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Posts written by LORDOFTHISWORLD:



SuperJer said:
There isn't really a maximum. Or if there is, you don't want to get anywhere near it.

The brightness really depends most on how far the light is from any surfaces.

If you have two lights, @A and @B, and @A is twice the distance from a surface, then it will need to be FOUR times as bright to light the surface the same amount:

                          |\\
@A- - - - - - - - - - - - |\\ surface
            @B- - - - - - |\\
                          |\\


Sky brightness works more like a texture light, but it also doesn't fall off with distance. Every sky brush surface will provide some light, like a tex light. And the direct sky light is just as bright at any distance.




Thanks for the answer :)


Yeah so to me, the effects of lightning, fading and glow is going to be the new mission impossible.

I know these are some of the most real looking effects that makes a map feel alot better to play.

Question:
How much brightness is the "maximum"?
If there is one...

And is there any difference between the SKY-brightness and Entity-Lights?

Thank you!
/RN
SuperJer said:
I'm glad you were able to resolve your problem.

Just to answer a couple things in case someone else reads this:

The -chop <NUMBER> needs to be added to your RAD command. Did you end up needing this?

The -nowadtextures needs to be added to your CSG command. It puts all the textures you actually used into the BSP, which these days is probably so small that you just might as well do it. Even if you use default textures. They are probably only a few KB.

And the pointfile is only generated if you actually get a leak. So wait till you get one again and then try it.


Oh yeah 400+ lights is just too many. You can only have about 500 entities in your whole map before the game starts crashing.

Mods like AMX create some of their own entities which may push you over the 500 (maybe 512?) limit. So stay as far under it as you can.

I'm actually not sure if light entities end up in the final BSP but I wouldn't risk it.



All I actually did was remove the "Boxing" of the leak" and some minor stuff, and put the "NULL"texture on everything that is not visible for the players in-game

Worked like a clock after that :)

No need for the -CHOP command, I did however use a custom .wad (for credits and such) and used wadinclude <mywad>.wad

Well for me the -nowadtextures made the map go from 3,5MB to 6,5MB... So it was a bad idea haha..

Oh okay, well then the Pointfile is a smart design, when you can finally understand it!

Yeah I noticed the POWAH of the Lights are really strong, I narrowed it down to.. maybe 20 now? I even had to go down on the brightness on them.

500 - Limit - Has to remember!

Will make another topic about lightning now. Simple question really.
Outcast said:
LORDOFTHISWORLD said:
Outcast said:
Go to Edit>Select all and scale down the map from all sides.Retry compiling it.


>> This will be the last thing I do, however if nothing else works, this will be done and see if it changes problem!


Too bad cuz that's all you have to do,really.

It seems like you exceeded the patch limit for like 3k,doing what i said should reduce it and you should be able to compile your map.



Well too me it seemed like I would create a "miniature" version of my original sized map..
But however I got everything to work.. I will remember what you told me tho, IF this happens again :)



Okay guys, I got EVERYTHING back to what it was :)

Thanks for the help, I was just not thinking properly..

I will get back to you if I get Compile troubles, but I seriously doubt it..
Outcast said:
Go to Edit>Select all and scale down the map from all sides.Retry compiling it.


>> This will be the last thing I do, however if nothing else works, this will be done and see if it changes problem!
---> http://tinypic.com/r/350ns4y/5 <---

I could not find the right commands to use in this.. I thought I had -chop but obviously not.

Anyone wanna tell me what to use exactly?
Not even Google could get me to the Expert Mode commands..
Also: Sorry for being such a pain in the *** but, practice makes perfect..

What about the -nowadtextures command btw? > The one's included are the ones from the Original maps and the HALF-LIFE & CSTRIKE.wad amirite?
This is what makes me nervous: Does this merge them and include all of them into this map or does this add them all into +size on my compiling? I hope not.. I don't really believe so either, but I'm here to learn.

SuperJer said:
1. That looks like a lot of lights, but it shouldn't do anything but slow down RAD. I don't know why expert mode would make a difference for lighting. The blackness you were seeing is probably caused by something else.

OTOH you really shouldn't need that many lights. Have less & brighter ones, and rely on natural sources of lights and light-emitting textures, if you can.

2. If you have leaks, you need to fix those before fixing anything else. Leaks will cause every other problem, including MAX_PATCHES.

It is OK to make your brushes bigger, so that they intersect. This is only a problem if you get texture fighting from 2 surfaces in the same plane, and that is only a cosmetic problem. It won't slow down compiles or cause errors.

If you are leaking, try loading the Pointfile in Hammer. The Pointfile path may be confusing but it WILL go thru your leak at some point.

You should make your logs and beach chairs into func_walls so that they don't get in the way of VIS. VIS only has to worry about world geometry.

Just remember that func_walls do nothing to stop leaks. func_walls have to be fully contained by world geometry.

---

Your compile log shows no leaks. If you have a leak, BSP will say something like **LEAK LEAK LEAK**. You don't need to check in game for leaks. The game doesn't even know if you have leaks.

---

Also you didn't run VIS. You should at least run a fast vis every time you compile.

---

You also have a lot of WAD files. You really should merge them and use -nowadtextures with CSG to pack them into the BSP. Even for
the builtin ones.


BTW: MAX_PATCHES means you have too much surface area to light. There is only so much lighting surface area information that can fit in a BSP.

MAX_PATCHES is usually caused by a large map or shrunken textures. Setting -chop to a high number like SRAW said will decrease the lighting resolution, which uses less patches. But the lighting won't be as detailed.


Oh yeah and DON'T BOX YOUR LEAKS.

You are better off just keeping a leak than boxing it. Boxing causes even more MAX_PATCHES then a leak alone.

The reason that leaks are bad is because they prevent the compilers from deleting the outside of your map, which saves a lot of space, frames and patches.

If you box, you still end up with the inside AND outside of your map (like a leak) but EVEN WORSE you also compile in the inside of the box! No!!


1. Yeah but theres a few more of those lightbulbs than you see in the picture unfortuanetely.. I will try and use the "fade" texture and use it as lightning instead of all these pointlights and see if would change the outcome of my compiling in anyway.

And YES actually! When I compiled with VHE without expert mode and without VIS(I think it was.. or RAD.. been a few weeks ago since I tested..) the inside of the tunnels & sewers all were Bright as day(which was in my opinion really sweet for the gameplay). But since I got the FPS drops I ofcourse had to go from Normal compiling to Expert Compiling.

If you think I have many now you should have seen before.. JEEZ. Like 400 of them.(Got kinda lazy and CTRL + C was great). But I narrowed it down to about.. 50-80 now. But I will try this "LESS & BRIGHTER" way you mentioned if my "fade" experiment fails, which it problaby does.
I'm so new to the Lightning effects I'm kinda scared to use many since you can't preview before compiling. Old programs are old..
Trying to rely on the Light_enviroment as much as possible, and it worked great before my Sewers & Tunnels were added. + the LEAK that is emerging from the Sewer in some weird matter.

2. I have gone through the map as narrow as I have been capable to do, and the only leakage must be the Sewer, nothing else could cause it(I think........).

I will try this Pointfile thingy and see if it can fix my problem, I'm quite sure it will show the problem(s).
Thank you for that btw!

I will make the logs to func_walls aswell!

Thanks for telling me everything about the MAX_PATCHES problem btw! There's alot of stuff to learn from VHE but since the program is so old all the tutorial websites have pretty much died off. And asking someone for a very specific thing is hard to get a good answer!

About the leak problem I had NOOOOOOO clue about that, thanks alot for the details on those particual problems. I hate leaks so badly lol. Destroying my map(s)!
SRAW said:
well I think you should start with merging your wads, and trying to compile hlrad with -chop <insert high number like 256 here>


Well, as you can see the wads are originals so they should not cause any "bigger" problems than compile-time if anything, am I right?

And for the -chop <number et.c.> that I have in expert mode, I just compile in normal to get a faster compile of the map for early bugtesting :).

But if you do se this as a POSSIBLE solution, I might just have to try..

But these 2 things did not cause any trouble before. As mentioned its the VIS that causes this..

Hello oldschool mappers!

First of all I wanna say I'm a huge fan of your maps SuperJer(If you're gonna read this) and thanks alot for the things you've done for the CS mapping community!

I've been into VHE for a long time, but never released any maps due to small problems and the extreme details that I desire for perfection in my maps.(No I'm not a maniac just too lazy for final polishing lulz)

My hardware :
Windows 7 (64-bit)
8GB of DDR3 Memory(Wish VHE could've used all of it)
3.4 Ghz Quadcore AMD Processor
1024 MB HD Radeon 5770 Graphic Card (Two of them!)
That should be all you need to know?

These pictures are my HELP to you:

http://tinypic.com/r/20jk07n/5

http://tinypic.com/r/jg5x7k/5

http://tinypic.com/r/314xvgg/5

Basicly I need help on TWO things:

Exceed MAX_PATCHES solution
Answer to :: NUMBER THREE :: <-- You will understand when scrolling down.

Anyway.. PROBLEM:

I almost know what causes the problem in this map im developing:
1. Showed in picture one(The Sewer and top/front/side y/x angles)
You can see I have quite a few "LIGHT" entities, I had these put up all over my Sewer and my Caves after I compiled in Expert mode and noticed these we're all black instead of when I compiled in Normal mode and they were still light(but huge FPS drops due to VIS problems(obviously duuuhh). But honestly I don't think these should be able to cause any problem they should instead make the map easier to compile no matter Normal nor Expert mode, am I right?

2. Showed in the second picture with different screens and numbers in it you can see:

:: Number ONE ::
Shows the cave(Just a normal one with "LIGHT" entities ofcourse(Can't walk through caves in total darkness)(Should not cause problem..)
THIS IS WHAT I THINK CAUSES THE PROBLEM(Exceed Max_Patches)
:: Number TWO :: shows my Sewer(Again) but from the outside, my friend told me he saw leaks(he tested the map with 1600x1200 resolution)
So I just put these "walls" all around the sewer to prevent the leakings from accuring(Which before I put them there did only cause small fps drops and you could ofcourse see through the sewer which is not okay..)
Honestly this is what I think is the "bad thing" in my compiling, I compiled for 9 hours and VHE still had not finished.. Before I did this, put the light entities, the umbrellas and chairs at the beach + volleyboll net it took just about 1 hour to compile)
Remember I have Windows 7 64-bit.. (don't know if this can cause troubleshoot problems)

:: Number THREE ::

Here you can see bit by bit how I have built a part of the cave, what I want to know from this picture is that this should cause alot of "angles" for VIS and other programs to have to use alot more power and use up alot more memory, yes or no?
And if I want to make ALL of these color marked walls into ONE wall(That would cause ALOT less memory usage and angles to be compiled right?): HOW do I do so?
Just mark them all and "Tie To Entity" > Func_wall?

:: Number FOUR ::

Logs, logs and more logs, these I have heard could cause problems(since VHE is old and... OLD..) to RAD / VIS et.c. because of the angles/shapes/sizes and so on, but it did not cause any problems at all when I compiled before the "Exceeded MAX_PATCHES" so this I seriously doubt could cause anything but MINIMUM lag every 3000 years.

:: NUMBER FIVE ::

Shows the Umbrellas and beach chairs(This small thing could cause any problem at all? I seriously doubt it myself..)

:: NUMBER SIX ::

These walls are straight against the Sewer so there should not be any possibilities for leaks, should there? I just don't get why it would.. Then again I'm no rocket scientist. There was leaks as I mentioned before when I didn't have the walls. Me personally I have 640x320 resolution when I play CS so for me it didn't show any leaks what so ever. But 1600x1200 needs more juice we all know that.

:: NUMBER SEVEN / EIGHT / NINE ::

Shows what options I have on and which messages I get.
(If these could be to any help)
-----------------------------------

I will mention it again: Compiling only took about 1 HOUR before I did these things:
Added the Walls to the sewer to prevent leaking hopefully.
Added the Umbrellas, beach chairs and volleyboll net
Added the "LIGHT" entities in my Cave & Sewer from total darkness

Either all of them, or some, or just ONE of them are causing this problem I personally can't rule out the bad thing. Perhaps you can?


------------------------------------


Alright, down to the COMPILING AREA!

This is what VHE 3.5 Compiler tells me when I run it with these Options(Showed in picture 9.)
Take in consideration I do run the "final" compiling in Expert mode and not normal mode..


** Executing...
** Command: Change Directory
** Parameters: D:\Steamapps\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\cstrike


** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp.map" "D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp.map"


** Executing...
** Command: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlcsg.exe
** Parameters: "D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp"

hlcsg v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
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 (amckern@yahoo.com)
----- BEGIN hlcsg -----
Command line: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlcsg.exe D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp
Entering D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp.map

Current hlcsg Settings
Name | Setting | Default
---------------------|-----------|-------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
max lighting memory [ 6291456 ] [ 6291456 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

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

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

142 brushes (totalling 825 sides) discarded from clipping hulls
CreateBrush:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (0.67 seconds)
SetModelCenters:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (0.00 seconds)
CSGBrush:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (1.09 seconds)

Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\chateau.wad
- Contains 10 used textures, 7.58 percent of map (136 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_747.wad
- Contains 2 used textures, 1.52 percent of map (143 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_assault.wad
- Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (22 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_cbble.wad
- Contains 2 used textures, 1.52 percent of map (61 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_dust.wad
- Contains 1 used texture, 0.76 percent of map (28 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_havana.wad
- Contains 3 used textures, 2.27 percent of map (122 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cs_office.wad
- Contains 8 used textures, 6.06 percent of map (102 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\cstrike.wad
- Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (123 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\de_airstrip.wad
- Contains 4 used textures, 3.03 percent of map (69 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\de_aztec.wad
- Warning: Larger than expected texture (348972 bytes): 'SPECIAL_THANKS'
- Warning: Larger than expected texture (348972 bytes): 'THANKS'
- Contains 1 used texture, 0.76 percent of map (24 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\de_piranesi.wad
- Contains 5 used textures, 3.79 percent of map (160 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\de_storm.wad
- Contains 8 used textures, 6.06 percent of map (74 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\de_vertigo.wad
- Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (19 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\halflife.wad
- Contains 88 used textures, 66.67 percent of map (3116 textures in wad)
Including Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\zhlt.wad
- Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (8 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program\worldcraft\wads\decals.wad
- Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (225 textures in wad)

Warning: More than 8 wadfiles are in use. (16)
This may be harmless, and if no strange side effects are occurring, then
it can safely be ignored. However, if your map starts exhibiting strange
or obscure errors, consider this as suspect.


added 6 additional animating textures.
Texture usage is at 3.10 mb (of 4.00 mb MAX)
2.43 seconds elapsed

----- END hlcsg -----




** Executing...
** Command: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlbsp.exe
** Parameters: "D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp"

hlbsp v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
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 (amckern@yahoo.com)
----- BEGIN hlbsp -----
Command line: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlbsp.exe D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp

Current hlbsp Settings
Name | Setting | Default
-------------------|-----------|-------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ 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 ]
noopt [ 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 8192)


SolidBSP [hull 0] 500...1000...1500...2000...2500...3000...3500...4000...4500...5000...5500...5991 (0.48 seconds)
BSP generation successful, writing portal file 'D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp.prt'
SolidBSP [hull 1] 500...1000...1500...2000...2500...3000...3500...4000...4500...4837 (0.23 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 2] 500...1000...1500...2000...2500...3000...3500...4000...4500...4726 (0.24 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 3] 500...1000...1500...2000...2500...3000...3500...4000...4500...5000...5297 (0.29 seconds)
3.95 seconds elapsed

----- END hlbsp -----




** Executing...
** Command: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlrad.exe
** Parameters: "D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp"

hlrad v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
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 (amckern@yahoo.com)
----- BEGIN hlrad -----
Command line: D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\hlrad.exe D:\Program\Worldcraft\maps\mymapp

-= Current hlrad Settings =-
Name | Setting | Default
--------------------|---------------------|-------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
max lighting memory [ 6291456 ] [ 6291456 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

vismatrix algorithm [ Original ] [ Original ]
oversampling (-extra)[ off ] [ off ]
bounces [ 1 ] [ 1 ]
bounce dynamic light [ on ] [ on ]
ambient light [ 0.000 0.000 0.000 ] [ 0.000 0.000 0.000 ]
maximum light [ 255.000 ] [ 256.000 ]
circus mode [ off ] [ off ]

smoothing threshold [ 50.000 ] [ 50.000 ]
direct threshold [ 25.000 ] [ 25.000 ]
direct light scale [ 2.000 ] [ 2.000 ]
coring threshold [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
patch interpolation [ on ] [ on ]

texscale [ on ] [ on ]
patch subdividing [ on ] [ on ]
chop value [ 64.000 ] [ 64.000 ]
texchop value [ 32.000 ] [ 32.000 ]

global fade [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
global falloff [ 2 ] [ 2 ]
global light scale [ 1.000 1.000 1.000 ] [ 1.000 1.000 1.000 ]
global gamma [ 0.500 0.500 0.500 ] [ 0.500 0.500 0.500 ]
global light scale [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
global sky diffusion [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]

opaque entities [ on ] [ on ]
sky lighting fix [ on ] [ on ]
incremental [ off ] [ off ]
dump [ off ] [ off ]

colour jitter [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
monochromatic jitter [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
softlight hack [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
diffuse hack [ on ] [ on ]
spotlight points [ on ] [ on ]

custom shadows with bounce light
[ off ] [ off ]
rgb transfers [ off ] [ off ]


[Reading texlights from 'D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\lights.rad']
[59 texlights parsed from 'D:\Program\WORLDC~1\tools\lights.rad']

Warning: No vis information, direct lighting only.
15173 faces
Create Patches : 68089 base patches
0 opaque faces
687512 square feet [99001784.00 square inches]
Error: Exceeded MAX_PATCHES
Description: The map has a problem which must be fixed
Howto Fix: Check the file http://www.zhlt.info/common-mapping-problems.html for a detailed explanation of this problem


----- END hlrad -----



I'm grateful for any help, tips or tricks that you can help me with!
Sincerely
/RN