Safe ceiling squat portals?
I'm out of my element here; I've never used Hammer so even if this does do something it may not be what you want.
Anyway, I was thinking(withportals.com) what if you do the thing where the player is under a low ceiling with the orange portal placed so they can stand and below them is a lift that will push them up when the orange portal is shot on a new surface or simply after a given amount of time. You could also make that low ceiling be very thin like a horizontal window so maybe if the player does get trapped in the middle of it they can simply jump up out of it(no idea if that will work).
Even better if you could make a new kind of grid that the player can move through but also place a portal on the grid.
Like I said, I'm out of my element, but hopefully one of those thoughts is useful.
I wonder if you could use the material files to do something like that.
I was also thought about the timed platform thing - I haven't had time to mess around with everything, but I hadn't intended to put a timer each time the user must portal through a ceiling. Also, if the player gets stuck in one of the platforms, the platform may not actually move after the timer stops because the player is blocking the platform's movement. If it's a platform below the player I don't know if it will dislodge the player from the ceiling.
When I started this thread I was hoping someone had already solved all these questions. >.<
I thought about something : if no solution seems to work, you could always make Glados act with a "complimentary escape teleport". But it sure would remain a "dirty" solution.
I can't find again the topic we talked about one-color portal in, but it should not help you because we justed talked about how it was stupid to force player to use one color at a specific place, and we absolutely did not see a case where it could be useful useful like yours, so the discussion lasted 4-5 posts that all said "its stupid to force people to walk by putting a specific foot forward first" or things like that.
NO! THE CAKE! NOOOOOOOO !
Another thing I'd like to somehow get working is to make the two portals the player shoots in different portal groups. Then you could place stationary portals throughout the map that may have to be activated by buttons or entering a certain room.
this particular trick was implemented in one of the beta versions of the AB_Test by Shoklar.
there was a platform jutting out of a wall, and you could crouch under it and make a portal in the bottom of it and then stand up and you'd be standing sideways or upside down no problems if you had another portal in a wall or ceiling.
the problem is he took that out in his latest version.
maybe he still has that piece of map somewhere.
i saw a youtube video of somebody accomplishing this trick in the regular game utilizing a camera on a wall. he stood on the camera and was able to make a portal that he could stand up into and thus tunnel around very easily.
The cake is a PI
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Actually fractal, that trick still exists in my AB_Test map, although I don't think people used it. In room #1, you have to hit 4 buttons to raise a platform which is inside a vat of poison water. Once the platform is raised all the way to the top, you can shoot a portal in the ceiling, reach through and grab the box that is on the platform. However, you can also jump through the portal if you want and stand on the platform, thus implementing the trick in question.
I've never had a problem with that one sticking me in the ceiling and I think the answer is because the two surfaces are so close together. You might want to give this a try: Put the two surfaces very close together so that there is no way for the player to crouch between them. They will have to shoot one portal on the 'ceiling' and then shoot the other portal somewhere and jump through to stand in the portal. This closeness between the portal and the ground might just eliminate your problem.
i thought the ceiling portal thing (after getting all 5 cubes onto buttons) was cool in earlier versions of your map... i'd like to see more of that.
as for the green cube heh i just made a portal into a wall to pick the cube out because i was too afraid of the green liquid 
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Speaking of the standing-portal trick, here is something I ran across in my testing that was. . .freaking weird.
Make a empty room with all 6 walls portable. Put 3 cubes on the floor. Make two rectangular blocks with sides just big enough to put a portal on them (128x64, or something like that). Place them such that:
- One is on the ground, altar-style (so you could put a portal on its top face if you wanted).
- The other is above it parallel to it, and they are seperated by slightly more than half the length of a cube (you'll see why in a minute). Make sure you can squat and shoot a portal on the UNDERSIDE of the top rectangular block.
Okay, now for fun stunt #1. Place blue portal on the underside of the highest rectangular block, and orange portal on the wall. If you did it right, you can now take two cubes and put them in the open portal on the wall; they will fill the portal. They wont fall because most of their weight is setting on the lower rectangular block. And since the cubes are secure in placement and wont move on transition, you can move your orange portal at will.
Move that orange portal around; put it on the ceiling. . put it anywhere; the cubes wont fall. Portal underneath the 3rd cube, and watch the 2 cubes throw it in the air, etc.
If you adjust the depth between the blocks more, I think I once made it strong enough that I could go stand on the portaled "cube ledge" on the wall And of course with some block adjustment, you can take the cubes out, put orange portal on the floor, step in and squat to do all of this yourself.
Yeah, thats all neat, but thats not the really weird thing. Here is fun stunt#2:
Odds are, that top of the blue portal is really near the shorter edge of that rectangular block. Walk up to it. When you get really close, you will get "sucked in". You will have visibility as if you were in the orange portal, and you can shoot. Shoot the ceiling, and you (and the cubes) are upside down without falling, etc. But. . .walk away from the portal edge, and you are back on the ground again.
This worked a few months ago; I havent tried lately, but I bet it all still works. . .
hm could you make a vid demonstrating that? i think i'll get it more clearly with a vid...
The cake is a PI
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Add me on STEAM: iamafractal
I'm up for coop games & beta testing your maps...
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First I'd have to rebuild the map . . . Maybe I will sometime. . .