Any tips on fixing the following compile problems?

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Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Hi,

I have just built the main capture area in my map and now have 13 degenerate faces and 16 zero child patches in the compile.. grrrr. There are no alt-p errors, other than logic (all referring to the KOTH counters).

The map runs fine and there are no odd faces that I can see.

So any ideas, short of rebuilding, how to get rid of these errors and are they actually a problem?

Thanks in advance.
 

Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Hi,
Many thanks for the offer of help.
This is the log - its long I'm afraid. I have bolded the zero areas and degenerates.

I haven't merged, though hammer did ask several times (and when it did gave me an invalid solid I so I built that section differently). I don't have any invalid solids (alt-P follows )

Is there any way of searching for the possible causes?
(Haven't built cube maps yet, but this won't be the problem will it?)

* Executing...

Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Oct 25 2011)
4 threads
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendcliffgrass001a_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockgroundwall003_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockground007_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockgroundwall001_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockgroundwall004_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/brick/blendcobbletocobblesnow001_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockground001_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/nature/blendrockground002_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/testmap188gr27/cp_mountainlab/nature/blendrocktograss002_wvt_patch
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 740 detail faces...done (0)
Merging details...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (1)

Building visibility clusters...
done (1)
Creating default LDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day01_01*.vmt
! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.
Creating default HDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day01_01*.vmt
! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (1) (1032792 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 6521 texinfos to 3741
Reduced 158 texdatas to 143 (3873 bytes to 3325)

11 seconds elapsed

** Executing...

Valve Software - vvis.exe (Oct 25 2011)
fastvis = true
4 threads

5257 portalclusters
17223 numportals
BasePortalVis: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (15)
Optimized: 1437831 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 22460034
Average clusters visible: 4272
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 5220
visdatasize:6715858 compressed from 6981296
22 seconds elapsed

** Executing...

Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (Oct 25 2011)

Valve Radiosity Simulator
4 threads
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[34 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']


Setting up ray-trace acceleration structure... Done (2.91 seconds)
16889 faces
13 degenerate faces
2094802 square feet [301651520.00 square inches]
95 Displacements
320368 Square Feet [46133044.00 Square Inches]
16876 patches before subdivision
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
195246 patches after subdivision
sun extent from map=0.000000
95 direct lights
BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (32)
BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (177)
transfers 25815530, max 1919
transfer lists: 197.0 megs
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #1 added RGB(301481, 287980, 239902)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #2 added RGB(60305, 52107, 38874)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #3 added RGB(14634, 11329, 7576)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #4 added RGB(3808, 2632, 1592)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #5 added RGB(1075, 650, 350)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #6 added RGB(332, 168, 81)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #7 added RGB(116, 45, 19)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #8 added RGB(49, 13, 5)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #9 added RGB(24, 4, 1)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #10 added RGB(14, 1, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #11 added RGB(9, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #12 added RGB(6, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #13 added RGB(4, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #14 added RGB(3, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #15 added RGB(2, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #16 added RGB(2, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #17 added RGB(1, 0, 0)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #18 added RGB(1, 0, 0)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.1053 sec>
FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (25)
FinalLightFace Done
0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
ThreadComputeLeafAmbient: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (28)
Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 75/1024 3600/49152 ( 7.3%)
brushes 2603/8192 31236/98304 (31.8%)
brushsides 22234/65536 177872/524288 (33.9%)
planes 20346/65536 406920/1310720 (31.0%)
vertexes 32188/65536 386256/786432 (49.1%)
nodes 10449/65536 334368/2097152 (15.9%)
texinfos 3741/12288 269352/884736 (30.4%)
texdata 143/2048 4576/65536 ( 7.0%)
dispinfos 95/0 16720/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 7471/0 149420/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 11776/0 23552/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 355136/0 355136/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 16889/65536 945784/3670016 (25.8%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 8749/65536 489944/3670016 (13.3%)
leaves 10525/65536 336800/2097152 (16.1%)
leaffaces 22085/65536 44170/131072 (33.7%)
leafbrushes 9479/65536 18958/131072 (14.5%)
areas 4/256 32/2048 ( 1.6%)
surfedges 119452/512000 477808/2048000 (23.3%)
edges 72241/256000 288964/1024000 (28.2%)
LDR worldlights 95/8192 8360/720896 ( 1.2%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
leafwaterdata 1/32768 12/393216 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 2236/32768 22360/327680 ( 6.8%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 38331/65536 76662/131072 (58.5%)
cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%)
overlays 9/512 3168/180224 ( 1.8%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 13262356/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 6715858/16777216 (40.0%)
entdata [variable] 116036/393216 (29.5%)
LDR ambient table 10525/65536 42100/262144 (16.1%)
HDR ambient table 10525/65536 42100/262144 (16.1%)
LDR leaf ambient 46483/65536 1301524/1835008 (70.9%)
HDR leaf ambient 10525/65536 294700/1835008 (16.1%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/16742 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 216971/0 ( 0.0%)
physics [variable] 1032792/4194304 (24.6%)
physics terrain [variable] 33667/1048576 ( 3.2%)

Level flags = 0

Total triangle count: 50389

<Edit>

oops, just found I cannot copy the Alt-P report. sorry.
 
Last edited:

Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Hmmm,


Just deleted a section where I had used the vertex tool a lot. Thee result? The number of degenerate faces went up to 16! How come?
 

Bermuda Cake

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 20, 2009
679
480
Have you searched the interlopers compile error listing?

http://www.interlopers.net/errors/

This is what it had to say on 'zero area child patches'

Description:
A solid in your level has a face with no area. My guess is that vrad.exe is trying to create a lightmap for a face that doesn't exist. Maybe you have an invalid brush?

Solution:
First check Hammers problemchecker (alt+p). If that doesn't solve your problems, you can either ignore the error, or try to find it anyway using cordon tools. You would be looking for brushes which might be too complex. I wouldn't recommend the second option.

Could this have come about as the result of some dodgy vertex editing? Have you created any unusual shapes?
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Keep in mind that brushes can never be concave, if you weren't already aware. You can't make an L-shaped block that's all one brush, for example. I don't know what it would do if you ever tried, but be aware of that.

You also need to be really careful about moving points so that you don't get impossible faces. For example, if you had a cube and you dragged two top corners opposite each other up a couple units, your top face would become impossible because it's not a flat surface. Hammer isn't smart enough to split it into two triangles with a "crease" in between, and even if it could you'd end up with a concave brush.
 

Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Hi

Many thanks for all the help. As far as I can tell it's not a problem, but was wondering if these errors would reduce frame rates on a server (only testing single player at present). If not then I'm going to ignore them. Sometimes Hammer is a bunt instrument.
 

Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Hmmm,

Having reworked a bit of duff mapping (it worked - it was ugly) I have co-incidentally reduced the number of No area patches (to 8) but the number of degenerates has gone up to 22(!)

I deleted some stuff that I had built using vertex tool and rebuilt using the arch tool (which I forgot about the first time...)

Still no invalid solids so I reeelly don't get this.
 

Riever

L2: Junior Member
Nov 25, 2011
86
4
Riever goes.... Huh???

Hi,

While trying to fix a problem with too many t-junctions I moved a batch of func_details to world brushes. This resulted in some 20 or so new zero area child patches appearing. :mad:

So I deleted the brushes one by one, recompiled and the new zero areas disappeared.

Not wanting to rebuild I undid (ctrl-z) recompiling every few brushes. I expected the zero child errors to either increase gradually, or in a bunch due to a dud brush.

They didn't. None of the new zero child errors appeared. (What???!)

Confused I then deleted the whole map and undid - thinking that maybe there is something internal that gets fixed somehow by doing so.

This resulted in 2 more zero area errors. :thumbdown:

I don't have any invalid solids so this is just daft. How can just deleting and undoing change the number of brushes with problems?