used a modified version of the zer spawn code, so that way it sets model only when needed (ie when spawned) theoretically, this should allow ridiculous amounts of monsters... hmmmmm ;) 

Both your latest maps seem to have excessive # marksurfaces (> 32k), check the compiler log summary for details.

Some engines might behave unpredictably (e.g. crash) while playing as a result. PuLSaR has already noticed this behaviour in a previous version of his map. Unfortunately, even with the bad brush rebuilt, marksurfaces are still too high.

I haven't been able to actually produce a crash in neither of the latest versions of your maps but some engines clearly have this limitation (and don't enforce it).

I've added warnings in my upcoming compiler version for this and other limits. 

and what does it mean? you mean, just plain surfaces? like wpoly? 

Mark Surfas was the founder of PlanetQuake, and therefore the owner of GameSpy Industries. He's also $20 million richer than he was ten years ago thanks IGN buying him out. 

On what we previously discussed. If you were to resample the pixel resolution of the Quake textures in use in your map to twice their normal density you wouldn't significantly change the visual quality of the texture (without touch up work, like adding gradients), but it could noticeably increase the qualitiy of the light map resolution? Do I have that right? Would you think it worth the evening of experimenting I plan on doing tonight? 

Any one know where I can find an Elvish font type set? (I am so emberassed) I need it for some textures I wittling. 

spelling/gramatical error compounding my red cheeks 

http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=2554 

yeah, becuase lightmap resolution is tied to texture resolution. 

Look in the compiler log summary for the marksurfaces value.

Unfortunately I don't know what they are or exactly how to reduce the value. I assume they are related to brush faces somehow and by reducing complex geometry, they will also be reduced.

What I do know is that if they exceed 32k, some (or maybe even most) engines might behave unpredictably or crash at some point while playing the map.

It's a bug in the original engine code, the bsp limit is actually 64k. 

These are pointers to actual surfaces. Each leafnode has one marksurface for each actual surface that touches the leaf. Since QBSP merges surfaces, a surface may be shared by more than one leafnode, so there are often more than one marksurface for each actual surface. 

An "actual surface" = a wpoly. 

Mark Surfas was the founder of PlanetQuake, and therefore the owner of GameSpy Industries. He's also $20 million richer than he was ten years ago thanks IGN buying him out.

Bastard. 

. 

hi everyone. i just tried to load up the latest build of my map in winquake, and it crashed with this error message:

"SZ_GetSpace: 8002 is > full buffer size"

can anyone shed some light? 

this is a usual error in big maps, remove some entities (better bmodels).
I think you need to remove only 1 or 2 entities. 

bugger. that makes sense, as i've added a load of bmodels since my last build. (and i had planned to add a load more!).

i really don't know where to start cutting down... :( 

error messages a lot lately ... 

fave error :)
cuz sometimes engines crash without any errors. 

in quake, you know how the ammo boxes etc. are bsp models? well, does the engine treat these similarly to "proper" brush models like doors etc, i.e. if my error is caused by having too many bmodels, could it also be solved by reducing the no. of ammo box models (replacing them with .mdl versions for example)? 

If you haven't already, take a look at the archived QMap thread at my site, there are a lot of good stuff in there. Just d/l, unzip and open in a browser. 

anyone ever notice when your map starts to get big (+4000 or so brushes), there seems to be some sort of lag on the mouse, when right clicking and dragging to move the view? but not really lag... but like, when you right click and start panning the view, sometimes, it "won't let go" and keeps panning for a few seconds... like it received the +rmb, but not the -rmb..? anyway to fix this? is this a problem with the editor or windows? 

hmm, didn't notice that. maybe u got cubic clipping on? it might slow down things if it's on on a large map... 

thanks for that - quite a few tips under my belt already, and i'm only halfway through the yr 2000 posts! 

I'm currently tweaking a beta level intended for use with a mod though this version is purely vanilla Quake and the game play is complete in and of its self. If you find it mutually beneficial and within your time constraints, I wouldn't mind handing it over for you to examine, and would apreciate any advice you would have to give.