Is it just me or are people mapping outside of the normal Portal aesthetic themes.

Examples would be The Shard, Oxygen Station (loved that one) and one of the earliest alternative theme map I have seen would be Aperture Valentine (to an extent though).

Anybody else seeing this trend?

Mapping outside normal Portal aesthetics has been here for a long time. ( see: Blue Portals , Portal Unity, etc. ). Mapping with stock textures and themes can be boring after 4 years, or added Portal, 7 years of the game.

It's basically adding a touch of new to the game.

There are also many maps that are outside of the normal theme, but still take place at aperture. For instance, the winter testing initiative is outside the facility, but still on the buildings around it. Another portal 2 vanilla theme that I have only seen once in the workshop is the transition theme between bts to underground (sp_a3_02, sp_a3_end). Maybe I'm forgetting some maps, but the only time I've seen this (in the workshop) is in Designed for Danger. Another vanilla theme that I think is great for innovation is the underground theme. Because it's supposed to be for humans instead of... Slaves(?).... There's a lot you can do. For instance, you could add a resturaunt hidden behind a giant rock wall. What about some train tunnels? I remember only seeing this kind of innovation on the workshop from The Lone Future-starter.

It's very common to innovate by making something in your own special way, therefore making your own theme. Still, it's one thing to make something new and really cool [Blue Portals; Winter Testing Initiative], but I hate it when people excuse shoddy mapping as being a "custom theme."

I agree with Arachnaphob in the part that Aperture has more themes than shown in the stock campaign. I can't agree more with Lone Future Starter. The offices and tunnels there brought a whole new depth to Aperture, in my opinion.

Ultiman9711 wrote:
I hate it when people excuse shoddy mapping as being a "custom theme."

True.

custom theme:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A3IaCTrGt_s/T ... 2-05_1.jpg

piece of crap:

http://taw.duke4.net/portal2_theunknown03.jpg

A bit off-topic but if F-Stop (or any other "Portal" game) was released, would it still be under the thinkingwithportals forum?

opticalprocessor wrote:
If F-Stop (or any other "Portal" game) was released, would it still be under the thinkingwithportals forum?

I can't think of any reason as to why it wouldn't.

Also, more than just a bit off topic.

Oops, that post was meant to be posted in
http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/post104794.html

I apologise for that bump. :/

I'd say i like this new trend. i wish i could see more custom themes that mixed in with the canon themes more though. for example, i'd like to see more maps in aperture's unexplained areas, like the wing made entirely out of glass or the parts of the cube manufacturing (only shown very very briefly in portal 1). aperture is so huge, the employess probably lived on-site. i wonder where? and the reactor core. i want to see that! (motanum has told me that the alsser was a faked core. so the alsser in aperture tag wouldnt count as aperture's real core.) not to mention the stockpiled test area, the breakroom, all the possible alternate entrances to aperture on the surface, everything behind locked doors in portal 1, behind the vitrified test doors in old aperture portal 2...the game has so many areas that are mentioned or left open to speculation. for all we know, behind every sealed door, down every blocked off tunnel and behind every wall, there are at least 100 different community maps ready to be made in a custom or alternate style. (alternate meaning, it looks like it fits into a canon style but doesn't look quite the same. tlfs for example.)

Scale the neurotoxin generator up a bit and retexture it for a nuclear reactor?

I doubt that Aperture would have a futuristic (unrealistic) energy source.

tile wrote:
i'd like to see more maps in aperture's unexplained areas, like the wing made entirely out of glass or the parts of the cube manufacturing (only shown very very briefly in portal 1). aperture is so huge, the employess probably lived on-site. i wonder where? and the reactor core. i want to see that!

Me too, I think there is a huge space here for custom stories, especially in mods. The Portal 2 campaign brings us to the test chambers behind-the-scenes, but there is a lot more behind these scenes.

opticalprocessor wrote:
Scale the neurotoxin generator up a bit and retexture it for a nuclear reactor?

I'd much rather see a nuclear plant-like reactor with cooling water, glowing lights, pipes, Aperture Safety-Controlled Uranium Containers...

That picture you showed totally reminds me of half life 1.

I have tried several different "alternate themes". I once tried to create the mining facility that acquires the moon rocks. I thought about creating the main reactor. I even have tried to create levels that use mechanics from OTHER games. None of these things ever really got off the ground. The one thing that I have successfully was based on the shake flashlight. You can find it on here if you look under my username.

It basically uses the momentum principle of portals to create a sort of perpetual falling inductance generator that needs a cube to power it.

I did come up with a new idea today that might actually work. GLaDOS "pumps sunlight in from the surface" to create hard-light bridges, right? Well, what happens at night when the sun sets? Wouldn't the bridges fail to function any more?

they might. would explain why lightbridges arent used much near the wheatley boss, because it was night time when that happened.

another idea; what about the borealis? As huge a role as it plays in portal and hl2, i'm suprised nobody has tried making a map that takes place on-board.(well, i did, but that was when i was extremely new to portal 1 mapping...that was even before my mod h2f. XD) it could be pretty cool; considering it's position in a giant ice ravine. there could be caves that connect to holes in the ship's hull, and it's a huge ship. would make for some pretty interesting environments. what if the aperture scientists made tests inside of the glacial ice caves? the possibilities!!

protoborg wrote:

I did come up with a new idea today that might actually work. GLaDOS "pumps sunlight in from the surface" to create hard-light bridges, right? Well, what happens at night when the sun sets? Wouldn't the bridges fail to function any more?

Sorry, what about this?

http://i.imgur.com/v4tn0Vl.jpg

that image took years of Photoshop to produce. I'm so proud

Also,

rockets.
http://i.imgur.com/GGXPLLz.png

it was a royal pain to get the model working ingame

tile wrote:
they might. would explain why lightbridges arent used much near the wheatley boss, because it was night time when that happened.

another idea; what about the borealis? As huge a role as it plays in portal and hl2, i'm suprised nobody has tried making a map that takes place on-board.(well, i did, but that was when i was extremely new to portal 1 mapping...that was even before my mod h2f. XD) it could be pretty cool; considering it's position in a giant ice ravine. there could be caves that connect to holes in the ship's hull, and it's a huge ship. would make for some pretty interesting environments. what if the aperture scientists made tests inside of the glacial ice caves? the possibilities!!

I remember screenshots of a borealis level a long time ago. Which were really, really bad. I think they scared off people. Generally speaking the interior of the ship is either rather boring to look at (lots of tiny corridors that look really similar) or are very hard to get right (like engine rooms, control rooms) etc.

as for custom themes, well executed versions are awesome, not well-executed ones aren't. I think it needs time for people to get familiar with all the things involved in portal 2 mapping before they can start with custom themes. More custom themes will surface when more people are so familiar with portal 2 they feel like they can do it. And after 3 years that's happening more and more