Campaignjunkie

I think the law was most dubious with determining whether the game violence was "of artistic merit" -- who decides that? Can't you argue that for anything? The California senator who championed the law (Leland Yee) is an okay guy, and I think he had good intentions based on what he was seeing. Sadly, that's all he was seeing.

- Got to the near end, managed to open the exit but didn't know how to get there, gave up. - Emphasize the location of the reflectocube better. I had no idea that was there until I had stumbled upon it. - Never understood the point of the jumppad near the entrance, except to get me killed. Didn't understand the point of the sunken jumppad either. - The X laser relay (the one near the entrance, between the two catchers) -- change the sign placement. I had no idea that represented the X for a while. - False feedback: You have 2 one dot signs that indicate the first step. For five minutes, I kept looking for a second 2 dot sign but never found one. - I have no idea what anything does. I don't think the dot and symbol signs are good enough... I figured it out eventually, but it's a pain in the ass, especially with that 2 dot forcefield -- I didn't even know that I had managed to turn it off, because there's a wall or two in the way and it is perpendicular to me. At the same time, I agree that direct indicator lines would be too busy... So maybe change all symbol signs to illuminated panels that light up when activated? - Light the portalable panels near the light bridge better. It needs to be much brighter, didn't notice them for 10 minutes and was paralyzed with inability to make any progress. - In general, too dark. Too much muddy gray that gets in the way of reading where the portalable stuff is.

I don't know if it's "good" but don't blame me for a bit of self-promotion: http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us

Kinda confused how you have custom code running on an Episode Two base, but sounds cool and good luck!

Yeah, I kinda learned to like Radiant too... Those brush tools!

I just tried this and it didn't work... I mean that if I drop an env_wind into the level or use the "setforce" input on the ropes or "rope_shake" console command, then the ropes still don't sway at all, they stay perfectly still. EDIT: ah, okay, I see... they must get cached as "static" or something, unless you parent them to something that moves to get them moving... okay, awesome, I can use Portal 2 after all!

Yeah, collisions are what I'm trying to wrap my head around... either (a) I build a bunch of invisible func_brush collisions and pre-place them and get angry with how long it takes or (b) maybe the "walls" don't have to be solid? Right now I'm thinking of some mechanic with wind / tractor beams, or whether it even needs gameplay at all and could just be Dear Esther type of thing.

I agree on postponing a Portal 2 thing. Let's wait. In the meantime, here are some ideas --- Workshop constraint: you must start a "process" thread and document the different drafts of your level, at least 1 week before the end of the challenge. Texture constraint: use only the pre-approved MapCore textures for your map Poetry challenge: use at least one line from a poem / or song lyric... as inspiration for a small map. Read (or sing) the poem or lyric aloud, record it, and use the file somewhere or somehow in your map. Remix challenge: take any two previous entries from any previous challenge that *weren't in the top 3* and mash them together / add new stuff to them / change the gameplay / whatever. Sound challenge: given a base map, add ambient sounds to it. Use Audacity and stuff from freesound.org for example, and learn how to make soundscapes and add new soundscripts in Source (or the equivalent for UDK)... you can do anything except add new level geometry or re-texture it. Rom-com challenge: link to a YouTube clip of a romantic comedy and make a map based on that clip (action movies = boring) Particle system challenge: given a base map, make custom particle systems and populate the map with it. Don't add any architecture or re-texture it. Lighting challenge: given a base map, re-light the thing. Don't add any architecture or re-texture it, except if it's to do lightmap uvs or something. Bonus for creative colors / compositions. Engines with radiosity (Source, UDK) are recommended.

[attachment=0]test20002.jpg[/attachment] Making a level entirely out of cables. Prototypes so far are promising... turns out ropes and cables are broken in Portal 2 codebase, they just stay still and never move, so using Ep2 (or maybe SDK Base?) for this. I'm still not really sure what the point is. Maybe it's asking whether walls have to be solid? Or what "dynamic architecture" means? Shrug.

Trailer offends me with its awfulness, but game looks cool

I guess I agree with all the nostalgia for HL1... but what constitutes a golden age, exactly? Tremendous output? Consolidated communities? 3 Great People in the same city? I think the amount of maps being made overal is roughly the same, maybe more since anyone can just double-click "Source SDK" and get started. The scene is more fragmented -- Mapcore, Interlopers, TWHL, Mapping-Area, etc... and some of the big ones kind of floundered, like Snarkpit, Wavelength, VERC... Don't know what's up with HL2world these days... Anyway, who's to say in 5 years we won't be saying, "remember how great MapCore used to be, with that Door Challenge and stuff?"

And here's my feedback on everyone's video (if I can't play one of them, then I won't play any of them!) SPOILER ALERT! Bluedude: I like the intuitiveness of not being able to reach into the boxes / having to turn them upside down. I don't like the arrow buttons though, mainly because they have nothing to do with the act of rotating and gravity. Maybe use weighted buttons ala Portal instead, or something that intersects with rotation and gravity. Insta: cute, as always Serenius: I like that the car didn't go through the gate, even though I would've thought it would. I don't quite understand why the button on the roof would make the gas station explode -- and if the explosion was enough to destroy those strong-looking metal props, why it didn't blow a hole through the ground and such either. Drokarn: that would be a cool central mechanic for an entire level, where you have to draw different things on a canvas to activate different things... and maybe the AI would draw some stuff too, and you have to ruin their drawings too sarge mat: more visual connection is good, I guess it makes sense in a weird game-logic sort of way... good improvements but I think the van was a bad idea in the end... in the video you waste time trying to drag the propane tanks through the van, which can be discouraging enough to a player so they won't even try it. Zoltan: I don't understand the solution at all... why was the metal door to the basement suddenly unlocked? what did disabling that sparking wire do? I like the idea of a doorbell though. I'd add more windows and visual indicators as to how these pieces all connect. vfig: I like the idea of this, of spawning different props to use... I'll admit I'm just judging this by the video though, which suggests you need 3 explosives to open the door? if I had played it, I would've just used 1... and if that 1 didn't work, I would've assumed that was the wrong thing to use and tried something else. It's also annoying to carry props all the way from the spawner to the door, back and forth, all the time. Puddy: very large, expansive and impressive... I can't help but think you chose the wrong game engine for dialogue trees though. the "conversations" don't feel very satisfying, but tracing the wire in the basement / inputing a keycode felt much more natural / better in comparison. I think it was good for a scripting experiment, just to see if you could pull it off. Chimeray: I like the idea of something going wrong when a door opens. Not sure I understood all this business about gas though. Youme: I like the idea of an alarm. I'd provide more feedback about this alarm though: a sign warning about an alarm, some visual cues as to what is protected by the alarm rather than some insta-fail stuff I have to blindly commit to, etc. As a player, I'd also be frustrated / pissed off about having to climb the stairs a 3rd time after having failed unfairly so many times before. Soleval: delightful, you should expand this into a short 20 minute game that's like 20 rooms deep. great sense of humor and cool color schemes. very traditional puzzles, but that's okay. this would be great for kids. Mr. Happy: I like using the battering ram as a platform (real phallic, huh) but I didn't understand why the 2 (now empty / burned out?) laser coils would open the door JamesKing: cool theme, I think you need to work on how to communicate that something is made of wax; maybe those pillars should be giant candles that are melting? skysilicox: short and sweet. I don't understand why the door closed the first time though; did the crow turn it off? Shouldn't it have just stayed open? what's the point in making the player go back to push the button again?

It should be noted: my map, "Secret Mission," is pretty buggy -- so much so that I wouldn't even recommend playing it. You have to solve it in the way shown in the video or else you'll likely break it and make it unsolvable. (Sorry, I was in a rush to build it and all)

1) http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... es_Toolbar 2) http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... c_override

ortho: huh, that's weird... some hopefully helpful troubleshooting: 1) make sure nothing else is triggering the "door set" relay, 2) NPCs can open doors, so maybe an NPC is opening it? but the doors should start locked... 3) make sure you're using "spawn position" keyvalue to control initial door state, don't use the spawnflags.

Secret Mission http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19887116/door_cj.zip (has .vmf and everything) About 4 hours of solid work... the puzzle mechanic here is that you have to "script" the entities in-game. 1) Unzip into \ep2\ or \hl2\ or something, I think it should work with HL2 or Ep1 or Ep2 I think. 2) Then type "map door_campaignjunkie" in the console. 3) Incredibly buggy... you basically have to do things exactly as done in the video. It's more of a proof of concept thing.

Insta I am in heart with you

Sarge: watching that, I don't understand the steam pipes' relation to the door or why I would blow up the pipes (and then the cap disappears?) or why blowing up the pipes would open the door...

New lighting is okay. I'm still not sure what settings have the largest effect on shadow map quality. Even with "High," sometimes it's really pixely and sometimes it's not. Argh. Optimization also looks like a pain in the ass... you have to manually set "cache this shadow volume" on every prop_static or something? Also found out that swaying foliage is some weird combination of hacks that I never would've figured out on my own.

The Meat Pack. Coming in Summer 2011. This is Map 2. Map 1 will teach you how to solve Map 2. Map 3 will twist around what Map 2 meant. Originally I wanted to make it about the industrialization of food / food science, but I need some decent props models of raw beef slabs. I think the env_projectedtexture spotlight might be too strong, still figuring out how to use it. [attachment=0]test1_deco0002.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=1]test1_deco0001.jpg[/attachment]

Hey, look at that, an SDK release They released it early just to spite me! Clearly. What constraint for the Portal Challenge? 1024^3 would work great, but we don't want to do it again? Or maybe someone could make a reflective cube model replacement that resembles the MapCore logo, and your map has to use that cube somehow... and stuff?

Yes, yes, we all know what BSP actually is But in this forum, "BSP" has evolved as slang for "brushwork." It's been in usage for a while... viewtopic.php?f=57&t=16155&p=291991&hilit=BSP#p291991 viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14350&p=289865&hilit=BSP#p289865 viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15911&p=283525&hilit=BSP#p283525 viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15691&p=278003&hilit=BSP#p278003 and that concludes this public service announcement

SENTURA YOU ARE SO SILLY

You'll also want the func_door_rotating to start in the "closed" position. If you want to animate, say, a pipe cap model, then make the func_door_rotating invisible (texture it with NODRAW) and parent a prop_dynamic or prop_dynamic_override to it.

Mapping for Portal 2 has made me realize how important BSP is for it... I can't imagine prototyping this in an editor with crappy BSP or grayboxing tools. In that sense, tools-wise, it's a perfect fit for Source. Maybe BSP isn't as dead as everyone thinks it is.