erasing paint with triggers

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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 28, 2011
How do you, using a trigger (or whatever entity,) to erase paint that it ALREADY painted on the walls? I have a bit in my map where a bunch of sprinklers turn on to wash away the floor, I've got the particles and sounds and everything but it seems trigger portal cleansers (EDIT: I meant to say trigger_paint_cleanser) only effect the paint blobs, not the walls.

I know this can be done, cause right at the finale of the main story campaign, in Wheatley's chamber, the sprinklers turn on and the paint on the floor does the cool wash away dissolve. So how might I go about doing that?

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Vordwann
767 Posts
Posted Jun 28, 2011
Replied 2 hours later
Trigger_Paint_Cleanser?
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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 28, 2011
Replied 34 minutes later

Vordwann wrote:
Trigger_Paint_Cleanser?

nope doesn't work after the paint is already on the wall

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iWork925
1,080 Posts
Posted Jun 28, 2011
Replied 46 minutes later
How big is the area? I got this to work mildy well with water sprayers around the effected area that is triggered for a split second through I/O when you want it cleaned. I could imagine this wouldn't work to well with a larger area, or maybe it would IDK
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DaMaGepy
361 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 5 hours later

iWork925 wrote:
I got this to work mildy well with water sprayers around the effected area that is triggered for a split second through I/O when

Noooooo. Never use sprayers to pre-paint things. It can work, but with larger areas its hard to control, and may multiple sprayers are needed.

To apply paint on a surface or an area, I use PAINT_SPHERE. You can set the paint radius and paint type, and with a logic_auto (onmapspawn) you can tell it to "Paint".
If you want to erase something, just set the radius big, the paint type to "Erase"...
when I use it to paint, I usually tell it to Paint several times (3 tims, waiting 0.1 sec between).
BTW its a good idea to use this paint_sphere with 0.5 alpha and 64 radius under paint droppers so the player can see some paint drop on the floor and knows what type of paint that dropper drops.

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iWork925
1,080 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 33 minutes later

DaMaGepy wrote:
Noooooo. Never use sprayers to pre-paint things.

sp_a3_jump_intro.bsp (provided with portal 2)
img

Will T. wrote:
DO: Study and utilize what you like best about Valve's maps. Don't steal their stuff, but if you like what they've done somewhere, examine it closely to learn how they did it. Remember that everything you do is utilizing Valve-designed test elements. Also remember that the majority of people playing your map will be expecting a challenge similar to what they've already experienced, rather than something completely different from the Valve-made levels, and the introduction of too much "outside-the-box" thinking as part of a solution may intimidate and drive people away unnecessarily.

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Hober
1,180 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 4 hours later

DaMaGepy wrote:
Ah, double posted and cant delete the second one. So I fill this message with Paint Paint Paint Paint.... :notwant:

Normally I'd just delete the post, but that's too funny.

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DaMaGepy
361 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 4 hours later
Valve maps were made by different mappers, and even the official ones use weird and overcomplicated methods for stuffs. Or maybe the paint_sphere was added later in development, but definetely the best way to place paint in an area, and the radius can be huuuuge. Easier than setting up sprayers with their properties (and the engine must launch blobs for all of them)...
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Hober
1,180 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 3 minutes later

DaMaGepy wrote:
maybe the paint_sphere was added later in development

This is huge. I imagine a lot of the maps were fixed up (i.e. jury rigged) from earlier maps, not scratched and rebuilt as the game evolved.

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WinstonSmith
940 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 5 hours later

Hober wrote:
DaMaGepy wrote:

Ah, double posted and cant delete the second one. So I fill this message with Paint Paint Paint Paint.... :notwant:

Normally I'd just delete the post, but that's too funny.

My apologies, I deleted the post before I saw you write this.

Ah well, the quote lives on I suppose.

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iWork925
1,080 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 8 minutes later
yes the paint_sphere (now that I have used it) seems like a much better option. I am able to erase paint in an area on trigger.

This is very helpfull for dynamic paint puzzle where the paint can only be on a surface for a limited amount of time.

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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 3 minutes later
Okay. You guys have gotten a bit off topic here. I'm not trying to prepaint an area. I know how to do that already. I personally use prop_paint_bombs to do that, they are fairly versatile.

Look at this in game shot of my map in progress: (I'm hovering in noclip)

img
BIG spoilers ahead but I don't feel like even blacking em out because this last part of my map is starting to piss me off and I need to solve this problem, among others.

So. The player has already used the blue paint to get the box and activate those lightbridges with a box button elsewhere. The player is done with the blue box and must now paint the bridges to get to the exit. But the paint on the floor leads to an illegal solution, so I have a bunch of sprinklers around the walls to wash it off when the button has a box on it. I am using the sprinkler_jet particle for that effect.

Like I said before, the trigger_paint_cleanser does not remove the paint already there. All it does is end up blocking the intended solution which involves portaling the floor to paint the bridges.

Now, I have considered using paint sprayers set to "erase" around the area, but I don't want any paint blobs to be visible. I can't make paint sprayers spray invisible paint (at least not without some modding) because there is no flag or parameter for that. The only parameter that comes close is "draw only" and that has the exact OPPOSITE effect of what I want.
And I can't have them just spray once while the player can't see it because I need this to be a continuous effect.

Soo.... this is a dilemma. Remember, in the end of the original portal2 SP campaign, right before the stalemate button these sprinklers come on to put out the fire in the stalemate resolution annex, and they wash away all the gel except the white directly under Wheately, and there was this cool dissolve effect. I want that. I'll settle for being able to do that WITHOUT the cool effect, I just neeed to keep those surfaces clean for the last part of that chamber.

also: lol at the deleted post =)

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Vordwann
767 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 46 minutes later
In the info_paint_sprayer's options, there is an option that says "Paint only", which means that it will not draw the paint blobs or the splashes, and you can turn off the noise as well.
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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 1 hour later
nope look closely the option is "draw only?" I don't see "paint only?". Directly under "Draw Only" is "Paint Type" which has to be erase. Like I said, Draw Only? does the opposite of what I want.
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Vordwann
767 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 6 minutes later
I feel like there is a "paint only" option. It might not exactly be named that but i REMEMBER using it before.
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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 52 minutes later
check. They may have removed it
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iWork925
1,080 Posts
Posted Jun 29, 2011
Replied 58 minutes later
Yeah got it working. This is lol. Create an info_paint_sprayer and set 'silent' to True. It sprays the gel, but the blobs are invisable and dont make any sound. Its hilarious. I press the button and the floor just turns blue lol for no raisin.
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DaMaGepy
361 Posts
Posted Jun 30, 2011
Replied 6 hours later
I still think that PAINT_SPHERE is more elegant. Also no blobs, no sound, and if need to paint or erase a big area, only one is needed (or maybe 4 extra at the four edge since it paints a circular area.however one water drop should be visible that falls down, because it will become weird how they just disappeared.
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Vordwann
767 Posts
Posted Jun 30, 2011
Replied 6 minutes later
Yes thanks iWork925. The option you want is "Silent".
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CrazyGuy
144 Posts
Posted Jun 30, 2011
Replied 8 hours later
ok i'll try either way in a test map. I already have sprinkler particle emitters set up around the area so "just dissapearing" won't be a problem.