diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 71a27350..f8cba336 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ set(CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 10.15)
 
 find_package(TBB REQUIRED)
 
+# just creates testmaps.hh with absolute path to the testmaps source directory.
+# include it as #include <testmaps.hh>
+configure_file(testmaps.hh.in testmaps.hh @ONLY)
+include_directories(${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
+
 add_subdirectory(3rdparty)
 add_subdirectory(common)
 add_subdirectory(bspinfo)
diff --git a/qbsp/CMakeLists.txt b/qbsp/CMakeLists.txt
index 340a211f..1d178215 100644
--- a/qbsp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/qbsp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -45,9 +45,10 @@ add_custom_command(TARGET qbsp POST_BUILD
 
 enable_testing()
 
-set(QBSP_TEST_SOURCE 
+set(QBSP_TEST_SOURCE
 	test.cc
-	test_qbsp.cc)
+	test_qbsp.cc
+	${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/testmaps.hh)
 add_executable(testqbsp ${QBSP_TEST_SOURCE})
 target_link_libraries (testqbsp libqbsp common ${CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT} TBB::tbb gtest fmt::fmt)
 
diff --git a/qbsp/test_qbsp.cc b/qbsp/test_qbsp.cc
index bebfb07e..adfd9f59 100644
--- a/qbsp/test_qbsp.cc
+++ b/qbsp/test_qbsp.cc
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 #include <qbsp/qbsp.hh>
 #include <qbsp/map.hh>
+#include <testmaps.hh>
 
 #include <cstring>
 
diff --git a/testmaps.hh.in b/testmaps.hh.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3405a22b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testmaps.hh.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+const char *testmaps_dir = "@CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR@/testmaps";