I have too, but they don't work out well in multiplayer.  The FPS goes 
to hell and players really feel the lag bat constantly.  There's a 
reason why Valve added the 3D skybox feature, to give players the 
illusion of huge areas, without the drawbacks.

HoundDawg

Soda Bob Curtis wrote:
> I've made very huge maps in Hammer with little to no problems.  Yes, the 
> compile times are sometimes long, but it never really crashes unless 
> there's a problem with the map.  Though, sure, sometimes I have bumped 
> into the maximum X Y or Z parameter once it loads in HL2 (or Quake or 
> Half Life) when doing huge maps, though. :)
>
> Bob.
>
> Phillip Marshall wrote:
>   
>> Even if you could make an outrageously huge map, you might not really want 
>> to.
>>
>> Think of it this way: If you could fit all five of Left 4 Dead's No
>> Mercy campaign maps into one, you would have to endure five times the
>> compile time, five times the memory load in Hammer – an application
>> which can be unstable enough as it is, five times the loading time
>> in-game, five times time the memory load in-game to the end user (who
>> might have a minimum spec machine that you have to consider), and five
>> times the server load on a multiplayer map. This isn’t even
>> considering that some aspects of this (like compile time maybe, I
>> don't know for sure) might multiply exponentially with size. So
>> basically, if you were to attempt to create anything up to Valve's
>> professional standards (think of Half-Life 2's levels that wind around
>> each other and overlap - Ravenholm for example - all the while
>> including tons of detail and gameplay), you are honestly better off
>> making a series of small, detail rich maps than making giant ones that
>> hold everything at once.
>>
>> Then again, you could be wanting to make giant open maps just to screw
>> around and play in (like flatgrass in Garry’s Mod), which would be
>> fine depending on what you want to put in the map. Just consider this
>> before rushing off to make the Left 4 Dead equivalent of the Empire
>> State Building.
>>
>> Maybe I should actually help answer the question:
>> I would imagine the absolute maximum size of any brush or level would
>> be the bounding box of the 2d views in hammer - if you zoom out all
>> the way, the grid only goes so far. I don’t know if you can draw
>> outside of those though, I’ve never tried.
>>
>> Thanks for listening to me ramble, I guess. Good luck on your map,
>> whatever it may turn out to be.
>>
>> Phillip Marshall
>> AKA wizpig64
>>
>> On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 11:43 PM, Alex Guichet <[email protected]> wrote:
>>   
>>     


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