[Silencer123]

Sounds do not add to the modelcounter which crashes maps on >512.
If they did, you could build 3 crates into your map and make the func_wall,
and you'd hit the limit already. Look at the monsterstring. Why are so many
brush entities missing?

EDIT: WOOT! Is it possible that models of trigger objects whichs model is
invisible are left out? Then there'd be some space for sounds, but I cannot
believe for all sounds. o.O

EDIT2: Tried with sounds, got 536 out of 512. The map runs fine.
Something is still really fishy. Afraid that Prajch is right with this:
"There are probably certain models/sprites/sounds that don't count towards the limit."

[Prajch]

Trust me, too many sounds will keep it from loading, even if it calls it a brush limit.

As far as I know (but I could be wrong, and I'm sorry if I am) those *# entities are just references to already precached entities, so they don't count on their own towards the limit. I believe you only encounter entities named *# in SetModel.

[Silencer123]

Open a *.map file of any map with texteditor and search for *1.
You will see that every unique brush entity has its own *#, always
with a different number. You can, however, edit the map with ripent
after compilation and add a number of brush entities which use the *#
model of an existing brush entity. That won't get you closer to the
limit, but endanger you to run out of edicts, but we got the -num_edicts #
command line to alter those.

[Prajch]

Originally Posted by Silencer123 Open a *.map file of any map with texteditor and search for *1. You will see that every unique brush entity has its own *#, always with a different number. You can, however, edit the map with ripent after compilation and add a number of brush entities which use the *# model of an existing brush entity. That won't get you closer to the limit, but endanger you to run out of edicts, but we got the -num_edicts # command line to alter those.

Hmm ok. But if you had 1 brush entity for a staircase... and you have 5 staircases in your map, would they be named something like *3 *4 *5 *6 *7? Or would it only appear once in the file?

[Silencer123]

The compilers won't see that those entities are identical, thus they will be *1, *2, *3 and so on. In fact, they most likely aren't identical, because a brush entitys model includes its exact lighting.

EDIT: You can, however, as I said, only make one staircase, ripent the *.bsp and copy the staircase and move the copies to their own locations. That way you would save 4 models which would have to be precached. It is, however, really hard to accomplish. Also note that the staircase would need an origin brush. By default all entities origins are at "0 0 0". Their models are just altered with an offset to be at their correct locations, if they don't have an origin brush.

[Prajch]

Hmm... they probably don't need to be precached. Can't see why else they wouldn't show up in the logs.

I wonder if we could figure out a way to determine which precaches don't count towards the limit... one thing I noticed is that even if I block the precache of voice_icon.spr (shows up when you use the mic) it still looks the same to everyone on the server, unlike other normal sprites. Maybe things like HUD-related icons are ignored.

[Silencer123]

This is getting seriously difficult.
Maybe they are the exact same files that you can only use but no others for certain things.
Like you cannot display any custom sprites on the HUD, and those original sprites are ones
that don't add to the precache limit.