QuakeWiki
January 27, 2010

Quake 1 Level Editors

Level editors are necessary to create the maps for your game. Below is a list of common and defunct options. The Trenchbroom, Radiant, Jack and Worldcraft editors are currently the most popular and least buggy. It is recommended that you watch the videos (where provided) in order to get an idea of what would best suit you.

This should be a complete list of all Quake 1 level editors, both old and new. I will try to provide links, screenshots, tutorials and help for each of them.

Quake 1 Level Editors

[last update: August 5th, 2019]
[last update: March 27th, 2013]

TrenchBroom

Kristian Duske | 2020.2https://kristianduske.com/trenchbroom/

TrenchBroom is a cross-platform level editor for the Quake engine. It has a different slightly philosophy than other editors. I believe that the traditional approach, where you work primarily in 2D views, forces you to think in 2D rather than in 3D. That is why this editor does not have 2D views at all – you do all work in one single 3D view.

TrenchBroom is a cross platform level editor for Quake-engine based games. It supports Quake, Quake 2, and Hexen 2 and runs on Windows (XP and newer), Mac OS X (10.6 and newer) and Linux. TrenchBroom is easy to use and provides many simple and advanced tools to create complex and interesting levels with ease.

GTKRadiant

TTimo | 1.6.5https://icculus.org/gtkradiant/

The open source, cross platform level editor for idtech games.

GtkRadiant is the official level design toolchain for games powered by id Tech engines from id Software, and is maintained by a community of volunteers. GtkRadiant is powered by the GTK+ Project and released under a GPL license.

NetRadiant

NetRadiant is a fork of the well-known map editor for Q3 based games, GtkRadiant 1.5 . The focus is put on stabilizing and bugfixing the included map compiler, q3map2, so it can become a reliable tool for map authors.

  • https://gitlab.com/xonotic/netradiant – gitlab
  • https://github.com/xonotic/xonotic/wiki/Netradiant – gitwiki
  • https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/NetRadiant/Introduction – wikibook
  • https://www.icculus.org/netradiant/files/ – archive
  • http://ingar.intranifty.net/gtkradiant/ – branch
  • https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PL12J8pvc3SfopygDlLLhiCCmJ3M7Fj5Jx&v=N-Roq1EXxPc&layout=gallery

QuArK

Author | 6.6.0 Beta 6 | http://quark.sourceforge.net/

QuArK stands for Quake Army Knife and is a game editor for Quake and many other games. It can edit maps and models, import sounds and textures, create pak-files and run compilers.

  • http://quark.sourceforge.net/ – homepage
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Army_Knife – wiki
  • https://sourceforge.net/projects/quark/files/latest/download?source=files – file
  • https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PL12J8pvc3SfqJdXrkWk8YWqjjL283K2ET&v=NxB-vT2wHq0&layout=gallery

J.A.C.K.

J.A.C.K. is a brand new level editor for games with a quake-style BSP architecture. The aim is to develop a convenient cross-platform tool capable of incorporating the best features of existing editors, such as Valve Hammer Editor, Q3Radiant and others.

  • http://jack.hlfx.ru/en/ – homepage
  • http://jack.hlfx.ru/en/download.html – releases
  • http://www.moddb.com/groups/jackhammer-my-favorite-level-editor – modDB

BSP

Yahn Bernier, reckless | 0.96d | http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/

BSP is a freeware map editor for Quake, Quake2, Half-life 1, Hexen2, and other games based on these engines.

WorldCraft

Baker | July 29, 2006 | 3.3 (with QuakeAdapter) | http://quakeone.com/qadapter/

Worldcraft is a graphical level editor by Ben Morris which in its last unincorporated form had support for Quake, Quake2 and Hexen2. Worldcraft uses a technique called constructive solid geometry (CSG). It is one of the most popular level editors due to it’s simplicity.

  • http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools/wc16.zip – file v1.6
  • http://quakeone.com/qadapter/ – mod v3.3
  • https://quakewiki.org/wiki/Worldcraft – quakewiki
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtX77gEG4L4

Also, an archived version of an old Worldcraft website, full of tutorials and how-to’s:

[ARCHIVE] Worldcraft Tutorials and How-tos (813 downloads )

Qoole

http://www.volved.com/qsr/

Qoole, short for Quake Object Oriented Level Editor, is a level editor for video games based on the Quake engine, and was developed by Lithium Software. Among the supported games are the original Quake I and Quake II, Hexen II and Half-Life. It uses a brush-based method to construct new maps, in which monsters, items and lights can be placed, or any of the on-board prefabs. It was originally sold on a CD-ROM, but the source code was eventually released under the GPL v2.

  • https://archive.org/download/cdrom-qoole-250/Qoole_250_levelEditor.zip – file
  • https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PL12J8pvc3SfqMcge04przV3RDpfYPEiN-&v=FtSd76TQnB4&layout=gallery

Tread

Also, an archived version of an old Tread website, full of tutorials and how-to’s:

[ARCHIVE] Tread Tutorials and How-tos (542 downloads )

ToeTag

Valve Hammer Editor

3.5b

Valve Hammer Editor (38557 downloads )
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5 Comments

  1. Quakepc Says:

    What about QED? Anyone have or know where to get the first Patch?
    There was 2 patches. I need the first
    1.0 to 1.1 Maintenance Patch..
    Email me or use the Contact Us at the website -Quakepc

    Thanks!

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  2. Ciprian Says:

    The page is still in progress, until I gather all the data I need.

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  3. QUAKEPC Says:

    I look forward to that page. :-)

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  4. Gozinta82 Says:

    haha, good ol’ QED, I bought the 2nd one back in the day after getting Quake 2. Didn’t seem to have many features compared to Worldcraft (now Valve hammer) and Qoole or even GtkRadiant. I would suggest giving any of those a try!

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  5. I still have my QED cd. Started with QED and QuARK. Unfortunately I threw my QED box out a long time ago, would of been a nice shelf ornament :-D

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