The problem with portal orientation.
EDIT: This topic has been resolved.
So lately I have been having a problem with creating my maps. Specifically on getting the func_portal_orientation to work properly. I've read on how to do it from the wiki page, and followed every step (I believe) to the letter. However, after countless tries and fails, I am very stumped.
[s]I should mention really quick that I'm starting to believe that my fault is from not tying to entity (which the page states you should do), but I don't actually know what that is so I do not know if I am doing that or not.[/s] EDIT: I have actually been doing this when I made the invisible texture into a func_portal_orientation entity.
So here is my situation. For this I will show the process of how I have been going about this so far.
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6246/picture1hkh.png
Here I have a 128x128 piece of space that the player will place a portal on after the floor has been covered with conversion gel (infact, this piece of floor is right under the gel dropper). I have marked in red where I want the floor of the portal to be.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/picture2lx.png/
Here I am making the invisible texture that will be used for the func. I have made the area to encompass both above and below the surface (which makes it 128x128x64). Alternatively I have also tried placing the top of te (invisible texture to intersect with the surface, but that hasn't beared (sp?) fruit either.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/picture3kn.png/
After making it a func_portal_orientation I go to the angles and use the point at tool to specify where I want it to go. The red mark indicates where I pointed to.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19 ... re4ue.png/
After doing that, I have these values for the func. I notice that the angles say 342 360 0. This is basically the same thing as a 0 0 0 orientation, so really nothing has changed. My personal logic tells me that it should then work.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22 ... re5mh.png/
Not even close. So I don't really know what I am doing wrong along the way. This is very baffling, and to be frank quite frustrating.
On a slightly related note: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13 ... re6qm.png/
What I want to do here is to place a portal on a ceiling section 64x128 units in area (ideally, I can fudge the size slightly if needed). However, a portal can only be placed if the player is lined up, and that area of acceptable angles is not very big. What I would like to do here is to make it so that even when the player is perpendicular to this area they can place a portal on it without hassle. I was thinking a info_placementhelper / func_portal_orientation combination to acheive this (perhaps even put a func_portal_bumper, although I've found those aren't needed as much in Portal 2 even if this ceiling piece will eventually be on a flat surface), but as I have no way of knowing this can work...
Any help would be very much appreciated 
I noticed you used invisible instead of nodraw or a trigger. Invisible should be hardly used unless you actually want an invisible wall.
Also there is an entity which probably does the same thing called a info_placement_helper. You can make the portal snap to the angles by forcing placement. This I know works and you will only need 1 entity. You can extend the area that the portal will be forced onto and this would probably fix your second problem as well.
I'm guessing that the func_portal_orientation entity is for blocks that move with a parent. I could be wrong though.
I've had trouble getting func_portal_orientation to work in the game. I ended up using info_placement_helper, with the "use helper's angles" option to control the orientation. It works fine, if you don't mind the portal snapping to the center of it's area.
Okay, I went ahead and went with the info_placement_helper. Took me a minute to get it down but I was successful at it. Funny thing is I was already using placement helpers with this (you can see one in the first picture) but wasn't ever able to get them to work like that until just now.
So thanks to the both of you for helping me solve this problem.
Yeah the info_placement_helper is the way to go.
[spoiler][SP] Alternate[/spoiler]
However... something i found out after fiddeling with the info_placement_helper's is that if you set both options to yes (use angles & force placement) it would stop working completely.
And with just force angles on it will still place the first portal at the center of the entity but you can reposition it with a second shot.
So say you want it to be "locked" onto a certain spot... you will have to use a placement helper & portal bumpers :S because setting both options to yes will **** up the placement helper 
No, you should definitely be able to set both properties to true, I always do. Also, make sure yourotate the entity so that the red arrow faces 'out' (is aligned with the normal of the surface)
Yes i always make sure everything is correct but i can never set both options to true/yes. I know i'm not the only one.
I created the placement helpers myself and used the examples in the zoo_mechanics file as a template.
And it works like it should when i only use the use helpers angles option.