PTI element: Living panels, 64x64 and 128x128

Uploaded July 7, 2013 by Bisqwit

Description

Wacky panels that do stuff. 64x64 and 128x128 sizes are provided. Inputs: * Start deployed -- Inverts the direction of the panel's animation. * Timer & Autodrop & Start Open -- Choose which animation to play, see below. * Button type -- See below Button types (64x64 panel): * Weighted = White or black panel surface, depending on whether it's positioned on a portalable surface or not. * Cube = Glass surface. * Sphere = Intangible skeleton: Just the skeleton of the panel, without surface, also does not clip the player. Button types (128x128 panel): * Weighted = White or black panel surface, depending on whether it's positioned on a portalable surface or not. * Cube = Glass surface. * Sphere = Portal 1 style metal wall surface. Use signal inputs / connections to activate the element. The panels contain a built-in AND gate just like the standard elements do. Of course you don't need to activate the element at all. Just affix it in a particular pose to provide a platform of your choice. There are 68 different animations provided. The animation is selected using the Timer value, the Start Open checkbox and the Autodrop checkbox. The list of animations is detailed in the README file provided in the distribution package. It is rather difficult to try to video-document all the animations that this object can play, but here's a sample picture which should serve to at least pique some curiosity. Unless you choose the "skeleton" type of panel, this panel is fully blocking and can be even used as a lift / piston platform for objects and for the player. The arm of the panel is only partially tangible, and only in some animations. It is a bit difficult to generalise for the set of animations present here, so the tangibility is disabled for most animations where the heuristic method does not work nicely. The object also does not contain a crush kill trigger, a portal fizzler, an object fizzler, nor a portal bumper. This is intentional. But it may lack other things that are wise to have (hint brushes? shrug), because I just began learning to use Hammer a few days ago, and I wouldn't yet know anything about those. Note: These panels have the "adjustment gizmo" which allows them to be placed at an offset much like the laser components -- except that it does not work. Sorry about that! Just use always the center position. If anyone has good ideas of how to fix it, it would be welcome. (This comes from the 5 positions method. The 8 positions method does not work, because the embedding pit would not be relocated correctly together with the element.) However, you can use the adjustment gizmo to rotate the element around. Just point it towards some edge of the voxel, and then place it back to the center. The object will retain the new orientation. Note: The platform may move within the first second when the map loads. Sorry about that. This may be fixed in a future version. The panel contains from 21 to 25 entities depending on version. The skeleton version has the fewest entities, and the large non-glass ones have the most. And finally, the in-editor symbols for this object are currently the laser emitter for the small panel, and the piston top for the large panel. I have not yet developed the skills to change the in-editor graphics. Download here: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/ptal2/livingpanels.zip


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