Take a look at this level map:


I have launch "build map" 7 days ago on a Pentium 4 2,8 ghz
..and.. today is 40, 50% completed ?
is possible ? or I have made some mistake?

a closer look could be neccessary. how many portals did the compiler told you?
i once canceled a compiling after 1 and a half month at around 90% because there was no progress for two days. take a look if you can set some detailflags or reduce blocks...

Today is 24738 portals! (4 days ago was 26000)

the wed work..(cpu 100%)

its like they say: size doesnt matter.

Its all about how maze-like your level is build and how many "possible views" are resulting from your leveldesign.

A wall in a cube has not many "hide outs" and will be calculated very fast.
A dungeon on the other side will take some time.

A week for full visibility calculations is possible and has happened to me as well....ok, on a P2 but still

24,000+ portals is very, very high for a level and, as you are finding out, will take ages to build at a full build. Most of my levels are between 3,000 - 6,000+ portals. The result is that they build fairly quickly on a P4 (and the levels I am talking about are very detailed).

There are a few things you can do to speed things up depending on what you are after. I'll state the obvious ones as well :

Remove truly unneeded geometry

Look through your level and consider all that you have put in it. Ask yourself what the purpose of each area is and what the player will be doing there. Then ask if the player will really notice that detail or the other. If not, then cut it. If the player, for instance, is to be running through a hall and fighting off monsters, then his attention will not be on the fine details there. Cut them from the level.

Some details can be textures and not geometry

If you are modeling every little lightswitch, then don't. Create a texture or a sprite for it and use that instead. Take a look through your level and see what can be done just as well in a texture or with a sprite and use them where you can.

Use map entities

You can divide up your level into smaller parts, build those parts as map entities and then assemble the whole thing together again as a whole map. This will greatly decrease your build times overall. You need to be careful about a few things (like where lighting crosses over from one map entity to the next) but this is a great method to build complex levels and you can even use LOD and other tricks to speed up the level while playing it.

Split up the level

Of course you can always split up the level into more than one level and use C-Script to program a level change.

There are other options and perhaps someone will share more, but these should get you started.

I hope this helps!

Thank you very much to everyone!!
I'll try to re-made my map with better attention!!
Thanx again!

Why would you wait 1 month and a half for just one level. It's 99% sure that there will be mistakes in the design that you'll have to fix, and then another 1 month and a half???? Obviously that's one messed up level!

Prob. 'cause it was the finished thing, just before publishing it.

thegamedesigner

You should read these articals on BSP tree and how it works

web page

it's one of the articals i read a while back to learn how to get the most out of BSP tree level building for build time.

the key ISN'T the number of portals overall, but the number of portals within a portal region ( or as most BSP articals call it tree culling nodes) is what slows down and hangs the building algorithums. to have an idea, stand in a single room of your level, and turn all the way around 360 + looking up and down. how many surfaces can you see in that area ( including looking out doorways and window holes) now how many tiems does the textures on each of those surfaces tile ( when using a 64x64 texture). try counting how many tiles there are on all the surface faces you can see. because thats 'in a sense' basicly how each portal is built (albit hightly over simlified)

eliminate any portal that won't be visible and don't leave portals facing into the infinate space of the level if possible.( set them to a texture flaged to NONE )

build your level as a 'shell'. floors, walls, ceilings being mindful of visibility from one area to the next in your map. fill in details later like curved surfaces/unusual angular surfaces, objects, decorations with mdls, map entities, sprites and blocks set to detail flag.

avoid small block surfaces, ESPECALY ones that the surfaces are at an angle not aligned to the grid X/Y or Z axis directions ( good cause of them missaligned and misplaced portal errors) if you need a small surface use another method.