EDIT: SEE NEWEST POST

set the flange model's collisions to not solid

As for custom test elements, they're usually made with event IO (especially the Blue Portals ones, and every standard one in Portal 1), or VScripts for things like the Sendificator. For an ice laser, that's pretty hard. You'd have to use scripting, copy the sendificator.nut file and edit the teleporting part to detect along the beam. For a fire or ice cube, just take a normal cube, put it in an instance, and start adding entities! Say you wanted it to leave a trail of water, use a relay to constantly fire a small paint_sphere of gel 4 around it. Parent it all together, put your instance in a cube_dropper_pendelton instance, and test with it!

spongylover123 wrote:
set the flange model's collisions to not solid

That didn't work...and this example map I'm studying has the flange's collisions on. Strange. I've tried changing tube models: staying consistent, random tube models, but still nothing. Maybe I'll try a different entrance model. Going to try that...

kariko wrote:
spongylover123 wrote:

set the flange model's collisions to not solid

That didn't work...and this example map I'm studying has the flange's collisions on. Strange. I've tried changing tube models: staying consistent, random tube models, but still nothing. Maybe I'll try a different entrance model. Going to try that...

the collision model covers the whole model, so there's no hole. so you should set the collision to not solid, are are for vactube_entrace

spongylover123 wrote:
the collision model covers the whole model, so there's no hole. so you should set the collision to not solid, are are for vactube_entrace

Tried that, still didn't work. It's not that it isn't going in, it's that it's not getting out of the 90 degree angled tube.

Also, thanks for that info, I can't believe they did all of that with inputs/outputs. I think I'm gonna try to learn advanced I/O stuff and VScripting later. Know any good tutorials for VScripting?

I think I found the problem. The point_push entity outside of the entrance is set to push -40, which means it SHOULD be pulling the object in and then pushing it away after, right? Because in my map, once the turret passes the point_push, it gets pulled back and forth between the point_push and the trigger_push. How can I fix this?

just replace the point push with a trigger push or trigger catapult.

Fixed it. Just needed to realign some things and it worked. Thanks for the other info, though!

On the subject of VScripts, there is some information on the Valve wiki, but most of it is for Left 4 Dead.
I learned it mostly by looking through the standard scripts in portal2/scripts/vscripts. And there is a list of Portal 2 script functions. You'll need some programming knowledge to make sense of any of this though.

How could I go about making light, water, and air activate/affect the environment? Like making a waterwheel or making solar activated panels?

I'm not sure if light goes through portals, but I suppose you could use a VScript to trace a line from the env_projectedtexture to whatever it hits. Check the Sendificator script.

Waterwheels or whatever would require prop_paint_bombs value 4.

Vscript, Vscript, Vscript. I don't know how to read Vscript or know what it even means. Is there a tutorial somewhere? Or someplace I can learn to understand Vscript?