I'll try to make this a quick question. My game text(s) don't show text, they are meant to show when my logic_relay is trigged, they didn't, and I then tried triggering the game_text when a logic_choreographed_scene ended. Didn't work, a point_viewcontrol had been enabled a few seconds before the text is meant to appear, it is also (supposed to be) overlapping an env_fade. I built a test map using every thing in my real map and it works. But does not in the real map. Help would be very appreciated.

Edit: Yes they are actually being triggered, I added a master to the game_text just to see what it did, a message echoed in-game saying the game_text's master was not a master, at the very time the game_text was meant to be triggered.

Hmm, isn't game_text where you have to enter the text to display right into Hammer? That didn't work for me, either. Try to set something up in titles.txt, where you can pre-define lines, and then use env_message to call it.

A down side of that is that you have to include the titles.txt with your map, that it has to be placed in /scripts instead of /maps, and that users might already have one titles.txt there so they have to copy the pre-defined lines from your titles.txt, and paste it in theirs...

An upside is that you can define the exact location on the screen, the speed the text is displayed, the colour... all sorts of things.

Another downside is that you can't change the font or the size... but I thought that was neither possible with game_text.

do you really need text in your map? If so, you must explain exactly what users must do with titles.txt in your readme.

Thank you for responding. All I wanted to say in the map was: Thanks for playing, Portal Life by E1025, please visit http://www.thinking.withportals.com.

Is it worth the effort of adding a titles.txt just for that one line of text? I don't want my map to be stolen. Is there any sort of map protection I can use?

E1025 wrote:
Is it worth the effort of adding a titles.txt just for that one line of text? I don't want my map to be stolen. Is there any sort of map protection I can use?

Adding the titles.txt wouldn't stop the "stealing". If they wanted to remove the TWP link, they could just delete the .txt

If it was in the compiled map (maybe as a final credits-sort of thing), then concievably they could vmex it (decompile it) and remove that as well, I think. That said, if you want to be able to prove its your map, you could always watermark it. That is to say, sign your name somewhere inconspicuous, but if you need to demonstrate that it is there, you could.

Many people put their names in a map by using small brushes.
You can just create some small room outside your map and put your name there with brushes.

A game_text or env_message won't prevent your map from being stolen. The only real protection is by using a certain prefab that protects your map from being decompiled. I can't remember where you can download that prefab, and of course it is really permanent, if you lose the raw files, you will no longer be capable of editing your map since you can't decompile the compiled version

Ricotez wrote:
... I can't remember where you can download that prefab...

http://www.geocities.com/cofrdrbob/files/protector.zip

Ah, well, there it is. But remember, if you use that prefab, double-backup your raw map files, because if you lose them, you won't be able to edit your map anymore since you can't decompile it.

Thank you for all your help guys! I really appreciate it.

P.S

Ricotez, I hope SkyLabs becomes a successful mod, it sounds like a very intresting idea. If you need new music, check out hamster alliance's post.

new-music-for-portal-updated-11-23-2007-t458.html

Ricotez wrote:
Ah, well, there it is. But remember, if you use that prefab, double-backup your raw map files, because if you lose them, you won't be able to edit your map anymore since you can't decompile it.

Decompiling isn't 100% accurate though, I would never work from decomp versions of my maps if possible

Also keep in mind that there are hacked versions of vmex floating around, that are able to bypass the anti-decompile prefabs and other measures that mappers can use.

As much as I hate vmex, I have to think that within such a relatively small community such as the Portal one, there isn't going to be as much vmexing as say in the CSS community. Maybe that's just me, though.

I admit I have vmexed maps a few times. But I only did that to see how others (like Valve) did something in a map. I have never rightout copied things, only looked how they worked and then mimicked that in my map.

And it isn't bad at all if others only decompile your maps to check out how you did something. Most people decompile maps for that purpose; only a few are real copycats.

BTW, thanks for your faith in SkyLabs, E1025! I'll check out that music as soon as I can.

Ricotez wrote:
I admit I have vmexed maps a few times. But I only did that to see how others (like Valve) did something in a map. I have never rightout copied things, only looked how they worked and then mimicked that in my map.

And it isn't bad at all if others only decompile your maps to check out how you did something...

Agreed