Load times

What the hell is going on with this editor.

My first map made in Hammer4 was a block with a zombie and a player start. No lighting so i didn't run rad or vis etc. just a room, a zombie and me. 2 second to compile the map. Great! Game loads and takes a quarter of an hour to load the map. CRAP!!!

Why is it taking so long to load a cube and a zombie when HL2 maps when in-game (HL2) it can load an entire canal map in 30-40 seconds!?

How do you load it? By typing "map Mymap" in the console?

Did you try to do a fast vis and RAD? It shouldn't really matter anyway.

What kind of machine are we talking about?

In short a little more info :wink:

Nope. I compile the map and it runs automatically.

My system?

2.2GHz with 512 DDR RAM and a 64mb Geforce 4200 Ti.

Like i said, loads the game levels in about up to a minute. Not 15!

Does this only happen when you run the map straight from the editor, or also when you start it manually from within the game?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Captain P</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Does this only happen when you run the map straight from the editor, or also when you start it manually from within the game?

</DIV></DIV>
Haven't tried starting it manually.

Urbanebula said:
Nope. I compile the map and it runs automatically.

Does it sit in Hammer for a while after you compile? Like does it stay in Hammer for a long time when your waiting for your game to start? If so I've had this problem too. Just mess with the compile log slider and it starts up faster for me. I know it sounds wierd but I tested not doing it and doing it and it loaded way faster for some reason.

Yeah. It sits in hammer for a few minutes and then i loads HL2 and i can see the blurry menu screen. That goes on for another few minutes and then i loads the level.

Sort of sounds mostly like a memory issue. Sounds like Hammer has eaten all of your RAM and is deep deep into the swapfile so the OS (via) game is having to repeatedly (per launch) chew-back/swap massive data chunks to get things ready.

What is your OS? I would highly recommend you manually set up a perm swap file of about 2GIG, where the min and max are precisely 2GIG. If you are letting the OS constantly re-adjust the swap file "based on application needs/loads" then it may be hurting you in a massive way. Setting the swap file yourself prevents the OS from ever touching or adjusting the file boundaries and will force it to use it like a big disk-based stick of linear memory, instead of constantly adjusting/readjusting it all the time when under heavy load. Worth a shot.

If it was a memory issue then changing the swap size wont do anything,
you'd need to just get more ram. Plus 2 gigs is way too much swap for a
system with 512 MB ram, I'd be surprised if he ever used past 1 gig of
swap. If its constantly having to
change out hammer's ram for hl's ram and vice versa until it gets hl
fully loaded you just need more ram so they can
both sit in ram at the same time. Or you can run the game
manually so that when you run hl it will suck up all the ram and hammer
can take a back seat and most likely sit in the swap space until you
are done with hl, or you alt-tab to it etc.

...If it was a memory issue then changing the swap size wont do anything...

You don't seem to understand the difference between letting the OS dynamically decide how and when to grow the disk file and the performance gain that can be had by setting a perm size, large enough to hold even the most aggressive usage. And the slower the machine, and the less actual RAM available, the more performance that is produced under identically extremely heavy loads that require massive disk hits repeatedly.

Of course more RAM is the real answer, but unless he's going to run out to Fry's and pick some up, my suggestion is something he can try immediately.

And you think 2 GIG is to much? Pull up task manager, watch your PF usage, then go scroll through the entire unfiltered list of textures and watch it grow like a monster, and damn fast if you have a fast rig. Prepare to be 'surprised'...

EDIT: I just did what I said directly above. My PF usage pegged out at 910MEG while scrolling through the entire texture set, and I have 1GIG actual RAM... Combine that plus Hammer Process memory that can get over 400 Megs and... things that make U go HMMmmmmm....

I tried that and my page file started around 400 megs, but jumped like 20 megs at a time when I scrolled down the list. Never got above like 850 though...even though I hadn't gone through more like 10% of the list. Note that I do have a gig of ram, however...

Right Nano, the key with us is we actually have 1GIG+ RAM. Take that, and combine it with the actual Hammer PROCESS memory space, which so far I've seen get just over 400 megs. So what's the total mem required... butt load. And on a machine with low RAM, thus requiring huge repeated disk access into the swap file, my initial suggestion could help him out until he goes and buys a few more sticks.

Final Analysis:

Hammer Memory peak: 485Meg.
PFile during texture scroll peak: 910meg.
PFile during build phase: 1.06GIG.

Game fully launched into a small map and alt-tab out:
PFile during game play: 1.03GIG.

And I have 1GIG of Corsair XMS DDR500. So what you reckon is the size of HIS page file after being in Hammer for awhile, and building the map, then running the game with Hammer still loaded? He only has 512MEG of RAM so... 'nough said Saint? That just irretated me pretty good. Don't spew s**t you don't understand like you DO understand it, ok. I always leave the option of something I say in a post being wrong, if it's something I'm not real sure about, however... this isn't about Hammer, it's about "the machine", and I know a L O T about machines.

Dude should try my suggestion and see if it makes any difference. Maybe it'll only take 7 minutes to load instead of 15min :smile: