Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
Once could imagine getting some map loading speed by getting the map data and other resources into the disk cache so that when an actual map-load happens, the amount of disk i/o needed is reduced. So, you wouldn’t tell the engine to do anything with the bsp file to preload it.. rather, you’d open the map file and just read all the bytes out of it, throwing them away. Then, when the engine later tries to load that map, chances are that the file operations would be much faster. This would only reduce the part of the load time which is related to reading data from disk, not that part which involves CPU processing of the data loaded. But it would probably make your map load time closer to the time you see when the map has been loaded before. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Tom Schumann Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:55 AM To: Mart-Jan Reeuwijk; Discussion of Half-Life Programming Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps I thought that the map was kept in memory after in was loaded by design (I don't know for sure though). I remember it being brought up at some stage - someone wanted that behaviour removed so they wouldn't have to restart the game every time they recompiled a map. I'm not sure about preloading materials but I saw this in the Alien Swarm source: CBaseEntity::PrecacheModel(sprites/gunsmoke.vmt); So I suppose the PrecacheModel function should work for materials too. On 15 January 2013 01:26, Mart-Jan Reeuwijk mreeu...@yahoo.commailto:mreeu...@yahoo.com wrote: Prolly some OS caching after access. From: tja...@comcast.netmailto:tja...@comcast.net tja...@comcast.netmailto:tja...@comcast.net To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.commailto:hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, 14 January 2013, 14:47 Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps That's a shame. I did look through zone cpp/h but it might be over my head, when it comes to memory allocation. Also, from what I've heard -heapsize command line doesn't matter anymore with orange box. So I'm not sure if that file is still relevant. Is there any cheap tricks to help performance? I'm bouncing between maps, and users are getting frustrated with load times. I do have a benchmark time that shows how long a map takes to load (grab curtime from preload and compare with curtime in postload. not sure how accurate) and I noticed if the map has been loaded before it takes half the amount of time to load. So something is staying in the memory. From: Jonatan Matějka jonatan1...@gmail.commailto:jonatan1...@gmail.com To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.commailto:hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 8:19:43 AM Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hi, if there were not significant changes in engine after HL2 alpha leak, there is no way to load nextmap before mapchange. You can precache it, but it will be trashed on mapchange anyway. If you own leaked source, take a look at zone.cpp/h where you can take a look for yourself. 2013/1/14 Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.netmailto:tja...@comcast.net Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
I thought that the map was kept in memory after in was loaded by design (I don't know for sure though). I remember it being brought up at some stage - someone wanted that behaviour removed so they wouldn't have to restart the game every time they recompiled a map. I'm not sure about preloading materials but I saw this in the Alien Swarm source: CBaseEntity::PrecacheModel(sprites/gunsmoke.vmt); So I suppose the PrecacheModel function should work for materials too. On 15 January 2013 01:26, Mart-Jan Reeuwijk mreeu...@yahoo.com wrote: Prolly some OS caching after access. -- *From:* tja...@comcast.net tja...@comcast.net *To:* Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com *Sent:* Monday, 14 January 2013, 14:47 *Subject:* Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps That's a shame. I did look through zone cpp/h but it might be over my head, when it comes to memory allocation. Also, from what I've heard -heapsize command line doesn't matter anymore with orange box. So I'm not sure if that file is still relevant. Is there any cheap tricks to help performance? I'm bouncing between maps, and users are getting frustrated with load times. I do have a benchmark time that shows how long a map takes to load (grab curtime from preload and compare with curtime in postload. not sure how accurate) and I noticed if the map has been loaded before it takes half the amount of time to load. So something is staying in the memory. -- *From: *Jonatan Matějka jonatan1...@gmail.com *To: *Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com *Sent: *Monday, January 14, 2013 8:19:43 AM *Subject: *Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hi, if there were not significant changes in engine after HL2 alpha leak, there is no way to load nextmap before mapchange. You can precache it, but it will be trashed on mapchange anyway. If you own leaked source, take a look at zone.cpp/h where you can take a look for yourself. 2013/1/14 Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.net Hello HLCoders. ** ** I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? ** ** I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. ** ** I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. ** ** Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
That's a shame. I did look through zone cpp/h but it might be over my head, when it comes to memory allocation. Also, from what I've heard -heapsize command line doesn't matter anymore with orange box. So I'm not sure if that file is still relevant. Is there any cheap tricks to help performance? I'm bouncing between maps, and users are getting frustrated with load times. I do have a benchmark time that shows how long a map takes to load (grab curtime from preload and compare with curtime in postload. not sure how accurate) and I noticed if the map has been loaded before it takes half the amount of time to load. So something is staying in the memory. - Original Message - From: Jonatan Matějka jonatan1...@gmail.com To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 8:19:43 AM Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hi, if there were not significant changes in engine after HL2 alpha leak, there is no way to load nextmap before mapchange. You can precache it, but it will be trashed on mapchange anyway. If you own leaked source, take a look at zone.cpp/h where you can take a look for yourself. 2013/1/14 Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.net Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
Prolly some OS caching after access. From: tja...@comcast.net tja...@comcast.net To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, 14 January 2013, 14:47 Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps That's a shame. I did look through zone cpp/h but it might be over my head, when it comes to memory allocation. Also, from what I've heard -heapsize command line doesn't matter anymore with orange box. So I'm not sure if that file is still relevant. Is there any cheap tricks to help performance? I'm bouncing between maps, and users are getting frustrated with load times. I do have a benchmark time that shows how long a map takes to load (grab curtime from preload and compare with curtime in postload. not sure how accurate) and I noticed if the map has been loaded before it takes half the amount of time to load. So something is staying in the memory. From: Jonatan Matějka jonatan1...@gmail.com To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 8:19:43 AM Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hi, if there were not significant changes in engine after HL2 alpha leak, there is no way to load nextmap before mapchange. You can precache it, but it will be trashed on mapchange anyway. If you own leaked source, take a look at zone.cpp/h where you can take a look for yourself. 2013/1/14 Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.net Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
[hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don't have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into memory so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you're running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start preloading maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can't really assume what it's preloading as I'm not sure of what Source is doing when it's switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
Interesting. _ From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Trevor Janok Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:55 PM To: hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Subject: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don't have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into memory so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you're running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start preloading maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can't really assume what it's preloading as I'm not sure of what Source is doing when it's switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
After looking, you can call PrecacheModel with a preload option. // Add to the server/client lookup/precache table, the specified string is given a unique index // NOTE: The indices for PrecacheModel are 1 based // a 0 returned from those methods indicates the model or sound was not correctly precached // However, generic and decal are 0 based // If preload is specified, the file is loaded into the server/client's cache memory before level startup, otherwise // it'll only load when actually used (which can cause a disk i/o hitch if it occurs during play of a level). virtual intPrecacheModel( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheSentenceFile( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheDecal( const char *name, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheGeneric( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; I can read the raw BSP and find all the models needed, and start precaching them before the level transitions. I'll have to see if it actually saves time when loading the new level. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Pizza Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 7:45 PM To: 'Discussion of Half-Life Programming' Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Interesting. _ From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Trevor Janok Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:55 PM To: hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Subject: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don't have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into memory so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you're running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start preloading maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can't really assume what it's preloading as I'm not sure of what Source is doing when it's switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
I think it'll still trash everything at the end of the current map. On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 1:16 AM, Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.net wrote: After looking, you can call “PrecacheModel” with a preload option. // Add to the server/client lookup/precache table, the specified string is given a unique index // NOTE: The indices for PrecacheModel are 1 based // a 0 returned from those methods indicates the model or sound was not correctly precached // However, generic and decal are 0 based // If preload is specified, the file is loaded into the server/client's cache memory before level startup, otherwise // it'll only load when actually used (which can cause a disk i/o hitch if it occurs during play of a level). virtual intPrecacheModel( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheSentenceFile( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheDecal( const char *name, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheGeneric( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; I can read the raw BSP and find all the models needed, and start precaching them before the level transitions. I’ll have to see if it actually saves time when loading the new level. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Pizza Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 7:45 PM To: 'Discussion of Half-Life Programming' Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Interesting. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Trevor Janok Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:55 PM To: hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Subject: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps
Awesome info. How exactly would you go about preloading materials/textures? From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Adam amckern McKern Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 9:10 PM To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps The longest part about loading levels is all the assets that get rendered on top of the brush work. You could have a set texture set, and ensure that this texture set is loaded every time the game is loaded in an example, you could have say 2,000 brushes in your back ground menu map, and each brush has a texture from your asset list - this will help improve loading times - only down side of this could be your heap size would need to be bigger, and if people are joining the game from the server browser, they will bypass this background menu map. Owner Nigredo Studios http://www.nigredostudios.com http://www.nigredostudios.com/ _ From: Asher Baker asher...@gmail.com To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Sent: Monday, 14 January 2013 12:57 PM Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps I think it'll still trash everything at the end of the current map. On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 1:16 AM, Trevor Janok tja...@comcast.net wrote: After looking, you can call “PrecacheModel” with a preload option. // Add to the server/client lookup/precache table, the specified string is given a unique index // NOTE: The indices for PrecacheModel are 1 based // a 0 returned from those methods indicates the model or sound was not correctly precached // However, generic and decal are 0 based // If preload is specified, the file is loaded into the server/client's cache memory before level startup, otherwise // it'll only load when actually used (which can cause a disk i/o hitch if it occurs during play of a level). virtual intPrecacheModel( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheSentenceFile( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheDecal( const char *name, bool preload = false ) = 0; virtual intPrecacheGeneric( const char *s, bool preload = false ) = 0; I can read the raw BSP and find all the models needed, and start precaching them before the level transitions. I’ll have to see if it actually saves time when loading the new level. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Pizza Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 7:45 PM To: 'Discussion of Half-Life Programming' Subject: Re: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Interesting. From: hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlcoders-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Trevor Janok Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:55 PM To: hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com Subject: [hlcoders] Pre-Loading Maps Hello HLCoders. I have no idea how Source loads/renders the BSP levels. Since I assume most (if not all) of this is done in the engine which we don’t have access to. But is there anyway to load a BSP into “memory” so the client can switch maps faster? I mean, if you’re running on decent hardware Source maps load fast. But it would be nice to start “preloading” maps when players near completion of the current level. The gameplay of my mod would help greatly from this, as maps are broken up into multiple levels running on a master server. I guess I can’t really assume what it’s “preloading” as I’m not sure of what Source is doing when it’s switch to a different map. Anybody have any insight? Thanks. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
