Need morale boost! :(
<div class="IPBDescription">'bout ready to quit hl altogether</div>well the day is finaly here when I can say I realy want to quit Half-Life editing altogether! I keep getting this AllocBlock Full error when I launch my map. Ive built levels with 10 times the brushes, r_speeds in the 1000s for both w and e polys(obviously not that Im proud of it <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->) but Ive never gotten this error before the really sad thing is Im only 1/4 done with my level and dont even want to continue! Im already on the verge of the the 4MB texture limit,(prolly cuz all the moniters and electronic stuff) and I havent even begun any of the "infested' areas! I havent started lighting yet either. On top of HLs many other limitations, Texture size, visual distances and restrictions, small map sizes(in my opinion), ugly skies and horrible compile times(and prolly a few more)
The Pro's: WC (Hammer) is THE most straight foreward and user friendly editor for any game (even moreso than 3-D editing packages like Lightwave and Max) It has decent help files built in(unlike UnrealEd) An "older" comunity with exellent documents and tutorials (unlike Serious Sam) All aspects of the interface and "artwork" are easily exploited. and an overall helpfull and pleasent community!
But I am still very much ready to change engines SS:SE. I know its editor is far more complicated, its community is young and not to helpfull as of yet, net code sux right now, but so did Valves and Ids at first. The engine is stunning! in so many ways It gives me that giddy feeling I got when I first played UT or Q3 but much more massive. I can push 3X the polys of HL and get higher frames than HL all the while looking 10X prettier than HL on the exact same machine! Anyway I really need help with this AllocBlock error and I need to see some screenie of cool maps or somethin to get me exited about HL!!! I need to play NS SOOOOOOON!!!
The Pro's: WC (Hammer) is THE most straight foreward and user friendly editor for any game (even moreso than 3-D editing packages like Lightwave and Max) It has decent help files built in(unlike UnrealEd) An "older" comunity with exellent documents and tutorials (unlike Serious Sam) All aspects of the interface and "artwork" are easily exploited. and an overall helpfull and pleasent community!
But I am still very much ready to change engines SS:SE. I know its editor is far more complicated, its community is young and not to helpfull as of yet, net code sux right now, but so did Valves and Ids at first. The engine is stunning! in so many ways It gives me that giddy feeling I got when I first played UT or Q3 but much more massive. I can push 3X the polys of HL and get higher frames than HL all the while looking 10X prettier than HL on the exact same machine! Anyway I really need help with this AllocBlock error and I need to see some screenie of cool maps or somethin to get me exited about HL!!! I need to play NS SOOOOOOON!!!
Comments
And just last night I felt like totally giving up again... it's just these things that come and go. Sure, all the problems that I was facing last night are still with me, but I've cooled off a bit and, well, can handle it better today. Who knows what tomorrow will be like.
I don't know... all I can say to you about leaving the NS/HL scene is: <i>Don't you dare.</i>
You will regret it. I really think you will. That's not to say you shouldn't get involved with other games and their communities... just don't flat out leave this. I mean it.
We have all felt like you do. I feel that way right now. Yesterday I was this close to giving up flat out. But... keeping faith in this thing, I somehow managed to sleep it off. I really don't know what to tell you except to just hold in there. It'll be worth it. Trust me.
Oh, and when HL throws you a limitation... well... Grab it by the throat and show it just what you can do with it. I never once imagined I'd be able to do this kind of lighting with HL's cranky old engine.. but I did:
<img src="http://tald.readyroom.org/maps/ns/ns_nothing/images/phl1.jpg" border="0">
<img src="http://tald.readyroom.org/maps/ns/ns_nothing/images/ugh.jpg" border="0">
(No clue about the error you're getting, but I'm sure someone will be able to help you here.)
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|May 04 2002,23:10-->
Do you have lots of entities in your map? Which tools are you using? Make sure you're using Zoners, because that culls out all light entity information after lighting up the map. (Whereas WC's original tools leave the light entity data in, which is totally pointless as they're useless after they've lit up the map.)
Now, I'm not entirely clear on what AllocBlock:full is, but it basically means this: Your map is too big for HL to fit into memory. It usually happens with larger maps, which is strange because you said you're only about 25% done with the map. Do you have a leak? Try to fix it first so you can run VIS. It's possible that running VIS will get rid of this error. You might also want to check the number of entities that you have. Again, the fact that you're running into the error this early into your development stage worries me quite a bit, but just try your best. Also, for your texture memory problem, I'd suggest that you wait until your level's just about finished, then see if you can replace any similar textures or resize large textures to a smaller size.
Good luck.
though I feel like Im forcing myself to "edit" for HL Id never stop playing!(I just dun wanna be the poor SOB making the game <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->) THX guys, just needed to vent. o and Ken, those sceenies were exactly what I needed! Your shadows are incredible and....sheesh I am always lost for words when I see your mapping skills. could I ask you a big favor? can you post some hammer wireframe shots so I can take a look at your brush work and see if Im doin something terribly wrong? Dare I ask for the RMF? obviosly this would be used at the greatest discretion and not exploited. But no is probably the best answer anyway.
btw. heres my map stats.
no entities other than 3 lights,8 func doors, 3 func breakables, 1 trigger, and several func_walls.<==prolly like 20-30
588 solids
3573 faces
4 point entities
24 solid entities
60 textures
3.8 texture memory
NS wad and my wad (1 texture in it)
the only "map problems" I get is like 5 "invisible" func_doors that when deleted I lose the angle on some of my visible doors. Any ideas on why this causes allocation full arrors?
And are you shutting down programs you don't need like virus scanners and the like when you're compiling?
And have you tried out SHODAN yet?
<!--EDIT|Moleculor|May 05 2002,01:32-->
Oh and I am using Zoners tools. Shodan is that night and weekend server, correct? actually I do plan on using it when I have a more complete product and/or unbearable compile times
/me is not a mapper.
Parasite's last post was quite confusing...
If anyone remembers when I just joined the ns community I had posted a layout and after reading what some poeple had to say I had what I think is still a great layout for a map. Then I thought "Common Steve, you know in a month you will just give up and in that month you will have nothing but headachs, just don't even try." And I never did try...