Editing BZW

The BZW format is used by [[BZFS]] to define the game world, or "map". This file is a plain text file that is loaded by the server application at start up and sent to each client when it joins the game. The map file contains a list of 3d world objects that populate the world, as well as optionally settings and options for the server to use when running.

==Basic Format==
All structures in the BZW format are contained in this basic block structure
{|
|
 OBJECT_TYPE #comment
   KEY  VALUE
   KEY  VALUE
 end
|}
The object names are special keywords that are recognized by the BZW parser, unknown names will produce a warning at run time. Each object type has it's own subset of recognizedly keys and associated values, depending on what it does. All blocks must have an END statement to be valid.

Words are defined in lowercase. Comments can be added to the file by preceding them with a # character. The comment will be in effect until the end of the line. 

There is no set limit to the number of times you may use any of the objects except for the world, options, and  waterLevel  objects, they can only be specified once. 

All distances in a map file are in [[world units]] and all angular values in are degrees.

Here is small example world:
{|
|
 world  # simple world containing a box, pyramid, and mesh
  name Simple World
  size 100.0
 end
 box
  position -20 -20 0
  size 10 20 10
 end
 pyramid
  position 20 20 0
  size 10 10 20
 end
 mesh
  vertex -10 0 0
  vertex 10 0 0
  vertex 0 10 0
  face
   vertices 0 1 2
  endface
 end
|}
==Object Types==
The format of this text file consists of any number of objects listed in any order (except that physics, textureMatrix, dynamicColor, and material must come before they are referenced) separated by newlines and grouped into blocks of types, and it is conventional (but not mandatory) that world, options and waterLevel will go at the top of files. 

The list of world types consists of:

Headers:
*[[world (object)|world]]
*[[options (object)|options]]
*[[waterLevel]]

Must be defined before being referenced:
*[[dynamicColor]]
*[[TextureMatrix|textureMatrix]]
*[[material]]
*[[physics]]

Others:
*[[arc]]
*[[base]]
*[[box]]
*[[cone]]
*[[define]]
*[[group]]
*[[link]]
*[[mesh]]
*[[meshbox]]
*[[meshpyr]]
*[[pyramid]]
*[[sphere]]
*[[teleporter]]
*[[tetra]]
*[[weapon (object)|weapon]]
*[[zone]]

==Map Usage==
Maps are loaded by [[BZFS]] at runtime. The most common way to load a map is with the '''-world''' [[BZFS Command Line Options|command line option]]. Other methods involve [[Plug-ins|plug-ins]] or scripts to automatically change or load the map. HIIIII

==Map Editors==
Several map editor applications exist and are commonly used to make complex maps.
They are listed in the [[Comparison of map editors|comparison of map editors]] page.

[[Category:Map Making]]

==Man BZW==
More detailed information on the specifics of the bzw file format is available in the [http://linux.die.net/man/5/bzw manpage].