How to keep map size down?

[Shifty]

I am making a map...and Im perhaps 2/3 of the way through construction..but the low quality build bsp is 9.4mb...thats without textures or anything (luckily it uses default textures). It consists of around 3000 brushes.

a) Is this a abnormally large number of brushes? (do maps tend to have less)
b) how can i reduce the file size?

[swamp-cecil]

Try using shader lights if you aren't. Im pretty sure that reduces size.
3000 is not a lot. My .map file alone is 6302 KB, I have 9897 bruushe and 562 entites. Wait.... doesn't having over 255 entites give an error?

[UniqPhoeniX]

Shifty: make sure you are using detail brushes wherever possible.
The entity limit is about 1022 - 64 = 958, including buildables (usually up to 45 with default bps), so you should try to stay under 900 entities just to be safe.

[Supertanker]

I am making a map...and Im perhaps 2/3 of the way through construction..but the low quality build bsp is 9.4mb...thats without textures or anything (luckily it uses default textures). It consists of around 3000 brushes.

a) Is this a abnormally large number of brushes? (do maps tend to have less)
b) how can i reduce the file size?

Station15 has ~7,000 brushes and its BSP from a standard-quality build is approximately 15.4MB. I think you're safe.

You can reduce filesize in a number of ways: making things detail as much as possible, culling unused faces with caulk (ymmv, q3map2 is reported to do it by itself, but I haven't had much luck with it, so I do it by hand), reducing lightgrid density, reducing samplesize or increasing _lightmapscale, etc.

But really, I wouldn't worry too much. BSPs compress very well. If you're worried about pk3 sizes like I am, you'll have more luck trimming textures or sounds.

[Shifty]

For ease of build, I am usng default textures and sounds and all, If i set out to use different textures 2/3 of my time is spent finding them or making them or what ever. I am using some light entities..well kida a lot..but thats die to 2 things,
1) I couldnt get shaders to light the area above the grate on the roof here:



2) default shaders do not provide enought light in some cases, e.g. this hallway, I couldn't find a bright enough red shader.


(I do know how to write shaders im just feeling lazy...plus redoing it would require a fair bit of work . If size becomes an issue i will make shaders)


Also, what is detail and what should be made detail?

Thanks

[CreatureofHell]

All brushes that are not connected to the void should be detail brushes. The difference between detail brushes and structural brushes are that detail brushed do not block VIS. I'm out of time so I can't go into any more detail right now. There are, however, many explanations on the forum if you search.

[Shifty]

So...Say I just set my whole map to detail, then selected all the outside brushes (is there an automatic way to do this?) and switch them back to structural...would that work?

[Supertanker]

That would work. I prefer to do it the other way, though; manually making things detail.

These shortcuts are very useful:

Control + d: Show/Hide detail brushes
Control + m: Make a brush detail
Control + Shift + s: Make a brush structural

I usually turn off detail brushes with Control + d, then fly across the map, selecting brushes and making them detail with Control + m. If I accidentally mark a brush that blocks the void as detail, I either undo or quickly unhide detail, select the offender, and make it structural again. For me, somehow, the second is faster.

Another thing many mappers do is to design blocky rooms made out of caulk and making almost *everything* detail. This works fairly well too.

[Shifty]

Hmm...well most my rooms are already in mildly blocky rooms, Ill try switching everything to detail, then switch the stuff on the outside back, then hide detail and check for gaps.

[Odin]

All brushes that are not connected to the void should be detail brushes.

This is not entirely true. You can make some large brushes structural to block vis on purpose for higher performance.

How would your statement apply to outside levels?

[CreatureofHell]

All brushes that are not connected to the void should be detail brushes.

This is not entirely true. You can make some large brushes structural to block vis on purpose for higher performance.

How would your statement apply to outside levels?

That's why I added the statement about VIS.