Felix Griffin and usCobra11 present, The Shadows of Time, Episode 1.

Some physicists say that much of the universe consists of Dark Matter, but our research at Aperture has shown that up to 90% of that may be nothing but useless Sort-Of-Dark-But-Still-Pretty-Light Matter. The remaining useful 10%, Darker Matter, has proven useful in controlling the flow of time...

Five short tests made for the mAI contest. Source code included. Enjoy!

File Name: shadows_of_time.7z
File Size: 57.26 MiB
Click here to download The Shadows of Time: Episode 1

This post is no longer applicable - and the system would not let me delete it.

Absolutely amazing.
Will upload blindish run asap.

Edit:
My somewhat blind run-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?1&v=IQYdoMsItAc

Oh, did the hint not show up?

That's all intentional, watch the video playing on the big wall.
If you're still stumped, watch a few minutes of [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYCmacqcGWI"]this[/url].

Also, there are only three BSPs, but still five tests (plus the little one marked 00 in the first BSP). Sort of like in Portal 1, multiple test chambers are packed together to fit the contest rules.

Playtested this before, not much of a difference though, however, it was still better than the playtest version.
Heres my walkthrough/blindrun: (First time playthrough of the official released version)
Walkthrough
HcPJOepLUEo

Feedback:
Feedback
Map 1 (sot_00.bsp)
-Really dark after you exit from the arrival elevator door.
-Liked the video, very informative
-The test chamber sign was a nice addition, however, you should put the gray cake icon there instead of the black one, because in that particular chamber (00), there is no cake. Only in [spoiler]chamber 05 there is "cake", therefore you should only put the black cake icon on chamber 05
-You should place some signages such as the exit sign for players to know wheres the exit. Or at least place indicator lights from the buttons to the exit. Nobody knows the exit is behind the screen before you solve the puzzle.

Map 2 (sot_01.bsp)
-Liked the music and the lighting. Its better than the playtest version.
-Nothing much to say, same old same old.

Map 3 (sot_02.bsp)
-Got stuck in the panel and the glass, other than that, nothing much to say. I used the same route as the playtest xP[/spoiler]

Pretty good, better than the playtest version. 9.5/10

portal2tenacious: That's not how you're supposed to get through the door in Chamber 3! Speedrunner!

Also, I haven't watched the end of your video yet, but the solution to test 5 is ridiculously hard. That's why I left the escape door in there. I know the neurotoxin counter is aggravating, the solution doesn't involve rewinding just in time. When you rewind there should be about ten to fifteen seconds left on the clock.

Is it only me having problems ?
I tried everything in room 1. <snip>
(see my post below - problems solved)

lifeson99 wrote:
Stuff

I didn't start the map using "Extras" in the main menu. I just opened the console and entered "map sot_00" to load the map.

To make the shadow appear, you press "Ctrl". The shadow mimics what you did in the last 30 seconds.

Did you turn off instructor hints? They're needed for this. sv_enable_instructor_hints 1 or such in the console will fix it.

But yes, you just have to press CTRL. It's the same button you use to duck, which I tried to show in the video.

If you verified your game cache, reinstall the map. It'll make certain things later a LOT clearer if you have particles and extras working.

FelixGriffin wrote:
portal2tenacious: That's not how you're supposed to get through the door in Chamber 3! Speedrunner!

Also, I haven't watched the end of your video yet, but the solution to test 5 is ridiculously hard. That's why I left the escape door in there. I know the neurotoxin counter is aggravating, the solution doesn't involve rewinding just in time. When you rewind there should be about ten to fifteen seconds left on the clock.

Yeah. That last test really tripped me up. I have to say it was great and i was even more surprised to see that the shadow could survive through a quicksave!
Also, Did you want to use the neurotoxin vent overlay, or were the bullseyes intentional? I can't think of the correct name for it, but I'm pretty sure if you search toxic it will come up.

Finally !! The secret was that I had to go to the Console and enter:

gameinstructor_enable 1

Then the tips showed up, including the tip about pressing "Control" to replay sequences from 30 seconds ago. Then it all fell into place.

I still am missing the particles but that's fine.
Not sure why they won't load.
The first 3 levels were actually very simple once you know the 30-second trick.

The 4th level was good, however my shadow girl simply would NOT press the button to open the exit door. I would press, it .. . walk to the door, then hit Control and wait. I would then watch her as she would walk to the button and waited - but no button press would ever occur and the door would not open. I retired it many times - to no avail.

The 5th level was a lot of fun and had some unexpected surprises.
This was a good map with a very unique concept. Would have liked a bit more difficulty with the earlier levels but the last 2 levels were well done.

I'm very glad you like it! Try running the update_particles.bat file again if it didn't work.

I guess we didn't make this very clear, but the shadow can't press pedestal buttons. The game lagged horribly when we tried. There's a different trick to getting through the door there.

Finally I got through this very unique set of rooms.
Was stuck at the 4th level then saw your post saying that the portal girl cannot press buttons.

Nice !!

Pretty neat concept. I got a little confused with when I was in shadow mode or not but that cleared up after a bit of playtime.

But the main thing I wanted to ask you was where you got the skybox texture/can I have it? It looks amazing.

I made it myself, and sure. It's in the resources for the FGEMOD.

...It's also in the actual SoT files as well (derp by me).

But thanks for reminding me about FGEMOD.