My hammer wont load my map

[YOYOYO]

OK, so I've been trying to solve this myself for way too long, so here goes.
Lately, when I try to load a map I've been working on, it doesn't load. I'm not exactly sure why, but I don't think it has anything to do outside of the source system.

What usually happens is I would press the F9 key, wait for it to load, but then it would always get to one of those ...countdowns, and stop. I have waited over 24 hours many times, but it wont load the compile log. (Which is why i sadly cant show it)

This has begun too frustrate me greatly, and I would like for someone to kindly make an effort to explain a problem I may have.

If you want the vmf, you may ask.

 

[Da Spud Lord]

Which part of the compile process is it getting stuck on?

 

[DrSquishy]

if you want to see the compilelog, if it isn't loading, you can open the 'yourmapname.log' file in your map folder. This will show you the compilelogs for that map. Scroll to the very bottom for the most recent one

 

[YOYOYO]

Which part of the compile process is it getting stuck on?

mainly the portal flow

if you want to see the compilelog, if it isn't loading, you can open the 'yourmapname.log' file in your map folder. This will show you the compilelogs for that map. Scroll to the very bottom for the most recent one

Thanks for the info, but I couldn't find exactly what you meant. At the bottom of my maps folder I found a YOURMAP_manifest, but it only has something about a wartime_tank_fx and wartime_explosion .pcf (particles)

 

[Da Spud Lord]

mainly the portal flow

You need to do some VVIS optimization. Your map probably has way too many visleaves, and VVIS is taking forever because of all the calculations it has to do. Convert brushes which don't hinder player visibility too much to func_detail to reduce the number of visleaves.

 

[YOYOYO]

You need to do some VVIS optimization. Your map probably has way too many visleaves, and VVIS is taking forever because of all the calculations it has to do. Convert brushes which don't hinder player visibility too much to func_detail to reduce the number of visleaves.

Ah, I see I forgot to add something very important, it actually does this for ALL maps I've tried to open with hammer! So it must be something wrong with hammer.

 

[Da Spud Lord]

Let's eliminate variables. Make an empty box and try compiling that with VVIS on.

 

[YOYOYO]

OK, so your right. When I played it with only a sky box and team spawn, it worked. There must be something wrong with all my maps.
Should I try to turn most buildings which you cannot go inside into details?

 

[Da Spud Lord]

If they don't significantly block visibility and aren't sealing the map, then yes.

 

[YOYOYO]

If they don't significantly block visibility

What do you mean by this?

 

[Da Spud Lord]

What do you mean by this?

A player's view isn't significantly obstructed by the brush, and/or it's not being used to seal the map. For example, a wall separating two rooms should not be made into a detail because it blocks visibility between two rooms and thus shouldn't be ignored by visibility calculations, but a free-standing column hardly blocks the player's view and therefore can be ignored by visibility calculations. For more info on func_detail and how/when to use it, watch this video.

 

[YOYOYO]

I think I found the problem...

 

[DrSquishy]

yeah, that could be it

 

[Vel0city]

I think I found the problem...

oh
my
GOD

 

[FloofCollie]

Remember that angled or cylindrical brushwork tends to create tons of visleaf cuts all shooting off at bizarre angles, so turning them all into func_detail (and maybe using a simple nodraw brush that's still world geometry behind it) is pretty much always recommended.