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Forums - PC Discussion - My Portal (PC) Review

Entroper on 15 October 2007
twesterm said:

If you've used Hammer then you've used the Portal tool (I'm assuming at least). I imagine that only special thing would be the textures in that if you create one that you want to be able to place a portal on that's probably just a line in the texture file. Other than that, it's more than likely just like playing with any other mod in Hammer.


Actually, you have to create nodraw brushes that are something like func_noportal_volume, and these brushes prohibit portals from being placed inside them.  Kind of annoying to have all these extra brushes against all your metal surfaces, but I imagine you could save that part for when the map is finished, and just playtest the map without them.



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twesterm on 15 October 2007
Entroper said:
twesterm said:

If you've used Hammer then you've used the Portal tool (I'm assuming at least). I imagine that only special thing would be the textures in that if you create one that you want to be able to place a portal on that's probably just a line in the texture file. Other than that, it's more than likely just like playing with any other mod in Hammer.


Actually, you have to create nodraw brushes that are something like func_noportal_volume, and these brushes prohibit portals from being placed inside them. Kind of annoying to have all these extra brushes against all your metal surfaces, but I imagine you could save that part for when the map is finished, and just playtest the map without them.


 Hmm, that's kind of funny they did it that way.  I know the textures only have so many channels they can use but given that it's Valve it would have made more sense if they just modified then to have another channel that tells it if there can be portals on it or not.

I guess the volumes kind of make sense that they're placed in areas that you can't portal but that seemed like an easy solution that caused more work down the line.  At least Hammer has vis groups which help with all the brushes. 



 

Entroper on 15 October 2007

I thought it was going to be a property of all brushes. Tick the box for "you can't put a portal on this brush" rather than slapping a func_noportal_volume up against it.

I haven't used Hammer since it was called Worldcraft, so I'm really not up on its features. I don't really have time for that kind of thing anymore. :(



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Sqrl on 15 October 2007

It will be that way Entroper, as far as I understand anyways. The way its explained to me is that the current way of doing things is somewhat of a hack and isn't the intended method of producing content.

Let me see if I can find the link...sec..

 

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Portal

  • There is a material property to specify which walls cannot be "portalled" but it does not work right now, you will have to use the brush-based entity func_noportal_volume as a workaround untill a new compiler is released.

 
To Each Man, Responsibility
Entroper on 15 October 2007

Yeah, I would like to get back into mapping once the official Portal SDK is released, to be honest. There just isn't enough content to satisfy my brain's need for Portal, so I'll have to come up with my own. :)



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Morgyn on 15 October 2007

Its certainly more than 3 hours worth of playtime, even with only the "Plot game". I'd say closer to 5.

Its probably one of the only games I've completed multiple times in years tho =P

The counts at 3 currently =P



Morgyn on 15 October 2007

Hammer can allready do Portal maps btw. Guy in my clan is knocking em out.