Cover a cube with reflection gel
Hello !
As you maybe know, weighted cubes can't be covered with reflection gel. The ability for a model to get
"painted", and so get the effect of the gel is hardcoded, so I cant acheive to create a cube that can
be covered with reflection gel.
Maybe one solution could be to "pin" an invisible brush to the cube ? But I don't know how to do that...
I did that in my mappack with an invisible Brush. This brush needs to be painted with the gel, so it can reflect the laser. The problem is that the brush doesn't always reflect the laser and this can be quite furstrating for some players.
You also need to think about reskining the cube so it has a painted effect on it.
Parenting a brush to a cube isn't difficult, you just need to create func_brush and set the weighted_cube as its parent. But you should think about doing it the other way: parent the cube to the brush, because if the brush surrounds the cube entirely, you can't pick it up anymore (or it jumps around while you hold it). So instead of using a func_brush, use a func_physbox.
In the end you have to fix many bugs and odd behaviors of the cube and the laser. I don't think it's worth it, but I'll try to help you if you still want to do it 
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Yes I'm really interested in doing this because my map will be "undergound aperture" themed, so I will use this as a remplacement for the redirection cube 
Also I have an idea on how to fix the problem of getting all the faces covered by the gel :
If there is no portable surfaces under where the gel is dropped, maybe you can put a trigger that detects the cube, and activates 4 paint spayers that can cover each face of the cube. If you see what I mean ^^'
To cover all faces with gel (6, not 4) isn't a problem. The physbox just needs to float in the air and then you need to activate the paint_sprayers which are looking to every face.
I can make a map which includes the required entites to create such a cube. Then you can play around with it and ask questions about it.
Thanks that would be great
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1471712/sprowl_lasercube_example.zip
Everything you need should be in there. Just copy it into your Portal 2 dir.
Things to keep in mind:
- the waterblobs should be avoided in the map, as they remopve the gel from the cube, even when the blobs don't touch the cube. Just get a new cube and everything's fine again though
- there is no visible effect for the cube when it falls into a pit of water or a fizzler. One idea would be to add at least the sound effect
- the 7 entites in the right corner aren't needed for the cube - they are just there to make the map fancy :B
- the black effects of the gel (color and splash effect on the screen) are made with console commands. But they only work after a restart of the map
I hope that helps. The source files of my mappack are also available for download if you want to look into some things there: http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=2529
Awesome work ! I tried your example map. Now as you predicted, I have a few questions :
-The cube doesn't look like a normal cube, then what is it ? x)
-Did you made the reflection gel's particles ? I don't know how particles work and i'm intrested in making green ones
The model is, in terms of skins and shape, the same. But it a complete different one so I could make custom skins for it (black gel). There shouldn't be a visible differenc between a real weighted cube and this one. Is there any? 
I made some, but didn't pack them. The problem is that you can't pack particles within the mapfile in Portal 2 which means that everyone who wants to see your particles needs to install them manually. And nearly nobody wants to do that (maybe 2% of the players).
To create particles you need to download the game "Alien Swarm" and its tools and then start the game in its -tools mode. There you can edit particles 'n' stuff. Changeing the color is very easy and self explanatory, so I won't go into that, but you cann still ask if you really can't find out how to do it.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1471712/sprowl_particles.pcf <- my particles (with some others that you don't need - just edit the ones that are about the gel and save them in a new file).
Okay thanks for the info
I managed to do this :
I think people can easyly understand what to do (I know this is ugly, but for testing purpose only ^^)
Then this is how I noticed your cube was a "fake" one :p
Wow, that green looks very sticky and slimy 
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What did you do with the cube? It looks like one side is missing.
Ah well, that happens when you try to push a func_physbox through a portal: it can only be on one side of the portal, but not at both at the same time. So it goes through the wall as long as not more then the half went through the portal.