[SP] White Room (reMiX by josepezdj)

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
Hey all! I haven't got much time to reply to each comment in detail right now, I'll do that tomorrow. Thanks for all comments

I've just uploaded version 1.3 where I prevented "being able to stay in the funnel near the final panel to keep yourself there waiting" (Toncica showed me a video in which he did that).

Everyone, please play that latest version

@HMW: Well done my friend! totally intended, but I don't use the funnel to get up there (what a twisted maneuver you performed! cheers!), but just flinging: if you stand on the platform near the water and move to the corner nearest to the water, you can shoot a portal on an outstanding block in main room... and start flinging from there

***NOTE:*** Toncica posted a video in the map's thread some days ago and it was mostly all intended (except part in the funnel) and he decided to remove it by now cause he felt he has some advantage over the rest

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HMW
806 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 7 minutes later

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
@HMW: Hey, which screen recorder did you use to film that? I've been looking for a decent quality one all over.

TheTobbell wrote:
@Dr Toaster Waffles
Just use Fraps or OBS (Open Broadcoast Software) ^^

I use OBS. I have yet to find a way to make it not reduce the framerate to 15fps, but otherwise it works very well.

@Jose: Ah, I see. That would be a bit easier.

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
Ouch! Sorry... I forgot to introduce a couple of minor changes in v1.3 for the easter egg access (thanks to Shakky) >.<

New v1.3 up (call it 1.3.1 if you wish :p)

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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 55 minutes later
You should teach everyone how to put feng shui in their maps. Seriously, this is amazing.
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HeadShot
174 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 5 hours later
Just got back from travel and finally got to give this a shot! Awesome intro and environment, and more importantly, a nasty puzzle! Not sure if I made it though your way, Jose... give my demo a view and let me know how i did!

whiteremix.dem.zip

Also, are you not supposed to be able to portal through the glass hole??

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User
630 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
@HeadShot you turned sv_cheats on and off 3 times in your demo?
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RogerL
490 Posts
Posted Aug 11, 2013
Replied 2 hours later
Ohhhhhh, crap. So that was the one small piece I was missing. Nice solution, HeadShot. Some of it was a little more complicated than it needed to be, but you easily solved the problem I was having.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Aug 12, 2013
Replied 8 hours later
OK, several pending replies

TheTobbell wrote:
Again, Awesome map and it makes fun to try solving the puzzle
Not very often what i spend much time to solve hard maps, but this map makes fun

Thanks, mate! I'm so glad you keep on trying and the map is satisfying enough to cheer you up!

TheTobbell wrote:
A question, how do you got the logical Idea for that Puzzle? ^^

Hehe... well, man, playing! The more you play Portal and squeeze your brain to solve puzzles, the more you can come with this stuff. Mechanics in this map came to mind while playing the original 'White Room', trying "impossible" things here and there... I remember thinking of one interesting mechanic but it wasn't possible because of the entry door position and that's why this door in my map is at a different location

TheTobbell wrote:
EDIT: Solved the first part, now trying to solve the rest ^^ (Found the secret, Very cool )

Thanks, mate! Although you surely got there too easily (I forgot to change a white wall from place down there after a huge modification of the easter egg)... try the latest version
@RogerL: thanks for helping ppl to get through dot 1. I would have thrown just a couple of hints instead of describing the key mechanics (I'm a bit more devil about that :p), but it's ok You are probably the first to figure out the first part! So it's dot 2 the part that were giving you problems, right? I really thought part 2 was slightly easier, and someone already mentioned so some post above. I haven't watched HeadShot solution yet, but I've checked you did I guess you already dedicated many hours to the map, so all left I can say is thank you so much for your time, mate!

Markiu wrote:
Haven't played portal for a while and missed so muuuch
What a great remix Jose! I was looking for a place to use the tile with chell on it but there is none. Or did I miss something?
The map looks amazing (as always) but sadly I'm not a fan of the destroyed theme. Not by the looks but it confuses me all the time. It took me ages to find the hole in the broken glass near the button to activate the lightbridge. Anyways awesome map! Kudos to you my friend (and toncica ofc)!

Thanks Marc! I'm so happy that you played it, my friend. I understand your point about destruction, it is always better a clean puzzle where all elements are perfectly defined. That broken glass you mention was much more clear at first, sry, but I wanted to give a reason to the impossibility of shooting a portal through that gap in one of the updates, and I added another plant (I'll make it clearer in next version).
Regarding Chell's tile, hehe, I'm SO glad you ask it, let me tell you:

CHELL'S TILE STORY
||This little detail was added after I had already released the map, in v1.1 or v1.2. The truth is that Vane gifted that drawing in pencil to me... no photoshop this time or else (I've got the original at home)... She really caught the drawing at the easter egg amazingly and made it by hand. And so I thought it would be a nice surprise to scan it and add it somewhere in the map update so she could notice And I made a tile tied to a func_physbox in order to make it carryable...

And, the funniest part is now: next day at our office, I asked her about "the little surprise" I introduced in the map for her... and she showed me a picture of the tile and said she liked it much... And then I told her: "ey Vane, wouldn't it be awesome that the tile could fit in any hole or gap that actually appear to be missing a tile, somewhere in the map, to activate something? indeed, due to the drawing and the intro showing the same drawing at the easter egg, it's like the tile is "saying" get me to the easter egg area..." hehe... she laughed saying: "will you ever be done with the map, man!" hahaha... that's why is SO SO funny that you asked about its function, my friend

Yes, that tile will definitely activate something. Obviously at the easter egg, but I haven't mapped it yet. Pending for a future map update ||

@HWM: Again thank you so much for your nice comments, my friend. You know how I respect your opinion and admire your work! Thanks for the video as well... I hope you keep on trying to finish it!

yishbarr wrote:
You should teach everyone how to put feng shui in their maps. Seriously, this is amazing.

"Feng shui"? haha... I guess you mean the titles and the "Game saved" thingies? Sure! I was planning of making a whole tutorial about customizing the maps (if I ever have the time to!). If you mean that, let me tell you quick and basically:

"CUSTOM TITLES IN YOUR MAPS"
||OK, these titles, after trying EVERY single HUD manipulation approach and on-screen messages things to no avail, aren't any different thing than animated textures applied to func_brushes that I parented to the player OnMapSpawn

  • In order to achieve the fade in/out effect, you need to create a bunch of frames (different textures) varying their transparency, from completely transparent to fully shown (even though with transparent background). All except the "Game Saved" one was made by Vanessa in PS. The "White Room" one is the most tedious because it's composed by 98 frames >.< and she had to tweak each of them one by one to remove some sort of "ghost images" from the background (long story...). All the rest are only 20 frames. You can save all separate frames in .PNG, .GIF or whatever...

  • Once you've got all frames, normally named following a numbered sequence (e.g. "white01.PNG", "white02.PNG" and so on), you need to Import all of them using VTFEdit and save the file under whatever name. You can see how you actually have all those frames inside the same .VTF file by clicking on "Image" tab > "Frame" arrows up/down:

If you hit the 'Play' button you'll see the sequence you created.

  • Now the material file. You can opt for making the texture an "Animated texture" or a "Toogle-able texture". This is made by the material proxies. The first is automatic, and I don't really liked that, so I opted for doing the second way and control the sequence:
"UnlitGeneric"
{
   "$basetexture" "josepezdj/jose_white_room_banner_rmx"
   "$translucent" 1
   "$ignorez" "1"
   "%keywords" "portal2"
   "$vertexcolor" 1
   "$no_fullbright" 1

   Proxies
   {
   ToggleTexture
   {
   toggleTextureVar $baseTexture
   toggleTextureFrameNumVar $frame
   toggleTextureShouldWrap 0
   }
   }
   "$frame" "20"

}

This works the same as the indicator lights: you toggle amongst the frames stocked in the .VTF by using the env_texturetoggle entity.

Most important parameters are 2: "$translucent" 1 and *"$ignorez" "1"*. First one makes your texture to have a transparent background, and the second makes your texture be rendered always in a first plane

  • How do I do the sequence of frames runs to make the fade-in effect? by using a logic_timer that OnTimer makes the env_texturetoggle to IncreaseTextureIndex (it's one of its outputs).

  • The fade-out effect is kind of more complex since there isn't a "DecreaseTextureIndex" output (ehmmm... VALVe? >.<). I'm sure I could have taken the time to make a basic script and save entities on this, but I never had the time. So I used a couple of logic_cases (for all the textures except for the "White Room" title, which required 6! due to its 98 frames and the limit of 16 cases of the logic_case entity), a math_counter and 1 logic_timer.

It's so long to explain here the set-ups but I'd suggest you to take a look to this timers example (It already explains the basics of making the frames of a texture go backwards)

  • Now you need a func_brush textured nodraw except front face that you'll use your multi-frame texture.

  • Next is decide where you want it to appear (I've used 5 ones per "tittle" in this map in order to make the intro scene because I used 4 point_viewcontrols). Normally you would like to appear in front of the player's eyes, right? K, then you should edit the arrival_departure_transition_ents.VMF instance and place your func_brush in front of the player's view. Then use a logic_auto to parent it:

- OnMapSpawn > [brush_name] > SetParent > !player

(it's not recommendable to use the SetParentAttachmentMaintainOffset output to the player's eyes because then the tittle will always be moving like the eyes, bouncing up/down, rolling and such )

  • Make your brush be disable to activate it whenever you want. And to make the frames run, also set to disable the timer, to activate it whenever you want...

I hope it's more or less explained... but it will be easier an example map I'll do when I've got some time!||

To anyone interested: I can pack all custom stuffs, materials, models, instances and the .VMF as a sort of "source" pack to this map when I return from holiday!

@HeadShot: Thanks for the nice comments, man! but, nasty? I'm not sure if you liked it or not if you needed that adjective I can't watch the video right now. I'll let you know as soon as I can watch it

TheTobbell wrote:
@HeadShot you turned sv_cheats on and off 3 times in your demo?

Hmmm.... the map already does that I don't know if HS did himself personally because I didn't watch the video yet, but the map does turn sv_cheats from 1 to 0 three times, every time it saves the progress, becasue I didn't like to see the default "Saving game" HUD animated texture on the left upper corner every time I fired the console command "Save white01", but I wanted to see only mine ...and cheats are required to fire the console command to hide the HUD

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HeadShot
174 Posts
Posted Aug 12, 2013
Replied 27 minutes later
@Jose: GOOD nasty
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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Aug 12, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
I was joking about the "Feng Shui", but if you where planning to make a tutorial already, then that's good.
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Dafflewoctor
415 Posts
Posted Aug 12, 2013
Replied 9 hours later
I can't believe this hasn't been promoted spotlight yet.

Someone make this spotlight!

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User
630 Posts
Posted Aug 12, 2013
Replied 42 minutes later
So, i finally solved the puzzle (took me 3 hours )
Here a Time-lapse: (Watch in 1080p)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ2rWwaQfXo

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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 6 hours later

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
I can't believe this hasn't been promoted spotlight yet.

Someone make this spotlight!

I think it's too hard. (Though "Chronologic" became spotlight).

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toncica
100 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
Somebody once said to me:"I like how your maps kinda troll people".

It would be wonderful if this gets spotlighted just when the workshop version is available and TWP members can cast their votes for this map to be among the currently most popular maps and on the front page of the workshop, so all people and especially the quickplay crowd can enjoy this beauty.

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Dafflewoctor
415 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 5 hours later

TheTobbell wrote:
So, i finally solved the puzzle (took me 3 hours )
Here a Time-lapse: (Watch in 1080p)

It looks like you turned up your host_timescale to over 9000.

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User
630 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 3 minutes later

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
It looks like you turned up your host_timescale to over 9000.

Sure, im a pro The Video is speeded up 40 times

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 4 hours later
GUYS!!!! It suddenly worked! >.< Map is uploaded to the workshop!

Don't ask mwe because I can't remember doing anything special. Maybe it's just fixed... Just tried and to my surprise it did work.

I updated the download link

HeadShot wrote:
@Jose: GOOD nasty

:D Thanks, mate! I'm glad you enjoyed! .... and Congratulations! Essentially you performed all intended mechanics, but slightly different than mine, kind of more twisted! but totally amazing maneuvers, dude! LOL didn't you think of making a remix of the remix while playing it?

TheTobbell wrote:
So, i finally solved the puzzle (took me 3 hours )
Here a Time-lapse: (Watch in 1080p)

Thanks, man! So many hours playing and recording it! I'm amazed! Thank you so much for playing it! I'm finding a video tool that allows me to lower down the video frame rate in order not to lose my sanity!

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
I can't believe this hasn't been promoted spotlight yet.
Someone make this spotlight!

Thank you so much, dude for you support! I'm SO glad you liked that much!

toncica wrote:
Somebody once said to me:"I like how your maps kinda troll people".
It would be wonderful if this gets spotlighted just when the workshop version is available and TWP members can cast their votes for this map to be among the currently most popular maps and on the front page of the workshop, so all people and especially the quickplay crowd can enjoy this beauty.

My friend, beautiful words! However, I guess this is not that kind of map but who knows... LOL, magically, you just said that and I managed to upload it to the workshop?!! >.< Thanks! (I guess :p)

OK, Official Solution Video is being rendered now. I'll post it here when completely up.

Hmmmm.... btw, did anyone reach the compaion cube?

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Gemarakup
1,183 Posts
Posted Aug 13, 2013
Replied 20 minutes later
Response for getting the workshop working: EEEEYAAAAHHHH!!
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Aug 14, 2013
Replied 12 hours later
I've added the official video solution for the main map in the map's thread, for those who are curious...

I've recorded the easter egg part separately but didn't post it hoping those curious ppl still want to search for the WCC...

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User
630 Posts
Posted Aug 14, 2013
Replied 15 hours later
@Jose do you have a link to the full Soundtrack from the beginning? i like that music ^^