The Spire

Garry's Mod mapping
#1

I currently have a Fallout: New Vegas roleplay map (rp_spire) that was created around 4-5 years ago. Sadly, the map is far to large to be uploaded to the workshop; but the map is amazing. I’m seeking tips, suggestions, or overall answers regarding the possible revival of this map. The map was never intended to be uploaded to the workshop, so it’s materials and models have been bundled in a way that makes it very difficult to work with. Nonetheless, if anyone has any experience uploading difficult to work with maps, I’d appreciate some advise and or perhaps adding me on steam - if you don’t want to share your secrets with the public.

My Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198096900690/

#2

What do you mean by “it’s materials and models have been bundled in a way that makes it very difficult to work with.”?

Aren’t you simply able to put the materials and models back into the GMod folders and use pakrat?

Also how aren’t you able to upload your map to the workshop? IIRC the bsp can go up to around 100 mb and if it’s bigger then you’re pretty much screwed. You could always upload the textures/models and the map as different addons.

#3

That 100mb limit is actually AFTER compression by gmad.exe. this process is insane!! As a rough number you can take 70% compression. So for example a 300mb bsp file can be uploaded as it’s 90mb after compression

[Editline]a[/editline]
I think that 100mb limit isn’t accurate either. One of my uploads is 111mb on the workshop

#4

70%??? Thats insane?

#5

Don’t know if you’re being sarcastic, but LZMA compression works really well for Source BSP, and 70% is a common figure.

#6

I’m not being sarcastic. How do you even create a map thats 100mb after 70% compression? Kind of irresponsible in my opinion

#7

A combination of 100% custom made textures, models, sounds and a full year of non stop time invested in a single project till it’s completion. It’s not uncommon if you have a look at some bigger more passionate maps on the workshop.

#8

Time and passion invested have nothing to do with map filesize. In fact, a truly good map has a good filesize to go with everything else that works in its favour. Custom models and textures need to be properly used and they will never go above 200 mb uncompressed even on a huge map. Same with lightmaps etc.

For reference: this map has a target uncompressed filesize of 20mb. EP2 assets are packed

#9

If it was 100% custom content, even up to 200 MB (uncompressed) is perfectly fine, since that’s the texture budget alone that Valve targeted for EP2. And that’s with 2008 standards of quality.

[editline]19th August 2017[/editline]

Also what does that even mean?

#10

In the same way that its irresponsible to release a map that features lag spikes and 10 fps areas. It can be avoided and should be avoided. I remember that one rp map made by oskutin. It was absolutely gorgeous, but it was huge and its custom content was a clusterfuck. This was all avoidable and pushed a otherwise great map off the stage!
Things like shrinking 1024 textures into 512 ones and not using two different custom concrete textures when only one can be used should be as important as running vis on -normal!

And download times are still a big issue for most of eastern europe. And it goes without saying that many players are from there.

#11

god forbid a map download takes 3 minutes instead of 2

#12

So you enjoy staring at a blank screen for 60 seconds more than actually playing the game in that time? If the user is in Ukraine, the server hosted in LA, and the server hosts a uncompressed version then it makes a lot of difference. Some game modes put people who load longer at a disadvantage (e.g. ZS). And on top of all that, if you make frequent workshop changes people won’t enjoy downloading 5 new 200mb maps every time they boot up Gmod.

When did map optimisation become a controversial topic?

#13

You can only optimize so much if you’re seeking an art direction that’s not just retail HL2. Maybe today’s players are spoiled or something, but I distinctly recall joining gmod servers in the 2000s and patiently waiting sometimes 30 minutes to an hour to play. Those servers were often jam-packed in spite of the large amount of content you had to DL. A couple extra minutes’ download time for a map that’s sincerely pretty and worth the time is not a big deal.