Laptop Question

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Nosher

L4: Comfortable Member
Feb 3, 2008
184
20
I reckon my Mrs is eyeing up a notebook for my birthday pressey in Feb - so, a question...

Can I put Steam and Hammer on my laptop to do mapping on the various long train journeys I sometimes have to make each week?

I won't be online except when on a Virgin trains service which has free WiFi...

Thanks in advance
Nosh
 

TMP

Ancient Pyro Main
aa
Aug 11, 2008
947
560
Yeah, steam has an offline mode, which you can access hammer in.
 

jakemaheu

L1: Registered
Aug 13, 2009
40
4
Yeah, steam has an offline mode, which you can access hammer in.

Er, I wouldn't try it. First off, Steam needs an ACTIVE internet connection to go into offline mode (WTF, right?), and then Hammer usually won't start-- it'll say something along the lines of "This action cannot be performed in while offline."

My recommendation would be to start Steam normally when you have an internet connection, and then start the SDK/Hammer. If you just leave it open, it'll work fine, even when you're offline.

I had to do this A LOT for one of my classes. It's kind of a pain, but it works.
 

SiniStarR

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Mar 31, 2009
585
116
Keep in mind, I highly recommend not compiling all the time on a laptop. I basicly destroyed my laptop from too many compiles and then testing my maps. You have to be careful ><
 
Dec 25, 2007
566
439
Compiling BSP and VIS should be fine, they don't take long or much CPU. And that's all you need for a great deal of the time you spend mapping.
 

Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
I've had it work by logging in, and then just hibernating or sleeping, it'll think it's online and you should be able to access your games, and tools by doing that.

As far as power goes, just about any modern laptop cpu will be able to handle compiles, playing the content on the other hand is a different story, unless you end up getting a machine with a dedicated graphics card.
 

Drexer

L2: Junior Member
Jun 23, 2009
66
42
Er, I wouldn't try it. First off, Steam needs an ACTIVE internet connection to go into offline mode (WTF, right?), and then Hammer usually won't start-- it'll say something along the lines of "This action cannot be performed in while offline."

Steam offline mode works for me perfectly whenever I'm not online. No need for anything fancy. I think the only error that appears is if you turn off the computer without shutting down Steam first, properly.

Either way, if it's a reasonable laptop is should work, I recommend using the train trips just for layout purposes and as such only compiling the bsp. Saves battery. Or at least that's my evaluation from when I was in a similar situation.
 

Blue552

L3: Member
Sep 16, 2009
137
18
Do what I do. Load up Hammer when you have internet then never turn your PC off until you have it back. You can use Hammer perfectly with it internet you just can't load it ><