Problem when DMAPing

[Nielsen74]

I hav a hangup while Dmaping a map (do ) the prosses stops right after a warning

 

WARNING Convert LWOToModelSurfaces: model models/darkmod/weapons/hammer02.LWO has too many verts for a poly! Make sure you triplet it down

unknown token `}`

 

but no matter if I delete the hammer I still get the Unknown token `}` hangup and looking through the .map file I can´t see any single } stikking out

 

so do any one know what this error is about?

[Springheel]

I've seen both those errors before (the hammer will be fixed in the next update), but it didn't affect my dmap.

[Mortem Desino]

Go back to your map in Dark Radiant. Save it again as a new file. Close DR, and try dmapping the new map. Having Dark Radiant open along with TDM usually doesn't cause any problems, but every once in a while there's a little conflict.

 

This happens to me when my map gets pretty big, and saving it in DR takes a few seconds. I'm in such a hurry to playtest that I accidently start dmapping before its done being saved.

[Fidcal]

The hammer warning is a separate issue and as Springheel says won't affect the dmap.

 

The other issue of the bad curly; have you got (or can you get a freebie) text editor syntax checker? eg Notepad Plus. It should indent the curlies so you might spot the bad one. I started looking into this to check bad xdata files but ran out of time. I downloaded Notepad Plus on my desktop but cannot find time to check it out.

[Nielsen74]

I lookede for that dad curly once and it took a good 1½ houre to go through the map file (theres A LOT of curlys to look through) so I´l try dmaping AFTER I´v closede DR to see if that makes a dif.

 

EDIT: that was a no go so all I can do now is go back to a save with no unknown token `}`

Edited January 19, 2010 by Nielsen74

[Fidcal]

I lookede for that dad curly once and it took a good 1½ houre to go through the map file (theres A LOT of curlys to look through) so I´l try dmaping AFTER I´v closede DR to see if that makes a dif.

 

EDIT: that was a no go so all I can do now is go back to a save with no unknown token `}`

How much work will you lose? I can go through the bad map if you want - no promises that I'd find anything though.

[Nielsen74]

I whent back through the saves to locate where the bad curly first apper and what the driffence was! and I found that there is no bad curly when dmaping save 217, the driffence between save 217 and save 218 is 4 objects! I then delede the spectacles (as the first of the 4 to try to pinpoint the problem), savede the map and dmapde, no more bad curly?, so maby there is a problem with spectacles object?

 

but I still get a hangup while dmaping? so yes Fidcal I´l take you up on your offer to hav a look or maby my computer is just too lov spec to handle a map of the size I´m at now

 

I´l PM you Fidcal with a link to a download site for the .map file

[Fidcal]

This seems to dmap for me OK with no errors but map just crashes with 'doom has stopped running' so not easy to see what the problem is. You might try deleting sections and blocking off any parts exposed to the void to try to narrow it down. If you try deleting half then test each half first. If both work then don't bother further with this method. But if one half is OK and the crashes then half that bad section and repeat.

 

For what it's worth I did a search and replace of all { and it found 26211 matches. Repeated for } and also got 26211 so they balance OK.

 

If I think of anything else I'll come back.

[Nielsen74]

I think I´l hav to put this map/mission on ice till I can get a pc with higher spec´s (or get my laptop to a pc-doctor)

[Fidcal]

It still won't work though. If you want me to look at it further to see if I can narrow it down then I can.

[Nielsen74]

Even in the editor is buggy moveing around but if you can find the problem area it shoure would be a big help [thumb]

[Fidcal]

You can expect a big map file to be sluggish in Dark Radiant on a low end PC. Tips:

 

Use the overhead region setting to quickly hide everything but what is zoomed in the grid view

Use the far clip plane keys to hide distant entities and terrain (this is under something like cubic clip plane in the shortcut keys and you need to redefine Ctrl + Plus because it does not work on all keyboards.)

Remember the filter menu to hide visportals, decals, entities, whatever.

 

OK, I'll take a look to see if I can narrow it down but it might be just over-complex for instance and the dmapper cannot handle it. Lots of trim and other details etc.

[Nielsen74]

Well all most all the walls on the 1 floor and 2 floor (that´s about 50-60 rooms) is made from 3 brushs for every wall (a panal pice, some wall paper and a top trim)?

but maybe it´s my laptop that´s just too low spec

 

Graphics card; NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

RAM; 4 GB DDR3

Processor; Intel® Core2Duo CPU P8400 @ 2,26 GHz

[Fidcal]

Sorry, not had time to look at this yet but I got a note in front of me.

[Baddcog]

Regarding buggy movement in editor.

 

Shouldn't be performance issues on your machine Nielsen, do you have the clipping plane on?

 

The problem with editors is they aren't optimized like the game, so the 3d views can suffer. Hammer (Halflife, Team Fortress 2) is the same way, you can never show your whole map, you need to hide stuff from rendering.

 

Dark Radiant suffers probably more than Dromed for one reason. You can have tons of details showing, rendering wireframes of all objects in your map at once in all screens, you can literally have hundreds of thousands of polies showing and that'll kill performance on most machines. However in game you are looking at an optimized map that culls as much as possible.

 

Dromed has boxes for objects (you can turn that option on in DR I believe), etc.. hide stuff, limit the clipping plane to a small area, So it doesn't matter how big the map is, you're just looking at a small part of it at any time.

[Nielsen74]

From the start (well after I read about it) I´v ben working with/in layers and I get buggy movement even in a layer that is no more then 30 brushs and all other layers turnde off

This map has 35 different layers a the moment!

Edited January 22, 2010 by Nielsen74

[Fidcal]

Depends on what you mean by buggy. On my machine it is normal compared to other FMs and I can move around albeit a little jerkily with all filters off and far clip plane fully extended. The jerkiness is normal for something this big. With region setting, filters, etc it moves smoothly. So probably your PC. BTW, what render mode have you got set in menu > edit > preferences > camera?

[Nielsen74]

The render mode is textured!

 

EDIT: It helpde a lot to enable fare clipper plane for the camera

Edited January 22, 2010 by Nielsen74

[Fidcal]

Your render mode is the correct default; it's lighting that would slow it down more. Flat I found didn't help much with performance, and wireframe is hard to work with I found.

[Fidcal]

Taken quite a while but I think I've narrowed it down and got it running. I'll report later when I get time to double check and suggest a fix.

[Fidcal]

I narrowed the problem down to the area of the current player start and narrowed it down further by deleting the open wooden stairs and then it worked OK. Then more by intuition than anything sensible I converted those stairs to func_static and it works:

 

• 
   
  
• Select every part of the stair
  
• RMB, convert to func_static
  
• If you missed any parts:
  
• Select the missing part(s) first (important)
  
• Then select the main stair func_static you made
  
• Menu > Edit > Reparent primitives
  
• That adds them to the func_static
  
• Drag out a monsterclip brush over the stairs
  
• Cut it down to a ramp (better than rotating a brush)
  
• Drag out a monsterclip brush over the railing
  
• Leave that right up to the ceiling but cut it away under the stair (if AI can go there)
  
• Dmap and it should be OK.
  

[Nielsen74]

Ok I´l try to turn that staircase in to func_static and I´v ben trying to simplify some of the brush work in the main hall´s as well!, so I´l see if that all helps the map to dmap AND run as a game

 

Edit: I´v turnde the stairs in to func_static and "cleande" up the hallways (turnde beams and archways in to func_static too) and now the map Dmap´s fine and I can again run the mission [thump]

A BIG thanks to Fidcal for your help

Edited January 24, 2010 by Nielsen74