Puzzle Idea: use tubes to redirect excursion funnels
Sadly I don't have the prowess to create portal 2 maps. So for all of you more capable than I am, I just got a nice idea for a puzzle.
Remember that old game where you had to connect tubes by rotating smaller parts of bend tube to get a closed line from start to finish?
I wondered if it was possible to redirect an excursion funnel using the bent tubes available in portal, using some trigger to detect if the funnel hits one end of the tube and then triggering another funnel at the other end.
Maybe put the tubes on rotating panels, create a glass floor above them and put the switches on there. I guess actually transporting something through the "funnel-tubes" would be hard to do with the game mechanics, but you could just use it to get the funnel to come out at different places on the map through a grid, and use only the funnels above the glass floor.
Would be a fresh kind of Portal puzzle.
Feel free to tell me if this is possible and/or awesome 
-D
Excursion funnels don't work that way.
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Wasn't that game called pipe or pipes? That is old!
I don't think that you can use an excursion funnel to do that but you could just use pipes which can be rotated.
Tho it would probably take up a lot of space and if you wanted the person to think, it would require a lot of buttons...
I wouldn't give up on the idea though! I might give it a try 
I know the normally don't. The question is: can they be made to work that way? Alternatively, is there a way to detect if an excursion funnel hits a certain surface and is it possible to create the excursion funnel "out of this air", that is without the field generator or whatever that thing is called.
If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then that idea is possible.
Pipes or Plumber, just looked it up here is a flash example http://www.flashrolls.com/puzzle-games/Plumber-2-Flash-Game.htm
As i said to msleeper, I think it should be possible (albeit complicated). At least as far as my limited understanding of Hammer goes. Its basically an invisible portal on both ends of the tube.
Only using Pipes would work too, nice idea.
I wouldn't give up on the idea though! I might give it a try
I don't think it would be that bad, spacewise. You could get a pretty neat puzzle by only using 2 rotating tubes under the glass floor to redirect them and some fixed tubes that get the funnel above ground. That would be 2 Buttons (90? rotate per press).
I'd love to see this done, contact me if you got something in the making
-D
No.
No.
Your understanding of Hammer is indeed limited. This would require major code additions, which we do not have the capability of adding.
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There is a way to make invisible portals but it requires solid brushes and non-moving point entities which would be too hard to implement in a 50-combination pipe game, in fact probably impossible.
This way is probably much easier and would do the exact same thing as an excursion funnel tunnelling along an object.
A more realistic idea would maybe be having to make a set of tubes line up in a specific manner using buttons in order for you to successfully receive a certain paint gel. I think they would have to be solid and not see-through though. I'm not sure how easy it would be to make gels travel through complex tube paths.
I don't think you could do it with gels, either, as they explode on impact of any surface.
If this were a Coop map, you could have a series of flat surfaces that gets moved around and you would have to 1.) align the surfaces in the correct way so that you can 2.) put your 4 portals in such a manner that you can get the excursion funnel (or gel) going where you need it to.
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Okay, I just thought of another option that should be fairly easy to implement.
Flaming Lemons
On this map, there is a "walk in mirror", I tried to look up what it's called but couldn't find it. I think this might have been done with world portals, but lets just call it a mirror for now. I couldn't test how diagonally applied funnels work on this surface, but as far as i could tell it should work out the way needed.
If it is possible to create/manipulate such a mirror by pressing a button, the problem is solved too. All you need is a solid surface above the funnel level (to hide the mirror) and the possibility the add a mirror on the diagonals (or remove the mirror to get the funnel to go through).
Then add some decals to make it clear where the funnel can go in and where it comes out, i.e. something that indicates the orientation of the mirror.
That way we wouldn't even need something rotating (which i guess is a lot more complicated to do).
@ raulness:
The idea to use this with gels is nice, but i guess this is even more complicated. If the thing i mentioned above works, you could use funnels to transport the gels and have essentially the same thing. Thats why I liked the funnels in the first place, they are so very flexible in their application. You could use this puzzle to get funnels in the right place, produce cubes at the right place, get gels at the right place.
@ msleeper
I thought about that too, but 4 portals only give 2 redirections, and nothing is stopping you from "cutting out the middle man", i.e. don't do the redirection were funnel goes in portal 1, comes out at portal 2, goes in at portal 3 and comes out at portal 4 but instead just do portal 2 at the place of portal 4 (wow, this is complicated to verbalize, hope you get the message). You'd have to do 2 rooms with fizzlers to get that working.
And 2 redirections limits you a little.
If this were a Coop map, you could have a series of flat surfaces that gets moved around and you would have to 1.) align the surfaces in the correct way so that you can 2.) put your 4 portals in such a manner that you can get the excursion funnel (or gel) going where you need it to.
I was imagining the tube through gels thing as more of an illusion rather than actual transportation. Assuming its a set of tubes against a tall wall that move based on button activation. If the tubes were solid and the player couldn't see whats going on inside them then maybe you could trick the player into thinking they're actually moving the gel around through tubes but are really just activating a trigger. Maybe only have one thats see-through near the top to show the player that its the source of the gel.
I don't know. Probably unnecessarily complicated and not worth the actual fun factor it would offer.