Your PC Specs

BlisTer said:
barton 2500

asus a7v8x-x

GF4Ti4200

256ram

i used to think it was okay for the things i do but this new map makes hlvis take 20+hours and makes hlrad run out of memory so i actually had to delete an entire section to be able to compile it. (and yeh i tried all the tools including the zhlt3beta and cagey p15)

20+ hours signifies mapping issues, not PC issues bud..

as you mapping experience grows, the time of compiles will drop, or at least the reasons for the time will be more accounted for.

there are lots of reasons for long compiles, but.. you have plenty of PC i assure you.

Speaking of dropping compile times. Anyone here use hint brushes?

On occasion, but I don't think this is really the most suited place to start a discussion on them :smile:

Blister, the only weak point in your system is limited RAM - doubling to 512mb would help quite a bit probably. As Orph said, its more likely the map being at fault as opposed to your hardware, but more RAM is always nice :smile:

ReNo said:
but more RAM is always nice :smile:

Stop tempting me. goes searching for an extra 512

$loth said:

ReNo said:
but more RAM is always nice :smile:

Stop tempting me. goes searching for an extra 512

more ram is nice, but anything over 512, does not significantly lower compile times.. i am not certain, but i think there must be some sort of cap on it..

seriously guys, compile times are in direct proportion to how poorly you map or most especially how many rules you break.. if you create a monstrosity, with high r_speed generating long sight lines, you are going to have long compiles.. open areas=long compiles. sloppy=long compiles, in a few cases.. small computers=long compiles.. but in this day and time, damned few people can claim their computer is to small.. small is like, less than 500 MHZ and 128 megs of ram.

Orpheus said:

$loth said:

ReNo said:
but more RAM is always nice :smile:

Stop tempting me. goes searching for an extra 512

small is like, less than 500 MHZ and 128 megs of ram.

hey, that was about the same as my last computer :razz:

The more RAM you have, the less likely you are to need to use swap files on your hard drive (which is slow), so the compile should go quicker. This will only normally be true of complex maps, so you are unlikely to need more than 512mb of RAM, but as I said, its always nice :smile:

I have 1Gb at the moment but one stick is slower than the other, and benchmarks showed it more beneficial in most situations to just run the 512mb of faster RAM as opposed to 1Gb of slow stuff. Would have been interesting to see which was quicker for compiles I guess, maybe I'll test it out sometime.

Orpheus said:
seriously guys, compile times are in direct proportion to how poorly you map or most especially how many rules you break..

trust me, this is not the case. it's more like: getting the best out of hl1, pushing it to the limit; using nulls on everything unvisible, 1 unit spacings, make intersecting things brush <-> entity, having no leaf saw into leaf , replacing texlights with ordinary lights where possible,... all the stuff. what's wrong with having open areas and complex brushes/details if your Rs are acceptable? nothing, except having to be patient during compile :wink:

oh and ram is hardware too right :wink: i was indeed thinking in that direction as first upgrade :wink:

BlisTer said:

Orpheus said:
seriously guys, compile times are in direct proportion to how poorly you map or most especially how many rules you break..

trust me, this is not the case. it's more like: getting the best out of hl1, pushing it to the limit;

i do not know you, i have not seen your works, so i am in no position to say you are lying..

i have heard these words so often though.. there is no such thing as pushing the limits. the limits are set in stone, one can only stay within them, or exceed them, limits are not elasticized.

but you know, its always possible i am wrong.

by that i mean having complex brushwork and/or combined with wide spaces , yet keeping Rs acceptable exactly by applying all those tricks, maybe mixed in with effects, yet always tricking it so that i stays playable in hl1. indeed there are the limits like max clipnodes and such and indeed they are set in stone as far as i know

Since we are on the topic of computer parts, how can you tell if you have bad RAM? Besides the fact that you computer wont turn on after you put it in? What I got was PC3200 DDR400 512mb registered/bufferes ECC x 2 AND IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!!

about the only way i know is, to put a known good ram module in first, to ascertain the PC is not borked, then slip the bad one in later to see if its ok..

Yup I used my old RAM and it works, could it be my MoBo doesn't support ECC and its not booting because of that?

google is your friend, look up the board.. anythings possible.

you say your new ram is 3200, what is the old ram?

its also possible, you may need to set something in the bios.

Most PC3200 boards don't accept buffered ram.

There's probably nothing wrong with your ram or your board. ECC ram is usually used with servers, just to let you know.

If the RAM was faulty, you would get beeps. Find out what motherboard you have, then search for it to see if it supports ECC.