Hammer crashes constantly

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ManicVelocity
5 Posts
#65496
Posted Feb 19, 2012
I'm in the process of wrapping up my first map to debut here. I've been lurking for a few months and this forum has been a huge resource to all questions that I've had. So I'm hoping someone can help me with this issue. I'll try to be as detailed as possible.

Usually, but not always, when I attempt to place a new prop_static in my map, the Hammer editor crashes. It also sometimes happens with instances and other entities such as cubes or buttons or lights. It never happens when creating a new brush. I can then re-open Hammer and place the desired entity without a problem. But eventually as I continue building, Hammer will inevitably crash as I attempt to place a new entity.

I'm wondering if Hammer is just running out of memory. Though that seems unlikely as I rarely have anything else running in the background. Here are my system specs:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz
RAM: 4GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

I've googled up and down and haven't been able to find a solution. Any help would be appreciated.

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FourthReaper
356 Posts
#65499
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 5 minutes later
Mmmm,

that's tough. I honestly don't know much about the system requirements to run Hammer properly, I do know however that Hammer shutting down isn't uncommon. Happens to me every so often, too. Al I can say to help is: Quicksave a lot. :exclaim:

This way atleast, you don't lose any content.

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chimera201
129 Posts
#65503
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 42 minutes later
your system specs are good enough(far better than mine). Hammer do often crash for no reason but it has never happened to me on placing props or instances. Is your level too big? .Try using visgroups if you haven't. Have you run your map without errors?
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ManicVelocity
5 Posts
#65508
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 46 minutes later
I'm confident that it's not due to the size of my map, which is quite small compared to most. This has been happening since the beginning of my build.
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CamBen
973 Posts
#65509
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 16 minutes later
One thing I can say, I find prop statics very problematic. Very few of them show up in my game, and all create a yellow error message when compiling. That is why I now only use prop dynamics.
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dinnesch
105 Posts
#65510
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 1 minutes later
On Both Portal 2 and the Authoring Tools:
Right click in Steam -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify integrity of game cache.
Survey suggests doing this solves about 52,7% of your problems with any game on steam!

If that doesn't work, if you have any tools such as RivaTuner, MSI Afterburner or other video card overclocking/tweaking tools running, disable or uninstall them. Also try disabling fancy anti aliasing or other options in your video card driver if you used them.

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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
#65512
Posted Feb 19, 2012
Replied 6 minutes later

CamBen wrote:
One thing I can say, I find prop statics very problematic. Very few of them show up in my game, and all create a yellow error message when compiling. That is why I now only use prop dynamics.

I said this in about 25 topics and I'll say it again:
CHECK THE INFO TAB!!

PROP STATICS ARE CHEAPER, PROP DYNAMICS MORE EXPENSIVE.
So IF your model has a prop_static flag and you DON'T need to move it around, use prop_static. That's much much better for performance :smile:

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
#65563
Posted Feb 20, 2012
Replied 10 hours later

ManicVelocity wrote:
Hammer crashes constantly

It happens to everyone brother... my hammer usually crashes when I click the flags tab and ALWAYS crashes when I try to load a previous save through the prompt when you start hammer again after it crashing.
Only thing I can recommend it re-downloading the P2AT files to see if it was some kind of corrupt file.

P.S. Tell me how many of the crashing achievements you have...

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ManicVelocity
5 Posts
#65583
Posted Feb 20, 2012
Replied 8 hours later

dinnesch wrote:
On Both Portal 2 and the Authoring Tools:
Right click in Steam -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify integrity of game cache.
Survey suggests doing this solves about 52,7% of your problems with any game on steam!

I've done this with the Authoring Tools about five times, but I never thought to do it with Portal 2. I'll give it a shot tonight!

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portal2companioncube
108 Posts
#65594
Posted Feb 20, 2012
Replied 1 hour later
I find it weird that everyone's Hammer is crashing. Mine hasn't crashed since I updated it. If the cache files thing doesn't work, try updating.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
#65597
Posted Feb 20, 2012
Replied 20 minutes later
Man, this weekend I had to UNINSTALL hammer, I tried verifying the integrity of the local files cache and after recovering only 1 file, it still had a really ilogical behaviour, for example: after turning some brushes into trigger_multiple, or making them trigger_portal_cleanser, they suddenly were normal brushes! in the same sesion... Also after setting up one button I/O for example, after compiling, the button didn't do anything I set it up for.... Why??? I got desperate, saved all my files out of the sdk folders and unistall it!

After a reinstallation everything works good.

... I found no viruses, malware or else after a deep analyze of my computer (btw Win7 x64 / 1GB 9500 NVidia GeForce / 8GB RAM).

Hammer just sucks! and what I hate most: Valve is more concerned developing a new stupid tool for stupid people without even care about improving this damn beta version of hammer! Unbelieveable!!

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Spam Nugget
492 Posts
#65658
Posted Feb 20, 2012
Replied 10 hours later

portal2companioncube wrote:
I find it weird that everyone's Hammer is crashing. Mine hasn't crashed since I updated it. If the cache files thing doesn't work, try updating.

Are you serious?!?!?! Do you know how lucky you are mate? Your pc should be put in a museum so everyone can see the one pc that hammer doesnt constantly crash on.

josepezdj wrote:
Hammer just sucks! and what I hate most: Valve is more concerned developing a new stupid tool for stupid people without even care about improving this damn beta version of hammer! Unbelieveable!!

:potd:

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
#65676
Posted Feb 21, 2012
Replied 4 hours later

Spam Nugget wrote:
Are you serious?!?!?! Do you know how lucky you are mate? Your pc should be put in a museum so everyone can see the one pc that hammer doesnt constantly crash on.

:potd:

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ManicVelocity
5 Posts
#65693
Posted Feb 21, 2012
Replied 8 hours later
Tried the defrag and cache integrity options for both Portal 2 and the Authoring Tools. Hammer was slightly more stable afterwards, but I still experienced a few crashes. I guess at this point I'll just take comfort in knowing that constant crashes are common, and adjust my workflow accordingly.

Thanks for all your help! Looking forward to show you guys what I've been working on.

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
#65696
Posted Feb 21, 2012
Replied 7 minutes later
Yes, did you read about what I said about unistalling the authoring tools?

Do you want to know how many crashes did I have since then (only 1 and a half day ago) even though I recognize I have solved all the bad behaviour I complained about? Three!
I know I map a lot lately and I use to go faster in each session making a bunch of hardcore things such as moving entire wide zones from place in order to improve my chambers design and more crazy things, but still...

That's hammer! Good luck. Make the shortcut "Ctrl + S" your hammer against hammer!

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