I have encountered a famous error, max_map_clipnodes or the other way around...anyways. I was woundering if the sky texture acted as a clipnode reducer? (bah) or do I have to use the clip texture?

and another funny thing. Say if I delete about 10 func_wall, the error will go away. How does that work? and is there a way to see howmany clipnodes my map has? I could only find it if the bsp was compiled successfuly...

I was helping someone else with this earlier, so lets see if i can keep my momentum going.

On this site:
http://www.planethalflife.com/chaincraft/resources/explanations1.htm If you scroll to where it talks about clipnodes, and skys.

It's a little confusing, but I think it means players can be inside the sky. which is why you need -skyclip when compiling. So sky brushes wouldn't affect clip nodes. I could be wrong on that though.

Deleting func_walls decreases the clipnodes. For example if you had 2 rooms sharing 1 wall. Then you delete the shared wall, it becomes 1 room and there is 1 less clipnode.


I'm not sure how to find out how many clipnodes your map has. The best thing you could do was look at old versions of your map, and see how many they have up until the point where you get the error.

The best way to fight this error would be to put clip brushes anywhere you don't want the player to be. That way you only get clipnodes in areas the player can access. Other clipnodes are unnecessary and can be eliminated with clip brushes.

Compile your map with -stats to see different statistics about your map, like texture usage, clipnodes etc.
Also, clipnodes is what stops the player from walking through walls and whatnot.

Some tips on keeping clipnodes "low" :

For unaccessible detail brushes like func_walls and such, which the player will never touch, just convert to func_illusionary (doesnt generate clipnodes in latest compile tools)

Turn off sky clipping, this will make the sky "passable" (acts like water) but the player should never be able to get that close to your sky brushes :P

In large areas that the player will never enter (like background scenery etc.), fill the whole area with one huge clipbrush. This will clip the entire area, making it inaccessible, and lower clipnodes.

Use the latest NS compile tools, with the optimizer thingamabob. Available at NS forums. May cause some wacky results though, if your map is huge (falling through floors etc.)

Find new ways of recreating current architecture, with lower amounts of brush-faces. Make sure you have no "voids" in areas where the player cant enter, like under rubble, behind crates (!?) and so on.

ok. I filled up everything with clipnodes and im still getting it but I know im close (i dont feel like explaining). Do regular polys reduce or add onto clipnodes? (and I dont think the func_illusionaries reduce either)

Um, i checked out the NS crap, it could help but I need the bsp to finish a compile, which in the end, doesnt do much for clipnodes.
Any more advice, and again, the first question about regular polies.

A clipnode is the invisible wall that blocks the player, ie. causing him not to fall through the world. All surfaces are clipped during compile, except func_illusionaries, so of course, simplifying or removing archiecture is one way of getting the numbers down.

would the size of the poly matter or is it just the amount?

Just the amount, although I am not 100% sure about that. You would have to scale everything down to HL-rally standards to see any change, i would think :)

If using clipbrushes dosn't help you have probably some number of detailed areas where player can't get but they generate clipnodes or some othey bug which affect clip node generating. Fix other things first.