Map Problems

I have been looking at other server's map directories. I have noticed that many of our maps are not exactly the same size as other server's maps with the same name.

I must confess I did not use any consistent sourcing of the maps we are running. My main technique was to look in the omnibot "nav" folder for maps that we could run with omnibot 0.81. Then google the name and download it from whatever host I could find. If it was fun to play, and was small, I added it to the server.

Some servers modify their maps but keep the same name. Or they unzip them and then recompress them with pakscape, which can cause tiny variations in the size of the file, even though all the contents are identical.

Anyway, sometimes players get kicked for "invalid pk3 error" (or something like that), and this can happen if they have a map from a different server with the same name but slightly diferent size. There are other reasons the pk3 kick can happen too, but kicking players for a bad map is something we can fix by cleaning out the bad maps.

So, I would like everybody (clan members, etc) to list any maps that appear to be causing these problems. I can take them out of circulation and retire them. I don't want to replace them with a new copy since that will kick everyone who has the current copy.

Rotated the maps on FUNBOY (BEGINNER) tonight. I checked all the maps currently running for proper size.

I also went looking for reliable sources of maps. I decided on these ET map sites (I'm sure there are others):

http://lk2.de/maps/etmain/
http://harryhomers.org/et/download/etmain/
http://www.etozclan.com/files/etmain/
http://216.218.222.207/b10/etmain/


I retired a few Funboy maps that did not match the sizes of the maps with the exact same name on the sites above.

The retired maps are: braundorf_b4.pk3, bremen_final.pk3, haunted_mansion.pk3, and oilraid.pk3. If you have these maps, delete them so you do not have "bad" copies and eventually pass them on to others (like I did).

I'm sure there are a few others, and I will list them here as I uncover them.

I modified my own haunted mansion at one point, but thats been deleted for a wile now.

booger wrote:I modified my own haunted mansion at one point, but thats been deleted for a wile now.

Haunted Mansion was one of the maps that had a size discrepancy. I don't remember where I copied it from.

It has been retired.

What are acceptable map sizes?

isnt really a set size, it depends a lot on how well the map was made, some big maps play well while others just suck.
marketgarden_et the original is 40 megs but plays fairly well.

StondBlind wrote:What are acceptable map sizes?

I try to use maps smaller than 10MB just so they download faster. It's just an arbitrary number though. Players don't like waiting a long time to download files. There are hundreds of great maps under 10MB.

Also a smaller map usually has less stuff in it that makes players lag when they play.
Big maps can be works of art, but most players don't care how pretty the map is.

Some elements like atmospheric effects can create lag problems no matter what size the map is.

Use !status in the chat box, then open your console, and you can see the resources used by the map and server settings. The same map with different server settings will have different "game state data". So if you are running a server, and you really want big maps, you might want to lower other resource-intensive features. Big maps will run better on a well-secured server (no ddos) with fewer omnibots and normal weapons and limited arty/airstrikes. Adding custom stuff uses up server resources. Also some ET mods lag more than others.

Also it depends on the connection you have to the server. If your internet is lagging there is not much the server owner can do lol. But you can change your settings on your own computer so you lag less. Try cg_autorate 1, com_hunkmegs 192, pb_sleep 500, cl_packetdup 0, etc etc.

I deleted the maps and hope there will be no prob but i have a lot of maps so you never might now.This is the http://returntocastlewolfenstein.filefront.com/ best site outthere where you can download e.t stuff maps and so on