Quote from Jexim on March 3, 2012, 4:19 pm

well, the "easy" way would be to use one of the emitters disabled as the catcher model, then use some logic branches based on portal location to activate whatever switch the "catcher" would trigger, this would however have no indicators built in, you'd have to add some sort of system to let the player know that they are catchers.

the hard way would be to model a set of catchers for both the excursion funnels and the hardlight bridge, this would have the advantage of looking VERY different than anything in the game, and therefore would make the player look at it longer and wonder about it, and would also be able to look like anything that you wanted. Maybe the excursion funnel "catcher" is a giant plunger than needs to be pulled or pushed to toggle something in your level? maybe the hardlight bridge catcher is a plus that does 2 different things depending on the angle of the bridge put into it. possibilities are endless.

Quote from FourthReaper on March 3, 2012, 4:35 pm

Jexim wrote:

the hard way would be to model a set of catchers for both the excursion funnels and the hardlight bridge, this would have the advantage of looking VERY different than anything in the game, and therefore would make the player look at it longer and wonder about it, and would also be able to look like anything that you wanted. Maybe the excursion funnel "catcher" is a giant plunger than needs to be pulled or pushed to toggle something in your level? maybe the hardlight bridge catcher is a plus that does 2 different things depending on the angle of the bridge put into it. possibilities are endless.

Creating models is optional, you can do this with good brushwork too. (The plunger can be linked to or be a "func_door".) Pretty things can be done here.

As for the trigger mechanism, Jexim is right about that, you should probably use a "func_portal_detector" and place it at the right location. Another one at the place the bridge/funnel hits the wall and a simple AND-gate to finish it off.

EDIT: Oh yeah, as for the funnels, a catcher is actually called a "button-stuck-to-the-wall-catching-a-cube"... But I understand that isn't always what you want.

Quote from Jexim on March 3, 2012, 4:45 pm

Brush work is always fun and works very well for things like this, but you have to be careful about what and how you make it. It can be very easy to start with an idea of something simple and end up with a couple million polygons easy. If you're going to try brush work, a couple things to remember is NEVER carve, it's pretty much never worth the number of polygons it creates, just clip and reselect over and over, takes longer, but will keep it simple. Also, avoid circles when you can, to make them look good in brush work takes at least 8-16 sides too look good depending on size and texture applied. Just be mindful of your process and keep an eye on how many surfaces your making, grouping and visigroups are you friend, and if you're gonna do this, make it in an instance, so you won't have to make it OVER and OVER again.

Quote from FourthReaper on March 3, 2012, 5:24 pm

Jexim wrote:

NEVER carve

Good call

Jexim wrote:

avoid circles when you can, to make them look good in brush work takes at least 8-16 sides too look good depending on size and texture applied.

Not sure about that, for the funnel I'd definitely make a circle, only way to make it look good. Of course you could use that circle prop elevator tubes lead in to. I use it around my droppers

Quote from CamBen on March 3, 2012, 8:48 pm

thanks for the helpful feedback! I was thinking for the tractor beam/funnel, i could use a combine ball catcher. for the hard light bridge, I could do some brushwork and some lighting.

The lights would start blue-purple and when activated, they would turn off and yellow-orange-red one would be turned on, and same w/ deactivating.