PLEASE NOTE: The filename of the map has changed since the last update, it is not hotel_aperture so take that into account when playing the map

Changelog (V 1.4.2)

V 1.3: Cubemaps have been correctly built so hopefully no more visual corruption

V 1.3.1: Hopefully thanks to HMW's helpful suggestion the cubemap error should be gone for good.

V 1.4: Fixed the faith plate animation, radio no longer carries on playing after being fizzled, other small visual tweaks and bug fixes

V 1.4.1: Further lighting tweaks

V 1.4.2: Eliminated a potential scenario in which players and objects could fall through the aerial faith plate

V 1.5: Fixed a couple of exploits and made some visual tweaks

File Name: Hotel Aperture.rar
File Size: 4.03 MiB
Click here to download Hotel Aperture

Well, here's my review of the map...


-Misaligned textures... everywhere
-Very bland texturing... everywhere
-Vertex textures... everywhere
-Misaligned lights
-A heap of possible unintended solutions
-Didn't need the faith plate in the second test
-Didn't need the blue gel, orange gel, laser, and laser catcher in the third test
-Hotel part just... doesn't make sense

Also, here is my (extremely unintended) solution video:
http://youtu.be/WFCN_IABBpg

Not completely bad for a first Hammer map Shane... good luck to more Hammer maps

I didn't use Vertex textures, not knowingly anyway. And which lights are misaligned?

Great map really fun i did enjoy it i rated this 5 and for my own rate out o 10 i would say 8.5 lets see what you can do next!

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I also think I know where I went wrong now, I forgot to enable texture lock whils re-sizing my blocks. D'oh! I think i'll just leave that as is and instead just try to design out some of the exploits, and apply what I learnt to any new maps!

Updated to V 1.1, fixed some of those exploits and realigned a lot of the textures. They're in line with each other now, but out of line with the door frames. I know it still doesn't look pretty but fixing that would require me to completely redo the entire map. However I realise what I did wrong with that one and I will eliminate the mistake in future maps.

Shane wrote:
Updated to V 1.1, fixed some of those exploits and realigned a lot of the textures. They're in line with each other now, but out of line with the door frames. I know it still doesn't look pretty but fixing that would require me to completely redo the entire map. However I realise what I did wrong with that one and I will eliminate the mistake in future maps.

How would it require you to redo the whole map? Just use the texture face tool to reset the values.

I did reset the values, that's what I changed in the latest update. But they're still out of alignment with the door frame. I believe because I forgot to disable texture lock when I resized my brushes they're slightly messed up and it would mean re-brushing massive areas of the entire map. Rather than do that i'll just remember to account for it in future maps.

As for the lighting: I changed some of the upstairs lighting to direction lights, hopefully it should look better now.

Heh, cheers that was quite a nice varied and fun map
Some bits didn't make sense.. like the grassy patches after the acid but I enjoyed it anyhoo, thanks!

My solution:
Q9znYW3QiO4

It was a carpet texture, but I see what you meant, it is a bit grasslike

And I couldn't quite see how you got the conversion gel on the back wall from that video? Otherwise the solution used in the second room was pretty interesting so I don't think i'll redesign that

Heh, woops assumed it was the same sorta stuff you get at minigolf courses!
I got the conversion gel going sideways by placing the floor portal side-on to the paint and having the paint enter at a shallow angle

Heh didn't even know that was possible. I'm learning a lot about engine mechanics from the various solutions people are coming up with here, all great things to note for making new maps so thanks for that

Also, to the staff... Trying to update this to the latest version and the download DB is refusing to do it

Edit: Never mind, went through this time :/

Heh, white paint breaks everything

I think it was pretty good for a first hammer map. The puzzles were ok, but there were lots of beginner mistakes. If you fizzle the radio, music still plays by the hotel room thing. Faith plate doesn't play the animation. You had conversion gel (Which Sicklebrick naturally took advantage of). The textures(but my first map had crappy textures too)

Overall it was a good map and I hope to see some improvements with your next map

Yeah the tutorial I used to teach myself faith plates didn't include the animation for some reason, but I'll teach myself quickly enough.

As for the radio still playing music after destruction, how would I go about fixing that?

Needs a bit of work, but yeah white paint is usually a map breaker. Painting the ramp was a bit tedious and then the jump to the exit was very touchy. It required hands off jump from the ramp in my case, otherwise it fell short off the blue gel...not sure what was happening. In the first chamber I had a black wall glitch that covered half the portal (portal high near cube acceptor and then below on wall). I'll look at the posted solutions. Still nice start mapping, thanks for creating.

Put a trigger everywhere a radio can die and add a filter to trigger the music to stop when touched.

Another way to use the white gel for an exploit and doing the first chamber without blue gel:

5AqTBz-hSYM

I'm not sure why you had trouble getting the jump right, it's just a matter of judging the run up properly. During my playtesting I usually ran right from the back wall. As for the radio that should have been fixed in the latest version of the map.

And finally, given that the white gel exploit is actually more complicated than my intended solution I don't think i'll bother designing it out, I actually like players having some laitude for solving maps in their own way, although i'll make a note of it for future mapping projects.

quatrus wrote:
Needs a bit of work, but yeah white paint is usually a map breaker. Painting the ramp was a bit tedious and then the jump to the exit was very touchy. It required hands off jump from the ramp in my case, otherwise it fell short off the blue gel...not sure what was happening. In the first chamber I had a black wall glitch that covered half the portal (portal high near cube acceptor and then below on wall). I'll look at the posted solutions. Still nice start mapping, thanks for creating.

Would you mind screenshotting that? I'd like to fix it if possible, thanks

Once again, everyone's feedback has been helpful, cheers!

It looks difficult in that run, but in my blind playthrough it worked on first try.

Shouldn't be possible now (and yes I appreciate the glass isn't the prettiest solution but it was better than removing the conversion gel and completely re-designing the last room)

good map ! However I found unintended solution and speedrun in the 3 rooms.

http://youtu.be/NhUlLXiUB2U