p0rtalplayer wrote:

Think I just about nailed the lava light to how I wanted it. Rest of the room's lighting still needs work, but that's two puzzles done. Now I just need a third and an ending area before wednesday...

That looks freaking sweet! The only thing that could make it look better might be some kind of transition between the metal texture and the lava (rocks/cliff?)

Add fire particles in the lava so it looks cool.

Also, I'd add scorch marks or something to the bottom of the panels closest to the lava because it looks like they just cut off.

Post-release Pimpage anyone? Here's smash hit Photonic represented the way we were all meant to hear it:

Which is better? I like the brighter one, but I'm not completely sure of myself.

The one on the right.

The one on the left. Its not as saturated, but its easier on the eyes.

"Wow, Idolon!" you might say. "That looks just like the other pictures you just posted!" And you'd be right. However, what you don't see is that the pillars now have smoothing groups, and the lights gently pulse. How cool is that? If you said "Hella cool," you'd be right!

I'm still waiting on an e-mail from Valve about adding a Vscript function (which basically makes or breaks whether or not I can make this level) before I start making the actual level, so I guess I'll see you guys in 2015!

EDIT

no, this is not the gimmick

Probably an idiot question, but...what are smoothing groups?

And what function would that be? Personally I would request GetKV(handle entity, string kvname), since that's the biggest problem I've run into. Or maybe some sort of entity that stores any param sent to it in Hammer as a VScript variable.

Smoothing groups "smooth" the lightmaps between multiple faces, making surfaces appear rounder than they really are. Useful stuff! Here's the VDC article.

The function I requested was the same as in the TWP topic, namely something that returns the coords of where the player is looking. Turns out I found an alternate solution, so I can continue working on my level!

For some reason I didn't connect Idolon on mAI to Idolon on TwP there. Sorry.

Totally made that myself- I'm calling it Blue Portals. Any feedback?

Jokes aside, I'm working on a map for my little mod that introduces the Tesla Cube.

Here I tried sort of *merging * the style of the Blue Portals portal room and the Portal 2 elevator room together. With some proper texturing, I think it could potentially look pretty cool. (Holemitter models by Skotty)

Here is the actual room where the player finds the Tesla Cube and the Gravity Panel. Just ignore the turret scanner and the button floating in midair- that's not actually part of the test.

All work in-progresses.

Here is another map I'm working on with the Photonic style applied. (Textures by Coleslawsol)

Sooner or later I'm gonna need to apply an actual world Portal to that Surface Division Field.

That last picture looks pretty lame, but hey, any feedback?

Looking good, but I just haven't found this Tesla cube in any screenshot, only the companion cube. Also, what is that thing in the 5th screenshot? Again, looking good, and the map with Photonic too (I hate Photonic, because I'm so accustomed to black surfaces being non-portable...)

HugoBDesigner wrote:
Looking good, but I just haven't found this Tesla cube in any screenshot, only the companion cube. Also, what is that thing in the 5th screenshot? Again, looking good, and the map with Photonic too (I hate Photonic, because I'm so accustomed to black surfaces being non-portable...)

In the screenshots I took I accidentally left out the Tesla Cube... and that red cube was not a Companion Cube. Thanks for your feedback though!

Cadeη wrote:
-Omegasnip-

These pics look pretty sweet! But how does the tesla cube work? I saw an "electrocuted" cube on the moddb page if I recall and I asked myslef; what is its function? I've been thinking about a testing element and if it sounds too similar I'll just forget about it.

Kopeke wrote:

Cadeη wrote:
-Omegasnip->

These pics look pretty sweet! But how does the tesla cube work? I saw an "electrocuted" cube on the moddb page if I recall and I asked myslef; what is its function? I've been thinking about a testing element and if it sounds too similar I'll just forget about it.

Here's a picture of an outdated version of the room- that shows what the Tesla Cube looks like.

Essentially what happens is when the cube comes into contact with the Tesla Coil, a point_tesla inside of the cube activates for 15 seconds, signifying if the cube is "active" or not. When the cube is active, you can use it to activate laser receptors or, if you put it within the radius of the gravity panel, it reverses it's gravity (until the point_tesla dies or it falls out of the panel's radius). In the previous pictures the gravity panels are represented by those orange tiles. This is what it looks like when within the radius of the gravity panel:

EDIT: Do you mean these ModDB pics?

Cadeη wrote:
Essentially what happens is when the cube comes into contact with the Tesla Coil, a point_tesla inside of the cube activates for 15 seconds, signifying if the cube is "active" or not. When the cube is active, you can use it to activate laser receptors or, if you put it within the radius of the gravity panel, it reverses it's gravity (until the point_tesla dies or it falls out of the panel's radius). In the previous pictures the gravity panels are represented by those orange tiles.

Okay I get it! Looking forward testing with these tesla inventions!

Looking pretty good. I'll be interested to see what you do with the Photonic style, hopefully you handle the introduction to the reversed textures better than I did (in retrospect, I should have had some kind of short introductory segment that forced the player to realize the walls were reversed colors)

Kopeke and I began working on a, well, project, together. This is what I have so far of the project, Kopeke is working on a later level.

Can anyone guess where this is from?

Oh hey, where are my knees?