FIXED version of the original map. Updated where the jump between chamber 2 and 3 was impossible.

File Name: sp_aperture_syndromeV.1.0Fixed.zip
File Size: 9.94 MiB
Click here to download Sp_Aperture_Syndrome

This was so close to the wire, i didn't even have time to take screenshots or write a description!

But alas, this is a large, 3 chamber Single Player map featuring all kinds of elements including a unique take on the reflector cubes.

Massive thanks to Plague for helping me out greatly on this, all your work with I/O and ideas is appreciated

Also thanks to all of the Interlopers Chat crew, your playtesting made this map a lot better

EDIT: SCREENSHOTS

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/Portfol ... me0000.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/Portfol ... me0016.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/Portfol ... me0012.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/Portfol ... me0015.jpg

I'm at start of the third chamber, and i'm loving it. But, unluckyly, is heavy bugged.

Every end room transition got a strange grafic glitch, something with lot of fades (i'll screen that, if it's not clear)
The second puzzle can't be finished. The the last jump (awesome, by the way) use a faith plate that is'nt strong enough. It launch me just a little before the platform to chamber 3.
I retried a lot of times, but the results isn't changed. Also, i encountered another bug: the blue gel accidentally fall on the first cube. It started bouncing and i can't solve anything.
EDIT: in chamber3 i've removed the lasercube under the funnel and i'm totally stucked again ._.

Yeah unfortunately there wasn't quite enough time to iron out the last few bugs. I made this from scratch within the two weeks and even just an extra day would of given me the time to make it perfect.
The weird void thing between chambers is areaportals glitching out. The incorrect state was applied when I compiled :/

Also the fling, yeah it doesnt' reach. I adjusted the connecting areas and the info_target changed projection for some reason. Sucks

With the cube in the 2nd chamber, there is a water dispenser, but for version 1.1 I will section off that area so that the cube doesn't bounce out.

Oh I'll give you a hint: do you see the room with the emancipation gird? Go in there, you have to solve the puzzle to get the cubes into the bigger room. You'll then need to use the lasers and funnel to defeat the turrets

I've made a bug list for the next proper release of this map. Such a shame that it had those problems as it probably puts me out of the running for the prize. Ah well.

Double post but, for all those who want to play it without the affected problems mentioned

download this version:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/sp_aper ... ndrome.zip

I KNOW, that this version won't count, and I am not trying to bypass the editing rule by doing this, I simply want people to be able to enjoy the map as intended, please understand this. Those errors for the submitted version, mean I'm pretty much out of the competition but I'd like people to play the map anyways.

thanks

Hollow wrote:
..
Oh I'll give you a hint: do you see the room with the emancipation gird? Go in there, you have to solve the puzzle to get the cubes into the bigger room. You'll then need to use the lasers and funnel to defeat the turrets

I've made a bug list for the next proper release of this map. Such a shame that it had those problems as it probably puts me out of the running for the prize. Ah well.

Yeah, i noticed it. At first i tried to defeat the turrets by using the laser of the previous room. That's why i picked up the lasercube in that spot. Then i saw that room, and tried to put the lasercube back (impossible ._.).

Btw, this is such a great map. It's really bad there were those bugs in release time.. Maybe this will worth a community spotlight, out of the contest.

hey!
really beautifully crafted map
but i encountered some bugs too...couldnt find the buglist you wanted to post so heres my list. although you already submitted the map i also think it should be advanced

dont know if this is a bug, but in the first room one can cross the water without activatin the bridge, just by walking and jumping along the right side along the glass windows
second i tried so long to solve the first chamber and somehow (without having the platform in front of the exit door activated) the door was open. i just left the door without really looking back. so i cannot tell what exactly was activated and what wasnt.

chamber 2 is waiting...
cu

//EDIT
in chamber 2 i could get into the room with the laser just by jumping on blue flodder i placed in the middle of the chamber
then i cannot drop additional cubes if i destroyed them...the one in the laser room wont respawn after destruction.
restart

Thanks for the kind words guys. Yeah I am plannning to polish up this map good for version 1.1.

My bug/change list will be:

Version 1.1

Chamber 1:

re-vamp end puzzle
Make sure players can't bypass the first set of panels by using ledge
add a failsafe if player gets stuck after first panel bridge
make the box dropper fizzle the box and forcerespawn
add light_model and rail for dynamic light
add fizzler in connecting hall to chamber 02

Chamber 2:
add clips to panel stairs
add clip underneath stairs so player doesnt fall in
Add box dropper for the cube in the laser room
add more visual clues - music/lights- to make intended solution more streamlined
make sure you cannot access platform to laser room by using blue gel

Chamber 3:

fix windows and outside area
brighten up room in box room (add cube dispensers)
make sure the box falls after the lift lowers
add dynamic light in departure lift
fix ability to bypass lasers and get back into the first area
add fizzler between connecting rooms between death field
make sure glass box cubes are not accessible.

Misc:

add info_placement_helpers
add savepoints
adjust music
tweak lighting
Add more immersion - panels and things showing actitivity to make the environment feel 'alive'

It looks like a lot, but its all small things.

I have read the comments above and there are one or two thing more that need mentioning.
In the first area, in addition to a light rail and model for the dynamic light effect, you should add a lot more headspace above the area to give it a place to go through. When I played through the second time and looked at it, it was like this phantom light that went through walls =/

second chamber: Kind of confusing, there were a LOT of bends for the laser, and I found spending a lot of time looking for the first one and connecting all the numbers. Also: the paint. First time I did that area I painted as many places as I possibly could and this ended up putting repulsion gel on top of a few of the spots where you are supposed to drop a refraction cube. This made them impossible to place, and when I tried to wash it away I found there to be only metal underneath the water pipe and no portal surface. So the water was pretty much useless (I never once got any of the cubes themselves painted blue) and I had to start the level again cause I quicksaved after I had painted.

The third puzzle was really cool, a nice miz of puzzle elements and the overall theme of redirecting lasers through a prearranged set of refractors. One problem (kind of a BIG problem with a SUPER easy fix): The laser refractor cube directly beneath the very beginning of the excursion funnel (the one that directs the laser down under the floor) is takeable by the player. First time through I picked it up as I stepped into the funnel, and when I put it back it no longer worked and rendered the test impossible. Simple fix, just clip it off like you did the rest of them.

Overall it was nice. IT did have a portal 2 feel to it, but I gotta say when I played this it felt like "Oh man, another complicated laser redirecting puzzle"
Also, throughout the whole map (other maps did not do this) the game looked choppy, like it was dropping every tenth frame or so (maybe twice a second it would skip) And the portals between levels need fixing, as you know.

3.5/5

Thanks for the feedback, I will add your issues to the changelog!

Here is a solution-revealing playthrough of the level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbGb0dN3Vuo

Portal equivalent of Heath Robinson's contraptions:



Everything else has been mentioned before: buggy and lockable if you aren't careful. But also playful and fresh, that's why my humble suggestion is to embrace the play and add colours\music to the mechanisms falling into place. Also much preferred the later clean looks to the broken style, makes the "game" more stated.

Ok I just opened up the VMF for this (to see how you got the light effect in the begining) and noticed whats wrong with the cube I was able to grab under the funnel in the 3rd area, thus locking the puzzle. You used a bush with the "Clip" texture. Im affraid that won't work. Thhere really isn't much of a difference if any, in portal2, between "clip" and "player clip." BOTH types of brush let boxes turrets and balls through (found this out doing test map with all types of objects)
The only way to block the cube from being moved is to use an "invisible" texture or use glass.

The target for the faithplate between the 2nd and 3rd areas should really be directly on the actual landing point. You can adjust the speed in the catapult's properties to get the arc right. Also I noticed a lot of cubemaps, several close together. You really don't need that many, only one or two per area. If two cubemaps are close together, only one of them actually makes an effect on surrounding brushes, the rest are discarded (but still built and saved in the file)

Hey there.

I got stuck in the second chamber. Below I posted a screenshot of where. Here's a text description..."spoiled" just in case

This is the area where the button lifts the series of panels to give access to the other button and the area with the laser. My getting stuck happened after I solved the laser part of the puzzle, though I imagine it could well have happened before. It was on the way back down from placing the box on the upper button which clears the panels out of the way for the long fling jump. I fell into the pit, as you can see in the screenshot.

http://i56.tinypic.com/303e93c.jpg

It was a pretty simple mis-step, but there should definitely be a way out...maybe there was and I didn't find it, but I just ended up noclipping.

Other than that, I'm having some fun. (This room was a bit overwhelming to begin with, though the numbering/signage does do a tad to alleviate it).

Now back to finishing it,
Neema

EDIT: Also, as the mischievous person I am, once I completed that long fling jump to aerial faith plate to get to the third chamber, I created a portal back. It happened to be to the angled platform used for the fling, which sent me flying (I guess you programmed its speed) as before, except this time, the door into the third chamber was closed. You can see sort of what I did exactly... http://i53.tinypic.com/121wxa0.jpg. Adding a fizzler, probably anywhere along the "flight"--according to artistic discretion, should solve this problem, though I imagine there are other fixes. (Also, it would be nice if you could implement an autosave upon reaching the third chamber, as the likelihood of dying there to the turrets seems very high.)

Nice !! Especially the 2nd chamber.

I spent an hour trying to make the faith-plate fling to no avail.
I watched your YouTube play-through and you made it no problem.

I do not understand why I could not make it.

In the 3rd chamber - well, I hate Turrets and wish they were never part of the game - so I especially hate un-killable Turrets. But really my main complaint with the 3rd is that the Lasers have no real function that I could discern. I kepp wonder why there was an X on the wall near the Lasers and never had to place a Portal there.

I go through to the Exit but never used those Lasers except the one in the small room to the side - to remove the emancipation grid to that room - but I do not really know what the other 2 lasers were for. Overall a "4" IMO with a 5 for the 2nd Chamber.

My main complaint is that I wasn't too sure what to do in the 3rd chamber, so when running around the turrets killed me....and it took me all the way back to the start. I was having fun but that just ruined it for me. I am not going to go back and play the other 2 chambers. I realize I could have saved it...but I was not aware that there wasn't an autosave in the map. If you are going to make a lengthy map, it MUST be there. 3/5.

I'm playing custom maps and record my first time of playing them. So the run is not perfect and may not use only intended ways, but maybe it can let you see how other people may understand the map or you could just enjoy someone playing this map for entertainment.
Anyways, here is the recording:

mwojcnSmFTo
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwojcnSmFTo)

Also note the video description for more feedback and my signature for additional project information.

Really like it,
i couldn't make the jump either. Looks like the "launch" is with a fixed momentum anyway, so it doesn't really matter how to try to get into it. I have 2 options, bang my head midair or die in the toxic water.

I guess the yt video shows all problems i encountered too, like getting trapped inside the convertable stairs.

Awesome map, had fun.

I played both the June 7 and June 8 versions of the map. Although the files were different, the glitches were the same as noted by other posters. One additional glitch I noticed in the third chamber; one of the laser cubes cannot be stood on. The other two laser cubes and the regular cube are OK.

Except for the fling from chamber 2 to 3 not working, this was a pretty fun map to play. Please come back and fix the glitches. This one would easily be a 4 if it worked right, but I can only give it a 3/5 as is.

Haven't been back here in a while!

I've been super busy with a new job (which this map contributed to me getting) and lots of small projects, but I've wanted to fix this map up for the longest time.

I'll see what I can do over the coming months as I start doing final art for a CS:GO map. But I'm surprised that people still download this which is pretty awesome