A question for MLB/Chavo One

(Erls) #1

To the MLB guys:
One of your maps, Daybreak, cannot be run on Bunker1, as it creates the max gamestate chars exceeded when played with more than 50 people. My question is this: Is there a way in which we could get a copy of the source file to make some minor edits, allowing it to be played? If not, no problem. We just love that map and would like to be able to run it on the campaigns.
Also, Egypt has the same issue as well.

Chavo: I know you lost your source code for Venice. Would you be okay with a decompile being made to again make some minor adjustments to allow Bunker1 to host the map? If not, no worries.

I can be contacted at ohlow@hotmail.com for msn, but please email me at Andrew.Erler@asu.edu.

(Jecoliah) #2

Just to be clear.

I am the mapper that would be making the changes on behalf of Bunker.

NO modifications of Any Maps will be made Without Permission from the original Mapper/Mappers.

If Permission is Granted, The Only changes to be made would be an attempt to Get Rid of the Max Gamestate Chars Exceeded Error.

We would very much like to keep the original design and playability of the maps.

I want to try to reduce the Entity Counts on these maps and give it a test on a full 50+ man server.

I also have some other ideas about what may be contributing to the Error.

It is a shame that we can not host quite a few maps on our 64 man servers due to the Error.

So please consider our Request as we would love to get these maps back into rotation :slight_smile:

Jec

(d3coy) #3

not sure he gets on here to often. Maybe someone here has an email address for him and can get him to come read the post.

Im wondering if anything can be done via mapscripts… not sure how you could change things through it as I dont know much about them. Maybe someone else can contribute some info on it.

(mazdaplz) #4

how about killentity right after spawn or trigger remove? just a guess i;ve never played that map

(Erls) #5

Some of the thoughts that Jec came up with are:

“I also want to change the Lamps to Misc_models instead of Misc_GameModels due to Misc_GameModels are runtime models (count towards the entity limit) as apposed to Misc_Models (do not count towards the entity limit) which are part of the BSP.
Now doing that will increase the BSP size and may go over the HunkMegs limit at which point i would then have to consider deleting parts of the map but if i have to do this i would try to make it as Un-Noticeable as possible.
For instance, by the original allied spawn is part of the canal with water in it but no player is able to access this area, i could get rid of that part of the Canal and place a big Wall or Building there which would use much Less brushes and free up space for the Hunkmegs.
I see several places that this could be done so what i hope is to make as many Misc_GameModels into Misc_Models (there are a few exceptions that must remain Misc_GameModels) reducing the Entity Count even more.”

Does this seem like a possible solution to the problems?

Also, if anyone has a contact address for Marko, Lowlife, or Bob Le Roux please let me know. 2 of their maps have the same issue with MAX_GAMESTATE_CHARS EXCEEDED.

(Diego) #6

You can contact Marko through his website at:
http://www.gamedesign-online.com/

My co-workers and I run a LAN server at work during our lunch break and we were also getting the MAX_GAMESTATE_CHARS error with Venice, sometimes Daybreak and even Fueldump on occasion. We had no more than 16-18 players in the game and Venice often crashed with less.

I read a suggestion somewhere to remove unneccessary maps from the etmain directory. We probably had over 80 in there. We pulled out about half of them and the next time we ran Venice it worked fine. Of course, with 64 players that might overload any map that is large enough to support that many.

(Sauron|EFG) #7

Did you try mailing Chavo using the address in the readme that is included in Venice.zip? Or PM him @ this forum?

(Erls) #8

yea I sent Chavo an email using the email on his website. Didn’t know if he still checks that tho.

Thanks Diego as well.

(chavo_one) #9

If the community wants this, then I give my permission. However, from my foggy memory of mapping, don’t decompiled maps perform horribly? I thought the geometry and vis get totally screwed up during the process.

If this is true of decompiled maps, then I would ask that a disclaimer be added to the readme, explicitly stating that the modified version was created from a decompiled venice bsp. That way people know what they are getting.

(kamikazee) #10

If you used Q3Map2 when you compile and decompile it, the process can have good results.

Even if it wasn’t, my ET Headshot 2 map is made from a decompile of Gerbil’s RTCW map and you wouldn’t say that it runs bad. In fact, it’s even smaller in filesize.
So in the end it depends on the time spent to restore the map to it’s former glory.

(Jecoliah) #11

Thanks Chavo,

Want to let you know i Intend to keep the Playable Area Intact and the Playability of the Original Map Intact as best as I can.

I ONLY want to fix the Max GameState Chars Exceeded Error that we get on a 64 man server.

I Really appreciate your permission and hopefully i can get the error fixed so we can once again Enjoy your Great Work on this Map!!!

I will Add a Disclaimer as you requested in the PK3.

Jec

(APOY) #12

hehe you guys will have to come on bunker and see it run 30 v 30 =D

btw chavo, venice = awesome map, I especially love the sound files triggered by reaching objectives, added a whole new dimension to et maps for me…

([Cerberus]) #13

In my expierence when it comes to decompiling maps different things go wrong ever decompile. So theoretically with enough decompiles and time pasting them together you could get a close to the original .map file.

P.s. Venice, man. Blown away every time I play it.

(Erls) #14

What we are trying to do is lower the entity count enough where it will not crash the server with: MAX GAMESTATE CHARS EXCEEDED, which it does often on B1 (64 man pub).

We are attempting to keep everything as close to original as we can, just lower the amount of entities. For example, cut the light coronnas in half by doubling their strength, and stuff like that.

(carnage) #15

In my expierence when it comes to decompiling maps different things go wrong ever decompile. So theoretically with enough decompiles and time pasting them together you could get a close to the original .map file.

P.s. Venice, man. Blown away every time I play it.

that makes no sense unless there is some kinda of random event that occurs during the decompile stage and sounds odd that a decompiler would be using random number

as for vis getting messed up. yeah bound to happen since the map doesn’t have all the information about hint brush locations and detail/structural brushes so when you recompile your vis is shot to hell unless you pretty much rebuild the entire structural sections and hint it. remeber that vis not only culls no visible rendering but also helps to reduce network traffic and when they aim is to run a server with so many players you would want this vis to be as good as possible for this reason. unless you have a mega mega download rate from your server you might find that you are sending so much info to each client that the server just cant cope