What exactly does it mean when...

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nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
...Hammer stops responding and freezes while compiling a map?

Only on the certain map. Every time it's compiled.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
Nothing. It does it all the time. Just be patient and wait for your compile to finish.
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
Nothing. It does it all the time. Just be patient and wait for your compile to finish.

well it compiled in about 5 minutes the first time, then I made a few minor changes and re-compiled it, it's taking over 30 minutes now and its still frozen.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
What changes, exactly? And what part is it getting stuck on? You could have added a brush that makes the map terribly unoptimized, or reduced the lightmap scale on a face too much.
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
What changes, exactly? And what part is it getting stuck on? You could have added a brush that makes the map terribly unoptimized, or reduced the lightmap scale on a face too much.

I didn't add anything - I changed a few outputs and changed the team value on some spawnpoints (because they were wrong), and that's about it..

It was stuck on adding detail props, but now the window is just white.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
I suggest you use VBCT instead of Hammer's compile button. For one thing, you can continue working in TF2 while the build goes on, and it's easier to cancel/monitor.
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
I suggest you use VBCT instead of Hammer's compile button. For one thing, you can continue working in TF2 while the build goes on, and it's easier to cancel/monitor.

wow, thanks SO much. I will use this from now on :)
 
Aug 19, 2008
1,011
1,158
hammer uses all available ressources for the compile, vbsp-vvis-vrad run on normal priority and hence slow down the system. the hammer app itself then misses its intervals to send lifesigns to windows, hence getting the "not responding". unfortunately this way it´s hard to know if it crashed or is still working. open the taskmanager and see if vbsp-vvis-vrad is using any CPU, if not, something went wrong and the compile crashed.
If it doesn´t crash in your case, there might be something wrong with you map, and using VBCT won´t help.
VBCT is basically just an advanced and more relyable gui for the same processes, but runs them on a lower system priority and gives you the precious info if it´s still compiling or if crashed.

From personal experience, sometimes hammercompile bugs out, sometimes vbct, so i tend to switch.
 

gamemaster1996

L13: Stunning Member
Sep 30, 2009
1,064
134
well it compiled in about 5 minutes the first time, then I made a few minor changes and re-compiled it, it's taking over 30 minutes now and its still frozen.

Same on my map it compiled in 3 mins when i left a sky camera inside the map and a few walls were changed. After fixing this it takes forever to compile.


EDIT: Also i thought you shouldn't use external things like VBCT.
 

littleedge

L1111: Clipping Guru
aa
Mar 2, 2009
986
605
Just for safety reasons, if you have stairs in your map, nik., make them func_detail, as well as any obtrusive brushwork (like a desk made out of brushes, or a tv screen, etc.) That might fix compile time, and that might help your 'Hammer looks like it is freezing' problem.

Do as Eerie said to see if it actually froze or not. I like to Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up Task manager and then I set vvis to High Priority and leave my computer to eat (or just do something) and let the compiler run. If your map takes multiple hours to compile, and it's not in a finished state, go to the chat and ask about optimizing, or read the guides on here. There's also a nice guide on nodraw.net by Mangy.
 
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Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
VBCT is far better then the Hammer compiler because it doesn't freeze up and uses less resources. Of course, it's just a container for the same compiling processes (BSP, VIS, RAD) so the end result is the same.
 
Feb 14, 2008
1,051
931
If you map is in a huge box it can add hours to your compile time, depending upon complexity.
 

nik

L12: Fabulous Member
Aug 14, 2009
987
564
Thanks everyone. I'm really going to have to optimize my map now, it's kind of a big box :|