Okay, I tried my hand at some signage for my recent map, and it was a little weak; its just not my thing. If somebody could whip together what I am about to describe (and add a few other ideas from other people who see this, I am sure) I think it would help out folks who are trying to figure out what to do in a custom map puzzle:

• signage to indicate that time is a factor; some kind of clock picture or something I can put next to a switch/button. I am not really interested in showing HOW much time; just that time is a factor.

• signage to indicate that a fizzler will destroy a cube. Preferably something with a cube on it, surrounded by the international NOT symbol in red (if you know what I mean). Someone might want the reverse symbol as well (ie cube-friendly fizzler), although I really dont know if I'd use it.

• signage to indicate that a button requires a cube (or companion cube) to operate. For now, I make do with the sign of the man holding the cube with the heart; its not bad, really. But I'd be open to alternatives.

• We have dots 1-4; I want dots 5-6 at the minimum, and I would prefer dots all the way up to 9. (I needed 5 for my last map). I appreciate that having lots of steps to leave an area may indicate an overly-complex area, but just because Portal itself never needed more than 4 doesnt mean maps SHOULDNT have more than 4. I'd rather it be up to the map designers to decide, rather than remain hidebound to existing convention.

I think if someone made this and did it tastefully and well, everyone would use it rather than reinvent the wheel. Sorta like Hamsters music.

If nobody else does this I might try. . . but I'd rather not.
Comments?

I take it you mean the decals placed over the map for all you described? IU might give it ago when I have some spare time.

xitooner wrote:
signage to indicate that time is a factor; some kind of clock picture or something I can put next to a switch/button. I am not really interested in showing HOW much time; just that time is a factor.

I think this is more effectively expressed by valve's looping 'tick tock' sound, personally.

xitooner wrote:
signage to indicate that a button requires a cube (or companion cube) to operate. For now, I make do with the sign of the man holding the cube with the heart; its not bad, really. But I'd be open to alternatives.

I can't imagine who would be playing advanced/custom maps without already being familar with what is most definately the simplest mechanic in the game...

Especially as the button already has a sign showing a cube and down arrows.

For the timer one I was thinking of doing a stopwatch symbol.

Beerage wrote:
Especially as the button already has a sign showing a cube and down arrows.

Ah yes, I forgot about that

Beerage wrote:
For the timer one I was thinking of doing a stopwatch symbol.

Agreed, can't think of anything more appropriate...

For the dots, maybe it'd behoove you to switch to roman numerals? I never thought the dots were all that well done myself, anyway. You need more than four.

Quote:
I think this is more effectively expressed by valve's looping 'tick tock' sound, personally.

Heaven forbid; I wouldnt take that out at all either. But the point of signage is to let you know BEFORE you hit the switch, not after.

Quote:
I can't imagine who would be playing advanced/custom maps without already being familar with what is most definately the simplest mechanic in the game

Then maybe you havent played enough custom maps to know that the pushbutton behavior may be the most abused/ambiguous mechanic in custom maps.

• Some buttons work for anything at all; people, cubes, even cameras. (To me, I think cameras are usually a case of them missing a filter, but I've seen at least one map where using it was the intended solution).

• Some buttons REQUIRE a cube; player wont work

• A few REQUIRE the companion cube.

• Some mappers use the button as a one-time switch; once you used it, you can step off, and even take the cube with you, and the door,etc will still be open.

• At least one map works differently with a person than with a cube; ie you get behavior X when a person stands on it, but with he gets off, X reverts back again. But iff you use a cube, you get X plus behavior Y too, and you can then take the cube with you and KEEP both affects.

All of the above is mostly. . . junk. . . from my point of view. People who arent trying to follow any logical consistent behavior. For me, I just want to make it very clear when a cube is required; thats all. Trying to develop signage to denote all of the above is insanity, IMO.

DelphiAegis wrote:
For the dots, maybe it'd behoove you to switch to roman numerals? I never thought the dots were all that well done myself, anyway. You need more than four.

I'd prefer to keep closer to the existing overall look and feel of existing Portal signage myself; I wouldnt use Roman numerals, but others might.

That may sound stupid but maybe the easy way would be to put two dot overlays close to one another?

4+1 would be 5, and so on. Of course if would kinda suck if you needed more than 8 or 12, but for those number it sounds like an easy and efficient solution.

How big should these textures be?

Beerage wrote:
How big should these textures be?

128x128, ideally

Edit: See the post below

The clock and the fizzler are good but with the dots I think all the dots should be the same size, it just gives that extra bit of unity.

Problem is, the 1,2,3,4 use the same sized dots as I used in 5 and 6. Maybe I should make them all? I feel the clock one needs more to it, looks a bit too basic. I couldnt get fizzler to look at better than I did.

I'm working on the button one but I'm having difficulty making some thing that resembles a button, I have the like "base" bit of the button done but it just looks like a chunk of whatever, rather than "ooh thats button"

Edit 3: Update 3
Here is what it looks like now. I added my cube-button decal. I changed the alphas to make them more bright

Nice.

Nice! This will probably lead to a signage texture pack

Make the clock bigger and I think it will be pretty good.

Also, make a portal with a brain inside of it. You know, just to advertise a little.

Awesome! I agree with msleeper; ideally the clock would be bigger I think. And maybe the box+button too, although what you have works fine.

One question; is it just me, or are all the dots closer to the right side than the left?

xitooner wrote:
One question; is it just me, or are all the dots closer to the right side than the left?

That makes two of us.

Hmm, maybe I should have used guidelines when I made them. Thing is your dealing with like pixel by pixel, because the texture size is 128 x 128. But yeah I'll make sure they line up

Brain inside a portal? Oh you mean to advertise thinking? (thinkingwithportals) Ok

Edit: Hit a snag, I pressed the wrong key combination, ment to press shift + ctrl + s, instead hit ctrl + s and saved over my template .psd Therefore I've lost all my work, I've still got the vtf files though. Just a bit of a pain.