How big is too big

[mstrum]

So, my VMF file is about 2 MB, but compiled the bsp is 15 mb!

The map is very detailed, has three floors (all open to each other where the stairs are) with a glass pyramid at the top. I am guessing just that fact makes the map big, but I am wondering if anyone knows if certain things create a lot of bloat.

Currently, I only have brushes (including the stairs, railing, windows, etc.). I am thinking I need to change them to entities but I want to get feedback on how to go about doing so and why. This is my first map, so I don't know a whole lot. Thanks!

 

[The Dark Elf]

meh, just a very large terrain can be 40mb.. with no details and no lighting even. So expect some maps to be well over a few hundred meg.

 

[1-THOUGHT]

old CS maps were massive at 6MB... most were 2-4 range (correct me if Im wrong) not sure about source, trying to read up on it

 

[eiric]

meh, just a very large terrain can be 40mb.. with no details and no lighting even. So expect some maps to be well over a few hundred meg.

Damn, like a whole game, just one map...

 

[bliink]

meh, just a very large terrain can be 40mb.. with no details and no lighting even. So expect some maps to be well over a few hundred meg.

Lucky I have a gig of ram...

 

[The Dark Elf]

Lucky I have a gig of ram...

show off

 

[PHATXUIQ]

Ram for Mapping

Quote: Lucky I have a gig of ram...


Gig of ram is no where near from helping you with lags in heavy map editing.

I am planning on to get 4 gigs of ram in near future. Now that will boost performance.

 

[Geronimous]

Quote: Lucky I have a gig of ram...


Gig of ram is no where near from helping you with lags in heavy map editing.

I am planning on to get 4 gigs of ram in near future. Now that will boost performance.

Hahah - that's a myth.
No computer (currently) is much better of over 1 Gb of RAM. Of course that will be different in the future.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Wow.. I started a panic with big map sizes hehe

I was talking about the BIG maps.. regular maps your looking at around 20mb or so, DM ones maybe smaller, the mods with all the bells and whistles will have larger maps, throw in custom textures, sounds, music, models. On average a regular Total conversion will be around a gig or so in full.. I remember when games came on floppy disk

 

[Cole]

I still remember someone saying this...
Yeah you have like a 31 floppy disk game.
You put in the 29th one.
And all of the sudden!
*Cannot Read From Disk*
You: Aww shit!

I am planning on to get 4 gigs of ram in near future. Now that will boost performance.

2 gigs would slow you down from 1.5 gigs.
Why? We need higher ram speeds to search the ram faster. Otherwize it simply isn't fast enough to keep up with how much it has to search.
I remember that being mentioned in the hardware forum.
So 4 gigs might be slower than 1.5gigs.
Though then again, 4 sticks each at 1 gig might not be. I don't know you would have to ask someone in the hardware forum.

 

[Bastion]

UT had Static Mesh's that were awsome and you could make good maps under 5 to 8 MB. I wish HL2 had them.

 

[The Dark Elf]

I still remember someone saying this...
Yeah you have like a 31 floppy disk game.
You put in the 29th one.
And all of the sudden!
*Cannot Read From Disk*
You: Aww shit!

lol, I was always a big fan of the point and click games, and those ended up turning up on loads of disks towards the end, so coming up against that was always a problem. Then there was the video toaster package.. Don't remember exactly how many disks it was on but I remember it almost filled a disk box hahaha

UT had Static Mesh's that were awsome and you could make good maps under 5 to 8 MB. I wish HL2 had them.

It's not all bad. Atleast there's fewer limits nowadays and more and more teams can do something cool without having to hold back so much. The DM maps should still remain small, just the bigger SP games with all the trimmings that'll end up being huge, but the advantage of that is people wont just download any old mod, it'll have to be _very very_ good before someone feels like DLing a 3GB mod. Forces the mod teams to work much harder if they want anyone to play what they made.

 

[Demaratus]

Video Toaster, isn't that what they used for effects on Babylon 5? That was quite a powerful program considering the state of computers in '95.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Video Toaster, isn't that what they used for effects on Babylon 5? That was quite a powerful program considering the state of computers in '95.

Still is used, a lot. But it was the hardware back then that was the big deal. The software is tons better now for it. Though it was pretty powerful back then already. Throwing video around like that was very impressive. Could rattle out stuff on a stock Amiga that would otherwise require some pretty expensive high end systems (PC's were still in CGAville at that point and Windows 3.11 was still an idea on a napkin in Bill Gates pocket) So for a few grand you could setup a professional quality editing and CG studio. Which is what Ron Thornton decided to do and Babylon 5 was his little at the time's company's big demo so to speak. After that CG took off properly and now everyone is doing it, granted you can now do on a typical PC what the video toaster could do.. but you still can't do it in realtime without the hardware, that was the cool bit about it, no waiting around