REALLY long compile times (12 hours +)

[nubcake]

I had to stop the compiling at 15 hours as it was just getting rediculous today. I have NFI why it is literally taking 6x (or more) longer than my map church which is almost the same size (area wise). Its not the skybox walls, because i have turn off the light shader part, so it is only sky texture, and i even used rock for my map bounding box and still have the same problem.

here are the details of the compile

BaseportalVis (18896)
219mb required
1...2...3...4..5...6...7...8...9...(28)
Create Passages (18896)
1...2...3...4..5...6...7...8...9...(66)  - Sometimes it can go up to 80 (dont know why it changes randomly)
Portalflow
1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9... - This is how far i get after 15 or more hours. It takes about 5 hours to get up to 8, then its stuck on 9 for the rest of the time.

Here are some old screenshots when the map finally rendered (after 14 hours)




And this is the new version on GTK which has water added and some trees and the robot partially complete (this was rendering for 15 hours before i had to stop)



So does anyone have any idea why its taking soooooooooo long???

[Hendrich]

Yum, nubcake, I wonder what that cake tastes like.....


Anyways, based on what I've just seen (14 hours?? D: ) that this is one huge map. Not as in size, but as in the objects in it. Tremulous rendering water, portals, shadowing, lighting, and trees on wide areas? That seems alot for the compiler to chew up, don't you think? I'm just basing this theory from what I've seen and understood from the text, I believe members like Taiyo.uk would properly answer you question as he/she has experience with maps. I suggest waiting for their replies or properly PM'ing them.

[Taiyo.uk]

Are all those brushes structural?

[nubcake]

Im not sure.... I just Make brushes like normal (click and drag) so i assume that means its structural? O/T whats the diff between structural and detail? But anyways, yeah the structures are just the "normal" type. I didnt specify whether structural or not, so default?

[UniqPhoeniX]

...compiling at 15 hours...Portalflow...This is how far i get after 15 or more hours...whats the diff between structural and detail?

Seriously, you don't know yet? RTFM:

Detail has two beneficial effects:
...
When the compiler does Vis, it breaks the world up into many small volumes. Any break in the surface of the box that forms a room creates additional volumes that must be. Detail brushes don't create these breaks. Therefore, using them speeds up compiling.

Seriously, read the manual. If you want to see how many volumes there are in your map, load a .prt file you get from compiling after you load the .map (Plugins-> prtview-> Load .prt file) (I suggest NOT to load the one it compiled for 15 hours)
You should use detail on every brush possible, only not the ones that block vis between 2 areas/rooms.

[Taiyo.uk]

That could be the problem. The majority of those brushes should be detail. The difference is that detail brushes are not considered in the vis stage of the compilation process, and if all of those brushes are detail then the q3map2 will generate a huge number of portal volumes, which requires allot of CPU time. The radiant shots below show the same scene with and without detail brushes and patches:

Structural only
Structural + detail
Structural + detail + patches

Generally, if a brush does not need to block vis then it should be detail. Use Ctrl+D to toggle the detail brush filter, Ctrl+P to toggle patches and Ctrl+Shift+D to toggle structural.

[nubcake]

Uh, can someone link me to detail/struct information? I have NFI what it means (in terms of gameplay, like can a detail not be able to walk on? does it look worse??), I dont know what a vis is or how a detail can affect it

[nubcake]

After a search i found that you said only the outer box (sky ground, walls) need to be structural, everything else can be detail is this correct? from a quick glance, what in my map can u tell needs to be detail?

From another topic

Mr. Mike thanks alot. that helped. See what i'm doing now is making a basic box, then making (detailed) brushes Inside that box that cover all of the said "box". I figured out that making ALL things "detail" makes for a complicated map. however with a GIANT box arround a map (structural) and everything inside it i managed to sqeeze out about 164 visportals.

And stupid me overlookd MANY things in my recent map "MTCS" so i scrapped it. Dumb decision... In any case, i have a new map AGAIN.. thats less complicated, and HOPEFULLY it's going to have some good FPS. Haven't got a name for it yet though. And all the things i've learned about hinting, i may be able to tackle it. Thanks everyone.

Should I do what he did and just have the bounding box and walls of my map (ie walls of the dam, walls of the biulding/giant alien robot) as structural and have the rest as detail?

Quick update: I made the lights, water pipes and lines of pipes to all detail, it reduced my visportalsize to 590792 and  BaseportalVis to 15000. Is that alot? Does it mean that shadows arent being cast on those objects or something?


FINAL: Ok i did a bit of research into it. Ill make all things that arent the main structures (ie the pylons of the bridge ) detail brushes thanks guys  i hope this clears it up

[your face]

I remember trying to compile a map with no detail brushes.

[nubcake]

I remember trying to compile a map with no detail brushes.

Well it just reduced my compile times from 15 hours to 1 :D:D:D:D thanks again guys

[cactusfrog]

I remember trying to compile a map with no detail brushes.

i use detail brushes but when i don't it only takes 14 minuets, with detail brushes about 2 minuets. does that mean something is wrong with my compiler? 

[Syntac]

What it means, my friend, is that your computer is faster (or your map is less detailed).

[cactusfrog]

just remembered a tip when adding detail brushes is to make them seam to disappear as soon as you make them detal brushes. To make pre existing brushes detail press ctl m and to hide detail brushes press ctrl d (or shift D i forget) at the end you should be left with just the frame of your map remember no detail brushes can touch the void. 

[Ingar]

just remembered a tip when adding detail brushes is to make them seam to disappear as soon as you make them detal brushes. To make pre existing brushes detail press ctl m and to hide detail brushes press ctrl d (or shift D i forget) at the end you should be left with just the frame of your map remember no detail brushes can touch the void. 

ctrl+D will show or hide detail brushes. shift+ctrl+D will show or hide structural (not detail) brushes. You find can these and a lot more shortcuts in the View -> Filter menu.

[==Troy==]

That could be the problem. The majority of those brushes should be detail. The difference is that detail brushes are not considered in the vis stage of the compilation process, and if all of those brushes are detail then the q3map2 will generate a huge number of portal volumes, which requires allot of CPU time. The radiant shots below show the same scene with and without detail brushes and patches:

Structural only
Structural + detail
Structural + detail + patches

Generally, if a brush does not need to block vis then it should be detail. Use Ctrl+D to toggle the detail brush filter, Ctrl+P to toggle patches and Ctrl+Shift+D to toggle structural.

It will also indirectly affect the compile times for the light. (iirc)