Description:
Medium sized map with challenge version

AFFINITY v1.0

A Portal map by Magnar "insta" Jenssen ([email protected])

How to install :

Extract affinity.bmz to wherever you want.

Start Portal, click on Bonus Maps, click on Import Maps

Browse to where you placed affinity.bmz and click Open.

Thanks to :

All the people that playtested the map.
The people keeping the Valve Developer Wiki updated.

Notes :

Map supports both LDR and HDR lighting.
I accept no responsibility if this map destroys your computer or anything else in any way.
You are free to put the map on a disk and distribute it via public restrooms.
The map uses some HL2 assets so it is recommended that you have HL2 installed.

File Name: affinity.zip

File Size: 23.71?MiB



Affinity

download-database-read-before-releasing-t105.html

Just played through the regular map, not yet the challenge one though. I liked it a lot, especially the wake up "chamber" This was a very thoroughly done map, but I did notice one thing:

In the room with the platform that needs to be activated (with two doors that are linked to buttons that allow the pellet through), I was able to fling myself and land on the little thing sticking out, therefore bypassing the platform altogether

Overall though, very well done. I would like to see more of your work.

Great map, beautifully crafted, and the biggest anticlimax I've ever seen. I really liked the wake-up area, and the transition between chambers and BTS.

Judging from the screenshots; this looks great--!

Lots of detail; good design; ambiance; and craft--

Looking forward to playing it when I get home tonight...

A masterfully crafted map, on the scale of Valve-Like precisionism. I also really liked the ending of course and the easter eggs:

the scary sound when you detach a camera and the secret area with the cake were awesome

please make more maps!!

Wow, this map looks fucking awesome. Community Spotlight?

msleeper wrote:
Wow, this map looks fucking awesome. Community Spotlight?

It deserves it imho

I didn't see that easter egg; where was the hidden cake?
edit: is there a way to get to the cake w/out noclipping?

edit: yes, it should be in the spotlight

Please upload this to the database..

I can't download it.

Excellent map, very well done. And a good ending to boot.

Very good map. It was excellently made and very challenging. I especially liked the suprise ending. I started to freak when it seemed like Aperture space-time was stretching like what black holes do on TV, then the camera zooms in on a pigeon. Kinda dissapointing ending, but I LOL'd at "It was all a dream. You are a [cragging] pigeon. Game over man.".
BTW, why did the lights flicker and a panel dislodge when I shot the first camera?
EDIT: Wait, it was just a coincidence. Shooting the camera didn't do it. Did you get the custom sound effect from the original Anger Sphere?

[img]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/ultradude25/motd.gif[/img]

Holy Shit
/Quake voice
You know, I really hate you for having it sitting on your Hard drive and not giving us this map earlier.

I really, REALLY liked this map. I found a few (non-major) bugs.

First: In the room where you have to put the 2 cubes on the 2 buttons, when I put the last cube on I noticed that the door opened so I went towards it and suddenly this energy ball whizzed past my face, I was like crap where did that come from? I turned around and saw that the button had also turned on the Ball launcher. I was at the button furthest away from the launcher and I didn't hear it launch. I think you should make the sound louder so you can hear it when you put the box on the furthest button because that almost killed me.

Second: In that same room, I was trying to get the ball into the catcher (at the time I hadn't gone all the way through the hallway to find the button) and I was trying to get it through the small hole in the glass, I then found the button and found that it made all the glass lift up, so I fired a portal at the hole in the glass when the glass came back down and found that the portal stopped where the glass would have been if there wasn't a hole. It was then that I found out that there is actually glass there, it was just darker than the rest of the glass which made it look like there was no glass there.
[img]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/ultradude25/affinity0000.jpg[/img]
Other than that, I loved this map.

Things I liked:
The part where you drop the box into the portal and it hits the upside down button and you have to run to get to the door.
The other door timing part.
The part where you had to stand on the buttons to open a door and rotate the wall.
When time started warping.
The edited GLaDOS lines that make them fit better into the map.
The fact that the map loaded in one go.
The very interesting and original ending.

Defiantly put in Spotlight.

Truly beautiful map, it looks stunning. This map looks so amazing, it looks like it was drawn as concept art.

Damn

lolled when test subject started laugh and then : Noooo! :''D If you don't know what I'm talking about, find out

Visually stunning, absolutely breathtaking. Puzzle content fairly easy, but nicely tuned. Two bugs you might want to have a look at; the orb catchers seemed to have an orb sprite loaded in them before it caught an orb, and one combine energyball still had 'small particles' turned on, but whatever. An excellent map, truly one of the best I've ever played.

Had a great feel to it, classic look, and a good design. Not too hard, and not too easy, very balanced. I loved the ending! XD really origional. If I were to rate it, it'd recieve a 9/10.

Personally, I'd say you had too much good looks and not enough good puzzle. It's like the entire map was gilded to make it look nice when the basic puzzles weren't awesome.
Gah I'm being too harsh. The puzzles were pretty good, albeit not too difficult. The looks, and the GLaDOS and the effects and all the little things were AWESOME. Truly amazing how you built such an atmospheric map.
The ending was freaking incredible. Enough said.
Great great job...I imagine this took a crapload of time.
Couple of things: On the fling puzzle, I merely jumped off the ledge, fired one portal at one of the tilted side panels, and shot another one at the ground just before I hit. I was launched all the way to the other side and beat the puzzle instantly. I fear this is not how you intended it. Also...I had something else but I forgot it. >_<

Pros:
-Good and original design
-New start. Replaced Relaxation vault with cage.
-The ending was lol moment. The City was cool too.
-Hard at first, but good puzzles.

Cons:
-"Node: Graph out of date" Message.
-Too dark in some areas.

But an update can fix that ^

Awesome map. The new style won me. This is a map that Portal Mappers of all types will look back on. 9.5/10

Needs to be in Community Spotlight!

Now this is an awesome map. Great look, balanced puzzles. At first I looked at the fling puzzle and I thought "oh man, another impossible fling", but I managed to do it on second try
In the chamber with the two buttons accepting cubes only, I thought I had to fling the cubes across the fizzler, but they got always destroyed. After it became frustrating I realised it had a much easier solution
At the elevator I thought that it's the end, but it wasn't. This map didn't start in an elevator and didn't end in an elevator, but the beginning and ending were both great.
The only glitch (but no real one) in this map was that there were no subtitles. I understand the trouble using custom-made choreographed scenes. I guess the glados speech was made just of plain sounds.
However, i didn't find the cake room (will have to look for it again, heh), but, overall, this is a must for everyone, imho it deserves spotlighting.

Why isn't this in spotlight yet, it's been sitting here un-spotlighted for a whole 2 days, that's as bad as leaving a companion cube alone and companionless.

It was a pretty good map. Beautifully stunning at the start and i liked most of the puzzles. the one with the 2 buttons and the energy ball didn't feel to me much like portal.

I didn't really like the end though... seemed too much of a quick way to get out of a good ending. Also, where is the voice(text) coming from that tells us we're a pigeon?

Mek wrote:
The only glitch (but no real one) in this map was that there were no subtitles. I understand the trouble using custom-made choreographed scenes.

He didn't used choreographed scenes sadly, because as of the EP2 engine, a little thing has been added to help the dang Xbox 360 crowd called "build.images". This file is used to help them quickly find the scene files when they are needed.

Valve also thought it would be good to add this to the computer version and so each time a new scene file is made. The "build.images" file needs to be recreated and updated, and this needs to be done for each person who is going to hear the scene. (So pretty much if you download a map with a custom scene then you need to rebuild the "build.images" file. Something which many people do not know how to do.)

Kayaia wrote:
He didn't used choreographed scenes sadly, because as of the EP2 engine, a little thing has been added to help the dang Xbox 360 crowd called "build.images". This file is used to help them quickly find the scene files when they are needed.

Valve also thought it would be good to add this to the computer version and so each time a new scene file is made. The "build.images" file needs to be recreated and updated, and this needs to be done for each person who is going to hear the scene. (So pretty much if you download a map with a custom scene then you need to rebuild the "build.images" file. Something which many people do not know how to do.)

It is scenes.image but this is what was on my mind when writing that post. In addition, the game doesn't support bspzipped scene files, nor the scenes.image file. I had problems with that when creating my own map. But we are going a little off-t(r)opic here

Probably won't be in the spotlight until it's put into the database.

Regardless it needs to be spotlighted, Now.

Usually stuff doesn't even go to Release until it's on the DLDB, much less community spotlight.

But since it's already halfway...

Hey! Glad that you like the map. The reason there's no subtitles is that I just used ambient_generics to trigger the GladOS voices. And yeah, the cameras play sounds from the anger-sphere when they are detached. I thought I'd give them some personality

I'd love to tweak some of the puzzles a little bit, especially the last two chambers. Also, the map could use a few more signs to help the player understand what to do, especially towards the end. I'm not sure if I'll have the time to do it in the near future though, but we'll see.

I've also uploaded the map to the Download DB now, the link is dload.php?action=file&file_id=277 if you're having trouble downloading it from the other hosts.

Again, glad you like the map. Try out the Challenge version if you want more, least portals should be a fun challenge.

-insta

I jumped into the goo below the cage and got a funny message =D

From start to finish, this map is amazing.
If the puzzles required a bit more thinking, it would be perfect.

insta wrote:
Again, glad you like the map. Try out the Challenge version if you want more, least portals should be a fun challenge.

Why dont you make an advanced chamber too?

Small bug in the final challenge chamber: I ended up with 3 cubes. Probably could have exploited it to get 18 portals, but I didn't feel like orb-bashing for an hour to get it right. 20 was difficult enough

Hober wrote:
Usually stuff doesn't even go to Release until it's on the DLDB, much less community spotlight.

But since it's already halfway...

We need quality content, also I sent him a PM after I posted asking for said requirements.

Good map overall, but i'm not sure if it was just the map itself or me, but ever since i started it my reticle has been disabled but i had to manage, even so it was hard to 'manage' since there were a few tight spots that would have been much easier to get a portal into if i had the reticle. Also maybe it's just my lack of reiticle that causes this but i think that there's a lack of portal bumpers on certain walls, though of course don't take my word on this, it could just be my crap aim without a reticle. Overall i liked this map, the puzzles were all fairly easy but there are a few things i would change.

Such as adding a linkage... thing to the ball launcher in the room with the two buttons and the fizzler, when i finally managed to get the boxes over (and i did it the wrong way i later learned since i thought that lift was unpowered), i instantly headed straight for the door to see where it went, and just as i was going through the door i suddenly died. My first reaction was thinking that the door had closed on me so i lookd back. Nope, the buttons are still held down, then i noticed the ball leauncher behind me. Excuse my french but it appears i got shot in the fucking back which annoyed me to no end that there was no way to tell that the launcher would be activated TO shoot me in the back.

Ya i loved this map, especially the sceret room with the cake and you started laughing. I killed myself with the energy pellet on purpose five times just to see that awesome secret over and over!

At first, I was like "wow a gay ending about dreams".

But then, I lol'd.

how did you do that effect with the stretching gun and stuff?

I think he managed to change to FOV

PortalFan77 wrote:
how did you do that effect with the stretching gun and stuff?

I used the env_zoom entity to stretch the gun.

Very cool, I laughed at the end...

Dude, that was a badass map.

Best ending EVAR.

very very nice map!!! really deserves to be the new community spotlight

I liked the time u set on the time challenge...pretty challenging ^^

though i got 03:54 on the second try...but still I wanna try to push this to 03:40 or so ^^


pls let me know what your records are

btw. I don't like the step and the portal challenge, so I didn't try them so far ^^


EDIT: 03:39!!!

still there is alot which could have been improved...my guess is that 03:25 is definitely possible...would like to record such a run and put it on youtube...how can i capture while playing? O.o
can't use fraps because the vid would be longer than 30 seconds -.-'


EDIT2: lol...03:19 xD

and still alot room for improvement...maybe sub 03:00 would be possible

Wow.

So many good things to say about this map I don't know where to begin. The atmosphere you create is fantastic! Excellent use of texture, lighting and especially fog (very sparingly used but to great effect). Very polished look to this one with lots of great details, as said before; very professional.

The puzzles were definitely my type of puzzles. Mostly thinking your way through but a little bit timing and touch required. As much fun map to play as to look at. The ending was pure genius, I'm still laughing about that.

I vote Insta for the BTS section of the community project.

All Hail the PIGEON!

Great map! I decided to try this without HL2 just to see if it would work, and it seems to have done just fine. I really enjoyed it, great job!

Sephiroth wrote:*
Lot's of boring text
how can i capture while playing? O.o

Use the wegame recorder.
Then you can upload it to wegame, which is a much better site that Noobtube. It compresses the videos much less so they look much better quality.

>>(Click)<<

This was a great map. I really enjoyed the secret room and the ending. Good job.

TheGreenAvenger wrote:
Great map! I decided to try this without HL2 just to see if it would work, and it seems to have done just fine. I really enjoyed it, great job!

You don't even need to own HL2, all the models and textures are included in any valve game's sdk (so far)

I too found a bit of a bug in the energy ball room. It's completely idiotic, but if you stack up the cubes so you can send them both through the fizzler at once, you only get one cube back. Equally pointless, if you send a cube through the fizzler after the door out of the room, you don't get a replacement.

Another manifestation of the first bug:

I set this up and then put one cube through the fizzler, hoping to set up an infinite loop of cube destruction and watch it go a while. The first replacement cube shoots through the fizzler before the Vital Apparatus Vent closes, and no more replacements come out.

I'm curious as to how the other poster got 3 cubes...

lol it was all a dream, YOU ARE A DAMN PIGEON! that cracked me up!!!

This mappack looks great, but unfortunately I'm stuck right at the beginning where you portal up the shaft and then into a small area behind a grill. It seems there must be a way further up but I can't find it.

Also my onscreen cursor that shows active portable areas is disabled when playing the mappacks. Is there some way to turn it back on?

thanks for any help.

marywait wrote:
This mappack looks great, but unfortunately I'm stuck right at the beginning where you portal up the shaft and then into a small area behind a grill. It seems there must be a way further up but I can't find it.

Also my onscreen cursor that shows active portable areas is disabled when playing the mappacks. Is there some way to turn it back on?

thanks for any help.

Your not supposed to stand in the little area beind the grill. just put a portal inside the small area and place the other at the bottom of the shaft. From there jump down to the bottom of the shaft through the portal and you will fly up and out the that small area. Jump over the fence and the rest is up to you.

Don't forget to shoot one of the cameras off of the wall.

Haha that ending was bloody awesome. Great job, mate.

Really enjoyed this map, very VERY good flow between BTS and regular parts.

I also liked the "relaxation vault", lol.

Great map! I especially liked the ending.

I have one question though. At the part with the upside down button, I had trouble figuring it out and decided to try something else.
I discovered that you don't even need the box. All you have to do is place a portal on one the wall on one side of the door and bump a portal over to the other side of the door and walk past.
Is this intentional or a bug?

Also, what is the intended solution for the fling room? Do you really have to do the fire out one portal then walk backward quickly trick?

This map is a masterpiece! Well into the region of one of, if not the best map i've ever played!

I loved this map, very well designed and put together.

I found the secret room, however I had to noclip there. Could somebody maybe spoiler tag the real way to find the secrets? Thanks

Shane wrote:
I loved this map, very well designed and put together.

I found the secret room, however I had to noclip there. Could somebody maybe spoiler tag the real way to find the secrets? Thanks

? I asked a simple question which needs a simple answer, I just want to get some more enjoyment out of this map by accessing the hidden area in the way it was meant to be accessed, anyone can noclip answers.

As the saying goes, "Sarcasm is the lowest form of humour". Evidently you where attempting to be funny, but ultimately you failed.

As with a lot of things on the Internet these days it seems impossible to ask for help without some self-absorbed smart alec sarcastically brushing you off.

Shane wrote:
? I asked a simple question which needs a simple answer, I just want to get some more enjoyment out of this map by accessing the hidden area in the way it was meant to be accessed, anyone can noclip answers.

As the saying goes, "Sarcasm is the lowest form of humour". Evidently you where attempting to be funny, but ultimately you failed.

As with a lot of things on the Internet these days it seems impossible to ask for help without some self-absorbed smart alec sarcastically brushing you off.

1. Read post
2. Ignore post
3. Continue on with life not letting some misinterpreted post stumble up your life.

God, I'd hate to be around when someone gives you incorrect change, you'd probably give them a 15min speech on morals and standards.

Remmiz wrote:
1. Read post
2. Ignore post
3. Continue on with life not letting some misinterpreted post stumble up your life.

God, I'd hate to be around when someone gives you incorrect change, you'd probably give them a 15min speech on morals and standards.

Evidently you're wrong then, there is a difference between making an honest error and setting out to be downright annoying and obstructive. For every smart alec you meet in real life, you meet hundreds of them on the internet, and I object to someone reacting to a honest question in that manner.

Shane wrote:
Evidently you're wrong then, there is a difference between making an honest error and setting out to be downright annoying and obstructive. For every smart alec you meet in real life, you meet hundreds of them on the internet, and I object to someone reacting to a honest question in that manner.

Severe weather alert! A large crynado has been spotted in the Community Releases thread. Ability to ignore insults and sarcasm at dangerous lows! Seek parent immediately for comfort on knowing that you are, indeed, a good boy.

Remmiz wrote:
Severe weather alert! A large crynado has been spotted in the Community Releases thread. Ability to ignore insults and sarcasm at dangerous lows! Seek parent immediately for comfort on knowing that you are, indeed, a good boy.

We, the userbase of TWP, would like to apologise for this sudden eruption of sarcasm. Please note that the source of this problem has been located, and action will be taken (IE: beg Msleeper to deploy his banhammer).

Shane wrote:
I just want to get some more enjoyment out of this map by accessing the hidden area in the way it was meant to be accessed

This statement is predicated on the idea that the "way it was meant to be accessed" isn't noclipping.

From the potd post, without having played the map, my conclusion is that noclipping is the proper way to to do things.

Your conclusion is that we are assholes.

I never said you where all assholes, I just don't appreciate sarcasm. Wouldn't it have been just as easy for the poster to say that was the correct method, rather than being sarcastic? I don't consider what I asked to be a stupid question, I don't know how the creator made the map, it is entirely plausible (to the best of my knowledge) for other triggers to be built into source engine maps that could have transported me into the room. I just wanted to find out if there was another way to get to it.

Sorry if it seems like I am having a go at everyone, I just don't see the need for unnecessary sarcasm for a perfectly innocent question. I have never designed a portal map, and I don't know the thought processes of the individual designers that made the countless maps I have played, all I know is that Affinity is an excellent map.

insta wrote:
The map uses some HL2 assets,

Uhm.. i think this would be the result, without hl2 assets?
http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshotm.jpg

I'm having this problem running portal on both windows and linux/wine
(on the same pc).

insta wrote:
so I recommend you have HL2 installed.

Dou think this could resolve my problem?
If so, really isn't there another way to fix it?

bye

Another way to fix this is to get the source sdk, it gives the textures to you for you

I've only seen one person posting about times...managed to rock out a 2:44.

I'm going to post up the demo file, because this computer is a piece of crap for recording =p

This could have been...ten, maybe twenty seconds faster, or more. It's defiantly sloppy, but it's a good time for a more than less proof of concept for the route.

Crap, can't attach files I guess.

Do do do,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKiIhwc_mI

15 portal run of affinity. ^^

Make that a 13 portal epic item-climb across the sludge room ^_^ Idea credit goes to siiig for that however, I haven't taken a demo of it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpD53rRJG1oSorry, just that much quicker =p. I figure at best you could manage to cut out one more portal (by stealing a camera in the ball room, idea: Kich867) but I'm actually doubtfull because I don't think you could make it through the door. Now that that's done, I can go back to my speed run of affinity, lol.

Siiig wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpD53rRJG1o

Sorry, just that much quicker =p. I figure at best you could manage to cut out one more portal (by stealing a camera in the ball room, idea: Kich867) but I'm actually doubtfull because I don't think you could make it through the door. Now that that's done, I can go back to my speed run of affinity, lol.

Damn, true, I forgot the door has a time limit.

Really awesome map. Nice beggining, nice ending and great puzzles! The only con is that its way too short

Just one thing. How can you say "GAME OVER MAN" when I'm a goddamn pigeon?!?!

ASBusinessMagnet wrote:
Just one thing. How can you say "GAME OVER MAN" when I'm a goddamn pigeon?!?!

Because you were a goddamn pigeon "playing a game"?

hanging_rope wrote:
Because you were a goddamn pigeon "playing a game"?

I didn't mean that, I meant that after the credits claimed that I'm a pigeon, they said "GAME OVER MAN". And a man and a pigeon aren't one and the same.

How do you know pigeons don't say things like

Pigeons might have said or wrote:
Hey man, whassup?

Pigeons aren't necessarily more formal with terminology than humans are, you know.

WinstonSmith wrote:
How do you know pigeons don't say things like:
Pigeons might have said or wrote:

Hey man, whassup?

Pigeons aren't necessarily more formal with terminology than humans are, you know.

The end credits were not said by a pigeon but rather by narrator and insta was not as skilled to make GLaDOS voice.

And come to think of it, did you think of , when animals and birds talk?!

EDIT: ? Holi-sh*t.

ASBusinessMagnet wrote:
The end credits were not said by a pigeon but rather by narrator and insta was not as skilled to make GLaDOS voice.

And come to think of it, did you think of , when animals and birds talk?!

EDIT: ? Holi-sh*t.

The fact remains. Someone might use the term "man" to informally converse with a pigeon. In today's vernacular, the term "man", when used informally in conversation, transcends species barriers.

Come to think about it, why the heck am I even debating this issue?

It's been awhile since I played this map but isn't "Game over Man" a reference to "Aliens"? That's what Hudson says when the drop ship was destroyed. At least that's the way I took it.

jrlauer wrote:
It's been awhile since I played this map but isn't "Game over Man" a reference to "Aliens"? That's what Hudson says when the drop ship was destroyed. At least that's the way I took it.

Correct!

Ahhh, Portal 1 seems so basic after all the P2 maps.....