This is my entry for the contest, using a new gameplay mechanic and some old ones too. Three chambers long, detailed in the pristine aperture style. Did have some custom content but doesn't now. Would have had a fourth chamber, but hammer crashed whenever i opened the .vmf for it. Ah well.

Download is broken, add .rar on the end.

Tested with the help of tf2maps.net.

Images:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59581 ... CBBC0087B/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59468 ... D0544E959/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59693 ... 91CBA8D8D/

File Name: LeSwordfish; Portal Buttons.rar
File Size: 4.97?MiB
LeSwordfish Portal Buttons

Your download is broken; it has no extension.

EDit: Added the .rar, excellent map. Love the new mechanic, and love the detailing. Really captured the moving parts vibe of portal.

Double edit: Alright, you stumped me. End of the last chamber, I cant figure out how to get to the exit without going through the field.

You set up the cube to trigger the laser, then move your portals- one to directly above one button, one to the floor button under the bridge. jump into the floor button, re-place a portal underneath you and then, in mid-air over the bridge, place a portal on the other button, to clear the lasers path and activate the bridge.

really nice map! I cheated on the last part by simply jumping around the corner. I know I had to do something along the lines of what you said in the post above but I couldn't see the solution at the time... lol

Lenghty, clever chambers containing a new testing element. The sheer adaptability of the concept is amazing, here's hoping others will pick it up themselves. Clean, cold looks are paired to elaborate behind the scenes for added flavour.

Thanks for all the positive feedback! I AM hoping to expand on this idea- i've got ideas for about four new chambers, and i do want to expand this into a larger piece.

Excellent maps. Although I probably wouldn't have solved the final chamber without your spoiler didn't occur that I could catch myself with the bridge. Well done. Thanks for mapping.

I liked it. The portal buttons didn't glitch at any point and weren't overcomplicated like so many other mods. It had a smooth difficulty curve, with a simple laser puzzle at the beginning and a mid-air portal flinging puzzle at the end. You clearly took care in making the levels visually appealing. It did feel like the portal buttons were forcing you to complete the puzzle in a certain way, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

(Note: this is a copy and paste of my running notes as I judged the map. I'm posting them here to give you more feedback than silence, but I'm not going to write a thesis about this. Here's are my thoughts, take 'em or leave 'em.)


Opening doors when I place portals... interesting. Didn't take long to figure out
Why not have the relay and catcher on the floor? Hard to see alignment up there.
Oh, I see. But the panel butt-rapes the physics model and sends things flying. Got stuck, had to noclip
Chamber, then... door? Relaxation vault? Door I can't walk through? Stupid
Clunky transition between puzzles...
Overall, awesome map. The portal-placing mechanic was a shit ton of fun. Just needs a little polish.

(Note: the fact that I stopped taking notes for the second two puzzles means I got really sucked in an enjoyed them.)

LeSwordfish wrote:

You set up the cube to trigger the laser, then move your portals- one to directly above one button, one to the floor button under the bridge. jump into the floor button, re-place a portal underneath you and then, in mid-air over the bridge, place a portal on the other button, to clear the lasers path and activate the bridge.

How to finish the end on the bridge. I do not understand.

You have a video ?

I don't have a video. I could record a demo and give you instructions on how to play it though?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13673854/Portal ... lution.zip

To play it, extract it into /steamapps/common/portal 2/portal 2/ and then type "playdemo leswordfish_portalbuttons_end_solution" without quotes in the console.

It is more timing-based than i would like, however i dont have an idea on how to make it better apart from smashing stuff up and lowering the bridge.

I thought it was about right in terms of timing. The key isn't how hard is the shot to make, but how bad is the penalty for failure. If you just have to wait to go through the portals and come back, no big deal.

I am an idiot . I succeeded 5 minutes after my post.

Very great map that you realized. Thanks again !

Very good map. I liked it because you can solve it by thinking and not by super fast precision timed portal placing...
The activate-stuff by portal placing was nice.
Only downside was the banging sound in the last chamber. Maybe turn off the smashers when you leave that chamber?

That. Was. Spectacular. Five out of five, without hesitation. Are you really the first one to think of portal buttons? It seems so obvious...

I had the same problem as Hober, though. The elevating platform in the first chamber trapped me in the floor.

I've been very careful never to claim the portal buttons idea as entirely new and my own. I came up with it by myself, but have since played a map that uses a similar mechanic in Portal 1. That can be found Here: http://myaperturelabs.com/file.php?id=292 He says he hasn't seen any maps with a similar concept, so maybe it is original.

I'm fairly sure i'm the first person to have made it for Portal 2 using the trigger_portal_detector entity's new outputs (It's only just got outputs for portals being removed, so it was impossible in Portal 1 as far as I am aware.)

Dude, don't sweat it. Ideas are cheap, execution is gold. You built a good, fun map. Whether or not you were the first to have this particular idea... who cares?

Amazing execution. Solving the final puzzle felt good as all hell.

Minor quabble worth no loss of points was my difficulty with the platform in chamber 1. Had to kind jump around a bit.

5/5

Enjoyed your map very much. Also had issues with platform in first room.
The end puzzle stumped me for a long time and I had to resort to your guide above. Felt like smacking myself.
Well done!

Amazing thinking! Using portals as buttons! Chamber 1 is a simple and clean tutorial chamber and chamber 3 comes as a real challenge! I did get stuck at the end of chamber 3 when I activated the laser receiver and the exit door opened and got the intended solution in the forum. I noticed there was much space above the button which could put the panel down and that the light bridge was right above a button, but I had some trouble relating the two things with each other until I found out the awesome solution.
I can't figure out what the funnel in the second chamber is for, Maybe just an obstacle?
Generally, it is a masterpiece! 5/5 to you!

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:

r6GapxNq9Ag
(Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6GapxNq9Ag)

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

the last chamber is incredibly wonderful
I spent about an hour to solve this puzzle
really good

Just dropping a note that i'm back working on this again. The horrible physics stuff in the first room is gone. The relaxation rooms between rooms will be switched out for elevators- that idea has died on me like a bad sidekick. Bugs will be fixed, and 1-4 new rooms will be added, depending on how much revision i have to do.

bjs0 wrote:
I had the same problem as Hober, though. The elevating platform in the first chamber trapped me in the floor.

Ditto for me, too. And why does standing on the cube when that platform is down throw you off?

Even that annoying glitch can't diminish how much I like this map. I hope that you consider plagiarism the highest form of compliment when I steal the portal/trigger idea. The transitions were a welcome change of pace. I love flings; using the same portal to fling three different ways was excellent reuse of elements. This map looks beautiful, too. An easy 5/5 and addition to my favorites playlist.

Sorry to revive a dead thread; I discovered a link to this map from elsewhere and wanted to add my belated thoughts. The DLDB doesn't seem to be fond of the semi-colon in the filename. The file I downloaded was "LeSwordfish" (without an extension); adding the RAR extension manually solved the problem, and I was able to install the map with no problems.

Bugs and Mapping Details
* The lighting on these panels is a little weird. The lightmap has the yellow lighting from the bts fluoresenct tubs and this lighting remains when the panels are pushed forward. To fix this, position the panels and arms so that they are in the extended position at compile time, pull them in on map spawn with a logic auto and finally push them out again with the trigger.
That little bts area was very well done though, it was the first thing I saw in the map and I really enjoyed it.
The first fizzler's textures don't match on one side.
This overlay didn't properly light up.
In the second room the industrial grinders of death didn't have any sound effect, making them much less terrifying.
Some of the crushers were shaded strangely. I think a compile with -staticproplighting may help here.
This kind of panel is in the Portal 1 style, and looks out of place here
* It's probably worth disabling the crushers after they're done with - they're a bit irritating in the faith plate puzzle, rattling around all the time

The portal button mechanic was fairly intuitive; players are taught how it works by experimenting in the first chamber. The 'portal support prop' with the lighting effect was a nice way of saying 'this is a portal button'. You used an aperture overlay on of the portal buttons too - that might serve as a way to distinguish from the automatically placed portals you in the single player campaign. The buttons could use with some kind of on/off sound though - in the second chamber, for example, there's a portal button which turns on a lightbridge but there's no feedback sound to say 'this portal placement did something'.

The first two chambers are nice introductions, although I felt that the second chamber didn't really develop the idea too much. (It taught me to jump above fizzlers to place the portal, and that I don't always want a portal button to be on [regarding the excursion funnel]). The third and final chamber was the crowning glory of the map, and really had me thinking. The third section was a little confusing - it wasn't clear which portal buttons activated or deactivated what. The final puzzle where I had to leap onto the light bridge really had me stuck for several minutes, until I remembered the huge drop above the portal button near the laser, at which point I had my 'a-ha!' moment.

I seem to say this a lot, but I really like the concept and would love to see more of it (perhaps even in coop?).[One final remark: perhaps "portal button" isn't the best term for this mechanic. Portal Detector maybe?]. There's very little to complain about here; a top-notch map. I just wish I'd discovered it sooner! Thanks for mapping.