Quote from josepezdj on November 5, 2012, 6:18 pm

I've seen the new version. The only thing that I think you didn't manage is the env_projectedtexture entity behing the obs_room's window... did you forget? check that you set "Enable shadows" to YES and check the flag "Enabled". Anyway, if your elevator has an env_projectedshadow entity, and due to the fact that you can only have 1 of those entities active at a time, you'll have to trigger this second one for example placing a trigger at the arrival elevator door. You'll only need to set the following output for it:

- OnTrigger > [obs_room_env_projtex_name_here] > TurnOn

For HDR I'd suggest you to set its "brightness scale" at least to 4.0

Quote from Azorae on November 5, 2012, 6:59 pm

Ah, yeah, the env_projectedtexture in the observation room didn't work, although I think for the sake of the theme it should remain unlit (at least based on what I've read here.)

Quote from josepezdj on November 6, 2012, 3:18 am

Oh, seriously? allow me to disagree!

EXCUSE ME FOR BEING SUCH THIS OBSTINATE PERSON ;D
[spoiler]

This is only a 5 minutes dedication to your map in hammer right before coming to work... I placed the env_projectedtexture and chose a warm brightness value, set it up, added a light entity into the obs_room to spot it inside, and added a trigger at the entry door as I told you to activate the env_projtex... I didn't run a full compile, only a default fast one. I know that it might look a bit too bright, but with more time it could look awesome! [/spoiler]

Azorae, let me give you an advise, take or dismiss it...

OFFTOPIC??
[spoiler]Do not let anyone, here or in other forums, neither me!, tell you what to do! That guide by Rubrica you linked is awesome, but you can't just fit to any of the existing themes and follow it to the letter if you don't want to! I don't really know how deep are you wanting to go in hammer, or if you indeed prefer the PTI editor, but dude, let's be creative. Once you mess around with hammer and experiment all the things you can do with just your imagination, you'll know

This is what I'm doing (if you want just press my signature and visit my mod's page)... you can really tell it's any of the existing themes, right? I'm risking a lot experiment with the visuals all the time because I feel creative, and I'm liking that a lot more every time I begin a map. This is another example...

As Msleeper (if you still don't know her, I'll tell you that she's kind of our Cave Johnson here ... same kind of acid sense of humor too!) once said "you have an art tool in your hands", it's up to you to use it in whatever way, create great visual stuff or create just puzzles, but create your own stuff [/spoiler]

Sorry but I had to say it

Btw, I've sent to you the .vmf file for your map with the env_projectedtex and the trigger_multiple so you can check why it didn't work. And allow me one more thing: if you can't make it to work, just ask once and again here in the forums, everyone of us are eager to help!! ... but please do not give up on any thing, ok?

EDIT

Azorae wrote:

Ah, yeah, the env_projectedtexture in the observation room didn't work,

I forgot to mention that there are some other ways to produce a good light with shadows, read this awesome post by Nacimota. You could use a simple light entity for the inside of your obs_room at least, and maybe some light_spots on that broken ceiling poiting downwards in order to spread light and the shadows from those props/debris.

Quote from quatrus on November 7, 2012, 11:27 am

Excellent puzzle, thanks for creating....look forward to more.

Quote from PCdoc on November 10, 2012, 9:59 am

There's only so much you can do.
One funnel, one cube, one laser . . and a few portable surfaces.
So how can it be hard - yet it is.

I was stuck for the longest time but figured out how although I could not do it, because I could not and STILL CANNOT [spoiler]throw the cube up and into the funnel. It is just an inch or two too low with every throw. I have seen other players somehow throw cubes 20 feet or more and have asked HOW and never got a good answer. I jump and throw together to increase the height. But sadly the funnel is just a tad too high for me to reach - even when standing on the debris. So finally - I solved it by no-clipping to get the cube up and into the funnel and then did the rest of the required steps[/spoiler].

2.jpg

Quote from Mevious on November 10, 2012, 3:01 pm

PCdoc wrote:

I was stuck for the longest time but figured out how although I could not do it, because I could not and STILL CANNOT [spoiler]throw the cube up and into the funnel. It is just an inch or two too low with every throw. I have seen other players somehow throw cubes 20 feet or more and have asked HOW and never got a good answer. I jump and throw together to increase the height. But sadly the funnel is just a tad too high for me to reach - even when standing on the debris. So finally - I solved it by no-clipping to get the cube up and into the funnel and then did the rest of the required steps[/spoiler].

That's not at all the intended solution. The funnel could be higher and the puzzle still works.

Quote from PCdoc on November 10, 2012, 3:56 pm

I think I see now:
[spoiler]- stand on button to reverse funnel to Orange and shoot portal up high to suck cube into funnel. This replaces having to THROW the cube up there !![/spoiler]

Tricky - awesome puzzle !!

But what in the world ??? It has received 44 ratings in the Workshop and 40% of them have been Thumbs Down (3 of the 5 circles are Blue). I have seen that happen before on a couple of great maps. Must be newbies - go figger.

Quote from Mevious on November 10, 2012, 11:48 pm

PCdoc wrote:

But what in the world ??? It has received 44 ratings in the Workshop and 40% of them have been Thumbs Down (3 of the 5 circles are Blue). I have seen that happen before on a couple of great maps. Must be newbies - go figger.

The rating system isn't that simple. I think nothing can get 3 stars unless it has 10 votes or more, and nothing can get 5 stars unless it has 100 votes or more (any counter examples?), and there's probably some cutoff for getting 4 stars. Not sure what the algorithm is, but it's not simply percentage of up-votes, at least until 100 votes.

Quote from zivi7 on November 13, 2012, 10:55 am

A very cool puzzle! Some nice "Wait, couldn't I just do this..."-moments along the way and a final step that made me smile when it worked.

I'd agree that the chamber could look better though. Some thoughts after the click:

[spoiler]I read that Jose suggests a projected texture in a cracked observation room. That could be one thing to do. But personally, I find that the shadow pattern that would get casted by the cracked glass sometimes can get annoying for the eye after a while - and it could very well be that the player spends a lot of time searching for the solution.

If you want to use a projected texture, I would try placing it under one of the skybox areas and making it the color of the light_environment entity. This could get a nice effect of sun actually shining through the broken roof and create some nice shadows from all the foliage.

Also, it seemed as if there are a lot of normal light entities. Instead, you could try to use lightspots which shine in a certain direction. The way it is now, theoretically the only light source in your chamber is the sun shining through the broken roof. Yet, areas without holes in the ceiling are as bright as the other areas. I guess your intention was to have all test elements perfectly visible. But maybe this could look better:

Make one bright light_spot with a wide angle and the color of your sun below the broken ceiling, one light_spot per hole. Now run a full compile and see which areas are too dark. In these areas, you could place those common lightstrips from clean chambers in the wall. Or, if you don't want to place more "real" light sources, you can create a light or light_spot with a dark grey color. This way, you can make the area bright enough for the player to see without making it so bright that they would miss a visible light source.

Finally, you could test how some fog looks in there. The easiest way would be to use one of the available fog controller presets in the global_ents, probably one of the two "destroyed" ones. There's a list of the available ones on the VDC.

Beware that the lighting will probably look way brighter all of a sudden due to the white fog, so you might need to tone down the brightness of the lights afterwards.

One thing I did not like very much was the soundscape. Like I said it's very likely that people spend a lot of time figuring out the puzzle - and they have to listen to those horrible metal scratch noises all the time. Personally, I would use a much less intrusive soundscape in this case. In our Halloween map, I used "Testchamber_Destruction.Grain_Click" a lot. It's just some ticking noises every now and then. Or you could try "TestChamber_Destruction.WaterDrip_01", obviously some waterdrips.

Ontop of that some of the music tracks could fit very well. These for example:

-xPR66tcKVQ

-EQsK-v_6aA

9wROaF-ql0A

XJIgHWnkcnA

But of course it can be nice to play a chamber without music at all as well.[/spoiler]
I hope this can help making this great puzzle look great as well.