Quake3World

So I start the compilation of my map (quake3 - dgctf1) and I'got this error message right away that say : "MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY exceeded"
Never got it or saw it, so I googled it and found the answer to the problem, either make some brush in detail, put more caulk on surface not visible or join brushes together, if I can, to reduce the count of brushes and visibility face. But after reading some forums about this error, I got the impression that people cannot continue to compile it when they have this error, on my side, even if I get the error, the compilation still runs fine and I can load the map without any problem after that also. What is wrong with my map then if I get this error and I can still load it after compilation?

do you have a lot of patch meshes? it caused me to get the same error, player clipping and/or making their texture be non solid was how i fixed the problem. gl

You have a large area in your map where the distance is too long. You need to put a huge wall(must be solid, not detail) in the middle to cut that in half. This wall might significantly change the gameplay of your map, therefore try chunks of walls instead and use more hint brushes.

Also, make sure you do not use too many solid brushes for small details like rubble, broken bits of ground, railings, or even stairs. Make those brushes detail instead.

Yeah I solved the problem easily, I was playing with some grouped brushes that I was rotating and when you do that, the brushes tend to loose their alignment between them. I made those brush detailed and everything was fixed, I was just wondering about the error, when I get it, I still can compile and load the map, I was wondering if that is normal or not regarding this compile error.

It has to do with reaching a max limit for -vis. Basically, it's generating way too many portals. Are you using detail brushes? If not, you most definitely should.

Those small alignment issues will generate a bunch of little gaps between faces and -vis will have a problem with generating portals between them. In addition to converting them to detail, it's a good idea to make sure that their vertex points snap to a grid line, even if it's to the nearest quarter grid unit.

It's exactly what's happening... I've tried to make the vertex point snap to the grid line but honestly, there is a limit to what I can do with that. So I've started to make details on some brushes, but I was wondering what is the rule of thumbs for choosing what brush to make details, the only guideline that I have so far is not to pick the brushes that are sealing off the void. I also haven't put any area portal in my map because it's a space map and I don't really know where I could put one without really blocking the full view.

Rule of thumb: if it's not going to help with visibility, convert to detail.

In general, space maps don't vis well at all and in most cases it's better to convert everything except the box sky into detail. You won't need area portals (area what?).

If you're going to do any tricky rotating, convert to ASE/OBJ and re-import as a model. Use Q3Map2 for ASE or GtkRadiant 1.5.0 brushexport2 plugin for OBJ. Easy as pie.

This thread links to a bunch of others that will give some general insight into how -vis works and how/when you need to use detail.
viewtopic.php?t=3620

yeah already read that one 2 times, it's the best tutorial so far regarding hint brush. I hope I'll be able to use it on my next map!

mm i got this error last night after duping the base... i ended up having to cut the map in half, rotate half of it 90 and flit it to the side and heavily modify the corner area where they merge. Also I went about converting outer walls to detail, any wall that has nothing but void behind it from all pvs angles

did the compile stopped or continued when you got the error?

i do my compiles in pieces, meta bsp first, then vis and light, usually i test vis only rarrely until iv'e got some intention to get into hinting. I'm waiting for the vis process to complete now.. fingers crossed for good results.

Just a nitpick: everyone does compiles in pieces the way you put it. BSP, VIS and light are three individual calls to the q3map2 executable

lolumnottrue, the bsp menu allows for compiling all parts together in a single compile string or three/fourcompile parts seperately..


dghost77 probably does a multi stage compile and is complaning that the vis part crashes and causes the light and bot parts to not run without having to select them manually.

but anyway thanks for finding something t nitpick about

skinmaster wrote:lolumnottrue, the bsp menu allows for compiling all parts together in a single compile string or three/fourcompile parts seperately..

The BSP menu is just an interface, but it does do three separate calls to Q3Map2, it just does them under one listing for convenience. You can always see how far it gets and find the problem by reading Q3Map2's log anyway.

Another thread concerning the strucutral/detail/MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY/etc topic: this one. Just saw that my pic summarizing some of the written facts there into a visual form at the end got missing when I migrated to another webhost, will upload it in the next few days.

Good reading, got more details regarding that. Thx for the link about this thread.

You're welcome.
Just fixed the link to the img in that thread.