Problem when running custom map in Steam Created 20 years ago2004-08-26 19:03:51 UTC by Koozie

First, I apologize if this is a repeat of some previous thread, but I just couldn't find the solution to my problem and I hope you guys may be able to help. At first everything seems to go good while mapping, then I decide I'm going to test it, hit F9, compile, test in the 1.5 version, and thus far everything is perfect. Then my friend asks me if he can view what I have done, sure I send it to him, he places it in his maps folder in Steam, runs it and he gets a "File Read Error" and Steam just closes out. He informs me of this, so I try it and the same thing happens to me. btw all normal maps that I play and don't make work just fine. Thinking something is wrong with my map, which it would probably have to be, I make a simple box with a spawn point and I'm compiling with Zoner's so I didn't put any lights, and this time when I go to new game in the Steam menu and select my map it doesn't do anything at all. Doesn't load, doesn't close, doesn't even think, just stays there. I select it again and click start game or whatever and nothing happens. Try it again with a different map, not made by me, and it loads perfect.

Now this wasn't always the case, the first three maps or so that I made and tested in Steam worked perfect. Was there something that probably happened, or got changed that would allow this to happen. I've looked around and tried everything I could think of, but nothing just seems to be working out for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you want any more information I'd be more than happy to post it.

Sorry about the length of the post

-Koozie

hey man! the same gay shit is happening to me now. i just switched to steam and hammer 3.5b and my maps wont work either! I have been running around the room with my underpants on my head shouting Wible and it still doesn't work! i tried reloadin steam and cs and hammer. but it still doesnt work at all..it just freezes with like 6 bars on the precaching left so i have to turn off my comp.
im thinking its not loading some texture and not telling me, or a model.

i really hate it that steam wont tell you what file your missing like in 1.5. ARRRG! im gonna try scrap my damn good map, and make a new one from scratch. compiling every 10min.

well i hope yours and my damn problem will clear up really really really really soon if not now!

peace out. ps. if your problem clears up before mine, or vise versa. put a post to tell what you did to fix it.. thanks.

Hm. Well, such is the curse of Steam but here're some suggestions:

1. Check that you're not compiling with a custom WAD that they don't have;

2. Make sure that you are not using any other custom materials;

3. Find a clean installation of 1.5 (no downloaded or other custom stuff) and try your map, you'll likely get a more verbose error report (i.e. any).

click cancel when the map stops loading and press console, to see what errors it has. steam does tell you, it's quite versatile.
you say you're using zhlt, but you've got it running through hammer, try using the batch compiler program in conjunction with the hlbsp/csg/vis/rad tools that come with it.
what version of hammer are you using? and what fgd? use the hammer 3.5 fgd, along with hammer 3.5b. you might have more luck.
and don't have too many wad's in hammer when you export to map/press F9, you can have a maximum of 8 (9 sometimes, but don't push it), if you have more, delete teh ones that aren't in the current map.

try all of that and report back.

Sorry it's taken so long to respond (School and work don't exactly treat me right, but that's another day and another time) and I do also appreciate all the help that you all have provided. Hopefully it works.

Seventh to answer your questions, the wads were standards, mostly cstrike.wad, halflife.wad, and cs_assault.wad, atleast until I figure this whole thing out. I had made one custom wad but threw it out after these problems started occurring. And other materials, if you mean like prefabs, furniture, models, sounds and stuff like that, I haven't even added any of those things in my maps yet, so that shouldn't be the case. Third I have yet to try and will do real soon, thx for the suggestions.

Peace and Love - As I said some of them do not even bring up a loading box at all, and the ones that do exit in less than a second. They only jump right to three bars, then steam closes out, but doesn't shut down. It still stays in my system's tray on the taskbar and everything, and then the pop up appears saying "file read failure", and it's failure not error as I had first originally posted, my bad.

• The way I have hammer configured is through my sierra folder, not through steam. What I do is after I compile and test in good old 1.5, is go copy and paste the map into my Steam maps folder, then open Steam and try to run the map from there as well, thus resulting in where my error, or failure, appeared.
• I am using the 3.5b version of hammer, although I should probably go back and try 3.4 to see if that clears it up at all. I'm also not sure which fgd should be used with 3.5b, so I was using "cs_expert-tom793c", but just yesterday I switched to using the "halflife-cs_expert". Are any of these correct, if not which one should I use? Plus after I switched the fgd, one map made and compiled worked but when I tried to recompile the rmf of another previous one it didn't work, but the map size did chang from like 90-35 kb, mind you these are only test maps, so they're nothing too fancy.
• And as above I'm only using three or so wads. On a few maps a few more but nothing equivalent to or above 8. So I should be good!

Once again thank you all for your help and input, hopefully it all works out for the best, not just for me, but for rat as well, I also hope this bs disappears, but chances are it's my fault, so it's rightfully all my bs.

Thx guys!

-Koozie

Post your compile log, will ya?

Curious. You should be using the FGD here.

Okay, I put that fgd in, and I tried to fix it on my own but I still can't. I'm sure it's a leak, that's what the log say, but I can't find anything that would suggest this but I'll keep looking.

----COMPILE LOG---

hlcsg v2.5.3 rel Custom Build 1.7 (Dec 9 2002)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (merlinis@bigpond.net.au)
--- BEGIN hlcsg ---
Command line: C:PROGRA~1VALVEH~1hlcsg.exe "c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3"
Entering c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3.map

Current hlcsg Settings
Name | Setting | Default
--------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 2 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
null texture stripping[ on ] [ on ]
clipnode economy mode [ on ] [ on ]
onlyents [ off ] [ off ]
wadtextures [ on ] [ on ]
skyclip [ on ] [ on ]
hullfile [ None ] [ None ]
min surface area [ 0.500 ] [ 0.500 ]
brush union threshold [ 0.000 ] [ 0.000 ]

Using mapfile wad configuration
Wadinclude list :
[zhlt.wad]

0 brushes (totalling 0 sides) discarded from clipping hulls
CreateBrush:
(0.03 seconds)
SetModelCenters:
(0.00 seconds)
CSGBrush:
(0.09 seconds)

Using Wadfile: wadscstrike.wad

• Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (123 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: wadshalflife.wad

• Contains 4 used textures, 57.14 percent of map (3116 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: wadscs_assault.wad

• Contains 2 used textures, 28.57 percent of map (22 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: wadscs_747.wad

• Contains 1 used texture, 14.29 percent of map (143 textures in wad)

added 2 additional animating textures.
Texture usage is at 0.21 mb (of 4.00 mb MAX)
0.17 seconds elapsed

--- END hlcsg ---

hlbsp v2.5.3 rel Custom Build 1.7 (Dec 9 2002)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (merlinis@bigpond.net.au)
--- BEGIN hlbsp ---
Command line: C:PROGRA~1VALVEH~1hlbsp.exe "c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3"

Current hlbsp Settings
Name | Setting | Default
------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 2 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
nofill [ off ] [ off ]
null tex. stripping [ on ] [ on ]
notjunc [ off ] [ off ]
subdivide size [ 240 ] [ 240 ] (Min 64) (Max 512)
max node size [ 1024 ] [ 1024 ] (Min 64) (Max 4096)

Warning: === LEAK in hull 0 ===
Entity info_player_start @ (-320, 64, 96)
Error:
A LEAK is a hole in the map, where the inside of it is exposed to the
(unwanted) outside region. The entity listed in the error is just a helpful
indication of where the beginning of the leak pointfile starts, so the
beginning of the line can be quickly found and traced to until reaching the
outside. Unless this entity is accidentally on the outside of the map, it
probably should not be deleted. Some complex rotating objects entities need
their origins outside the map. To deal with these, just enclose the origin
brush with a solid world brush

Leak pointfile generated

0.14 seconds elapsed

--- END hlbsp ---

hlvis v2.5.3 rel Custom Build 1.7 (Dec 9 2002)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (merlinis@bigpond.net.au)
--- BEGIN hlvis ---
Command line: C:PROGRA~1VALVEH~1hlvis.exe "c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3"
>> There was a problem compiling the map.
>> Check the file c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3.log for the cause.

--- END hlvis ---

hlrad v2.5.3 rel Custom Build 1.7 (Dec 9 2002)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (merlinis@bigpond.net.au)
--- BEGIN hlrad ---
Command line: C:PROGRA~1VALVEH~1hlrad.exe "c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3"
>> There was a problem compiling the map.
>> Check the file c:program filesvalve hammer editortest maps- not workinggoldeneye- aztecgoldeney_aztec 3.log for the cause.

--- END hlrad ---

Sorry it's been so long, but thanks for the help,

-Koozie

There are several good tutorials out on the web that will help you find the leak in your map.

http://www.gamedesign.net/book/view/303 is a decent one.

There are some links on that page that will give you some more information.

you should go into hammer goto the toolbar and find load pointfile, then find it where youre zhlt are. then it will show you!, but i had this shit happen to me before.. make the walls thick.. for example. make a big box around your test level, then hit hollow (ctl h) to 32. then try. if not! reinstall hammer, because its causeing your entities "info_player_start" to look right through the wall. thus the leak.if trhat fails. turn to the leak profile tutorials on the net.

usually wen i make a map i make a box, then i make a skybox, then i start shaping moulding etc till my map is done so if thers leaks it wont say so coz the skybox blocks everything!

once ur finished delete skybox then put walls with the sky texture only in places where the player sees outside for example

your in a building then the person goes to a door that leads outside and he sees the sky above and its a lot brighter outside then indoors. the player only sees the sky in the places you placed the wall wit sky texture on

if u dont understand that (and i dont blame you coz my friends would think that a load of googly crap) so that my reply sorry if you dont fix it

i no how it feels when ur maps stop working cause of sum stupid error you may hav done aaaaaaa drives me crazy when theirs so many error and all u do is build a box for god sake ho ho ho

Well, happy news for me, my issue cleared up. So rat I was making a different map and all of a sudden my problem hit me, the name of my maps that didn't work contained blank spaces in it. I changed it including _ underscores in place of the spaces and now it works. That's what my problem was. Sorry to waste all of your guys time and I help this is the same thing for you rat, good luck!

-Koozie

ya i got my stuff working about 2 weeks ago. i had to reformat my comp.