compile times

Hi, Ive made an outdoor map with buildings.

Anyway when i try to do a full compile RAD takes half an hour but VIS takes at least 15 hours! I say "at least" because at 15 hrs it was at ..9 and i gave up.

Is this normal for a map? I have a bad feeling its not. :smile:

(BTW im doing this on a 3.2 ghz, 1gb RAM PC)

Should hint brushes be put over doorways and windows to reduce VIS time? I hear they reduce VIS time...

Any help appreciated :smile:

what scale? what size?

large maps will take this long, but if its small, it shouldnt. Likelihood is you probably have a leak.

I wouldnt say it was a big map, but im a bit of a newb so i wouldnt know :smile: . Heres a pic:



There are definately no leaks.

You may want to read up on this.....

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=b2e64abc6e77033e3c63ff60a83c3287&threadid=170112

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Levels/optimizing_and_checking.html

The mat_wireframe 1 is especially usefull as it shows all the leafs that the ebgine draws. If you have a street curb for instance and you're looking at it with the wireframe on, it'll show lots of lines (triangles) on it depending on how many sides you have to your curb. I'm still doing some research but I believe you want to make your more complex brushes into func_details. I'm also looking into hint brushes as well. My map took 38 hours to compile. That was way too long even though I have a large open area as well. Good luck.

ok thanx :smile:

Even for a fairly large map, compile time should be less than 30 minutes if the map is made correctly (even on a slow machine).

I have a medium/large size map that I'm working on currently. It has lots of models and complex architecture with a large outside area. It only takes 15 minutes to compile with full VIS and RAD. I have a very slow machine (1.1 GHz Celeron, 512 MB PC133 SDRAM) by the way.

If the brushes are made into func_detail and the map is optimized with hint brushes, the compile time should be very reasonable indeed.

RAD takes about 3 hours for me to compile, If VIS is taking a long
time, then you have not errors, but very complicated brush work
somewhere, try using the cordon tool and compile half of your map,
depending upon which side takes the longest, that is where the
complications are. On a large sized map, VIS should take 5-15 minutes.

there is very little detailed stuff in there and the few things that are remotely detailed are func_details already. The only thing I can think of is the big rock?cave?arch displacement thing where the mouse cursor is.

I didnt think it would make a difference because i heard displacements do not block vis... am I wrong? (if so it would explain a lot :smile: )

Thanx for the replies.

no displace ments dont block vis you are correct....but are the
displacements enclosed? Because you might be getting a leak through
them (displacements dont enclose the map)

it is definately enclosed, the map has no leaks at all (It used to but i fixed them with fast vis and pointfile, now it no longer has ****leaked*** on fast vis).

I think ill try that thing u mentioned with cordoning stuff, Thanx. :smile:

Fast VIS!!! try running it on normal vis, fast VIS leaves out important
calculations that might be screwing up VIS in the first place.

my VVIS took 3h,51min,27sec. should i fix it, or should i just let it be like that and play the map?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting ICE</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>my VVIS took 3h,51min,27sec. should i fix it, or should i just let it be like that and play the map?
</DIV></DIV>

consider yourself lucky it completed. i assume it did so with no errors reported?

the length of time it takes to compile is not necessarily in direct proportion to the playability of a map.

vis times can be long for simple things like massive outdoor areas. it can be long for poor mapping habits.

in the end, if the frame rates are at a level to achieve playability, you did alright.
of course, optimization is always a plus.

VVIS can be really weird. I took a 5 minute VIS map and put it
with a 2 minute VIS map. Before I even connected the maps, I
compiled and VIS took 5 hours.

While making complex stuff into func_detail can help your compile times a lot, it won't work all the time.

thx for the fast reply...

no errors, runs great.

i will try to fix it and make it a little more detaild with props and stuff. hopefully i will release it on monday.