-lightdata

As you know, HLRAD has a limited amount of lightdata that you can burn. The default amount is 871 kb I believe. However, I have recently "filled up" all my lightdata. I used a -lightdata command in my batch compiler to sort the problem, and give RAD more memory (exactly 20,000 kb). I am unsure of just how much RAD needed, so I gave it a huge amount of memory to ensure that there were no screw ups. However, if I give RAD to much memory, can players with "lesser computers" experience problems? Pleaese remember that the map I am making is going to be played by other players, so this is a very important question to me. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

***compile log for RAD***

[Reading texlights from 'C:\Program Files\Worldcraft3.3\gball.rad']
[17 texlights parsed from 'C:\Program Files\Worldcraft3.3\gball.rad']

13578 faces
Create Patches : 102364 base patches
16 opaque faces
1529810 square feet [220292704.00 square inches]
10907 direct lights

BuildFacelights:
(673.25 seconds)
BuildVisLeafs:
(634.69 seconds)
visibility matrix : 46.2 megs
MakeScales:
(1024.22 seconds)
SwapTransfers:
(44.34 seconds)
Transfer Lists : 142619438 : 142.62M transfers
Indices : 45654324 : 43.54M bytes
Data : 570477752 : 544.05M bytes
GatherLight:
(23.67 seconds)
GatherLight:
(29.11 seconds)
FinalLightFace:
(18.83 seconds)

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 243/400 15552/25600 (60.8%)
planes 21588/65535 431760/1310700 (32.9%)
vertexes 18016/65535 216192/786420 (27.5%)
nodes 6251/32767 150024/786408 (19.1%)
texinfos 5522/32767 220880/1310680 (16.9%)
faces 13578/65535 271560/1310700 (20.7%)
clipnodes 17788/32767 142304/262136 (54.3%)
leaves 3680/8192 103040/229376 (44.9%)
marksurfaces 16087/65535 32174/131070 (24.5%)
surfedges 64545/512000 258180/2048000 (12.6%)
edges 33486/256000 133944/1024000 (13.1%)
texdata [variable] 3938156/6242304 (63.1%)
lightdata [variable] 6672996/20480000 (32.6%)
visdata [variable] 68381/2097152 ( 3.3%)
entdata [variable] 184901/524288 (35.3%)
102 textures referenced

Total BSP file data space used: 12840044 bytes

2453.45 seconds elapsed [40m 53s]

----- END hlrad -----

I doubt it will affect people with mid-range
machines, but people playing it with < 64MB RAM and an old video
card will definitely have trouble loading and unloading the map.
They'll probably also have trouble with sudden drops in FPS during
gameplay. I used to have lots of trouble with any BSPs above
3-4MB in size on my old P2/334MHz (2MB VRAM :smile: ). Usually it could only
handle the default maps. So I suppose you might want to change it based
on your target audience.

(I am not very sure.. all this is conjecture)

<TABLE>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TH><A name=shared-lightdata></A>-lightdata #</TH>
<TD>
Set custom lightdata maximum (MB).

Higher values than the default (6MB) can cause performance issues. You should perform compatability testing before releasing maps if they're over the preset limit.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

from the manual^^

Thanks guys! :smile: Now that I have a 6mb limit for myself, I'll do a quick re-compile of my map.

Thanks again!