Is is possible to create a dynamic map? I've got a concept for a new Portal mod, but it requires the user to be able to create new rooms/doors from inside the game. Is there even a concept in the SDK for genrating rooms for a map?

If you're talking about a sort of level editor than this has been done before.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/portal-map-editor

Also, if you are intending to make the entire map (walls and everything) dynamic, it requires everything to be entities and has to be in a very large skybox/black space to fit everything the player wants to create, which can cause some major lag.

But, if you are talking about having the player spawn objects to complete tasks in an existing space, then it can be accomplished with point_template.

It's possible, but is potentially extremely difficult, won't be lit right, and will lag like heck. Source just isn't made for completely dynamic maps.

Source wasn't made to calculate dynamic lighting...or essentially dynamic anything.

If you did this on the Doom 3 engine, you would achieve much better results because I know for a fact that Doom 3 uses dynamic lights almost everywhere. It was designed for it. Source on the other hand...I guess doing things Garry's mod style would be okay but you would have to spend a lot of time making sure everyone could play it without having to lower their settings.

If you are trying to make some sort of "in-game map editor" then forget about it.

I guess if you setup a button system or somthing...that would concommand the command to spawn a box, for example. You could do it. But not like walls or floors. Correct me if I am wrong but you can't edit the world during gameplay.

Whysopro? wrote:
I guess if you setup a button system or somthing...that would concommand the command to spawn a box, for example. You could do it. But not like walls or floors. Correct me if I am wrong but you can't edit the world during gameplay.

Depends on your definition of world; you can't delete or modify brushes that aren't tied to anything during runtime. However, as stated above, you can create func_brushes by spawning them via env_entitymakers, etc.

Yes! I am pretty sure that's how po_edit works no? Or is po_edit more complex then that...
Edit: If you made a simple box map. And then created a grid of env_entity markers. You could use any of them to spawn objects. That would be super basic theroy of what you want to do. mr. sandwich. =)

On second thought, and after a bit of discussion, it seems that the answer is Yes. You would be able to create this. How flexible it will be depends on the work you put into it.

While I always keep an open mind, and idea like this simply won't work. Dynamic lighting CAN be pulled off in source but it is either laggy,buggy,broken,can potentially crash both hammer and portal, or a combo of those.

Another problem is parts of the map you CAN't move. For example, you can't move world brushes, and a giant skybox is not a smart decision. Another thing is entities that cannot be moved, like important function entities such as info_player_start.

you COULD make prebuilt-areas, with lighting prebaked, with each area connected to one point_template then allow the player to move/spawn these prebuilt sections. This would fix the lighting problem (to a degree) but you would still have other things broken, screwed up or simply nonfunctional.

Overall, while creative, it is for the best you don't do this. Learn from Po-Edit's mistake; a mod to map for portal, simply fails.

I was just saying it is possible....although extreme care and time would have to be put into it.

What I was trying to say is that while you could theoretically do this with props and other game elements, you simply cannot tamper with the structure of the map itself and expect to get a good result. It's hard enough to make a pop-out wall in hammer that has good lighting, much less adjustable sections of the map itself. source is just not designed to have brush entities make up the map itself. Visibility and lighting are designed to be pre-calculated, so that other things can run so smoothly. Trying to create a good looking section of the map ingame just doesn't work.

If ya don't mind the spawnable props being fullbright...it's alll gooooood.