A fairly simple map for Portal.

This is my first "official" map for Portal. This is the first in a series of [insert_unknown_quantity_here].

Welcome to Aperture Labs Test Facility Bizob.

Chamber_01: There and Back Again
Chamber_01 Challenge map

Here's the Download link.

Installation:
Save the file "Bizob.bmz" anywhere on your computer (just remember where). Note: If the file saves as something other than "Bizob.bmz", rename the file to "Bizob.bmz".
Launch Portal and from the main menu click on "Bonus Maps".
In the Bonus Map Browser click on "Import Bonus Maps".
Navigate to where you saved "Bizob.bmz" and click "Open"
In the Bonus Maps Browser you will now see a folder called "Bizob", double click the folder and then double click the map of your choice.
Enjoy.

Screenshots:

Thanks to everyone at ThinkingWithPortals, HalfWit-2, Interlopers and of course Valve.

FIRST: nice map. but its all been said before

It was easier this time, but I didn't finish the map. I don't understand how to bring the cubes to the buttons. No more cubes were spawned. The lighting is bad, is there a leak somewhere?

Ald?z wrote:
It was easier this time, but I didn't finish the map. I don't understand how to bring the cubes to the buttons. No more cubes were spawned. The lighting is bad, is there a leak somewhere?

I checked for leaks in my original of the bmz I uploaded and do not see any indications of leaks. I can tell as soon as the elevator doors open if theres a leak. You know how those recessed cool textures go away if you have a leak, I'm sure. I know I've seen it a lot in the process of making this map:) BTW I know I didn't get the recessed lighting right and I learned it doesn't work well with metal textures.

What about the lighting did you find bad?

As for the lighting in general, I'm pretty new to mapping and don't know a whole lot just yet. Lighting is one thing I really need to read up more. I really just kind of experimented with lighting on this map and settled for what looked ok, to me at least. There's a lot of shadows that you'd expect to see that I couldn't figure out how to make happen. I'm also not too comfortable with cubemaps so I only used then for the water.

bizob wrote:
I'm also not too comfortable with cubemaps so I only used then for the water.

Every reflective surface in a map will use the closest cubemap for reference on what to reflect, so if you only have a couple cubemaps, things that are far away in areas that are lit differently will have very screwed up looking reflections on them.

Nice map, although I have a feeling I probably wouldn't have known what to do if not for the title.

A couple of minor issues I saw: 1) is that in some places when there is a portal placed on the floor, the grid lines of the floor paneling are visible across the portal's opening. 2) is that walking down the stairways seems kind of jerky. I don't know anything about mapping, but I think there should be a way to smooth it out some.

bizob wrote:
[...]
What about the lighting did you find bad?
[...]

It seems that vrad hasn't done any light bouncing. The ceilings are black. Will post a screenshots when I get home.

EDIT:
It doesn't seem to be a leak. Anyway, this is what I was refering to:

Ald?z wrote:
It seems that vrad hasn't done any light bouncing. The ceilings are black. Will post a screenshots when I get home.

Ahh, I see what you're talking about now. Like I said, I experimented some with lighting but not much. I tried using spot lights but couldn't get the effect I wanted. I tried using cube maps on those ceilings but they looked terrible and I wanted them to have a "matt" finish (ie. not shiny). I even added my own "bounce back" lights but then the shadows got all fubar. I wanted this map to have some dark areas and everything else looked __too __bright so I settled for what I had. I have a lot to learn about lighting.
If it is vrad, does anyone know what I can do to correct this?

taco wrote:
Every reflective surface in a map will use the closest cubemap for reference on what to reflect, so if you only have a couple cubemaps, things that are far away in areas that are lit differently will have very screwed up looking reflections on them.

When I added cubemaps with that in mind it seemed like i needed quite a bit of them and my map file size more than doubled. I don't really understand how the reflections work. It seemed like cubemaps from one room affected walls and ceilings (which I wanted not to be reflective) from another room and I wan't sure how to control them. So i opted to keep it simple and just tied the cube maps to the water textures.

Ralen wrote:
1) is that in some places when there is a portal placed on the floor, the grid lines of the floor paneling are visible across the portal's opening

Could post a screenshot of what you mean? Is it happening where the stairs collapse?

Ralen wrote:
2) is that walking down the stairways seems kind of jerky. I don't know anything about mapping, but I think there should be a way to smooth it out some

I actually wanted there to be some bouncing when the player walked down stairs. I originally had an invisble "ramp" over the stairs but then it didn't feel like you walking down stairs. When I placed the steps closer to each other it mellowed out the bounce but looked bad. I probably should have some math on these. I do plan on using the stairs again so next time I'll do better. I know... "some bounce would be fine but this is a bit too much" and now that I think about it, I have an idea or two that may mellow out the bounce and still make the player feel like they're walking down stairs.

Thanks again to everyone for the kind words and very constructive criticism. It was a great learning experience. I had fun making this map; I hope you have some fun playing it.

i think the stairs are fine. they didn't seem too goofy to me.
and the part they are talking about where you can see lines through the portal is if you place a portal on the ground over the area where the stairs have colapsed you can see lines in the spaces that would make up the edges of the stairs... i cared not to complain about this, cuz it seems like an engine problem, and i knew what was causing it.... but not how to fix it. so i couldn't complain

You can fix the steps by playing a 1-unit tall brush covered in nodraw above the surface that is formed when the stairs are closed.

This is the method valve uses in chamber 14; however, it's not the greatest solution - you can go into chamber 14 and place a floating portal underneath the stairs on the nodraw "floor".

I had a feeling it was going to be stairs. Like I said I do plan on re-using the stairs (I was proud when I got them working lol). I plan on making a few prefabs for them and polishing them up. I may use Valve's solution but I have a few idea I'd like to try first.

you could probly also put a func_noportal_volume that you disable when the stairs are up? or just make it a func_brush or some such simliar thing that starts disabled and enables when the stairs are down. to prevent the player from putting a portal under the stairs. in THIS map it wouldn't really matter. but if you use these in future maps you might want to have the stairs up. but not have the player portal "under" them

In this map you couldn't put a portal under the stairs because texture under the stairs is a metal grate but that's a good thing to keep in mind. I think I lucked out on the design there cuz I never thought about putting a portal under the stairs. I plan on making prefabs based on those stairs, I like them.

well planning for the future is a good idea. especially if you plan on making prefabs out of them, but besides you need a small buffer on them if you want it to be perfect (so that you can't see the part where each stair entity meets)

I'm not quite aiming for perfect, just yet.

I've been playing around with the stairs in a "test" map. I've manged to reduce the lines from the stairs. I believe their coming from the bottom edges of the steps. I moved the grating up and then it drew fewer lines and they were thinner. I think I got could make something work with an "invisible" textured brush but I'm too tired to try it tonight.

So I see you've already gotten a lot of technical tips, which are a bit beyond me (I haven't tried my hand at map construction yet) but I wanted to be the first here to give you some really solid praise on this map from an aesthetic standpoint. I think you did a really great job of creating an entirely alternate but beautiful look to the lighting and architecture. It's not Aperture standard by any means; it's kind of a mean, gothic industrial look. And personally, I thought that the looming black ceilings helped with that a lot - it makes the rooms seem like they disappear off into infinity. When I first walked through the map and saw the colored lighting, and then the nice little steel alcoves, I was impressed at the attention to detail, and then when I came back through, I was even more amused to find that those architectural details were vital to the puzzle. Nice work on the stairs too - hearing them collapse behind me, then spinning around to see myself trapped was a cool effect.

The one weird thing I noticed, mostly by accident, was that the surface beneath the large fan is portalable. When I discovered that, I thought it might be a path to a secret passage or something, but since it's a dead end, it seems more like an oversight. Although I realize that if you had some kind of physical entrance/exit to that space, it would no longer be possible to trap yourself by jumping onto the fan grille from above, and that might be worth considering.