Hammer takes forever to load my map!

[Big Brane Base]

Hello, Forum!

A few weeks ago me and a friend of mine started working on a CS: GO Map, a school related project for our design course.

Now that we're nearing the end phases of the mapmaking. Hammer takes more than half an hour just to load the map using the F9 key.

Is there a way to reduce this time? It's really starting to get annoying!

Thank you in advance for any answers.

/ Scavenge™

[CS_]

Good article: Optimisation[www.optimization.interlopers.net]

[bundestrojaner]

You need to optimise your map, https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Optimization_(level_design) is a good place to start, but I'll give you some basics here.

1. No leaks. Leaks, no matter how small or plain will make your map run terribly and will stop any affected entities from working.

2. Don't make your skybox bigger than it needs to be. By making a hollowed out square for a skybox vvis needs to run pointless calculations for stuff you are most likely never going to see.

3. Use 'cheap' brushes whenever possible. Using cheap water as an example, the engine doesn't need to waste time making the surface reflective.

4. Use func_detail. This method is the easiest if done right, when done wrong it can break the map, so use it sparingly. The best way to use it is making all brushes in the 3D skybox a func_detail and anything else that won't entirely block your vision, e.g stones.

5. Make use of the hint/skip brush. This is slightly harder, but very effective as it allows you to determine each zone that vvis makes calculations in, if done right the game won't render anything that cant be seen, but again, you have to determine this manually.

[bilge rat]

and for fps reasons.
Use nodraw on things the play can't see.

[Big Brane Base]

Originally posted by CS_:

Good article: Optimisation[www.optimization.interlopers.net]

Originally posted by bundestrojaner:

You need to optimise your map, https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Optimization_(level_design) is a good place to start, but I'll give you some basics here.

1. No leaks. Leaks, no matter how small or plain will make your map run terribly and will stop any affected entities from working.

2. Don't make your skybox bigger than it needs to be. By making a hollowed out square for a skybox vvis needs to run pointless calculations for stuff you are most likely never going to see.

3. Use 'cheap' brushes whenever possible. Using cheap water as an example, the engine doesn't need to waste time making the surface reflective.

4. Use func_detail. This method is the easiest if done right, when done wrong it can break the map, so use it sparingly. The best way to use it is making all brushes in the 3D skybox a func_detail and anything else that won't entirely block your vision, e.g stones.

5. Make use of the hint/skip brush. This is slightly harder, but very effective as it allows you to determine each zone that vvis makes calculations in, if done right the game won't render anything that cant be seen, but again, you have to determine this manually.

Thank you for the great answers. I managed to reduce this time with your help. Much appreciated xoxox