Is Curveball tool supported?

[The-Gig]

There's this "Curveball" tool that can be run directly online from https://curveball.mightyburger.net/
or theoretically installed locally by getting/compiling it from github https://github.com/neverball/curveball (which in turn comes from https://github.com/MightyBurger/curveball)

This makes good brush curves to build round staircases, pipes, half-pipes, waterslides, etc.

It's intended for helping designing levels for Neverball (https://neverball.org/), but I heard it also works well to add curvy brushes into OpenArena maps, in Trenchbroom (that, unlike *Radiant, doesn't support id tech 3 "patch" curves yet, afaik).
I never tried Trenchbroom, but out of curiosity I tried copy-pasting a curve from Curveball into NetRadiant Custom (I haven't had time for mapping lately, so I used a NRC version from 2024), and nothing happened.
I was just wondering whether I am missing something, or it's just that you cannot just copy-paste brushes from "Trenchbroom" to *Radiant?

[Garux]

Try to save clipboard as .map and open.

[The-Gig]

It works, thanks!
I also opened an "issue" on their master github repo suggesting them to add an "export" or "save" feature to more easily create .map files.

[Garux]

May have option to copy with radiant compatible signature too
https://github.com/Garux/netradiant-custom/blob/68ecbed64b7be78741878c730279b5471d978c7c/libs/gtkutil/clipboard.cpp

[The-Gig]

Thanks, now I suggested that too.

[MightyBurger]

Hi there, Curveball author here. I used to use NetRadiant a while back and I'm glad to see it's still being maintained.

If you wouldn't mind saving me a bit of time.. what format does NetRadiant expect from the clipboard? For reference, Curveball currently just writes text to the clipboard in this format:

// Game: Neverball
// Format: Quake3
// entity 0
{
"classname" "worldspawn"
// brush 0
{
( 128.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) ( 64.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 64.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) ( 64.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 64.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ) ( 64.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) ( 128.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 127.725942 8.371601 0.000000 ) ( 127.725942 8.371601 8.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 127.725942 8.371601 8.000000 ) ( 127.725942 8.371601 0.000000 ) ( 128.000000 0.000000 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 127.725942 8.371601 0.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 0.000000 ) ( 64.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
}
// brush 1
{
( 127.725942 8.371601 8.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) ( 63.452471 8.353676 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 0.000000 ) ( 63.452471 8.353676 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 63.862971 4.185800 0.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 8.000000 ) ( 127.725942 8.371601 8.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 126.904942 16.707353 8.000000 ) ( 63.452471 8.353676 8.000000 ) ( 126.904942 16.707353 0.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 127.725942 8.371601 8.000000 ) ( 126.904942 16.707353 8.000000 ) ( 126.904942 16.707353 0.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
( 126.904942 16.707353 0.000000 ) ( 63.452471 8.353676 0.000000 ) ( 63.862971 4.185800 0.000000 ) mtrl/invisible 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
}
...

Does NetRadiant expect a binary format instead of text? I downloaded the software, copied a brush, and tried pasting it into a text editor, but nothing happened, so I presume this software behaves differently from Trenchbroom in that way.

[Garux]

It uses plain text map, but with special clipboard signature and i think size is stored (see https://github.com/Garux/netradiant-custom/blob/68ecbed64b7be78741878c730279b5471d978c7c/libs/gtkutil/clipboard.cpp)

[The-Gig]

I tried asking Chatgpt what's necessary to make a NetRadiant/GTKRadiant-compatible copy-paste, and after writing out a lot of stuff, it summed it up as
💡 TL;DR
To make your program compatible with NetRadiant:

• Radiant does NOT rely on plain text clipboard
• It requires a custom clipboard format (“signature”)
• You must:
  -- Register the same clipboard format name
  -- Provide it alongside text/plain
  -- Serve it via GTK/X11 selection system