Compiling Won't Finish

Hey guys long time no see. Well I started work on a new cs map,
it's kind of like cbble with the whole old castle kind of theme.
Well anyway to make a long story short I'm not close to being finished
but I'm trying to test my map to see how things run so far but I
can't. Whenver I try to compile, Hammer freezes up once it gets
to the line Portal...1...2....3... and so on. Any help would be
awesome, sorry if I missed a similar post.

Did you run it on "full" or "fast" vis, as sometimes depending on your map (size,detail,etc) a Full Vis run can take hours....try a fast Vis if you didn`t already.

CLs

Thanks! It compiled fully now. I imagine though there's some downside to doing a fast compile instead of full?

Edit: Well it compiled but now I have a new problem. I can't run this map. The console displays this code:

Begin loading faces (loads materials)

End loading faces (loads materials)

Host_EndGame: Map coordinate extents are too large!!

Check for errors!

what should I do?

Only use fast compile for testing purposes as it will greatly reduce the preformence of your map....but at least you don`t have to wait hours just to see how it looks....when you are ready to release the map, run "full vis" to get the best frame-rates out of ur map..

-edit- As for ur other problem...I can`t help you there....

CLs

Try checking for errors :biggrin: ALT+P in the editor. If that doesn't work, go through your compile log and fix everything and recompile.

Well I tried looking for problems, only thing that came up was "No
Player Start" which all cs maps have. And in any case I'm
positive I have a T Spawn.

I'm looking through the code the word Error doesn't appear at all but
these lines raise my eyebrow. If any of these look like they are
problems I'd appreciate the assistance.

"no visible sides on brush" I get that for 12 diff brushes

This also doesn't look great, and reappears:

"This means that none of the brushes in leaf 0 or 1 that
touches the portal has CONTENTS_SOLID <o:p></o:p>

Check for a huge brush enclosing the coordinates above that
has contents CONTENTS_SOLID "

<o:p>Looks like I've got 3 microbrushes.

</o:p>

<o:p>I'm sorry but I can't remember the command to
bring up the box where you type in a brush number and it will locate it
on the map. If somebody could guide me in the right direction
there hopefully I can figure out what's wrong with these brushes.

</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Basicly, the CONTENTS_SOLID thing means you've got leaks in your map. Go to the Map menu, and select "load pointfile" Leaks would explain why you've got long vis compile times because it has to render everything up to the cordon texture which is way too much. When you load the pointfile, you'll see a read line in the 2d and 3d views. This line is what you use to trace the leaks. Whatever you do, DO NOT seal the map with a big box covered in the nodraw texture. This will give you really long vis compile times. A good CS map should be able to compile within 15 minutes. Mine usually take about 5-10 minutes. Also, once you get a good build, use "+showbudget" and "developer 2" do debug and optimize your map once you get a good compile. Also, please note that the compile times mensioned here were achieved using all the "normal" settings in the compile window. No fast compiles.

I don't know how I can have leaks because my entire map is enclosed in
a hollowed out box. Basically I'm making a mostly outdoors map
ala dust and such so instead of doing the sky box and all I just put a
giants block around the whole map and hollowed it. And the box
isnt a giant No Draw. However I put No Draws on the outside where
you wouldn't see it, will this still cause trouble?

Yeah, that's a problem. What you want to do is use the skybox. Build the walls using the skybox texture. You'll build the background using the 3d skybox. The contents_solid issue you raised definately meands you've got leaks. I don't know how or where, but that's what the pointfile is useful for. It will show you exactly where the problem is. I'm guessing your outdoor map uses displacment maps. If this is true, make sure you've got your nodraw brushes right behind all of the displacment maps. Displacment maps do not seal the map.

As for your giant box with backgrounds, yeah, get rid of it. You can do the same thing in a 3d skybox with much more efficiency. See the 3d skybox documentation in the sdk for more info on that. You want to avoid the hollow tool as much as you can. It's better to build boxes from brushes as this makes the brushwork more efficient when the map is compiled.

Like I said though, no doubt about it that you've got leaks if you're getting compile errors along the lines of CONTENTS_SOLID.

To go to a brush number, go to the view menu, and select "go to brush number"

No. You're all wrong. I've had this problem too. Fix your microbrushes and you will have no errors. The problem is not leaks. Fix the microbrushes with CTRL+SHIFT+G I think and copy and paste the coordinates. Delete the brush. Bwammo you're done.

Alright thanks guys I'll try it out as soon as I get home tomorrow.

aye, portalflow. too much detail stuff, put nodraw on everything you can. optimize your map. portalflow is calculating what stuff looks like from different angles, so put nodraw on anything you cant see. be very scrutinus. also, enclosing your map in a box is VERY VERY VERY bad. you should be slapped. not really, everybody learns, i guess. this will give you crap frames, and make the engine render stuff UNDER your level you never see.

if you have a leak, it generally skips portalflow. just load to pointfile to see that.

Might want to start a new topic for your new problem, as people might
who know the answer wont look to solve a topic that was already
answered...If you can understand that :razz: . Anyways back to the original
question: How much RAM do you have, if you dont have atleast 512mb,
then im just going to say that mapping isnt meant for your computer.

I was mapping with 256 MB of RAM, and it worked fine.