max brushes

k, i found another thread about this, but they didnt really have any solid conclusions.

Im making an NS-Classic map for HL1. Anyone who's played NS classic knows that these maps are big; Its supposed to be at least a 30 second run time from Marine Start to EACH of the hives, and 30 seconds from one hive to another.

I happen to be making the daddy of all NS maps. I spent literally about 40 hours (mostly in stats classes) drawing out every detail of the map.

BUT... the issue is with compiling. The map is nearly finished. Ive done a few full compiles along the way, but i havnt in awhile. I ran into the max_patches earlier, used -sparse, fun stuff. That was also way before optimization.

I am currently sitting at 6700 brushes. Yes the detail is sexy, but its also not superfluous. IS THERE ACTUALLY A BRUSH LIMIT!?!!?

Yes and no, there is a "brush limit" for what each user can run the map with a decent FPS. I believe there maybe a builtin brush limit in the compiler, but I'm not entirely sure.

You should have started some optimisation already (nulling unseeable faces, func_walling details, ect) already. Maybe why you have run into a few compiling problems already.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

a max brush limit does sound familiar, but i don't clearly remember it ever biting me on the arse. the one that always got me was the max_planes error, which xp_cagey's modified zoners tools can fix.

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i eat paint

Beware with the detail, I've had to abandon more than one map because
of MAX_MAP_CLIPNODES error. Curiously enough I've never ran into
max_planes error, but as fishy puts it xp_cageys toolset will optimize
planes, thus giving you some more breathing space. I used to use Merls'
custom build tools, but since he stopped developing them I moved to
xp_cageys tools.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Dark, the whole optimization thing... this map has taken me over a year. Ive developped as a mapper 10 fold during that time, and its a blatantly visible progression from room to room. I'd built the basic architecture of about 60% of the map before i began using Null as my base texture (the one i would always have it set to when making new brushes). Before, i was just using a random texture, thinking that i'd run through the map one it was built and null all the unseen faces manually.

Ive func_wall'd most of what needs to be already, and im slowly converting the old rooms into fully ready rooms by simply selecting all and changing everything to null, and retexturing. Obviously takes a lot of time, but this also allowed me to build the entire map and ensure amazing gameplay before having to spend the hours and hours making it look pretty and run fast. in NS maps, every inch can make or break the map.