L3DT Users' Community

It would be very nice if it was possible to restart a run. Large terrains, 16k x 16k with 8x textures for example, can take 10 days to run even on a fast PC. I've been unlucky enough on two occasions (2 for 2 I should be so lucky) to have the PC shut down for various reasons at about 50% completed. Very frustrating. While it is true that it identifies weaknesses in my system that doesn't offer much comfort.

Is it possible to modify the code to look for partial work and complete it if the user agrees? Could save alot of time on large terrains.

Hi Dennis,

Hmmm...tricky to do in general. As an easier intermediate step, I can make a plugin to run calculations on user-specified areas of the map (e.g. the incomplete bits), which ultimately could be wired up with some code to check for incomplete maps in the way you suggest. The area generation plugin would have other uses too: Very clever folks could split map calculations across several computers, either with a socket/FTP plugin, or by manually copying map files to the different boxen. Anyhoo, presently I'm finalising v2.5, and rather than delay that further I'll put this plugin on the to-do list for v2.5a.

By the way, I've found the CPU throttle feature can sometimes help on unstable systems. One of my computers had a resetting problem on hot days when running at 100% for more than about 5 minutes (crappy heatsink). However, if I throttled the CPU to ~70% it continued without problems. This may or may not be useful in your case.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Thanks for the suggestion on the CPU throttle. The two cases where my PC shut down were actually due to 1) Windows Update @ 3am, and 2) a bad UPS that would trip for "no" reason. Other than that it's pretty stable.