I've been developing a couple of fairly complex maps over the last few months without any problems. However, on sunday, the one I was working on stopped running in portal even though it appears to compile correctly in hammer - and even an earlier, previosuly working version didn't run. I did a clean install of Stream and Portal and it hasn't fixed it

Before I had this problem, the way I ran the maps was to simply select "Run map..." and then had "Don't run the game after compiling" unchecked. After the map compiled, the hammer/steam splash screens were displayed followed by a Portal 2 splash screen with the map loading progress dots in the bottom right.

When I now compile the maps, the steam/valve splash screens displays as before but then one of two things happens:

• the Portal splash screen with progress dots are displayed but, when the progress dots "count" up to the second dot, then the Portal menu background screen is displayed but without the menu - and at that point it just hangs.
  or
• After the stream/valve splash screens, Portal just goes straight to the Portal 2 menu without running the map.

Now, what I would like to know is whether anybody else has seen this behaviour before and/or is there a Portal log file anywhere that may give some clues as to why Portal is behaving like this and not running the map.

By the way, the same thing happens when I just double click on the bsp file.

I was just getting to the point where I was close to publishing the maps and unless I can fix this many hours of work would have been wasted! Help would be much appreciated.

Two things: first, make sure your BSP file has less than 25 characters. (That fixed a problem like that for me)
Also, would you mind copy/pasting your compile log?

Finally, welcome to TWP!

Thanks for the quick reply - and for the welcome.

The filename is less that 25 chars. Unfortunately I'm working remotely at the moment and haven't got access to the log file - will post as soon as pos (should have been better prepared!)

albian wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply - and for the welcome.

The filename is less that 25 chars. Unfortunately I'm working remotely at the moment and haven't got access to the log file - will post as soon as pos (should have been better prepared!)

Sounds to me like your file location is not properly transferring the map to your location. Portal 2 is fine finicky about file locations. The problem is most likely your remote location to the file. When you last compiled the map successfully were you accessing it remotely?

Arachnaphob wrote:
Two things: first, make sure your BSP file has less than 25 characters. (That fixed a problem like that for me)
Also, would you mind copy/pasting your compile log?

Finally, welcome to TWP!

Log file for the offending map below. This has been run on my Vista laptop and exhibits the same behaviour as when run on my Windows 7 desktop (I'm still working remotely so copied the vmf file to my laptop to run it - just takes longer to compile!).

materialPath: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Portal 2\portal2\materials
Loading C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\MyMaps\th1_final (47).vmf
ConVarRef gpu_level doesn't point to an existing ConVar
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (2)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 850 detail faces...done (3)
Merging details...done (4)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (2)
writing C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\MyMaps\th1_final (47).prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (0)
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Error! Variable "%keywords" is multiply defined in material "signage/signage_overlay_catapult1"!
Error! Variable "%keywords" is multiply defined in material "signage/signage_overlay_catapult2"!
Building Physics collision data...
done (13) (2403088 bytes)
Static prop models/props_ingame/window_frame_system_corner_4.mdl outside the map (2.00, 770.00, 1666.00)
Static prop models/props_ingame/window_frame_system_corner_4.mdl outside the map (2.00, 1538.00, 1918.00)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Water found with no water_lod_control entity, creating a default one.
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 6182 texinfos to 2396
Reduced 99 texdatas to 90 (2992 bytes to 2736)
Writing C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\MyMaps\th1_final (47).bsp

nummapplanes:     ( 12580 / 65536 )
nummapbrushes:    (  6836 /  8192 )
nummapbrushsides: ( 48015 / 65536 )
num_map_overlays: (   138 /   512 )
nummodels:        (   698 /  1024 )
num_entities:     (  2022 / 16384 )

2 minutes, 16 seconds elapsed



2 threads
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\mymaps\th1_final (47).bsp
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\mymaps\th1_final (47).prt
1995 portalclusters
4864 numportals
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 1944 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 249489
Average clusters visible: 125
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 540
visdatasize:409813  compressed from 1021440
writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\mymaps\th1_final (47).bsp
27 seconds elapsed



[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[59 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\mymaps\th1_final (47).bsp
10993 faces
1272388 square feet [183223872.00 square inches]
0 Displacements
0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches]
10993 patches before subdivision
zero area child patch
195557 patches after subdivision
359 direct lights
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 26562885, max 817
transfer lists: 202.7 megs
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #1 added RGB(281553, 335088, 386509)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #2 added RGB(153822, 182310, 211935)
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0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #5 added RGB(28794, 33162, 39435)
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0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #19 added RGB(28, 22, 28)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #20 added RGB(18, 13, 17)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #21 added RGB(11, 8, 11)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #22 added RGB(7, 5, 7)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #23 added RGB(5, 3, 4)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #24 added RGB(3, 2, 2)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #25 added RGB(2, 1, 2)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #26 added RGB(1, 1, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #27 added RGB(1, 0, 1)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<2.0567 sec>
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLightFace Done
28 of 28 (100% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish

Object names       Objects/Maxobjs  Memory / Maxmem  Fullness 
------------       ---------------  ---------------  -------- 
models                 698/1024        33504/49152    (68.2%) 
brushes               6836/8192        82032/98304    (83.4%) VERY FULL!
brushsides           48082/65536      384656/524288   (73.4%) 
planes               12580/65536      251600/1310720  (19.2%) 
vertexes             20367/65536      244404/786432   (31.1%) 
nodes                 8980/65536      287360/2097152  (13.7%) 
texinfos              2396/12288      172512/884736   (19.5%) 
texdata                 90/2048         2880/65536    ( 4.4%) 
dispinfos                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_verts               0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_tris                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_multiblend          0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_lmsamples           0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
faces                10993/65536      615608/3670016  (16.8%) 
hdr faces                0/65536           0/3670016  ( 0.0%) 
origfaces             9163/65536      513128/3670016  (14.0%) 
facebrushes           7854/0           15708/0        ( 0.0%) 
facebrushlists       10993/0           43972/0        ( 0.0%) 
leaves                9679/65536      309728/2097152  (14.8%) 
leaffaces            12764/65536       25528/131072   (19.5%) 
leafbrushes          12544/65536       25088/131072   (19.1%) 
areas                   13/256           104/2048     ( 5.1%) 
surfedges            86511/512000     346044/2048000  (16.9%) 
edges                50616/256000     202464/1024000  (19.8%) 
LDR worldlights        359/8192        35900/819200   ( 4.4%) 
HDR worldlights          0/8192            0/819200   ( 0.0%) 
leafwaterdata            3/32768          36/393216   ( 0.0%) 
waterstrips           1036/32768       10360/327680   ( 3.2%) 
waterverts               0/65536           0/786432   ( 0.0%) 
waterindices         17346/65536       34692/131072   (26.5%) 
cubemapsamples           2/1024           32/16384    ( 0.2%) 
overlays               138/512         48576/180224   (27.0%) 
LDR lightdata         [variable]    11164780/0        ( 0.0%) 
HDR lightdata         [variable]           0/0        ( 0.0%) 
visdata               [variable]      409813/16777216 ( 2.4%) 
entdata               [variable]      572669/393216   (145.6%) VERY FULL!
LDR ambient table     9679/65536       38716/262144   (14.8%) 
HDR ambient table     9679/65536       38716/262144   (14.8%) 
LDR leaf ambient     32730/65536      916440/1835008  (49.9%) 
HDR leaf ambient      9679/65536      271012/1835008  (14.8%) 
occluders                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder polygons        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder vert ind        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
detail props          [variable]           1/12       ( 8.3%) 
static props          [variable]           1/130058   ( 0.0%) 
pakfile               [variable]      227229/0        ( 0.0%) 
physics               [variable]     2403088/4194304  (57.3%) 
physics terrain       [variable]           2/1048576  ( 0.0%) 

Level flags = 0

Total triangle count: 27918
Writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\mymaps\th1_final (47).bsp
4 minutes, 34 seconds elapsed

protoborg wrote:
Sounds to me like your file location is not properly transferring the map to your location. Portal 2 is fine finicky about file locations. The problem is most likely your remote location to the file. When you last compiled the map successfully were you accessing it remotely?

As you can see from the log file above, the folder I used was:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\MyMaps\

I've also tried it in:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\

and it still doesn't work.

For info, I've noticed that a bsp file (th1_final (47).bsp) is also generated in:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\portal2\maps

so I assume that this happens when Hammer compiles the map.

Have you tried not using parenthesis in your map name?

josepezdj wrote:
Have you tried not using parenthesis in your map name?

Good call - but this has only highlighted that I was looking at two different problems. In my original post I said that "and even an earlier, previously working version didn't run" - and the file for which I posted the log above was the previous file which I had backed up (marking it by a version number in brackets). I've just tried running again after renaming it without the brackets and it ran OK.

However, I still have the problem with the latest version of my map which still doesn't run - below is the log file. After it compiles, and when portal fires up, it goes through the splash screens to get to the one with the progress bar but when the progress bar reaches two dots, it goes to the blank menu screen where it just hangs.

I could go back to my previous version and continue with that but I really want to try and find out why it's not running so I can avoid doing whatever I did.

By the way I've checked and the bsp file has been created in:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\portal2\maps

and when I double click on the file it still doesn't run (portal starts, gets to two dots on progress bar, and then hangs).

The log file is:

materialPath: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Portal 2\portal2\materials
Loading C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.vmf
ConVarRef gpu_level doesn't point to an existing ConVar
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (2)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 852 detail faces...done (3)
Merging details...done (3)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (2)
writing C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (1)
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Error! Variable "%keywords" is multiply defined in material "signage/signage_overlay_catapult1"!
Error! Variable "%keywords" is multiply defined in material "signage/signage_overlay_catapult2"!
Building Physics collision data...
done (12) (2473914 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Water found with no water_lod_control entity, creating a default one.
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 6173 texinfos to 2414
Reduced 108 texdatas to 98 (3185 bytes to 2912)
Writing C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.bsp

nummapplanes:     ( 12522 / 65536 )
nummapbrushes:    (  6970 /  8192 )
nummapbrushsides: ( 49059 / 65536 )
num_map_overlays: (   141 /   512 )
nummodels:        (   827 /  1024 )
num_entities:     (  2147 / 16384 )

2 minutes, 0 seconds elapsed



2 threads
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.bsp
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.prt
1988 portalclusters
4837 numportals
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 1948 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 248350
Average clusters visible: 124
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 537
visdatasize:403989  compressed from 1017856
writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.bsp
27 seconds elapsed



[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[59 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.bsp
11742 faces
1265661 square feet [182255232.00 square inches]
0 Displacements
0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches]
11742 patches before subdivision
zero area child patch
194228 patches after subdivision
355 direct lights
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 26246932, max 817
transfer lists: 200.2 megs
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0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #2 added RGB(154313, 183088, 212746)
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0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #4 added RGB(50481, 58873, 69420)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #5 added RGB(29319, 33801, 40153)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #6 added RGB(17161, 19518, 23355)
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0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #21 added RGB(12, 8, 11)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #22 added RGB(8, 5, 7)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #23 added RGB(5, 3, 4)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #24 added RGB(3, 2, 3)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #25 added RGB(2, 1, 2)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #26 added RGB(1, 1, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10   Bounce #27 added RGB(1, 0, 1)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<1.8186 sec>
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLightFace Done
28 of 28 (100% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish

Object names       Objects/Maxobjs  Memory / Maxmem  Fullness 
------------       ---------------  ---------------  -------- 
models                 827/1024        39696/49152    (80.8%) VERY FULL!
brushes               6970/8192        83640/98304    (85.1%) VERY FULL!
brushsides           49110/65536      392880/524288   (74.9%) 
planes               12522/65536      250440/1310720  (19.1%) 
vertexes             21425/65536      257100/786432   (32.7%) 
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texdata                 98/2048         3136/65536    ( 4.8%) 
dispinfos                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_verts               0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_tris                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_multiblend          0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_lmsamples           0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
faces                11742/65536      657552/3670016  (17.9%) 
hdr faces                0/65536           0/3670016  ( 0.0%) 
origfaces             9935/65536      556360/3670016  (15.2%) 
facebrushes           7876/0           15752/0        ( 0.0%) 
facebrushlists       11742/0           46968/0        ( 0.0%) 
leaves               10580/65536      338560/2097152  (16.1%) 
leaffaces            13491/65536       26982/131072   (20.6%) 
leafbrushes          12674/65536       25348/131072   (19.3%) 
areas                   13/256           104/2048     ( 5.1%) 
surfedges            92577/512000     370308/2048000  (18.1%) 
edges                53657/256000     214628/1024000  (21.0%) 
LDR worldlights        355/8192        35500/819200   ( 4.3%) 
HDR worldlights          0/8192            0/819200   ( 0.0%) 
leafwaterdata            3/32768          36/393216   ( 0.0%) 
waterstrips           1029/32768       10290/327680   ( 3.1%) 
waterverts               0/65536           0/786432   ( 0.0%) 
waterindices         17262/65536       34524/131072   (26.3%) 
cubemapsamples           2/1024           32/16384    ( 0.2%) 
overlays               141/512         49632/180224   (27.5%) 
LDR lightdata         [variable]    11122480/0        ( 0.0%) 
HDR lightdata         [variable]           0/0        ( 0.0%) 
visdata               [variable]      403989/16777216 ( 2.4%) 
entdata               [variable]      637985/393216   (162.2%) VERY FULL!
LDR ambient table    10580/65536       42320/262144   (16.1%) 
HDR ambient table    10580/65536       42320/262144   (16.1%) 
LDR leaf ambient     33153/65536      928284/1835008  (50.6%) 
HDR leaf ambient     10580/65536      296240/1835008  (16.1%) 
occluders                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder polygons        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder vert ind        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
detail props          [variable]           1/12       ( 8.3%) 
static props          [variable]           1/125236   ( 0.0%) 
pakfile               [variable]      227646/0        ( 0.0%) 
physics               [variable]     2473914/4194304  (59.0%) 
physics terrain       [variable]           2/1048576  ( 0.0%) 

Level flags = 0

Total triangle count: 29398
Writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\th1test5.bsp
4 minutes, 34 seconds elapsed

Except for the many models, brushes and the high ent_data that you have, which should let you run your map anyways (and maybe crash to desktop saying you have "no free edicts"), I don't see anything really bad.

However, your compile is saving your BSP always under your /sdk_content folder, hmmmm.... are you sure you are trying to run your latest version of the map? to me it seems that you are not running what your compile log shows, but some other old version of the map.

You should check out your hammer editor settings... Go to "Tools > Options > Build Programs Tab" and find "Place compiled maps in this directory before running the game" below.

Then change the path to: $SteamUserDir\portal 2\portal2_dlc2\maps (this will allow you to buildd cubemaps later after you do a Full compile).

Thanks josepezdj. I've got it working now but I don't know what the real cause was. There is one question that this problem raised thought - is there a log file for Portal 2 which records any errors during loading etc?

Specifically related to your last post - it does cause me to ask a few other questions though - and ones which will demonstrate that, although I'm having fun creating maps, I really don't understand the mechanics of what's going on!

josepezdj wrote:
Except for the many models, brushes and the high ent_data ...

What drives the ent_data content? Are there some simple rules on how to reduce it?

josepezdj wrote:
...which should let you run your map anyways (and maybe crash to desktop saying you have "no free edicts")

,
Is this a problem only during the compile or could it be a problem once the BSP file is run? Ie, could this cause a problem if I publish the map? Even though it runs on my machine, could it crash on others?

josepezdj wrote:
However, your compile is saving your BSP always under your /sdk_content folder, hmmmm.... are you sure you are trying to run your latest version of the map? to me it seems that you are not running what your compile log shows, but some other old version of the map.

You should check out your hammer editor settings... Go to "Tools > Options > Build Programs Tab" and find "Place compiled maps in this directory before running the game" below.

Then change the path to: $SteamUserDir\portal 2\portal2_dlc2\maps

The settings were actually set to "\Portal 2\portal2\maps" and the maps were saved in both the sdk_content folder as well as the portal2\maps folder. I've changed it to dlc2 folder - but what does dlc stand for and has that folder got a specific purpose?

josepezdj wrote:
(this will allow you to build cubemaps later after you do a Full compile).

And now what is probably the most stupid question - what do you mean by "building cubemaps after you do a Full compile"? Is this the process for publishing (which is the next great challenge for me!)

ent_data is entity data, basically all the stuff entered in entity properties like names, outputs and keyvalues.

The entity limit is the same for all Source engine games, so if it doesn't crash it shouldn't on other computers.
DLC stands for DownLoadable Content, and the folders portal2_dlc1/ and portal2_dlc2/ store the files for the two main game updates, Peer Review and the PTI/Workshop respectively.

Cubemaps are basically special screenshots used to render reflectivity in materials like glass or some metal. To build them, run "buildcubemaps" in the console after the level has loaded. You want to have placed some env_cubemaps near any reflective materials, as this is the location it takes screenshots. (It uses the closest env_cubemap to the surface.) There's a bug in Portal 2 which causes a crash if the map is not in the latest dlc folder (dlc2 now), so that's why you want to change it.

Full Compile settings are just some preset settings for the compilers, and tell them to take more time than usual to generate a better looking map. You probably also want to run this when adjusting lighting, as it will appear different. Fast compile is the opposite, where the compilers rush a bit to get a quick map so you can test it.