how long does it take to compile a map?

(w1cked) #1

I wanted input on how long it takes everyone else to compile their maps.
This is for a small fun map I made called boxmap. It is a relatively small map with not too many entities or complex vertice structures so there is nothing that would stand out in my eyes as very time consuming. These are the compiling statistics for compiling this map.

My computer stats:
Red Hat 9 (tweaked)
Athlond XP 1800+ = 1.63ghz (overlocked slightly)
512mb PC2700 DDR

these are compilation notes:
— BasePortalVis (6502) —
0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9… (18) (I added the ''s so that 18 was not registered as 8))
9 average number of passages per leaf
24 MB required passage memory

— CreatePassages (6502) —
0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9… (68)

— PassagePortalFlow (6502) —
0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9… (3612)

For those of you that dont know what this means the numbers in parentheses (x) after the list of numbers 0…1…2…(x) is the number of seconds that part of compiling took to finish. So to compile BasePortalVIs it took 18 seconds.

I’m sure your eyes wandered down and saw the absolutely massive 3612 second time. This is my question. This is over an entire hour compiling a rather small and simple map with my athlon running 100% (1.64ghz).

This seems rediculously long to me. How long do your maps take to compile? Thank you for all replies.

(Drakir) #2

Seems like a very long time for the BSP process.
I suggest u read up on using “detail” brushes. This would help u alot in matter of compile time.

I have a rather large map with over 13500 brushes and my BPS compile doesnt take more than 5 minutes.

(G0-Gerbil) #3

Yup seems overly long.

Even the forum map - easily the most complicated ET I’ve seen so far - only takes 15 minutes to do a full compile (AMD 2400+ - used to take hours on my old 1400+ though - must be better ram / mb too).

A simple few room boxes should take no more than a couple of minutes even on your ‘old’ setup.

Detail is the key - I didn’t know about this when I wa sdoing my first map (footy from RTCW). It used to take about 3 hours to compile. Then I learnt about detail and it compiled in a matter of minutes \o/

(DeAtHmAsTeR) #4

32mins and 54seconds for a full compile of a 97% complete map.

i hav a 1500 athalon XP, 256 ram… not using a batch file.

(w1cked) #5

What detail? If anyone could explain this to me or point me to a site that does that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, which BSP compile type to use (-light, -vis… eg). The shortest one -meta takes about 20 seconds but I get this error (something similar) when I try to load the map
cvar: out of range

The only BSP compilation set that seems tow ork is the one that has everything (-light, -vis, -…) This is also the one that takes 60+ min to run.

Someone please tell me how to fix compiling times… I will probably stop producing them if I have to wait 60+ minutes to see a simple touch. Thanks.

(ziege) #6

Select all your brushes, and right-click and select ‘make detail’. Now try the vis compile, it will be way quicker.

Of course, this won’t do your FPS any favours so in the long-term you’ll need to learn which brushes to make detail and which to make structural. There are tons of tuts and threads on this subject.

Try here http://w1.261.telia.com/~u26123488/vis/visfordummies.htm
Also Nib’s site has a better couple of pages describing it, I don’t have the URL handy but you’ll come across it if you search this forum. [Edit: found it http://www.nibsworld.com/rtcw/tutorial_detail_and_hint_brushes_part1.shtml ]