Reducing Compile Times Created 20 years ago2004-01-06 21:28:25 UTC by Bllwnkle

I've seen alot of references in here regarding long compile times. I want to share with you a little trick I've recently discovered. When my map starts to get big and complex I cover it with a big brush with the aaatrigger texture applied to it.

Work on one section and cover the rest. Compile, test, make changes, and recompile. When your done with that area, cover it and expose the next area you want to work on.

Cuts my compile times in half and I don't have to wait 5hrs to see if something worked.

Cheers

Yes thats exactly what the cordon (or whatever its called) does. Just highlight a section of ur map with the tool on, make sure theres a player start in that area and run the map. it will only run the area u want it to run

See, I learned something else. I didn't know what the cordon tool was for. You guys are too cool.

I still don't, lol

Um, to cordon off areas of the map, to compile them

and i hope that was a joke....

-bounce 0
used with RAD, really reduces lighting time

ha, funny..

for a real reduction, use -incremental
and then use -only ents and tweak the lighting

gets rid of everything after buildfacelights

exept the bounces etc... those can be tweaked too btw

what did you mean cover up parts of ur map?

What's funny about -bounce 0? Means unVISed lighting-styley.

which is a hell of a lot quicker

methinks kol is a grumpy baby today!

He's been grumpy quite a bit lately.

really? you think so?

setting the -maxnodesize in hlbsp.exe decreases compile times ALOT - but at a cost : higher r_speeds just to name one

-bounce generally makes the map darker around lights (as only direct light), but at least it's still perfectly playable

I find it best to leave csg and bsp alone and opt for VIS -fast and RAD -bounce 0

I don't get it?
I can see only one reason to reduce compiling times, and that is when I am testing entity setup and map layout.
Just switch VIS and RAD off when testing, and back on to do a full compile at the end of each section/hour/half day/day whatever......

So.... let me know why I need to reduce compiling times ??

right, vis takes seconds in fast mode, without it the map is usually unplayably laggy. Without basic RAD 'fullbright' lag is introduced, so it's usually best to try and do the basic compile of both.

Sometimes you just can't map in sections.

To Andy:
That's exactly why I want to reduce them. To test entity configs. I'm sure most people want the same thing. I doubt any of you can simply throw down a map, run it, and have it work perfectly.

haha

Jobabob... point well made.
Yes I can see why people might want to do that, and it makes perfect sense now.
ZHLT defaultes to -Bounce 1 to catch those nasty "Too many lightfaces" errors... so I normally won't add a -bounce X when testing.
We also seem to have answered Bllwnkle's concerns, so a pat on the hind quarter all round.

Oh, and Bllwnkel.. you would be surprised how many of our members throw a map down and then post it in the completed maps section.

Shame most of them are seriously flawed

TEST, TEST and when your not sure TEST again. Works for me.

play your maps untill you're sick of them, then you'll know exactly what to change

and there'll still be bugs until you get an arse like me to deliberately go out of my way to break it