SMP crash on map load

[Captaintoottoot]

This post should be here rather than the map section because I am looking for understand/a solution for the problem behind the crash, not advice to make a map smaller.

When SMP is turned on the game crashes on one of my larger maps during load. I will see the map items loading then it goes to a white screen, then it just hangs and I have to close it from windows. It has also done it sometimes, though less frequently, on one of the smaller maps. It almost always does it when I open the large map, then I open the large map again from the same map. It's a memory issue with SMP. I can't be the only person to have encountered this with the Q3 engine.

I'm running on Windows 7. I have an ATi card and using catalyst to do the antialiasing and such. Should be a factor though since the other maps run fine.. Increasing the zonemegs was required to get the large map to run. Increasing the com_hunkmegs seemed to increase/decrease the odds of it happening. I can't go over 1024 hunkmegs without an error.

I tried making the entire map one white texture to rule out that it wasn't a shader or odd sized texture. Still crashed the same. I deleted most of the entities out of the map, still crashed. I compiled the map with a very small lightmap size, still crashed.

[Eraser]

I remember something about SMP mode in Quake being unstable and it being advised not to use it.

Besides, with today's hardware it won't give you that much of an advantage. Even when running on a single core, 120+ framerates are easily obtained.

[Captaintoottoot]

From what I've read, with Q3 the biggest bottlenecks are CPU related. So being able to use SMP and not just 25% of the processor would be a good thing.

With this situation, it's something to do with memory and SMP being on. I just simplified the vis of the map, meaning I decreased the complexity, not the size, and the time the screen goes white is shorter now, and the odds of the map coming up without crashing are better, but it still happens. So I'm guessing it's something to do when loading the vis into memory and SMP being on. Wish I knew what exactly though.

[Eraser]

From what I've read, with Q3 the biggest bottlenecks are CPU related. So being able to use SMP and not just 25% of the processor would be a good thing.

Yeah, but with modern day hardware, even when using a single core, you can't really speak of bottlenecks. You'll have no problem outputting 200+ frames per second without SMP.

[Captaintoottoot]

The project I'm working on uses lots of bots on complex maps. This eats up the CPU badly. It doesn't matter how little the video card has to work when the bots are slowing everything down. On the most complex map the FPS will drop to around 30 fps at best, and that's with bot_thinktime set to 500! But without bots the map runs at around 166 fps worst case. I've bot clipped / optimized the crap out of the maps and bot code. It used to be worst, around 8 fps. On every map with SMP on there is at least a 30% fps increase. But sadly there is also about a 1 in 3 chance of the map crashing on load. I used to think only larger maps suffered from this but smaller simpler maps will also randomly crash with SMP on. I do think it has something to do with the hunk_alloc because when I changed the com_hunkmegs and whatnot the odds of crash got better/worst.

Is there any way to trick the computer to not run with SMP on until after the map is loaded / level has begun? Like if the level.time > 0 ?

[Ganemi]

Take a look at the Hunt Mod source code. You could have hundreds of bots in there all searching for you and attacking you at the same time, and it wouldn't really slow down at all. There were only 3 different enemy models, however, and the A.I. for the foot soldiers was very simple, just move towards you and attack. Also, in 2015 running a map at that FPS is not that great. I'll get 250 FPS in QL without anyone loaded in on this processor/on-board combo, but the same map with a 5v5 will get 50-70 fps.

You probably actually need an upgrade, and that's on top of some of Q3's supposed outdated rendering system.

Quake 3 Hunt Mod on Youtube