In my first foray into Hammer, I remade one of my Workshop puzzles using the Pre-GLaDOS destroyed/overgrown theme. The puzzle itself involves laser redirection and a reversible funnel, and is small and self-contained, but relatively difficult. (Mevious told me upon playtesting that it took him an hour to solve. Your mileage may vary.) As this is my first attempt at creating a map in Hammer, constructive criticisms are all very welcome. Thanks for playing and have fun! Screenshots in the next post for easier editing.

Click here to download Solitude

Click here to download Solitude

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Screenshots:

It took me more than hour to solve this.After half an hour of desperate attempts i gave up,then after a few hours i decided to try again.45 minutes of trial and error-and i finally did it. I am truly amazed,such a nice placement of puzzle elements and portable surfaces.Even though it was hard,i really enjoyed playing it.Thanks for creating,looking to play your other maps tomorrow.

Looks really good! Mevious must have taught you well.

Yes, I would never have made a Destroyed map be my first test in Hammer! Good job!

WOW... Brilliant puzzle Azorae! I'm still solving it! So far, I can see that the puzzle is much Mevious' simple-but-twisted style (that I love ). I have also pending that "Entanglement" puzzle from you (and also Mevious and Gig versions)... And I'm afraid I should check out all your previous work too!

About the map's hammer looking, well I'd suggest a cojple of tiny things:

||1. You've got that observation room in there, but isn't emitting the typical 'sexy' shadows so amazing and it should! just place an env_projectedtexture entity into that room and make sure it has set to YES the property "Enable Shadows"

1. Taking the chance that it is the destroyed theme, you could change those window glasses in the observation room too and put those that are broken in order to project their cracks on the walls too

2. Your foliage is causing too much shadow on the wall, but I think it's not the proper one. Ofc if you like it like this, just leave it right like that ... But i looks like it's the prop which is causing it but not the leaves themselves. To correct this open the props' properties and set "Disable shadows" to YES, but set "Disable flashlight" to NO. This way, you will see the foliage's projected shadows (coming from the env_projectedtexture entity into the observation room I mentioned before) on the walls.

3. Some of those plants hanging from the ceiling on the right wall are maybe "too aligned" giving a lack of realism, maybe you could play more with each prop's height

4. Finally the water. I don't think you built cubemaps, or maybe you didn't run a full compile because that water doesn't look perfect! It should look a bit more dark and with better reflection on its surface. If you didn't run a full compile or didn't build cubemaps and have any doubt about it, please pm me and I'll describe how it is done ||
   I'll post a solution video if I manage to solve this!

Thanks for creating! Just the perfect challenge I like!!!

EDIT

SOLVED IT!!! Absolutely amazing puzzle man (or woman)!!! LOL, I played it only 5 minutes this morning right before coming to work! and dude, I haven't stared in front of a picture this much in my whole life!!! I solved it by only watching the first screenshot!!! I'll record a solution video within 2 hours as soon as I arrive home. Thanks for creating such an incredible puzzle! THIS is thinking with portals!

Thanks a lot everyone! It's great to see that my first Hammer map is getting such good feedback.

josepezdj, thanks a ton for your suggestions! Most of the points you touched on are things that I had no idea even existed in Hammer. I did place cubemaps, but don't know how to build them or run a full compile. If you could explain, that would be fantastic. As far as the plants and observation windows, I'll definitely work on that, as that's something that I wanted but didn't know how to do.

Hehe... Thanks to YOU... really! Amazing puzzle!

About cubemaps, first of all asign one to the water brush's top side, check this to know how Then place a few more around your rooms, apart from that one.

Now run a FULL compile (press F9 and then go to "Expert mode") and in the upper scroll down menu select "Full (slow!..." instead of "default").

Now place a copy of your map (the .bsp file) into portal 2/portal2_dlc2/maps folder, because there is where the game looks for when you build cubemaps.

Open the console and type buildcubemaps in. By default, it will cuild the cubemaps for HDR. Now enter this:

*** mat_hdr_level 0***

Run buildcubemaps again (this will build them for LDR)

Now type back: *** mat_hdr_level 2*** (this will restore the default HDR settings in your game)

That's all!

Take note that your copy of the .bsp WITH cubemaps in is the one into portal2_dlc2/maps folder (it will weigh more than the one located into portal2/maps folder)

(In order to have always portal2_dlc2 folder by default when compiling in hammer it is nnecessary that you change your hammer settings a bit... let me know if you don't know how to do in the case you decide to do! ...it's recommendable)

EDIT

My God! sincerely, the BEST puzzle I've had the chance to play and solve in my life so far! Only because of its abnormal small size and its impressive reuse of portals, spaces and elements! WOW, Thank you a TON for this! I kindly envy you!!!

beGlEAkFPF4

Running the buildcubemaps command shows me the snapshots, but crashes the game (Portal2.exe has stopped working) part way through. The .bsp file is in Portal2/Portal2_dlc2/maps, so I'm not sure what's causing this. Any suggestions?

My guess is that there's a conflict between files in different locations (because of my fault! I forgot to say, sry ) Try erasing the bsp into portal2/maps folder, and please post any other issue. Good luck!

That worked, thanks a lot! Updating the workshop file now.

I've seen the new version. The only thing that I think you didn't manage is the env_projectedtexture entity behing the obs_room's window... did you forget? check that you set "Enable shadows" to YES and check the flag "Enabled". Anyway, if your elevator has an env_projectedshadow entity, and due to the fact that you can only have 1 of those entities active at a time, you'll have to trigger this second one for example placing a trigger at the arrival elevator door. You'll only need to set the following output for it:

- OnTrigger > [obs_room_env_projtex_name_here] > TurnOn

For HDR I'd suggest you to set its "brightness scale" at least to 4.0

Ah, yeah, the env_projectedtexture in the observation room didn't work, although I think for the sake of the theme it should remain unlit (at least based on what I've read here.)

Oh, seriously? allow me to disagree!

EXCUSE ME FOR BEING SUCH THIS OBSTINATE PERSON ;D
||

This is only a 5 minutes dedication to your map in hammer right before coming to work... I placed the env_projectedtexture and chose a warm brightness value, set it up, added a light entity into the obs_room to spot it inside, and added a trigger at the entry door as I told you to activate the env_projtex... I didn't run a full compile, only a default fast one. I know that it might look a bit too bright, but with more time it could look awesome! ||

Azorae, let me give you an advise, take or dismiss it...

OFFTOPIC??
||Do not let anyone, here or in other forums, neither me!, tell you what to do! That guide by Rubrica you linked is awesome, but you can't just fit to any of the existing themes and follow it to the letter if you don't want to! I don't really know how deep are you wanting to go in hammer, or if you indeed prefer the PTI editor, but dude, let's be creative. Once you mess around with hammer and experiment all the things you can do with just your imagination, you'll know

This is what I'm doing (if you want just press my signature and visit my mod's page)... you can really tell it's any of the existing themes, right? I'm risking a lot experiment with the visuals all the time because I feel creative, and I'm liking that a lot more every time I begin a map. This is another example...

As Msleeper (if you still don't know her, I'll tell you that she's kind of our Cave Johnson here ... same kind of acid sense of humor too!) once said "you have an art tool in your hands", it's up to you to use it in whatever way, create great visual stuff or create just puzzles, but create your own stuff ||

Sorry but I had to say it

Btw, I've sent to you the .vmf file for your map with the env_projectedtex and the trigger_multiple so you can check why it didn't work. And allow me one more thing: if you can't make it to work, just ask once and again here in the forums, everyone of us are eager to help!! ... but please do not give up on any thing, ok?

EDIT

Azorae wrote:
Ah, yeah, the env_projectedtexture in the observation room didn't work,

I forgot to mention that there are some other ways to produce a good light with shadows, read this awesome post by Nacimota. You could use a simple light entity for the inside of your obs_room at least, and maybe some light_spots on that broken ceiling poiting downwards in order to spread light and the shadows from those props/debris.

Excellent puzzle, thanks for creating....look forward to more.

There's only so much you can do.
One funnel, one cube, one laser . . and a few portable surfaces.
So how can it be hard - yet it is.

I was stuck for the longest time but figured out how although I could not do it, because I could not and STILL CANNOT throw the cube up and into the funnel. It is just an inch or two too low with every throw. I have seen other players somehow throw cubes 20 feet or more and have asked HOW and never got a good answer. I jump and throw together to increase the height. But sadly the funnel is just a tad too high for me to reach - even when standing on the debris. So finally - I solved it by no-clipping to get the cube up and into the funnel and then did the rest of the required steps.

2.jpg

PCdoc wrote:
I was stuck for the longest time but figured out how although I could not do it, because I could not and STILL CANNOT throw the cube up and into the funnel. It is just an inch or two too low with every throw. I have seen other players somehow throw cubes 20 feet or more and have asked HOW and never got a good answer. I jump and throw together to increase the height. But sadly the funnel is just a tad too high for me to reach - even when standing on the debris. So finally - I solved it by no-clipping to get the cube up and into the funnel and then did the rest of the required steps.

That's not at all the intended solution. The funnel could be higher and the puzzle still works.

I think I see now:
- stand on button to reverse funnel to Orange and shoot portal up high to suck cube into funnel. This replaces having to THROW the cube up there !!

Tricky - awesome puzzle !!

But what in the world ??? It has received 44 ratings in the Workshop and 40% of them have been Thumbs Down (3 of the 5 circles are Blue). I have seen that happen before on a couple of great maps. Must be newbies - go figger.

PCdoc wrote:
But what in the world ??? It has received 44 ratings in the Workshop and 40% of them have been Thumbs Down (3 of the 5 circles are Blue). I have seen that happen before on a couple of great maps. Must be newbies - go figger.

The rating system isn't that simple. I think nothing can get 3 stars unless it has 10 votes or more, and nothing can get 5 stars unless it has 100 votes or more (any counter examples?), and there's probably some cutoff for getting 4 stars. Not sure what the algorithm is, but it's not simply percentage of up-votes, at least until 100 votes.

A very cool puzzle! Some nice "Wait, couldn't I just do this..."-moments along the way and a final step that made me smile when it worked.

I'd agree that the chamber could look better though. Some thoughts after the click:

||I read that Jose suggests a projected texture in a cracked observation room. That could be one thing to do. But personally, I find that the shadow pattern that would get casted by the cracked glass sometimes can get annoying for the eye after a while - and it could very well be that the player spends a lot of time searching for the solution.

If you want to use a projected texture, I would try placing it under one of the skybox areas and making it the color of the light_environment entity. This could get a nice effect of sun actually shining through the broken roof and create some nice shadows from all the foliage.

Also, it seemed as if there are a lot of normal light entities. Instead, you could try to use lightspots which shine in a certain direction. The way it is now, theoretically the only light source in your chamber is the sun shining through the broken roof. Yet, areas without holes in the ceiling are as bright as the other areas. I guess your intention was to have all test elements perfectly visible. But maybe this could look better:

Make one bright light_spot with a wide angle and the color of your sun below the broken ceiling, one light_spot per hole. Now run a full compile and see which areas are too dark. In these areas, you could place those common lightstrips from clean chambers in the wall. Or, if you don't want to place more "real" light sources, you can create a light or light_spot with a dark grey color. This way, you can make the area bright enough for the player to see without making it so bright that they would miss a visible light source.

Finally, you could test how some fog looks in there. The easiest way would be to use one of the available fog controller presets in the global_ents, probably one of the two "destroyed" ones. There's a list of the available ones on the VDC.

Beware that the lighting will probably look way brighter all of a sudden due to the white fog, so you might need to tone down the brightness of the lights afterwards.

One thing I did not like very much was the soundscape. Like I said it's very likely that people spend a lot of time figuring out the puzzle - and they have to listen to those horrible metal scratch noises all the time. Personally, I would use a much less intrusive soundscape in this case. In our Halloween map, I used "Testchamber_Destruction.Grain_Click" a lot. It's just some ticking noises every now and then. Or you could try "TestChamber_Destruction.WaterDrip_01", obviously some waterdrips.

Ontop of that some of the music tracks could fit very well. These for example:

-xPR66tcKVQ

-EQsK-v_6aA

9wROaF-ql0A

XJIgHWnkcnA

But of course it can be nice to play a chamber without music at all as well.||
I hope this can help making this great puzzle look great as well.