified, ⬛ = not applicable.
• Mapping against released build: pkg, mapping against sources: src.

Tool		Mapping against		Filesystem			Support		Q3 map		Image formats				Model formats		Extra maps
Name	Kind	pkg	src	Pak­Path	DPK	DPK­dir	Game­pack	Ent­ities	brush	patch	mat­erial	PNG	WebP	CRN	MD3	IQM	deluxe	mini
Net­Radiant 🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️	editor	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	⬛	⬛
	q3map2	✅	✅	✅	🮱	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Gtk­Radiant 🥈️	editor	❌	🮱	❌	🮱	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	⬛	⬛
	q3map2	❌	❗	❌	🮱	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌
Dark­Radiant 🥈️	editor	❌	🮱	❌	🮱	🮱	✅	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	⬛	⬛
Net­Radiant Custom 🚫	editor	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❗	✅	✅	✅	🮱	❗	❌	❌	✅	❔	✅	⬛
	q3map2	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❗	✅	✅	✅	🮱	✅	❌	❌	✅	❔	✅	❗
Trench­Broom 🚫	editor	❌	❌	❌	🮱	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	⬛	⬛

Mapping tools support on 2023-02-17 (✅ = yes, ❌ = no)

Recommended and supported 🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️🏆️
Program	Mapping method	Libre	Supported Operating Systems			Last stable release	Notes
			macOS	Windows	Linux
NetRadiant	Brushes	✅	✅ amd64	✅ i686 ✅ amd64	✅ amd64	Current (2022)	Recommended and supported brush-based editor. It works out of the box with released game assets. You need this editor to contribute to official Unvanquished maps. Here is the download page for many operating systems. Arch Linux users can use the netradiant-git PKGBUILD in the AUR.
Working fallback 🥈️
GtkRadiant	Brushes	✅	✅ source	✅ i686 ✅ amd64	✅ source	1.6.6 (2018)	Predecessor of NetRadiant. Brush based. It has basic DPKdir support but no CRN/WebP support. It can be used with assets repositories. It must be used with q3map2 from NetRadiant because the one provided with GtkRadiant does not support all the features. While the map compiler may provide an usable build, it will not get all features and maps will not look the expected way.
DarkRadiant	Brushes	✅	✅ amd64	✅ amd64	✅ i686	Current (2022)	Designed for a Doom 3 mod. Basic dpk/dpkdir support. It must be used with q3map2 from NetRadiant because q3map2 is not shipped with DarkRadiant. Linux users can use the flatpak.
Incomplete 🚫
NetRadiant-custom (Garux's fork)	Brushes	✅	✅ source	✅ amd64	✅ amd64	Current (2022)	Fork of NetRadiant based on a old branch missing many features implemented since 2014. Does not support DPK, DPKdir, pakpath, WebP, CRN, meaning it would be very hard to do something with it.
TrenchBroom	Brushes	✅	✅ amd64	✅ i686 ✅ amd64	✅ amd64	Current (2022)	Editor for Quake 1 maps, Quake 3 formats are work in progress. Not a Radiant derivative.
QuArK	Brushes	✅	❌	✅ i686	❌	Current (2021)	An all in one Quake editor, capable of much more than mapping.
J.A.C.K.	Brushes	❌	❌	✅ i686	✅ i686 ✅ amd64	1.1.1064 (2016)	Previously named Jackhammer. Designed for Half-Life and some id Tech engines, the map format is different (map220) and needs a modified q3map2 to be compiled. Interface seems to share similarities with Radiant or Hammer.
Blender	Polygons	✅	✅ amd64	✅ amd64	✅ amd64	Current (2022)	Extremely popular and open-source polygon based modelling tool. See the katsbits tutorial for getting it to work with Unvanquished. Don't expect it to be straightforward. Even if you're a Blender guru it's probably less work for you to learn NetRadiant from scratch.
Obsolete 🚫
NetRadiant (Ingar's builds)	Brushes	✅	✅ i686	✅ i686	✅ i686 ✅ amd64	2015	Mac users need X11 (10.7 users can get this from the XQuartz project). Gamepack must be installed by hand.
MacRadiant	Brushes	✅	✅ i686 ✅ ppc	❌	❌	Aban­donned (2006)	Problems have been reported with Snow Leopard and Leopard, though there are workarounds. See the download page for more information.
Milkshape 3D	Brushes	❌	❌	✅ i686	❌	Aban­doned (2011)	Designed originally for Half Life
Gmax	Polygons	❌	❌	✅ i686	❌	Aban­doned (2005)	Freeware version of polygon-based modelling tool 3ds Max. Used by many games but never updated: small bugs exist. May require a registration bypass to work (easily found) as the registration web-form has disappeared.