strange error message

[VolumetricSteve]

I’m not sure if this counts as a q3map2 question or not, because I really have no idea what the source of the problem is. My map is gigantic, complex, and probably pushing quake 3’s limits a bit. However, I’m sure crazier maps have been made.

I can run my map through q3map2 doing a -meta and -vis -fast compile. That produces a perfectly playable level that looks like garbage, but it still works, and produces no errors and no warnings at compile time AND in-game. ( I should note that I’ve reproduced this error message with all different kinds of compiles, full vis, full lightmaps, bsp only, bsp/vis only, you name it - they all bring this problem up when bots come into the picture)

Then, when I take that BSP file, and pass it through BSPC to make it so bots can join the arena, the .aas file is produced with no errors. When I go into quake 3 to load up my map, the map loads fine, but my console floods with “Fatal: out of level items”, but at the same time, bots can join up just fine and there aren’t any REAL errors, it just floods my console with that message, and it’s always on the screen and I have no idea what it means or why it’s there. I’m mostly confused that two good sets of data produce an error like that, both the BSP and AAS file were compiled with no issues, i’ve done this a hundred times now, and it seems to be as long as the AAS file is present, I get my console flooded with that message.

Assuming that cryptic and generally unhelpful error message, “Fatal: out of level items” means that there are level items outside of the level hull, that’s simply not true, the BSP process would have detected that as a leak and it wouldn’t have compiled. More over, presumably the bspc process would have caught something too and failed to compile.

Alternatively, if that message means that there isn’t any more memory to allocate towards spawning items, presumably bots in this case, then…how could that be?

It’s also bothersome that the error message reads “Fatal” when it’s clearly not fatal, it’s just annoying and seemingly wrong because everything works.

What on earth is going on?

[SSF-Sage]

I have absolutely no idea, but I guess that you have too many items. Health packs, ammo, guns and such. Maybe the rest of the items are not added or something. I have no clue, but if you feel you have a lot of items, try and make a test map and remove some.

[VolumetricSteve]

I am going to have to give that a try I guess…what’s weird is that every entity that I placed shows up in-game, so I know nothing is missing…yet that error persists, and ONLY when the .aas file is present.

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say the .aas process contributes entities to the map, possibly for bot navigation, and my level is complex enough that it’s confused and just puts some of those entities outside of the map, which shouldn’t be possible…but I can’t imagine what else it would be.

[SSF-Sage]

I don’t think it means that there are items outside the map. It doesn’t mean that in english, and the engine is not planned to spot outsiders, compiler is.

Logically and with proper english the error tells that you run out of level items, aka you have too many of those. Maybe forexample ai_markers are loaded in game only when you have an aas file? I don’t know if they are counted as a “level item”, but I’ve seen more weird stuff. Maybe it could be something similar to that.

Of course it could be a limit of something else. Next thing you probably could try to remove let’s say 25% of the brushwork and test. But I doubt it would help. Try everything but backup before you start.

[obsidian]

I think perhaps origins outside of the map bounds or buried in structural brushes.

[ailmanki]

out of level items, does mean it has no more items available.
Or in other words you used to many entities - maybe bots have other limits - no idea.

edit: what {SSF}Sage said

[VolumetricSteve]

ok, so the situation has changed, I fixed the problem by swapping out my full_clip brushes for bot “do not enter” brushes, it seems the AI compiler was adding entities in bad places, causing the problem.

However, as I continued to add weapons, the problem came back, so I shuffled some things around, removed a lot of entities, and that fixed it that time around.

The weird part is…I only have 315 entities in my level…I was certain the upper limit was something closer to 1024 or something, what gives?

also, blasts from the plasma gun make a very distinct noise when they hit a wall, what’s strange is that sometimes in my level, you can hear that sound without being anywhere even close to where the shot hit the wall. I’ve also noticed that it seems like the sound subsystem is limiting the number of sounds it plays at once, it seems to be about 16 or so, but there’s a LOT going on in my map and it’d be great if that number could be bumped up when the level started.

MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL:

my map uses an enormous amount of ram on account of it being insanely gigantic. when quake 3 is using default settings “com_hunkmegs 64” the level can not load. when I set com_hunkmegs to 128, it loads just fine. naturally, not everyone playing will know how to enter that command, so is there anyway to add that setting to a script for my level when it opens?

thanks again

[SSF-Sage]

There are a lot of other ways to fight against hunk megs. Do a search about it, it’s been talked a lot. As a starter you could try to optimise your bsp, so the file size gets smaller. Also try making the pk3 size smaller, for example by compressing sounds and textures.

[VolumetricSteve]

how do I optimize a bsp file?

I saw there was a way to optimize the .aas file, that’s easy to see. but I’ve never heard of optimizing a bsp file, any pointers on that would be great.

now googling your suggestion…

thanks

[stealth6]

dude definately post you map when you are done lol, this sound like some seriously weird stuff