OH MY GOD COMPILE TIME KILLS ME!!!

[o_nuk3m]

guys i need help, im making a HL2DM map for FF but when i compile w/ everything set to normal it takes 30 min a pop... its almost done but holy crap... anyone know a good compiler program that i can use besides the default ones in SDK?

PS yea it is a big map, but i have so much more im doing to it... HELP!!!

[Defrag]

Optimise your vis blocking and make sure you make good use of func_detail brushes. Other than that, there's not much else you can do other than buy more RAM / upgrade. You can also reduce the accuracy / quality of the compiled .bsp via using the -fast option for vis/rad. Obviously this would only be for use during testing and you'd use the high quality options for the release/beta version of any map. Check the stickied topics and also read ze valve ERC documentation if you need more information.

[o_[wtf?]chemical burn]

If it helps ease your pain, on my old system I made a map which took 90 minutes to compile :(

[o_nuk3m]

ouch 90 min? yes that does help the pain

[o_dr zauis]

lol 90 is nothing. I have had 5+ hour compiles

You better get used to it, what i like to do is get a compile tool like Zoners, put it on my desktop to run the compile, then work on the map on my laptop.

[o_[wtf?]chemical burn]

I'll also add that your brushwork and how you construct things effects compile time a little. Try to make the outside of your map look like a big cube, that is to line up all the brushes' outside faces. This prevents little "pocket rooms" from being compiled, which means less calculations for vis/rad. It won't work magic or anything, but every little bit helps when planning a large scale map. It will also help you avoid leaks and keep everything neat and tidy looking in hammer.

[o_zorro]

just hide shit your not working on! especially the light_enviroment :( that makes the biggest difrence for me

[o_saintgreg]

Chemical Burn - the outside faces get thrown away at bsp time, so doing that shouldn't affect vis or rad at all. It would only take a tiny bit longer in the bsp stage which is like lightning anyways. Though aligning the outside faces is good from the 2d view with less lines going everywhere.

compiling usually took me about 30 minutes on a full blown map.

[Defrag]

5 hours is nothing. Snowdog compiled his TFC canyon map and it took (wait for it) OVER A MONTH. Then it crashed. Oh man, good times with the fuckers.

[o_nuk3m]

5 hours is nothing. Snowdog compiled his TFC canyon map and it took (wait for it) OVER A MONTH. Then it crashed. Oh man, good times with the fuckers.

thats impossible unless he was running of a damn pentium 50mhz w/ 32 sd ram with like 8 bit graphics and the map was gigantic.

[Defrag]

Trust me, it's not impossible. Once your map hits the HDD swapfile, anything is possible. This happened a great many years ago and his map was HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE.

[o_binarylife]

Just start compiling and then go see a movie. Posibly with an attraactive and understanding girl :wink: :wink:

[o_un_ethical]

5 hours is nothing. Snowdog compiled his TFC canyon map and it took (wait for it) OVER A MONTH. Then it crashed. Oh man, good times with the fuckers.

I can confirm this - Snowdogs TFC Canyon map was so huuuge that it took a scout 20 mins just to cap a flag ;)

Ok thats a slight exaggeration, but yes some maps can take many many hours, days & even weeks depending on layout & lighting.

[Defrag]

UE! I can't post on the WTF? forums because my chatbear account is locked. The email won't send to recover my pw :( As a result, I can view but not post. How's everything going? :)

[o_un_ethical]

Defrag ... I've sent you PM - check it out :)

[o_eradicatus]

30 min for a compile isnt much time.

[o_eradicatus]

However, on my small hl2dm map, vvis uses 3 hours to get up to 5, and then 9 hours to get 3 dots over that again.

I call that BS.

Any suggestions? Still haven't seen my map with a full compile :(

Got no leaf cluster erros either, and everything looks good with glview too.

I pulled a "valve" (sdk_d3_c17_13.vmf) one with the hint brushes, and made 3 of them horizontal across the whole map. heh maybe that was stupid.
This can't be a lighting issue, since it never got that far.

Any suggestions? lay it out. bad brush designing, too many props, too much displacement.. etc.

[o_dirkpitt]

check the readme's for a lot of popular maps, alot of them say 6+ hrs of compile time so 30 min not really too big a deal, grab a soda watch some tv

[o_nuk3m]

then again my map was big, but isnt complex that could be the reason its not a long compile time at the standards of HL2, i am so used to HL1 engine taking like 10 minutes for a full fledges map compile with extras etc...

[o_dr zauis]

HL1 was just as slow if not slower. EJG2_Hunted took 33 hours to compile on a then 1.8ghz PC