Work Log
15 November 2004
Well I started decompiling the BSP file and I have a lot of work to do. There are at least 200 errors that have to be corrected before even thinking of working on the file.
20 November 2004
Well I had to delete a lot of brushes as they had unrecoverable errors. I guess I will just have to build them again.
25 November 2004
OMG there is an entire map underneath this one. I guess this map had more levels at one time. deleting all material underneath to make the map smaller. Also everything in the map was hollowed out creating a ton of brushes.
4 December 2004
I took a break for awhile as there was a lot of stuff to delete and I was playing HL2, did I sat there was A LOT to delete! Taking 2 weeks vacation this should give me time to work on the map.
11 December 2004
So much for working on the map been playing DOD at the KK :)
14 December 2004
OK decided to put in a lot of time on the map.
17 December 2004
Decided to build this page to share my ecstasy lol. Actually I wanted a place to put some progress pictures. and yes I suck at HTML using FrontPage ugh. I have been working on the map about 12 hours a day, my hours are weird. Playing DOD from around 7pm to maybe midnight and then mapping until 7 or 8 am then sleeping all day.
Rebuilt the skybox around the map and tried compiling it to see if it will compile.
I finally have all the errors gone except one, rebuilt all of the deleted brushes except for one it is kicking my ass. If I see the error for entity 0 brush 1387 again I'm going to scream.
Ok just decided to compile the map without the roof on the one building, and getting the error could not open dod_tiger.po, searched the web and several people have run into this issue but no solutions found yet. I tried copying everything from axis spawn all the way to the 1st flag and got a leaf saw into leaf error. Found that the env_entity for the tiger in axis spawn was poking though the bottom of the map. Made all the floors thicker to cover all the entities poking through.
Recompiled the axis section I copied and that worked fine. But I still get that .po error when compiling the complete map.
Ok decided to go through the entire map and group everything back together as they would be if creating a new map from scratch. This will enable me to copy stuff to a new from scratch copy using the brushes from the old map and compile portions at a time until I run into that error again.
Also I may just remake the map from scratch and copy over all the grouped brushes so I can make exact replica's of them and then delete the copies. I wont be hollowing anything that doesn't need to be. Already the map RMF went from 15 mb and is almost 12 mb maybe a new from scratch version will be smaller. I really dont want to do that as I already have mucho time invested in this.
By the way thanks to Swordzkof and Spetznatz, the other Kettle Admins and all the friend I have at Kustom Kettle !!! www.kustomkettle.com
Edit 31 Jan 2005 ended up being able to repair the map without copying, found that copying dislocated the textures and it was easier to not copy.
19 December 2004
OK taking a break for Christmas
17 January 2005
Happy New Year
Started working on the map again a few weeks ago. Can you say leak leak leak? It seems that there are massive leaks and that alot of cutting was done with walls. I am finding tons of debris all over the place. I started grouping things together and just copy and pasting to a new map. Anyway I was going back and forth between the 2 maps (original and copyied version. Fix one then the other, anyway one of the times I loaded the original the textures came out weird for the Germans. I ended up with German Commando Mimes LOL here is a screen dump! --> GCM's
21 January 2005
Hurrah NO MORE LEAKS!!! Now I have to solve this crazy leaf portal saw into leaf error.
28 January 2005
Phew OK figured out how to fix those, seems the roofs were causing almost all of them due to overlapping brushes. Finished rebuilding all the roofs in the map.
29 January 2005 3:00 am
Ok its seems that all of the leaf errors are gone. Found a good batch compile program to use so I can do a full compile since I cannot seem to get Hammer to do it. Starting compile and going to bed.
29 January 2005
Grrrrr !!!! Does it never end? Now I get exceeded MAX_PATCHES, Hmm OK nulling everything that cant bee seen.
Did some searching on the web and stumbled across the batch file compile on VERC's website I think it runs a little faster than hammer does even though you are using the same processes, probably my imagination. Anyway it does allow you more control over the process and plus you can put in 3 different methods that can be chosen at the command line. SWEET VERC batch file compiler
29 January 2005
Always always make a backup, seems I just set myself back about a week, starting over from an old backup
29 January 2005 (5:00 am 30 January actually)
Ok just redid lots of things on the map at least I am getting better now. Some of the buildings have only 1 wall now instead of 2. I am having problems getting textures to apply to only 1 side of a brush so to make a wall with different textures on each side I am having to use 2 brushes GRRRR.
After lots of work I was finally able to remove all the leaks I created from changing most of the walls which was a lot of work, good thing I had the day off as I have just spent 14 hours working on the map with a short break to run out for a haircut and a bite to eat, all leaks gone strating compile and going to bed. AT least I am getting some reading done on the Honor Harrington series by David Webber during compiles however it is on in 2 minute spurts as thats how long it take to complete the BSP routine.
30 January 2005 11:00 am Who needs 7 hours of sleep?
Limited success now I am back to where I was a day and a half ago, but with a somewhat better map. Exceeded MAX_PATCHES again. 65535 is the hard coded maximum and I have 65573 which is very very close, now I have to figure out where I can delete something.
8:00 pm
Coolness the map passes CSG, BSP, and also VIS. Seems I jacked up on of my buildings somehow that I had already repaired, couldn't fix the problem took 15 minutes of jacking around trying to fix it and then 2 minutes to delete and creat a new brush . . sheesh
Groan just finished compiling with all processes on, FREAKIN Malformed face errors. And does it finish and tell you all of them? Noooooo could not be like VIS and let you know all the errors it feeds them to you one at a time. Grrr anyway just tried running rad only to keep from having to wait 25 minutes to find out there is another error, It works at least it only takes 2-3 minutes to find the next error. Hopefully I can get through all the errors so I can change out the Tiger tanks and the sandbags with the new ones I made that are clipped better most probably creating new errors! :/ LOL
31 January 2005
Wow it is just amazing how what seems like 1 little thing can go awry. I have been getting and fixing Bad Surface Extents, they were all on the func_rotating_door 's. Realizing that they to are hollow as I haven't gotten around to them I deleted all the garbage and widened what was left to become the door. It seem that the only thing that retained the entity attributes were the door frames. Unfortunately I missed a few and was getting the error no origin in entity, took me a few to figure out what I did, Thank you for the handy entity report I went and name all the doors in the map and then went through the list looking for doors with no name and was able to remove the garbage, whew. Now back to the bad extents hopefully I will be done soon.
2:50 am
Well I just finished re-applying textures to the doors to fix them, the sandbags were starting to have issues so I deleted them and put in the new ones that I clipped closely to the env_model, I also went ahead and replaced the tanks. The middle tank seems to sit lower than the original but it matches the one in German spawn... hmm.
Anyway HOT Damn the RAD process finally passed just started to run the entire 4 processes this should take 25 - 45 minutes. We shall see.
Looks like it took 44 minutes.
Now to start testing for release
Ok looks like it needs a little work sigh the doors don't open, the sandbags don't work, the grass in German spawn is about 5 units above the ground etc, etc, etc ...
5:00 am
going to bed starting final compile
1:00 pm
Started a compile before I went to bed the doors are fixed but the sandbags are still being a pain, I think I have it fixed. I made a test map of the german 2nd flag area and all is working. went and added spawn protection to the Allies side to keep people from shooting into spawn, it starts out doing 1 damage to you but as soon as you pass a certain point it slays. Did the same thing to the German side in the alley no one uses.
Started the final test compile and called The CableGuy to invite him to a test run around 2:30 pm.
13 February 2005
Moved the skybox down to touch the roofs, about 32 units. Immediate r_speed change, I only drop to about 90 fps in 2 spots now Waiting for C+.Gorbachev to finish doing his texture alignment magic.
