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I stumbled across a saved copy of the old LucasForums list of mapping errors buried on an old HDD. I gave the info some updates and formatted it a little more usefully - hopefully it can help someone!
http://nab622.com/tutorials/MappingErrors.html
You can also link someone to a specific error on the list, which should save people the trouble of looking through the entire thing.
Most importantly: if anything is inaccurate or outdated, please let me know! I did not write most of the info and I wasn't sure what needed changed.
Compile Time Errors
AAS_MAX_PLANES=[Number]
Extremely high walls cause this problem for some reason. Apparently, there was a version of bspc that caused the problem, but was fixed with an update.
AllocWinding: failed to allocate winding
Unknown. This error does not appear to exist in the source code any more.
Backwards tree volume
This error can be caused by several problems. The two most common are spawn positions in the void or spawn positions on a floor with a detail surfaceparm. Make sure that you place the start position on a floor made out of a solid texture and that it isn't too close to a wall.
Bad PointToPolygonFormFactor
There is a mesh too close to the skybox.
ClipWindingEpsilon: [Number] > MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING
See MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING.
DEFAULT_MODEL (munro) failed to register
This error occurs when the lightmaps in your map are too complex and/or large for the EF engine to handle. To fix it, you have to lower the resolution of the lightmaps in your map. To do that, you can either go to your worldspawn entity, or if you know the offending entity or func_group, select it, and add in key: _lightmapscale value: 2. The shadows won't look as sharp, but at least the map will run. If you still get this error, increase the value to 4 or further (Higher numbers = lower resolution).
Degenerate plane/mirror plane/bad normal
This error is usually accompanied by an entity or brush number. Select Find Brush... from the Misc menu and search for the brush with the error. Then delete it.
DispatchBSPCommand failed with a COM exception
This is a Q3Build/GtkBuild error. The .dll must be put in the plugins directory, and you must be using a version of xxBuild that is compatible with the editor.
Entity leaked
This error is accompanied by an entity number. Either the entity's origin is inside a brush, or the entity is not in an enclosed area and is able to see the void.
If you compile the map in Radiant, you should get a visible trace from the affected entity to where it can see the void. If there is no trace, then the entity's origin point is inside a wall and should be moved to prevent it from being culled.
Error opening <filepath>.bsp: No such file or directory
If you see this error during a compile, it means that the BSP does not exist. This is caused by chaining several compile stages together. The errors occurs on the second stage, and it means the previous stage failed due to some error. Fix that error first.
FloatPlane: Bad normal
See Brush plane with no normal.
Leaf with too many portals
You have too many structural brushes coming into contact with a single, larger structural brush. Split up the larger brush, or make the smaller brushes detail. Typical offenders for this are things like staircases, which should be detail anyway.
LoadPortals: Couldn't read <path>.prt
No portal file was found when trying to run a VIS compile. Most likely causes are:
- Your map has a leak into the void somewhere, which prevented the portal file from being written.
- You did not run the first stage of the compile to generate the .prt file.
- A .prt file could not be written to the compile location.
- You did not specify for the first stage of the compile to write a .prt file.
MatchToken( "(" ) failed at line [Number]
You have a syntax error in a custom shader. Specifically, check the brackets.
MAX_BUILD_SIDES
You have a very complicated brush somewhere in your map. Clip it into multiple smaller brushes to fix the error.
MAX_EDGE_LINES
See Leaf with too many portals.
MAX_FACE_POINTS EXCEEDED: [Number]
See MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING.
MAX_FACETS during vlight (maxfacets >= [Number])
There are too many spheres and/or cones in your map. The maximum number of facets allowed is 65,535.
MAX_MAP_BRUSHSIDES
This is normally a problem with your total amount of brushes on the map being over the limit. The limit is 32768, so you should try to get rid of some brushes. Or, if you can remove some of the brush sides that are not visible during gameplay, that may also help.
MAX_MAP_DRAW_SURFS
This might occur if you have put tesssize 1 in your shader by mistake. This causes the texture to be tiled thousands of times, throwing the error. You need to enlarge the number to around 128, 256, etc.
MAX_MAP_DRAWINDEXES
Your brush work is too complex. Clip complicated brushes into several smaller brushes.
MAX_MAP_LIGHTGRID
The lightgrid is too large. Decrease the resolution of the lightgrid by entering lightgrid 64 64 64 into the worldspawn. Alternatively, an "Infinite brush" can also cause this error.
This error was fixed in q3map2 2.3.26 in October 2002. Update to the latest q3map2.
MAX_MAP_LIGHTING
You need to either reduce the total surface area of the map's geometry, or decrease the resolution of the lightmap in the worldspawn with key: _lightmapscale value: 2. (Higher numbers = lower resolution).
MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY
There are too many portals in your map. This error IS fixable, but it requires an understanding of the vis process. The best way to fix this is to open your .prt file in Radiant with prtview, and look around.
Usually, the problem is that you have some detailed brushwork in your map set to 'Structural', which generates excess portals. You need to make anything that is not visibility-blocking or the outer wall of your map into a 'detail' brush.
It can also be caused by very large, open areas. To fix this, you will need to go into the worldspawn and increase the _blocksize value from the default of 1024. If this does not fix the error, you can increase the value further.
Another possible cause is the map leaking into the void. Check for leaks.
Full Explanation
The reason MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY exists is to save the user from very long compile times. For each portal you have in your map, the compile will take exponentially longer. When you exceed the maximum number of portals, the VIS compile terminates with this error. Your map is still playable, but you really should correct the problem, as VIS is a relatively simple concept and can greatly improve performance.
It is always a good idea to load up your .prt file in Radiant and investigate the root cause of the error!
To boil it down, VIS works like this:
- During compile, a single, large brush is generated for every area of your map that is fully enclosed in 'Structural' brushes, encapsulating each one.
- The _blocksize value in the worldspawn is used to break each of these brushes up into equal sized blocks on every axis (Default 1024 units).
- Next, these blocks are sliced along the planes of each HINT brush in the map.
- Finally, every 'Structural' brush in the map is CSG subtracted into what remains.
The resulting pieces are your map's 'Portals', and they are then used to determine what areas of the map are visible from each other (PassagePortalFlow).
Generally speaking, the error is usually caused by geometrically complex brushes that are set to 'Structural', and most of the time all you have to do to fix the error is to make them 'detail'. It can also be caused by too many structural brushes, as each brush results in more portals.
If your map has a very large, open area, then you may need to increase the _blocksize to prevent the blocks themselves from tripping the threshold. If you have an excessively large open area, you can change the _blocksize to 0, but use this with caution. This will disable the initial block slices, and therefore you must make absolutely certain to use hint brushes to prevent your brushwork from making rogue slices all over the map, or you will likely exceed the limit of portals again in the future.
Also, if your map leaks, then when the portal file is generated, q3map2 will not know the outer boundaries of your map, and portals will be generated all over the place in the void and then sliced, which can also throw you over the limit.
MAX_MAPFILE_PLANES
You have two choices: cut down on the number of brushes in your map, or don't add bot support. You can try putting clip brushes around heavily detailed brush work, but no guarantees that it will work.
MAX_ORIGINAL_EDGES
There is an 'origin' brush with too many edges on it. Make your origin brushes simpler. Alternatively, you may have accidentally applied an 'origin' texture to something that isn't supposed to have one.
MAX_PATCH_PLANES
You have a patch mesh that is too large. Split it into multiple, smaller patches to fix the problem.
MAX_POINTS_ON_WINDING
This error is usually accompanied by an entity or brush number. There are too many vertices on the offending brush. Clip it into multiple smaller brushes to fix the error.
MAX_SUBMODELS exceeded
There is a maximum limit of 255 "brush" entities (Trigger_multiple, func_door, func_plat, etc). The only solution is to get rid of some of them.
MAX_SURFACE_VERTS
VERTS (Vertices) means you've got a lot of patches and curves. If this is the case, try deleting some of them and go for a less ambitious design.
MAX_TW_VERTS
TW stands for TraceWinding.
If you have this error, then you have a cluster of geometry getting sliced up too much in the compile.
Common causes of this error are things like the 'Cap' pieces on 12-sided brushes or larger.
Find the offending brush, split it into several smaller brushes, and try again.
Alternatively, if you know which brush faces are the offenders, you can caulk them.
Mixed CONTENTS_DETAIL and CONTENTS_STRUCTURAL
This error is usually accompanied by an entity or brush number. This means you have a hint brush or area portal set as detail. Hint and areaportal *must* be structural.
Mixed face contents
This error is usually accompanied by an entity or brush number. This just means that one of your brushes has different textures on two or more sides. You can usually ignore it.
No file to process. Run with -? for help
You're either compiling in DOS which is bad, or you are using an old version of the compiler. Get the latest version of Radiant.
PassagePortalFlow ([Number])
This is not an error, but rather a normal part of the VIS compile. It should only take a few minutes, so if it takes any longer than that, see MAX_MAP_VISIBILITY's full explanation, as your map needs to be optimized.
RE_LoadWorldMap: maps/<name>.bsp not found
By default, the game will load into PURE mode, and will ONLY load assets from .pk3 files, therefore any maps in the base/maps folder will be ignored. Use /sv_pure 0 in the console and try again.
safe_malloc failed on allocation of [Number] bytes
Your computer is out of RAM, or you are using an old version of the compiler.
If this happens during a lightmap compile and more memory is not an option, you can try the -lomem switch.
WARNING: Node without a volume / Node with unbounded volume / node has 0 tiny portals
An infinite brush, usually caused by bad vertex or edge manipulation. Use BobzToolz brush cleanup to get rid of it.
Radiant Errors
Brush plane with no normal
A brush has a dodgy face. Usually this means that you can't see it in the editor, but can in the map (in game). You can use BobzToolz brush cleanup to get rid of these in most situations. Usually this is caused by vertex editing a brush. If this happens often, try using the clipper tool instead.
Duplicate plane
This error is usually accompanied by an entity or brush number. It is usually caused by bugs in the vertex editor during complex edits, and causes a plane not to appear in-game. If brush cleanup does not fix this error, delete the brush and recreate it. To prevent it from happening again, clip your brushes into multiple smaller brushes before editing vertices.
Run-Time Errors
CL_ParsePacketEntities
Something has tampered with the game executable while it was running. This is an anti-piracy measure in the game, thus it is usually caused by a no-cd crack or some other shady software. Use a legitimate copy of the game, or run it with OpenJK.
Fatal: empty .aas link Heap
You have a very complex structure in your map that is causing problems for the bots.
glXMakeCurrent failed
Switch your color to 16 or 24 bit color.
LoadTGA: Only type 2 (RGB), 3 (gray), and 10 (RGB) TGA images supported
You're trying to use a .jpg in a shader script. All shader scripts call for .TGA textures, even though the actual texture may, in fact, be a .jpg. If the shader script is correct and you're still getting the error, then it means that you have saved the textures as progressive .jpgs. You've seen these on some web sites, where the picture is downloaded in phases, showing increasingly detailed versions of the entire image. The Q3 rendering engine cannot render these textures. You must save the .jpgs as baseline optimized.
SHADER_MAX_VERTEXES hit in FillCloudySkySide()
A sky shader can't have more than 2 layers in the shader script.
SV_SetBrushModel: NULL
This is caused by several things, but usually it is an "areaPortal" brush that was put into a mover (Func_door, func_plat, etc). AreaPortal brushes must either be in the worldspawn or in a func_group, no exceptions.
Other known causes are:
- A mover entity that contains only an origin brush.
- A mover entity that contains only patch meshes.
- An entity with no brushes in it (This is usually caused by GTKRadiant 1.5, don't use it).
Textures/dirpath/texturename had odd vertex count autosprite2 shader
You're implementing a shader script that uses vertex deformations that are greater than the size of the brush you're using it on.
Warning RE_Add Poly To Scene: Null Shader
There is a broken shader somewhere that is used in your map. Check your shader syntax. If that does not help, see if there is a conflict with some other installed mod.
WARNING: Couldn't find image for shader [Name]
This error can be ignored, although it will cause a face somewhere to show up as a missing texture. Usual causes are:
- A missing texture
- A typo in the shader
- The map you are loading used another map's assets and now that map has been removed
- Running the game in pure mode without the texture/shader packaged into a PK3
WARNING: light grid array mismatch
You have too many lightmaps in your map, which is causing the lightmap data to overflow into the lightgrid array, corrupting it and causing the error.
There are many ways to fix this, but the most effective way is to increase the _lightmapscale value on brushes/patches that do not require much fidelity (You can apply a _lightmapscale to a func_group as well to localize the scaling. Default value is 1, higher values will lower the lightmap resolution).
Also, if you raised the -samplesize value for the compile, try lowering it. (Default value is 1, higher values are higher resolution).
WARNING: ProjectSurfaceLightmap: Chose a 0 valued axis
You may have capped a cone, in which case you need to delete the cap. This error has been reported on maps that don't even have cones.
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