Forum | Thinking With Portals

#21 · March 4, 2008, 9:24 pm

Quote from Ralen on March 4, 2008, 9:24 pm
Is the speed run trick the [spoiler]sparking door that you can walk through?[/spoiler]
I found it my first time through on accident. I didn't realize what I had done though, and went on into the second room before coming back to the first room and following the indicator strip into the wall. I presume that in the final version that indicator strip will activate a door or something?

I have a couple of major complaints about this map right off the bat. First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy. Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark. And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was [spoiler]shoot a blue portal on the tilted wall, and shoot an orange portal directly beneath my feat. As I flew out of the blue portal, I shot another orange portal into the pit in the floor and I flung across to the first catwalk. I hit the wall just past the first catwalk where the large pillars used to be blocking the way, and bounced off, allowing me to clear the second goo pit to the third catwalk (and second pedestal button). Was your intention to have the player bounce off the wall here,[/spoiler]or did I just get lucky?

For the final fling, after the [spoiler]second turret ambush, which caused me to have *insane* lag by the way, the way I did it was to shoot a blue portal just above the tilted panel, step out onto the tilted panel, shoot an orange portal on the ceiling, then shoot a blue portal directly beneath my feet. As I fell into the pit, I would shoot a second orange portal below me, and crouch as I went through. This gave me enough momentum to fly across the whole room, and crouching kept me from bouncing off the ceiling. Unfortunately this is just the perfect amount of momentum for me to land in that *tiny* gap between the catwalk and the floor at the opposite end of the room. It happened several times in a row.[/spoiler] You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'd imagine this could be a really good map once you get it polished.

Is the speed run trick the

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

I found it my first time through on accident. I didn't realize what I had done though, and went on into the second room before coming back to the first room and following the indicator strip into the wall. I presume that in the final version that indicator strip will activate a door or something?

I have a couple of major complaints about this map right off the bat. First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy. Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark. And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

or did I just get lucky?

For the final fling, after the

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'd imagine this could be a really good map once you get it polished.

#22 · March 5, 2008, 3:06 pm

Quote from Megadude on March 5, 2008, 3:06 pm
Ralen wrote:

Is the speed run trick the [spoiler]sparking door that you can walk through?[/spoiler]

That's not the speedrun trick. [spoiler]The player is never supposed to get through that door. Guess I forgot to block it off [/spoiler]Thanks for noticing that.

Ralen wrote:

I presume that in the final version that indicator strip will activate a door or something?

It will activate something in another room, outside of this map. Just though I should have all the details in, even though it's a beta.

Ralen wrote:

First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy.

That I can't explain. I got that too sometimes, but I don't know how they got there, or how to make them go away.

Ralen wrote:

Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark.

I can add some more light to that area, no problem

Ralen wrote:

And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

I think the lag has been sorted out, (see here).

Ralen wrote:

Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

From what I've can gather, that seems to happen for random people. I'll see if I can find a way to stop that.

Ralen wrote:

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

That's probably caused by the angle of the wall. I think a trigger_push timed to start if someone is stuck there for a certain period of time may work. I'll test it out.

Ralen wrote:

When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was [spoiler]shoot a blue portal on the tilted wall, and shoot an orange portal directly beneath my feat. As I flew out of the blue portal, I shot another orange portal into the pit in the floor and I flung across to the first catwalk. I hit the wall just past the first catwalk where the large pillars used to be blocking the way, and bounced off, allowing me to clear the second goo pit to the third catwalk (and second pedestal button). Was your intention to have the player bounce off the wall here,[/spoiler]or did I just get lucky?

That sometimes happens. [spoiler]If the player has enough momentum, they can clear the goo and the wall without touching it. It happened with me quite a few times. It wasn't intentional when I first designed the map, but it's another way to get across [/spoiler]

Ralen wrote:

For the final fling, after the [spoiler]second turret ambush, which caused me to have *insane* lag by the way, the way I did it was to shoot a blue portal just above the tilted panel, step out onto the tilted panel, shoot an orange portal on the ceiling, then shoot a blue portal directly beneath my feet. As I fell into the pit, I would shoot a second orange portal below me, and crouch as I went through. This gave me enough momentum to fly across the whole room, and crouching kept me from bouncing off the ceiling. Unfortunately this is just the perfect amount of momentum for me to land in that *tiny* gap between the catwalk and the floor at the opposite end of the room. It happened several times in a row.[/spoiler] You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

I placed that gap there to [spoiler]make the player a bit wary about just wandering anywhere, so thw player wouldn't think that everything was safe when they got to the end of that room. All the times I did it, I never went into that gap, however, I built up a huge amount of momentum everytime I did it. Since it kept happeneing to you, I'll get rid of that gap.[/spoiler] Wouldn't be good for morale if it kept happening to lots of people.

Ralen wrote:

The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

When wandering around the maze, several walls had [spoiler]the 2 dot signs on them, next to a section of wall that looked different from the rest of the walls. When you press the second button, those different sections of walls break, allowing the player into the final sections of the maze, which will lead to the 3rd button on the exit door.[/spoiler] As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

Ralen wrote:

I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

Thanks very much for testing this map for me

Ralen wrote:

Is the speed run trick the

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

That's not the speedrun trick.

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Thanks for noticing that.

Ralen wrote:

I presume that in the final version that indicator strip will activate a door or something?

It will activate something in another room, outside of this map. Just though I should have all the details in, even though it's a beta.

Ralen wrote:

First off, the sounds are very loud and echoy.

That I can't explain. I got that too sometimes, but I don't know how they got there, or how to make them go away.

Ralen wrote:

Second, the first set of puzzles is far too dark.

I can add some more light to that area, no problem

Ralen wrote:

And also, as you mentioned in the readme, it gets laggy at times.

I think the lag has been sorted out, (see here).

Ralen wrote:

Also, when I loaded a saved game, I got an "AI disabled" error on the screen.

From what I've can gather, that seems to happen for random people. I'll see if I can find a way to stop that.

Ralen wrote:

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

That's probably caused by the angle of the wall. I think a trigger_push timed to start if someone is stuck there for a certain period of time may work. I'll test it out.

Ralen wrote:

When I finally got to the catwalk with the second button, it happened on accident. What I did was

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

or did I just get lucky?

That sometimes happens.

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Ralen wrote:

For the final fling, after the

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

You might want to rethink the placement of that gap, unless of course that was your intention.

I placed that gap there to

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Wouldn't be good for morale if it kept happening to lots of people.

Ralen wrote:

The maze was an interesting idea. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the pedestal buttons. To be honest though, it wasn't really clear what the second button was supposed to do (I heard a crash when I pressed it but had no idea what happened) and eventually I just got tired of wandering around and noclipped to the third button. Also, several areas of the maze were too dark to see where you were going.

When wandering around the maze, several walls had

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

Ralen wrote:

I liked the little behind the scenes area, but I thought the little room at the end with the water jug and the "help" sign seemed a little unnatural. That's just me though.

I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

Thanks very much for testing this map for me :thumbup:

gepy wrote:"The companion toilet cannot speak, however it can take your crap."Journey - no idea on length = don't know the % done

#23 · March 5, 2008, 4:34 pm

Quote from Ralen on March 5, 2008, 4:34 pm
Megadude wrote:

That's not the speedrun trick. [spoiler]The player is never supposed to get through that door. Guess I forgot to block it off[/spoiler] Thanks for noticing that.

While I'm at it, [spoiler]there's another sparking door that does the same thing, except it has a wall behind it so it doesn't take you anywhere.[/spoiler]

Megadude wrote:

When wandering around the maze, several walls had [spoiler]the 2 dot signs on them, next to a section of wall that looked different from the rest of the walls. When you press the second button, those different sections of walls break, allowing the player into the final sections of the maze, which will lead to the 3rd button on the exit door.[/spoiler] As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

I saw those signs, but I always thought they were trying to lead me to [spoiler]the 2 dot pedestal button. I couldn't figure out why there were so many of them in so many different places though. Maybe it's just me, but I think you should make their purpose more apparent, for instance have a 2 dot panel right next to the 2 dot button that the player can actually see explode and reveal a new passage way. Either that, or replace them with doors or something, so the player knows the 2 dot panels actually do something, and will know to come back and check after getting the 2 dot button.[/spoiler]

Megadude wrote:

I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

It wasn't the jug I thought was unnatural, it was that small cubicle room that seemed out of place in the larger BTS room. I might either make that larger so it's obvious what it's purpose is (storage closet or what have you, maybe make it big enough to hold several chairs or crates or something) or just remove it altogether. It's not really a major issue though.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Megadude wrote:

That's not the speedrun trick.

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Thanks for noticing that.

While I'm at it,

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Megadude wrote:

When wandering around the maze, several walls had

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

As for the dark areas of the maze, I'll have a look around it and I'll add in more light.

I saw those signs, but I always thought they were trying to lead me to

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Megadude wrote:

I'm wasn't entirely sure what to put there, as BTS areas in Portal have had signs of human inhabitation in them. Perhaps I shoudl get rid of the jug and just have a few different writings on the walls.

It wasn't the jug I thought was unnatural, it was that small cubicle room that seemed out of place in the larger BTS room. I might either make that larger so it's obvious what it's purpose is (storage closet or what have you, maybe make it big enough to hold several chairs or crates or something) or just remove it altogether. It's not really a major issue though.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

#24 · March 5, 2008, 4:55 pm

Megadude wrote:

Just a small update. I've decided to add another room to this map, but it's a big room. You can only get across by portaling, and there are plenty of portal fizzlers to hinder you. Got the basic structure done, and finished details and lighting on about a thrid of the room. I'm not sure whether to keep the volumetric lighting models or not

The volumetric lighting looks good but it does obscure your view very occasionally. You could try using a point_spotlight which would produce a beam that extends across the room. They're also a bit more transparent so you can see walls clearly near them. On top of that I'm sure they're cheaper to use than volumetric lighting but you'll have to have No Dynamic Light checked in flags.

Otherwise, I like the map. The section with the three cubes and four buttons was my favourite puzzle and also I couldn't get enough of that radio. I had fun placing it on top of stuff and watching it go crazy which it did into chell's body instantly killing her on occasions but that just added to the fun in a wierd way

Maz

www.gemi-games.com

#25 · March 5, 2008, 5:02 pm

mazk1985 wrote:

The volumetric lighting looks good but it does obscure your view very occasionally. You could try using a point_spotlight which would produce a beam that extends across the room. They're also a bit more transparent so you can see walls clearly near them. On top of that I'm sure they're cheaper to use than volumetric lighting but you'll have to have No Dynamic Light checked in flags.

Otherwise, I like the map. The section with the three cubes and four buttons was my favourite puzzle and also I couldn't get enough of that radio. I had fun placing it on top of stuff and watching it go crazy which it did into chell's body instantly killing her on occasions but that just added to the fun in a wierd way

Maz

A lot of people didn't like those volumetric light models, so I got rid of all of them except for the ones on the ceiling, as those look ok but don't obstruct your view.

That radio is just too weird. I wonder how Valve made it so it acted normal, unless being picked up by the portal gun instead of by hand makes it go funny *rushes off to Hammer to test that theory.

Also, to Ralen, thanks for the

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

idea. I'm implementing it now as we speak

Edit: Just to clarify:

Ralen wrote:

In the room with the goo, after I got to the first pedestal button, I kept getting stuck in the tilted wall panel when I went through with too little momentum. I would have to noclip to get out.

Did you get stuck inside a portal placed on the tilted wall, or did you get out of the portal, but get stuck on the corner of the wall?

gepy wrote:"The companion toilet cannot speak, however it can take your crap."Journey - no idea on length = don't know the % done

#26 · March 10, 2008, 2:55 pm

Double post I know - sorry. Got another update.

Pics of last room of the 2nd map:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny04.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny05.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/bunny06.jpg

Pics of first room of 3rd map - time to get your very own companion cube

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/companion03.jpg

gepy wrote:"The companion toilet cannot speak, however it can take your crap."Journey - no idea on length = don't know the % done

#27 · March 10, 2008, 4:33 pm

Megadude wrote:

Did you get stuck inside a portal placed on the tilted wall, or did you get out of the portal, but get stuck on the corner of the wall?

Sorry, I didn't see this until just now.

I got stuck outside the portal, in the corner/bottom edge of the tilted panel.

#28 · March 10, 2008, 4:51 pm

In that case, I've got that fixed. I've parented a very small player clip to the bottom of each panel. Stops you from getting stuck, but not your momentum

Edit: Just finished some reskins - my first reskins ever Just changed the blue to different colours.

gepy wrote:"The companion toilet cannot speak, however it can take your crap."Journey - no idea on length = don't know the % done

#29 · March 14, 2008, 11:05 pm

New pics, including the reskinned models, for the Aperture Science Light Based Energy/Matter Shield, (not sure if to use Matter or Energy in the name, or if anyone has any better suggestions, let me know ).

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow04.jpg

gepy wrote:"The companion toilet cannot speak, however it can take your crap."Journey - no idea on length = don't know the % done

#30 · March 14, 2008, 11:50 pm

Megadude wrote:

New pics, including the reskinned models, for the Aperture Science Light Based Energy/Matter Shield, (not sure if to use Matter or Energy in the name, or if anyone has any better suggestions, let me know

).

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/blue03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow01.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow02.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/megadude2006/journey/yellow04.jpg

looks pretty sweet, good use of lighting around new fields

do NOT click this

[WIP] portal_journey