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I've just compiled a large map on both x86 and x64 versions.

x86 --
CSG: 14.67 seconds elapsed
BSP: 6.34 seconds elapsed
VIS: 5550.31 seconds elapsed [1h 32m 30s]
RAD: 1257.22 seconds elapsed [20m 57s]

x64 --
CSG: 5.63 seconds elapsed
BSP: 3.95 seconds elapsed
VIS: 4421.16 seconds elapsed [1h 13m 41s]
RAD: 1018.92 seconds elapsed [16m 58s]

Looks like some improvement there

I've also been modifying the compilers, and so far successfully compiled a map with more leaves than the default 8192 limit (now 32767).

One query I have is why does compiling for x64 give me a warning "unknown option, ignoring: /ARCH:SSE2" when x86 doesn't... does x64 make use of SSE2 already or something?

[Edit] ^ never mind, discovered that the Microsoft C++ compiler can't compile a 64-bit program WITHOUT using SSE2. Makes sense seeing as pretty much any AMD64 based processor includes the SSE2 instruction set.

I don't think there are any new parameters, I will check though

That looks awfully similar to Nem's Batch Compiler...

Found it, removed some of the large (bigger than 256x256) textures from my map's WAD - works now

Y halo thar

As a HL1 mapping/development community I thought you might be interested in a BETA build of ZHLT 3.4 that makes use of SSE2 instructions on processors that have them (Intel: Pentium 4 or later, AMD: FX lines or later and most 64-bit processors).

Amckern, who currently maintains ZHLT gave these to the Sven Co-op development team, and most of us have noticed roughly 15%-20% speed improvement on HLRAD after comparing compiles with and without the SSE2 builds.

These compilers WILL require a processor capable of SSE2 instructions, you can use CPU-Z to or something similar check if your processor has the SSE2 instruction set.

Downloads:

Mirrors for 32-bit (IA32) Windows: Amckern's, AdamR's
Mirrors for 64-bit (AMD64) Windows: Amckern's, AdamR's
Mirrors for all Windows compiles, contains latest non-SSE2 builds too: Amckern's, AdamR's

Feel free to mirror these - please ensure you tell users about the SSE2 requirement if you host them elsewhere, and the fact this is a BETA build.

About multi-threading / 64-bit:

The compilers DO multi-thread (and seem to do so very well), so dual/quad core processors could probably see a near double/quadruple performance increase. You can use the -threads X parameter to limit the compiler to a specific number of cores if you wish.

As for 64-bit, I've not done any benchmarking - however when I switched from XP Pro to XP Pro x64 I did notice a fair chunk of time difference, however I can't say for sure if it was half or anything that drastic.

I'm trying to run a Sven Co-op map of mine, and getting this error (server side, although appears as a pop-up when I try on a listen server):

FATAL ERROR (shutting down): File read failure

I've never had this problem before, but clearly it is something to do with my map ... is there any way to enable a highly verbose debugging log or something, so I can find out WHICH file it's failing to read?

I've tried:

• condebug, the qconsole.log shows nothing special (with developer 2).
• verifying all map resources exist, used resgen to tell me if any aren't found.
• verifying all map resources are integral, corruption free.
• verified the BSP has compiled correctly, as it appears fine in BSPviewer.

Other maps load up fine :s